The ESX-1 is the best thing I've found for me. I really like its sound and the interface is excellent; so intuitive. Effectively it's a sampling groove box, so the sounds never get old either. I chose it over an MPC as I
really like x0x style interfaces for drums/samples and was planning on using a PC to sequence the Snow. Also, I've found a workaround on the ESX to get a pseudo off-tempo/unquantised sequencing for doing more natural/swung drumming when I do dubstep type tracks. The arpeggiator ribbon is also good fun when using it to control the virus (Virus have missed a trick not including one on the Polar
). The only real obstacle to ditching the PC for live work* that I've encountered is the lack of an ability to sequence chords when using it to control the virus. I've found two rather crude workarounds:
1. By "playing" the chords live on the keyboard section; it seems it can transmit the midi signals of multiple keys per part at once, it just can't store this information in the sequencer. Alright for live use (although you can't span different octaves), but not so hot when trying to record parts.
2. By assigning both note/melody parts to the same midi channel, you can play two-note chords (sequencing one note per channel).
Neither of these are much cop when trying to use multi-mode though, as at best you end up with 2 parts, one (sequenced) mono and the other (played live) capable of chords. This isn't unuseable for the way I make music as I tend to have a monophonic bassline and then chords on the lead/pad, so I can use the Snow without a PC. I would, however, buy a new sampling electribe in a flash if it had 2 more note/melody channels (for a total of 4- one for each snow part) and all these parts could at least sequence midi data of chords, even if they couldn't play back samples polyphonically.
*I imagine I'd keep it for studio work for actually designing the patches in Virus Control etc.