Ok here is the deal.

A little about me first, I am a huge synth person. I had at one point every piece of synth gear you can think of under the rainbow except a PPG wave. So I know a tad about synth gear etc. I have been making music since the 80's. So on to this piece of gear...

I have 2 of these. Yes, 2 (TWO) of them plus I just got a Texture lab a few days ago from them as well. I use them for something unique, I won't explain but if you do not have a one of these 2 models you are missing out. As for the lofi-12, if you miss your Akai S950 or never got to experience one like I did then this 12 bit toy will satisfy that needs. I should not call it a toy due to the price sticker, but I am referring to it material wise. It is ALL Plastic! Does it sound good, YES it does.

Now to my issue, why 4 stars? and not 5?... Well let me explain. I owned a manufacturing company many many moons ago. So as a retired business owner I have this thing. It's called Honesty and transparency. I will be honest, had I known before I dropped 239+++ dollars on this lofi-12 including the tax, only to find out as I am typing this Aug. 9th that Sonicware just released a Limited ed. of 500, Lofi-6's for 299 from another retail company as a exclusive. I feel that all the stuff on this new unit could of been added originally on the lofi-12 so its kind of to me a marketing tactic which kind of makes me feel I wasted money when I could of bought their new limited version. As for transparency it's just I feel I have to now be cautious when buying from Sonicware, because you do not know what will come right after you dropped a lot of money on one of their items. I just hope other buyer's who see this understand they make good items, not perfect which I can understand because they are a small company but this boutique manufacturing style is kind of unorthodox (when asking for $239+ something a pop) and misleading if you are on a limited budget, like many musicians I know.

Hopefully someone at Sonicware reads this, maybe make it up to those of us who dropped a ton of money on their units and update our lofi-12's to have these extra options or those of us who paid for 2 of the same unit (lofi-12) and give them a discount or gift us one of the lofi-6's for buying from them a lot and supporting their company. Just a thought.

After researching which liven box to get as my first one, i decided the XFM would be the first. Amazon had a mix up and i got this Lofi-12 instead. And you know what? After two days and probably 6-8 hours of messing around with this sampler/groovebox, i wont br returning it as i like this box very much! I've never worked with samples before but man they are a ton of fun when it all comes together. Sweet box especially for the price, much more feature packed and easier to use than stuff like the Volcas (IMO).
Some pros i think are:
-Great I/O section
-multple sample rates
-very little menu diving
-Can be run off batteries for portability
- good design (IMO)
-Price, seriously you get a lot of device for not much more than something like a korg volca.
- 10 voice polyphony shared across the 4 tracks
-sequening is easy and intuitive after a slight learning curve.

Some cons:
-Doesnt come with power supply nor is it a standard 9vdc plug, it uses the same plug as korg volcas. Cant use something like a onespot.
-no USB. The only way to update firmware is to use a midi cable from a pc. Unfortunately my audio interface does not have midi out so i cant update firmware if i needed to. (Came updated with the latest installed though)
-Really plasticky, for the price i understand. I wish maybe the buttons and keyboard were some type of rubber instead of clicky plastic.
-Steep learning curve, definitely watch some tutorials. You'll find this thing is quite deep.
-Doesnt come with a manual (not a big deal when you can download off their website, but its always nice to have a paper version IMO)

Overall even though this isnt the Liven box i originally ordered, i will be keeping it as its a great sampler/groove box that after some learning, you'll be able to make this thing sing beautifully.

Great for ideas Workflow is kinda slow... Watch A LOT of YouTube videos to see what I can do preferably ChrisLody