i'm taking it easy atm at my brother's crib. i have been looking into this though, i'll post some news tomorrow most likely.

appreciate all the input too peeps. mucho gracias.

i kinda forgot to mention this earlier..

im pretty sure the mc808 is set up in a very similar way to the esx... since i had a 404 and kinda had a feel for it i thought i would look into the 808.. i went to sam ash (like guitar center fyi) and they had both.. i got on the electribe and was able to make basic beats within a few minutes of screwing around.. i wasnt able to do that as easily with the 808... i didnt mess with it as long but it wasnt fun FOR ME like the electribe was.. granted i had a 10 year old electribe er1 i had been messing with so the interface was similar but still... there are older versions of the 808 i see on peoples desks and work stations on this website and on others.. they are samplers but older ones.. yamaha makes one too from what ive seen(never touched).. oh yea and the 808 is twice the price as the electribe but of course that comes with more sample time and other features.. the only thing i dont like is lack of people making boombap or stuff that im interested in rather than every joe schmoe making techno.. nothing wrong with that but it can do so much more than what a lot of youtube videos show...

this guys stuff got me to get the esx.. he isnt amazing but he was the one person i found that made stuff MORE to my ear... i still like the songs too..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u69Zd1Jp5qQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwCVWzJRgQo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsOi0Hrcer4

he makes mainly techno stuff but i emailed back and forth a few times and told him he should make more hip hop style beats.. cool kid..

ill stuff can definitely be done with either machine (esx, mc808). as far as price goes if u shop around for deals the mc808 can be had online through authorized retailers for as low as $599. still a hundred bucks more then the esx-1 but definitely something to look at if your interested in either machine. i agree the esx is definitely the simpler, better layed out of the 2, roland kinda dropped the ball on the mc a little but i got a buddy with one n its like everything else, once u master the machine the workflow can be as quick as anything else.

Ok so I've read alot of shit over the last few days. One conclusion I've come to is that the MPC 500 is not an option. I'm thinking I'm pretty much sold on the ESX. It looks like it has alot of hands on operation which is awesome and the sequencer is more visual. However sequencing the 303 with an ESX is a different story. It can be done but it's not as straight forward as I'd have liked. For triggering drums/one shots you just assign MIDI note numbers to the drum parts on the ESX to correspond with the pads you want to trigger in the 303. You can use the 2 keyboard parts to trigger any/all the pads on the 303 just hit the note corresponding to the pad. The catch with the keyboard parts is they're monophonic so something requiring you to hit more than 2 pads simultaneously would require use of the drum parts and like I said they're only really any good for one shots (no midi note off). After learning all this I'm still pretty confident the ESX would be a great companion to the 303. I think maybe there's a better answer out there to get the X0X style grid programming going with my 303. So with all this knowledge I'm going to see what else I can find that will allow me sequence my 303 this way. If I find a better option I may forgo the ESX and just get a better sequencer instead of another sampler altogether.

That being said my laptop has really been acting up lately (it's an old P.O.S.and my only computer). So chances are I'm gonna get another computer before I spend anything on gear. Luckily I have some pc components around to ease the cost of building a new desktop.

And again thanks for all the input guys.

the MPC 1000 can do XOX style with the JJOS I think? anyway, good call on the computer thing, may I suggest a Mac? haha, jj, don't wanna start another 4 pages (pc vs. mac)