ok there are quite a few new boards coming out soon ,fantom,liontracks,wersi,yamaha,also the ones just released korg etc,the specs, to me go way over my head,so what i want to know is what specs,decides for you which is the best board,also out of the ones mentioned going by specs only ,which is 1st 2nd 3rd etc,mike

Specs are just one aspect..I would look at the features that you need[speakers, midi capabilities, sequencer , mp3 player, cd rom,ect]..Specs are numbers, they may not be as represented in the real world..We must play the instrument, using the features we need..forget the specs, as an example I have played 128 polyphony instruments that have more dropouts than anothers 64 polyphony[because of alocation and patch design].SMF playback,you need to try it, can you search folders or other locations while a sequence is playing[some can not], same with mp3 playback..Are the realtime buttons in good locations, do you have to go thru menus to get where you want to be...These are just a few of the things, we need to touch the board for answers[including the feel and response of the keys]...Specs are not the only thing to make a decision[maybe it is the least important]..

fran i hear what your saying, but as you say 128 of poly from one board is different from 64 poly from another ,why cant they use the same standards,or comparison charts,i ask a lot of questions here for the simple reason my local music shops are spanish,(they dont speak english)my spanish is well,mediocre so finding info is difficult,i,m hoping to buy a new board in the near future so i value all of your input,if i get a response like, this new board is fantastic from a few people then i would check it out,mike

About voice polyphony: there is no single standard to compare the effective polyphony except if you look into the detailed specs of the keyboard how layering is done (how many tones per voice are used, usually 1-4) but often you discover such stuff only when navigating through the menus.

And Fran is fully right, without trying it out extensively I would not risk to buy a keyboard only based on its specs.
Ok another method that usually works is to read multiple unbiased reviews by magazines, online sites, webforums, newsgroups.
If 8-9 people out of 10 says a keyboard is good then you cannot probably go wrong.
But as said good is a subjective word: what's good for one person is mediocre or bad for others so trying it out extensively before shelling out all the money is usually a good practice.
On the other hand assuming you want to choose one amongst 6 models of keyboards and your music store carries only 4 then it's unfortunate too because you may miss out exactly that one that would suit your needs best. (And then shortly after you bought one of the 4 you get the chance to try out the missing 2 and then bitch for the rest of your life that you did not buy one of the latter :-) ).

Regarding about apparent high polyphony that can confuse customers.
I give you an example: take the Gigastudio 2 software sampler. It says 160 voice polyphony of samples direclty streamed from disk.
But in the specs no one says that the voices are only mono and most samplelibraries you can buy are stereo.
Thus polyphony cut in half, alias 80 stereo voices.
Now to add realism many .GIG sample libraries add release samples (when you release a key you hear the tail of a reverb of the piano hammers jumping back up).
This means that when you release a key up to 4 mono voices are used (2 for the sample and 2 for the stereo release sample).
This means effective polyphony of 40 voices.
Add the sustain pedal to the game and you risk running into voice cuts pretty quickly.

Anyway most of the people on this forum are pretty demanding so if 3/4 say that a product is good then it's hard to go wrong with it. (but as said there is always a small probabilty that your own requirements are quite different)

cheers,
Benno
http://www.linuxsampler.org



[This message has been edited by sbenno (edited 03-20-2004).]

thanks benno for the reply,when i go back to the uk i will have to try to get some good keyboard books,mags that explains what these specifications are etc. in easy language,can anyone recomend any good ones?thanks mike