88 key Worksations,,,,,,,,any ideas

My wife seems to be swirching back and forth bwtween the Previa 320 and RD700 leaving a bare spot in my humble studio, So Im getting a PERMANENT 88 weighted board.

Any ideas or shared knowledge would be nice.

My choices are Yamaha X8 (of course), Roland Fantom, Korg M3....or a module and 88 key controller. I really don;t need the full on WS but at the prices I can get them for it would be foolish not to. (which is why I have a T3 and not the s900)

Heres my take....Roland has the best OS but I already have a PC and Notebook.

Yamaha has all those Arps which makes me lean in that direction how ever I don;t like the idea of most coices from one manufacturere.

The Korg is the front runner but I don't want to spend more time reading "War and Peace" than creating. The Manual is like a NYC Phone book.....and no pictures,

A controller would probably be the best idea but the Yamaha KX88 is really nice if you use Cubaase,

Maybe a used Motif ES or its new incarnation the M08......

Decidions decisions...

If your wife is really picky about her piano patches..., then I don't think the MO8 will please her. The keybed is weighted but it's not a graded action. Same weight up and down the keybed. The MO's choke for workstation use because they're a Motif ES sound engine running literally on half the poly!

The Motif XS8, Fantom G8, and M3 (88 model) are all very very very good workstations. You need to look at which one will have the most features your wife would actually use too. As far as the OS is conerned I think the Fantom G will be easier for her. The Korg M3 and the XS aren't really ranked up their for their ease of use.... They're great workstations, but even as you stated the Korgs manual is extensive.

Don't forget the MediaStation X-88

Don't forget the Nord Stage...

Sure, it's not a WS, but you don't need one! But the sounds it does do, it does better than anything else out there. Best B3, best Rhodes, best Wurli, best clavs, and analog polysynth better than most...

Nail the meat and potatoes, and everything is so much easier to sit in the mix...

You haven't mentioned the Korg PA588. This is an 88 weighted keyboard workstation featuring the sounds and styles of the Korg PA2XPRO and PA800 but with a few less features.


------------------
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

And IMO, the Stage has some of the best pianos in the business - not sterile, TOO perfect, but REAL living breathing pianos


[This message has been edited by Diki (edited 01-15-2009).]

Don't see many bands on TV except on the Tonight Show, but I'm noticing more and more Nord Stage and Electros with the guest bands. The band Wednesday had a Stage and the Keyboardist was playing some pretty authentic 'B3' parts and I didn't notice a Leslie anywhere in sight. Great well-built, unsung, board.

chas

Well, unsung here...

Most sites with 'normal' players (ain't any here, that's for sure!), the Nord is held in VERY high esteem and discussed avidly.

diki why do you continualy knock the players here? ...are you so high above anyone here? I really don't think so....but lately every post seems that your talkin down to people....

If you really want an 88 key WS , then there is really only one choice, . :

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=918&ParentId=83





[This message has been edited by jedi (edited 01-15-2009).]

If you are experiencing a 'knock', ask yourself why...

Personally, I am PROUD to be not 'normal'. As are you.

The trouble is, this is a TINY online community. It doesn't reflect the vast majority of keyboard players' opinion, experience or desires. But hang out here long enough, you can persuade yourself it DOES.

Most of us here are actually content to not share these 'normal' keyboard players' attitudes and opinions. Play in a band? Who needs it? Obsess about chops and chords, rather than styles and OS's? That's for chumps. Listen to music from THIS century? It's ALL drivel, isn't it?

'Normal' is the LAST thing you see on this forum!

Why isn't music of the past normal?
Most of what was created years ago is the foundation of what we have today.
There is nothing wrong with playing "timeless" styles of music that millions love to hear & play.
100 years from now a Cha Cha Cha will be a Cha cha cha

This one is for ME....She takes the RD and Casio on Gigs. I want a keyboard that wont have to be disconnected every time she takes a gig where she wants the RD, I want a Permanent HOME studio 88 key board. to run the VSTIs and the T3. . IM just torn between a Workstation and a controller because of the cost advantege dealer employees get. If I did not work for a dealer I would buy a controller only.

forgot about that one....I p;ayed it a NAMM wasn't that the one wiyj the full cabinet. Don't need that part. But a great suggestion.

