I debated on this one for months-the unfinished OS, the complexity of it and its price had me worried. But, the .97 version was released a few weeks ago and everyone was raving about it, so I broke down and bought it.
Holy crap! Best-sounding synth EVER! Blows away Moog and any other analogs you can think of. The interface is, in fact, complicated and the machine is a work in progress, but having a synth that is analog, a groovebox (with decent drums), a sequencer and a sampler (among other things) is a dream machine. Has numerous odd features like "probability" which, I believe, allows you to select the odds that a particular note will be played during a sequence. For instance, if you select "50%" for a particular step, there's a one in two chance that the sequencer won't play that note each pass. The purpose?--To randomize and add some flavor to the patterns. Very cool. You have to hear this thing to believe it. I'll include a link to a song I wrote using only one pattern; my (lack of) compositional skills don't do this thing justice, but at least you can get an idea. If you don't like the song, at least you should chuckle at the title.
http://mp3unsigned.com/Showband.asp?id=15870Here's more info on the "Speckie."
http://www.radikaltechnologies.com/Products/SPECTRALIS/spectralis.htmlP.S.--Anyone ever used one of these in conjunction with a Mono or MD?