Yes, bottom tier is (clockwise from top left) a black Waldorf Blofeld (another recent acquisition), Akai MPX16, Arturia Microbrute SE, and Roland JD-Xi. The JD is extremely intuitive to program and get phenomenal synth sounds out of, and the 4 track (up to 64 step) sequencer is very easy to use, as well; however, the sequencer, with only 4 tracks and each locked to a specific category of sound (Digital 1, Digital 2, Drums, and Analog) can be limiting. You can copy and paste patterns from one program to another and overdub notes to each track as you play, adding complexity or changing sounds for a specific track in a new program, and you can have different "motion" sequences per program, but there's no getting around the limit of only 4 types of sounds within any given sequence. The G1's sequencer, with more tracks, more flexibility in assigning different sounds to each track, multiple patterns per sequence, and 4 controller tracks, seems like it'll be more flexible overall (once I figure out exactly how to operate it ), despite having "only" 16 steps per track. For pure "synth" work, as I said, the JD has the classic, phenomenal Roland sound and is easy to tweak, but I'll have to reserve judgement on how it compares to the G1 until I've really dug into the G1 and started programming my own sounds. That's not gonna happen until I can tear myself away from the Blofeld. Man! That thing is addictive as heck. Wavetable synthesis has been one of my great loves since I had a chance to play around with a PPG Wave 2.2 that was brought into a music shop I used to work at back in the '90s for repair, and the tech and I spent most of a day playing with it, but this is the first actual wavetable synth I've personally owned, so I'm going nuts over it at the moment.