Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

hi,
i just joined the group.

i was originally planning on getting an ion but i was put off by all the
reports of faulty units. so i went to the store today to try out some
other gear and see if anything else grabbed my attention.

lo and behold, they had an evolver on display (i didnt even know
this shop was a dealer) so i asked them to hook it up for me.

after just a few minutes with the synth, and not really knowing what
the hell i was doing yet, i was already hooked by its sound and i had
the salesman checking to see if they had any more in stock so i could
buy one. unfortunately they were out and i didnt want the demo model,
therefore no evolver for me today...but i definitely plan on getting one
asap.

so in the meantime, i thought i'd sign up here and start asking a whole
bunch of questions. :-)

for starters, have there been any reliability or bug issues with the
evolver?

if i get one that still has OS 1.x in it, does updating it to OS 2 tend to
go smoothly? (and if it glitches up during transfer, can i just try again
or will the OS chip by totally hosed by then?)

how recently did evolvers actually start shipping with OS 2?

has there been mention of upcoming dave smith news that might alter
my plans for buying an evolver soon? (new models, price increase or
reduction, hardware changes, etc.)

how is the new editing software?

the evolver i tried had encoders with notches. it seems like this would
probably cause problems when trying to do smooth filter sweeps. so
is it best to do real time controls of this type from another controller
instead of directly from the evolver or can you actually do smooth
slow sweeps by hand with the evolver's encoders?

the demo unit had an odd behavoir that the sales guy couldnt figure
out. the first 70 presets were playing the same note no matter what
key on the controller i was actually playing. i didnt get to try presets
where the pitch actually tracked the keys until  #70. any idea what
may have been going on here? does this have something to do with
the sequencer? (i have no idea what preset bank i was in, i didnt
know how to use the sequencer, and the salesman couldnt find
the manual so i was at a loss trying to figure out some of the synth.)

thanks for all the info. hopefully i'll be a contributing member of the
list before too long.

-ugo