Hey everyone
Well i have been researching for a while for my dream keyboard. I do live gigs quite regularly and am a keybord player. My roland kr350 just isn't giving me those beautiful grand piano sounds that i want. So have decided to go shopping.
I was wondering if anyone on here could possibly steer me in the right direction.
i play a lot of jazz, blues as well as some synthy sorta stuff. So i'm looking for some pads as well as some nice organ sounds along with that beautiful acoustic piano. Oh and some nice E-pianos like rhodes and stuff would be nice too.
The other thing is, i'm completely blind in both eyes so am not to great at navigating huge OS's on keyboards. I can do a bit if its consistant by remembering the string of commands but would prefer to keep it as simple as possible with more hands on control.
Thanks in advance, any help is appreciated.
Matt

I'm using two keyboards now.

First is KORG TRITON STUDIO.
Good sounds and simply use
But I thing OASYS is better. www.korg.com


and second I'm having LIONSTRACS X76 http://www.lionstracs.com/site/


This is keyboard with virtual sound that you can put in same way as computer VST. B4 is working amazing. I'm having GRAND PIANO of STEINWAY (800 MB) and this is fantastic for live preformance. for me is future keyboard)

I thing is something like RHODES and STEINWAY and B4 in one hand for you.

Best regards.

[This message has been edited by Magica Alfa (edited 07-03-2006).]

Hi Matt,
I'm in a similar situation as I have very little usable eyesight myself. So I know how annoying and confusing some front panel layouts can be if you can't see them. This pretty much goes for most Korg and Roland workstations I have tried so far. Some Kurzweil keyboards also fall into that category. Not a big deal if you use them for studio work but for live gigs I would not recommend any of them.

At the moment I'm quite happy with two of my main master controller keyboards. Motif ES 8 and an older Motif 7. Sound range is decent and even though the piano sounds aren't the best (comparing to software instruments like Spectrasonics "Ivory" for example) they still sound very good. Quite good actually if compared to some of the older piano libraries I had to load on my samplers.

THe only downside about my favorite MOtif ES 8 is it's weight. I have no problem with it but I know that some people do. I mainly like it for its keyboard feel because I prefer to play all the typical keyboard lines from a fully weighted action keyboard. By the same token I like really light keyboard action when playing organ and synth leads (That's what my MOtif 7 and a bunch of other light action KBs are for I guess ).

Anyway. I'm pretty happy with MOtifs. Front panel is easy to get used to. THere's enough you can edit with knobs and faders too. Sounds work great in the mix and performance is rock solid. They may not be the best synths but I think they are great for live work.

Kurzweil K2600 is another one of my favorites but I'm not too keen on it's front panel layout. Definitely more confusing than the Motif. Without being able to see it that is. But as far as sound it is fantastic.

But mattymc2 is blind so the LIONSTRACS X76 with a touch screen would definately not be suitable.

Yup...
Touch screens are definitely a no-no. This pretty much scratches Korgs off the list tooo. Most of the Triton line anyway.

So it's pretty much down to a Yam and a Kurz. May be some of the Roland XP and Phantom KBs too (although personally I don't really like working with Roland KBs.. Don't liek the keyboard feel. Might be just me though ).


-ED-

Unless you can install a screen reader on the mediastation that would speak out loud the contents of the screen. The same thing they do for regular computers.
When playing live, you would probably have to assign the output of the speech to something else other than the main outs of the keyboard.

I don't know that anything like that has been released. Its hard enough getting a screenreader for my cell phone lol.
Thanx for all ur help guys and keep it comin hehe, u guys are legens.
Mattymc2

Hi Matt,
I'm using 2 kbs regularly when gigging.
An old, but dependable T3 and an SP100, however, the Korg SP250, which I also have at home might be an ideal kb for your purposes.
...Just my thots..

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...shboom