I HAVE BEEN USING THIS SINCE 2000, I LOVE THE MACHINE FOR OLDSCHOOL SOUNDS, IT WORKS REALLY WELL IF YOUR INTO MIDI, AND USING IT AS A SOUND MODULE,BUT IT IS NOT LIKE THE MPC,BUT IT DOES HAVE FAT SOUNDS, LOVE IT.

Yes, the manual is a typical Roland one, ie: virtually impenitrable.
Yes, it is very complex, with multiple button pushes to get anywhere, (and TB 303's were such a doddle to use when they first came out, weren't they. Thats why they sold so many millions, because of their ease of use interface).
Yes, the stock sounds are a bit weak, (but who wants to use stock sounds when their are nice knobs across the top to tweak them out of all proportion).
Yes, the drums sounds are very nice thank you very much, (but trying to layer two bass drum sounds can be a real b*tch unless you don't mind sacrificing one synth part for some steptime drum programming funkyness).
In short, it's flawed but those flaws nurture inventiveness. In an age where it's all virtual synthesis, click-drag&drop, cut-copy&paste, etc, this unit IS hard work but the sense of achievement when you can wow an audience without a laptop in sight:- Priceless.
You can have mine when you prise it out of my cold, dead hands.

Honestly, this machine in NOT complicated! I have owned one for years.I create my own patterns, use the variation pattern spot, use the cool arpeggeator and bounce it all into Digital Performer! Awesome!

AN ALL AROUND AWSOME DRUM MACHINE/ SYNTH. I USE THIS ON ABOUT EVERY SONG ON THE ALBUM, IT NEVER LETS ME DOWN! ! ! 100% RECOMMENED! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I remember when this one came it hit the magic price point, about $500, and Roland sold a LOT of them the first few months...about six months later there were tons of them for sale in the recylcer and other want ads, dozens of them. It was hard to program so you end up stuck listening to the weak overly-techno factory patterns over and over. The synth engine is very mediocre. There was a few nice samples in there but that's all it it.. weak samples.
What I did like about it though is all the drum and percussion samples, they are great. Before I sold mine I sampled the entire drum kits.