Nigel,
If George is able to sell a Motif 6 for under $1500, that's one hell of a deal. The Motif is an awsome synth. Great sounds, good key feel, and I personally think the OS is quite easy to understand. I can totally understand what you mean when you say "smeared sound" when using the 550 to perform with.. I personally found the 550 to sound best through small monitor speakers such as the Roland Micro's I sold a while back. The internal speakers are ok, but I've played that board through several amps, and all I can say is BLAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH... It's that damn headphone output jack. If the 550 had a seperate left and right output like the models above it, I think the sound would be better.. Anyways, that Motif is awsome. I've played it several times, and I fell in love with it the first time.. Great pianos, good electric pianos, funky guitars, with cool arp patterns used for some of them on the presets, easy to use sequencer, and a whole lot of other good things too..

Squeak

Thanks to all for the great advice on this thread. It reinforces my thought that the Motif 6 is probably the way to go. Although the PSR 2000/2100 sounds like a good deal I think the keyboard feel may put me off. I don't mind synth action keyboards at all, but some are better than others. Just comparing the Motif 6 with the Triton LE confirmed that for me. Don't get me wrong I think the Triton LE is great value but it's just not as strong in the sounds that I need to play in a cover band. 90% of the time I am using acoustic piano, Rhodes piano and Hammond B3 type organs so these sounds are the most important to me. The band I play with are covering 60s/70s/80s/90s rock songs so these are the bread and butter sounds I need. But occasionally I do use brass and synth pads so it does help when these are good quality also.

But I will also try Roland and Kurzweil keyboards again before I make up my mind. It sounds like I need to take a drive down to George's store in Reseda and see what sort of deals he has going before I decide. The Motif 6 is still looking like the top contender for now especially if its price is being lowered.

Thanks to you all. I really do value your thoughts and opinions. It helps me a lot in making up my mind on what may be best to get. I have read through all the responses here and appreciate your combined experience in helping to make my decision. You are all a great source of info.




[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 07-02-2003).]

Nigel, can you wait 3 months before purchasing another Keyboard? Because if you can the new Motif ES may be worth the wait. More features, more Polyphony, more Sample RAM, More WAV ROM, more, more, more. Get the picture? And the clincher is it's supposed to be only $100 MORE than the current Motif' selling price. Plus you will have the best looking Keyboard on the planet. PS: I owned the original Motif 7 for a short while and I have to say it was an awesome Keyboard (sound wise). I got rid of it because the OS and Keyboard were brand new and had irritating bugs "which they have since fixed". But I didn't want to deal with them and wait for an OS update which could have been agonizingly slow in coming. I would guess that the new Motif ES will be even better sounding too and I would think they have all the bugs ironed out by now since they've had time (2 years) to refine the OS and Keyboard.

Best regards,
Mike

Thanks very much for pointing that out Mike. I am not really in any urgent hurry to upgrade and may well think about waiting to see this new generation Motif. I always prefer to buy 2nd generation gear especially when onboard software is involved.

Nigel, you don't say what sort of sounds you need. If you don't need the synthy stuff the Yamaha S03/30/08/80/90 could do the job although the 08/80/90 could be a bit big/heavy.

Yes, they would all be too heavy. While I have a weighted controller at home I just want a 61 key synth action to carry to jobs, that I can plug the weighted controller into when I am back home again.

Camaros weren't made to carry 88 note keyboards easily and I really don't want to have to lift one in and out either.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 07-03-2003).]

Just out of curiosity has anyone used the E-Mu Vintage Keys keyboard ? I heard it also has good electric pianos and synths. Don't know if it has an acoustic piano or not.

The model that Uncle dave suggested is the Roland VR-760. I haven't heard it, but the specs make my heart go pitter-patter. Real drawbars for the organs, pianos from there RD and FP series, expandable via SRX cards, 76 notes, waterfall keys. If you try one of these babies. let us know what you think.
Starkeeper

I actually played the VR-760 a few weeks ago. I kept looking at the price tag wondering how I could swing purchasing it and hoping the price would go down each time I looked.

This keyboard would be PERFECT if it only included BRASS, FLUTE, and SAX voices.

The Hammond sounds will knock your sox off. The Piano voices also stand out as excellent, great Rhodes and Wurly sounds. The synth sounds are great too. I really liked the keyboard feel very much. The d-beam controller was really cool in that you can turn the Leslie on fast or slow with the simple wave of the hand. I've never used the d-beam during a performance, but it really looks interesting.

I recommend you check it out.

Al