I've got the first and second versions and have finally come up with a regimen that helps me walk through the editing process (and a documenting process that helps me sort out the results.) So I kept my eyes open for a good deal on a used global version and just scored it. I was torn between that and putting some $s into other options but watched this review and it clinched it for me.
Once I shift the useful stuff I've edited on the silver/first version over to the "oriental"/red version, I'm selling the silver one and am looking forward to having the Oriental and Global versions to work from, side by side.
My method has been to finally sit down and audit them for sounds that I find useful. To do this, I had to zero out the levels of all but one of the instrument sources, stick in the algorithms or pcm's one at a time, and work through some of the more important options for each voice (esp. decay and tuning) to make sure I understood the potential (or not) of each voice. Then, with some amount of categorization (and documentation,) I can build stuff that's more in line with what I want rather than being reliant on the factory programs to (not) demonstrate the unit's potential.
Other things I found useful were 1) ditch the korg head in favor of one of the thinner Remo heads (the replacement is easy. 2) while you're at it, recalibrate 3) change the global hand-vs-stick option to all hands 4) change to the X2 gain structure (this is apparently not relevant on the global). There are also some learning curves around the fact that some of the options you set, change when you drop in a different algorhythm and odd things like that.
I am primarily playing these with my hands but I have some plastic rings and a palmed metal rib I use to get some things I want from the rims. It will be interesting to see if I need to do that with the global version. Also, has a hand drummer, I've learned to at least START with the velocity curve set to 6 and the pressure curve set to 3.
