Alex,

<> "I know you mentioned before that you like
Carrying heavy things to gigs"<<>>

Its not that I "like" to carry heavy equipment to a gig, but I won't sacrifice quality and performance convenience in a KB just for a few pounds at this time. Especially coming thru the last 30+ years of "evolution" performing with much heavier keyboards and amps such as a Hammond B3, Leslie tone cabinets, Fender Rhodes, Big baffle PA speakers and Mixers etc. With a 300+ yearly gig schedule I'm always looking to "Lighten up". Bottom line is what you sound like, not what your rig weighs. I guess we'll see what the KB "Arranger Gods" bring us in the future.


donny

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-29-2002).]

My understanding is that Genesys will replace the WK/SK series. That means that their are new series coming, one of them probably will include:

1) smaller speakers
2) no extra options
3) less weight
4) less expensive

But the same quality of sounds and styles.

I vote today to introduce a new term:

40-44lb

to be defined as Uncle Dave Threshold. From now on, I will be faithfully using this term.

Donny,

I meant no disrespect. In fact, I have the highest regard for you and other members of this forum, especially the professional musicians (who make music their full-time occupation). I play an average of 2-3 gigs a month, but even with this light a schedule I find that my Roland G1000 is on the heavy side. I am sure weight is so much more of a concern to someone like you.

My point is that with all the sound being made electronically, you do not need the instrument to be heavy to sound good. I for one will have to forgo a slightly better sound in favor of something more useable. Granted, the speakers will remain the heavy component, but IMHO this model is clearly intended for home studios, rather than as a portable instrument to address the needs of gigging musicians. I think GEM will really need to come up with another model, which is lighter, smaller, (cheaper), and has a more packageable form factor.

Clif, SK88User,

I had expressed my opinion about the usefulness of the CD-R (not even RW) drive elsewhere in this forum. I also think that for a guy doing a single at a wedding it is totally impractical to make a CD of the wedding's music. However, if that is your schtick, there are plenty of relatively inexpensive, very portable devices on the market today which can do this, without adding the extra bulk to your keyboard at all those times when you would rather not have them.

For me a perfect gigging instrument would have

1. Great styles
2. Great sounds (expandable sound set) with high polyphony (128 note+)
3. CompactFlash card slots (2-3) for user stuff, backups, sound samples, etc.
4. 76 keys in a compact case (a la SD-1)
5. Removable tiltable speakers with integrated no wire connection, with about 20 Watt per side
6. Weight of about 35 lbs
7. Optionial hard drive
8. Extremely usable, efficient navigation with short learning curve.
9. USB/USB2 connections to computer, external keyboard, digital audio out, etc.
10. On-board harmonizer.

I would venture to say that a price would not be a deciding factor if all the other features were there for me. However, this instrument would not need to be very expensive because of all the gimmicks which I would leave out:

A. CD-R drive
B. Floppy drive
C. On-board sampling (could accept sampled waveform files in standard formats on CF card, but no creation of sampled files)
D. MP3 player
E. Color screen
F. LARGE speakers
G. Many analog controllers and non-motorized sliders (A motorized slider worksurface could be connected via USB, if desired).

In short, keep the essential core functions, and allow connections to expand on them if desired.

Regards,
Alex