I have a friend who has a Yamaha studio. She says the manual is rubbish, too...but she says the helpline is brilliant, she has rung it a lot.I think she said it wasn't expensive unlike most, either,but check before you ring it. I don't want people sending me their phone bills! :-)
I have an Aiwa DPS12i which is a few years old. We have recorded and mixed etc etc a cd from start to finish on it, just using the manual. I am definitely not very technically-minded but I didn't find this too difficult to understand so I figure this is probably an easy studio to use. I wonder if the new Aiwas are the same? Any one else got one?