I have two M6R's. I bought one brand new in '87 I believe and it has
performed flawlessly on stage for nearly 20 years. We split it and
used two voices for bass and four for organ/strings and other pads.
One time it did lockup through some power problem but we did a reset
and it worked as it should ever since.

The second one I bought for the studio and as a backup, which I never
needed to use it for. When I got it from an eBay auction, ($200. US)
there were two characters burnt out in the display. I have been unable
to replace the display but am working on it at present. Having two
units, I was able to live with the bad display but situation is not
good if I was doing some serious programming on it. I can figure out
the patch names. The rest of the unit works as it should.

As to the switches: They have never been a problem on either unit.
(Knock on wood) :)

At present, I am debating adding the M6R to my MIDI wind controller
(Yamaha WX5) rack but the extra weight, cabling, having more stuff to
haul around has discouraged me from this addition. I use the old
Yamaha WT11 module (two op FM) with my WX5 and if the M6R is mixed with
the FM from the WT11, it is a gorgeous sound. There are also many solo
sounds that I could use in addition to the layering.

As a studio piece, it adds some terrific sounds to anyone's arsenal.

One tip: Turn it on for 30 minutes before the session to let
everything warmup. Then run the calibration, run the tuning one time
and maybe tune it one more time after another 5 or ten minutes of
playing and it will be solid for the rest of the night.

I have heard of many problems with the M6 but have found the M6R to be
really solid.

BTW, I went to the summer NAMM show in 1987 and this module was being
used by most all of the keyboard controller displayers as part of their
rack. Don't know if Oberheim passed them out or not but the exposure
was great. I also got to meet Tom Oberheim at this meet!
Hope this helps.
Charlie
Two M6R's, three DMX, Xpander

On Apr 16, 2005, at 1:36 PM, chapman_todd wrote:
> I have the chance of buying one, and I would welcome comments on
> whether I should buy it or not.. any one comment
>