I love my V-Synth XT, especially the Multi Step Modulator which gives you the possibility to assign 4 independent modulation sequencers to any destination you like.
The touch screen is a big plus and lets you access everything quick, no one screen clicking hassle, love it.
Cosm 1 and Cosm 2 is for filter, amps, resonator, frequ shift, etc.
You do not need to load samples to make sound , it is a synth!!, just use the build in synthese > Waveforms (Saw, Square, etc.). The most important are there and give you everything you need for synth sounds, especially bread and butter sounds.
CTRL is great and you can assign everything via the Matrix Ctrl and if you think of it as an old machine it is pretty straight forward to deal with.
I never used Rhythm (for drums much) as I have other options to make drums, but if you take the time to deal with it you have excellent options to treat your sound.
Importing samples need some time, especially for encoding loops as they need a special encoding to run as wanted for mangling (import>edit if needed>encode>save for each loop, one shots is less).
The V-Synth librarien, which was useful doesn´t run on my osx mountain lion anymore, neither does the driver (up to lion), but not really needed because you can use the DIN inputs for midi and the analog ones for audio.
Beside the Cosm 1/2 you have the Effect section with MFX (from multi delay/EQ/AMP/Humanizer/Tape Echo/etc.), CHO (Chorus/Flanger/short delay) and Reverb. You can assign all three effects via send/return or insert, which is enough for most scenarios (would be nice if MFX effects would also be accesable in the other sections but not a big deal for me personally that it is not).
The global knob (via menu) is also nice with 16 different presets for quick assignments of the 8 control knobs E1-E8.
…and you have the D-50 and the vocal designer too!!
You may want to check this:
http://www.rolandclan.com/media/17/V-Synth%20tips%20and%20tricks.html
I say grab one, especially for a good price, if it fits your needs:
Great, warm sounding machine!