This is a great little analog modeling synth.  Users who "midi in" can access control of two monophonic synths at once using midi from an external controller or sequencer.  The EA-1 has no drums in it and it dosen't do any sampling.  Its a cheap peice of kit and its far form being overly popular, but its nice, its simple too.  Kind of like the way Seattle was before its local grunge genre became a popular and searched for sound.. but it is definitely its own thing in terms of the types of sounds it makes.  You can use the synth architecture to make patches sound really gritty or pleasantly smooth.  Some of the basses and leads you pull out of one of these may surprise you!  All the sounds that the EA-1 makes usually ends up sounding at least a little digital but I do like that as part of the feel of this synth. It has one mono audio input for processing external signals.  The Korg EA-1 is somewhat toy like or basic in its fx creation and sound shaping layout options, but it has a load of great potential tones waiting to be explored fully.  I love these little EA-1s.. but I mainly wrote this guide to offer people some buying guidance as far as the price is concerned with this looping groove synth with no drums in it.  I think that anyone who would willingly would pay 150.00$ + for a Korg EA-1 on ebay is being very, very foolish with their money no matter how mint the seller regards the item because of what computers and other more modern gear can do for a musician these days!  So be sure to buy yours at a decent price and also a little less than mint in condition if you have to with all the sellers (especially the big guys) playing hard ball on prices.