Two questions:

-----

1. Before I buy the Stylus RMX, I want to be sure that besides beats etc I´m also able to get an acoustic feel with the drum machine.

Spectrasonics say that to get a more acoustic feel to the Stylus RMX, you´ll have to convert the original libraries Backbeat, Retro Funk, Liquid Grooves and Burning Grooves, or get the upcoming Expander versions of them.

QUESTION: Those of you who have tried the Stylus RMX, do you really feel the need to get the expanders?

-----

2. The way I see it, without having bought the RMX yet:

WHY THE EXPANDERS ARE GOOD:
- 99$ instead of 199$ for the original libraries (Backbeat, Retrofunk, Burning grooves, etc).

WHY THE EXPANDERS ARE BAD:
- You can only use the expanders in RMX, nowhere else.
- None of the extra hits or bonus material will be available on the expanders, just the loops. <-- A friend found out about this the other day by mail from Spectrasonics. I think it´s a drag, especially since Spectrasonics doesn´t mention this on their site.

QUESTION: Will you buy the Stylus S.A.G.E expanders or the original libraries?

Good point.
I think thou that the $99 price is very attractive if you already own RMX.
And as far as I understand (my RMX is due to arrive tomorrow)you can manipulate loops so much that it's almost like working with single hits.

But if you are looking for accoustic drums get BFD.
Nothing can beat that.

As an RMX owner, If you mean "acoustic feel" you are referring to the feel of a natural drummer, sure get it. I would not buy RMX looking for acoustic sounds out of the box though. THey are few and far between in the included soundset. But, if you are a recycle owner, REX your loops you already have and load them in. Also if you are concerned abut buying the SAGE expansions, get the regular groove control akai version, and you can then convert it in RMX to a sage library. This way you can use the sounds with your other samplers, etc..... Hope this helped.

I think that if you're looking for acoustic drums, go for BFD... it's pretty amazing in that department. I'm probably going to get Stylus to complement it, and give me some more stylistic diversity, but IMHO BFD has the current state-of-the-art for acoustic drums. Either way, it's a great time to be a musician with limited drumming ability!