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#398338 - 01/17/15 07:47 AM My anuall visit to music store
Bachus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
Overthere in Köln they have 4 floors of musical instruments, with headsets laying all over the place, and you are allowed to play and touch everything thats on display, the good thing is that they have absolutely almost everything even rare instruments on display..

The only thing absent was Ketron, they used to have that last year, but for some reason they stopped selling them, or atleast having them on display..

First of, a hands on with the Wersi Sonic, that according to the salesman got the latest software updat earlier this week. It is comming along nicely. Sitting behind the sonic is like sitting behind the weel of a rolse Royce, the furniture and the build quallity have i proved over the OAS and it avtually is a great piece of furnitur..
The software is also an improvement over the latest OAS version. Its obvious they finally nailed touchscreens, its the first instrument i played where the touch interface and the big screen really work as a replacement of some of the buttons and sliders..
Soundwise it is massive, and i really love how lively the styles and organ sounds sound.. There are no SA2 sounds or anything like that. But then it supports VSTs for adding those highly suffisticated solo sounds.. But all in all it was a great experience sitting behind that majestic beast. Awesome build quallity, big functional touchscreen, great keyfeel, best wheels in th buiseness, top sounds... But then if you want to drive a rolse Royce, you know what they cost...
One downside, it is not finished yet, many features like the VST support are not implemented yet. And in the hour i played the instrument, the instrument crashed two times. I would stay away from it for a while, atlease a year possibly two..


Afterwards i got my hands on the Kawaii MP11, and it proved again that i have a love affair with the Kawaii keyfeel. No keybed comes close to the Kawaii MP11.. If you want a stage piano and want grand piano feel, this is the choice...

I tried and compare it to many of the other piano keybeds, but nothing comes close to the kawaii MP11, well maybe the VPC1.. Others that i liked okay where the Nord stage2, the Kronos and espescially the Roland RD800... But all Yamaha and the cheaper keys of the other instruments felt out of place when playing them..

One thing i noted tough, is that the CVP609 piano sounds is miles beyound the T5, espescially when used in the piano room setting... Still strange they did not add this feature to T5.


One more thing i noted on the keyboards department, was that my switch from pa3x to T5 was a good one, i love the sound and features of the T5 way more then the Pa3x... Korg needs to really up the quallity of their solo sounds when they release the Pa4x..
.... Keep in mind that i dont mind the minor edditing available to T5 anymore, because i have a whole computer of VSTs for solo sounds that i can tweak around with all that i want...


And then i went upstairs to the computer music department.. Actually i was disgusted by the build quallity and keyfeell of most of those midi keyboards... However certain products here where of acceptable to good quallity... The Ableton Push device, the Akai APC40 and MPC, and the NI kontroll and Maschine where good quallity... The Nektar masterkeys and the Roland Aira series where also top quallity.. But in general most of this homestudio equipment i still consider toys.


And then there was the vintage department, i got to play a real B3, actually for the first time in my life. And a vintage mini moog, but also some modern analogue synths..


All in all i had a great 4 hours inside the store, and had some quallity time. Its the only place where i go witouth my wife, normally we do everything together, except working, everything except visiting music stores, and this is the greatest of them all.....
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Yamaha Genos, Roland Jupiter 80, Ipad pro.

http://keyszone.boards.net

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#398339 - 01/17/15 07:55 AM Re: My anuall visit to music store [Re: Bachus]
Dnj Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
Nice reviews.....thanx for sharing for some of us who dont have the availability to visit a store stocked with gear goodies ..

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#398376 - 01/18/15 11:18 AM Re: My anuall visit to music store [Re: Bachus]
Tyrosman5
Unregistered


Thanks for the nice review. It is great when someone shares their experiences with others. Lloyd

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#398378 - 01/18/15 12:57 PM Re: My anuall visit to music store [Re: ]
mirza Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 11/15/01
Posts: 1314
Loc: london,ontario.canada
Consider yourself lucky. Long&Mcquade close to my house has nothing.Even if it had something people working in the store pretty much could work in a grocery store with that knowledge they poses for the equipment they sell..And I am not saying there is anything wrong working at a grocery store.


Edited by mirza (01/18/15 12:58 PM)
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MIKIMIKI

TYROS 5,BEHRINGER X32PRODUCER,YAMAHA DSR112,JBL PRX618s XLF,EV ZLX12p,SENNHEISER E945,....ETC

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#398379 - 01/18/15 01:08 PM Re: My anuall visit to music store [Re: mirza]
KORG80 Offline
Member

Registered: 02/27/13
Posts: 654
Mirza,

I live in Brampton and my Long & McQuade is the same. Wanting to check out a PA 900 and they don't have one. When I wanted to check out Yamaha's PSR S 950, they brought one in for me and then I felt guilty because the vocal processing in that keyboard is really unacceptable compared to the standard I am used to. Luckily before the 950 arrived a 750 had been sent there by mistake. After figuring out how to input and utilize my Digitech harmonizer, I went home with the PSR S750.
Good luck if you ever wanted to check out a Tyros.

God Bless,
Don
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God Bless,
Don

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#398395 - 01/19/15 01:43 AM Re: My anuall visit to music store [Re: mirza]
Bachus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
Originally Posted By: mirza
Consider yourself lucky. Long&Mcquade close to my house has nothing.Even if it had something people working in the store pretty much could work in a grocery store with that knowledge they poses for the equipment they sell..And I am not saying there is anything wrong working at a grocery store.


Actually its a hundred mile drive... My LMS is much much smaller


The good thing however is the next to the fact that they have nearly everything in stock, is that its allso on display and that there are laying headsets all over the place, allowing you to playtest everything you want... Withouth interference of some salesperson. Salespersons stay behind their desks to answer customer questions and sell stuff when the customers asks them to... Espescially on saturday morning when its reallyreally busy.

This makes the long ride well worth it.
_________________________
Yamaha Genos, Roland Jupiter 80, Ipad pro.

http://keyszone.boards.net

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#398459 - 01/20/15 09:08 AM Re: My anuall visit to music store [Re: Bachus]
musicforyourday Offline
Member

Registered: 09/30/10
Posts: 733
Loc: So California, USA
Bachus I am entering the world of VST just purchased cubase pro 8 and starting the learning curve on that also looking for you oppinion on some good VST instraments ? I am going to NAMM this week I am going to get a look at many let me know you favs RJ
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Genos, PSR S970, Fender Tele Amercian Deluxe Cherry sunburst , Cubase Pro 8 ,Yamaha A3M Acoustric ,Taylor 814, Ibenez Artcore Custom Tascam DP 32 Yamaha DXR 10, QSC K-12, K 12 Sub K 8 Sinn 945
2 Fender Expo line units .

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#398470 - 01/20/15 10:56 AM Re: My anuall visit to music store [Re: Bachus]
abacus Offline
Senior Member

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 5345
Loc: English Riviera, UK
It depends what you are looking for, however Native Instruments Komplete takes some beating for the amount of instruments included, as well as being top quality so is a good place to start, however I recommend you get used to using the supplied VST with Cubase first before adding new ones.

The learning kerb will be steep, but stick at it as you will soon find how limited hardware keyboards are in both quality of sound and features in comparison, however hardware boards have one advantage over pure software based systems, in that they good to go OOTB.

Pop over to the Wersi stand (Booth 5108 Hall B), as it would be nice to get an American view of their instruments.

Enjoy NAMM

Bill
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English Riviera:
Live entertainment, Real Ale, Great Scenery, Great Beaches, why would anyone want to live anywhere else (I�m definitely staying put).

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