Thanks.


Nord sound interesting but I want to stick with board I can get at "employee deals" from the distributor. They are too good to pass up, Id be playing the S900 otherwise or kept the Korg,

[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 01-15-2009).]

NO DOUBT But I have a OC and there is a lot of redundancy between the Fantom and the PC. If I was back on cruise wgips doing sequences like I did with my Triton the Fantom would be my first choice in 2009 as a stand alone WS. Everything the Fantom does I can do easeir on two monitos and cakewalk.

But it IS a nice WS,,,,indeed,

If you mean 2000 forward I agree totally. I plYed with the MO6 today. Far too many "contemporary" voices that will sound outdated in 5 years. I prefer GENERIC. Horn sections, Strings, Bass, Drums, guitars ALWAYS...are rel avant I The MO isw loaded with trance combos, Hip Hop etc.....This has always been an issue for me when buying new Woerkstations. IM not much of a "synth" guy.,.....

If I were you ...I would check out a Kurzweil PC3-88.

You may fall in love.
Lee

You mean like a Minuet? A once popular dance form that no-one dances any more?

Shelf life on some of those older dances is getting shorter and shorter. Had a request for a Black Bottom lately?

But the arrogance of every generation! It doesn't matter how old or young you are... somehow, magically, it's only music from YOUR generation that is going to be played in 100 years, isn't it? Nothing from your kid's... Of course, YOUR parents said EXACTLY the same thing about your generation's music, when it first came out. And THEIR parents said the same too...

Bottom line is, the cream (and only the cream) survives from EVERY generation and gets played years from now. And NOBODY (or they would be the
richest record executive on the planet!) ever knows what that is going to be at the time...

Trust me... at least SOMETHING that you hate right now from the last eight years is going to be a classic 40 years from now. And you are STILL going to hate it! Just as your parents probably still hate Led Zeppelin, or Sly and the Family Stone, or even Bebop (many older jazz fans from the standards and bigband era HATE bebop and freeform!).

Doesn't make your parents RIGHT, does it?

In the words of the Who (who your parents probably hated!).... "Hope I die before I get old"

I was one of thre lucky ones. Ella. Boots,Kenton,Brubeck,Getz,McGriff, smith were played around our house. My Dad was a sax player in his Band which then consisted of

Well Kids today are buying listening to and attending rock shows with THEIR PARENTS witnessing 60 year old band members play 40 year old songs!! I NEVER attended a show or bought a record in the late 60's early 70's with my parents if a hit maker of the 40's 0r 50's......We had too much NEW music so much variety, FM radio would have Led Zepplin followed by James Taylor, followed by Earth Wind and Fire, followed by Kiss..... Van Halen...Yes.....Journey....ELP.......Allman Brothers..Santana..War.,,Eagles...Jackson Brown..on and on (yeah Stephen Bishop)..That was a magical mixture musical time in music never to be seen or heard again. Never again did the music industry have such a stable of VARIED acts. Never again will they.

Those bands and their music are all still relevant today. many still touring, a few getting back on the road. That is more then proof there is nothing today to fill that giant void, Just loops and a few Jonas Brothers and or Jordan Sparks tunes.

Good music stands the test of time......Im wondering which songs today will.....Bubbly?

Top Songs of 2008

LOVE SONG?
APOLOGIZE?
BLEEDING LOVE?
SAY?
Psycho?
Inside The Fire?
Addicted?

Top Artists of 2008
Chris Brown
Lil Wayne
Jonas Brothers
Mylee Cyrus
Rhianna
Alecia Keys.

I don't know....Perhaps these will be requested songs and Artists of those who play OMBs in 30 years??? Somehow I think not...


My Dad (Lower left) in his "Band" in the 50's playing places OMBs play today


[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 01-16-2009).]

But back to the issue....I hate to waste an opportunity to buy at below cost and get just a controller. So its between Yamaha and Something from Korg..TR88 .Maybe a CP33

How about a good controller, and put the balance that you would save into some great VSTi's?

If it doesn't need to leave the studio, that's the way to get the best possible sounds...

Yeah Im leaning that way. Its hard to pass up a TOTL WS for around $2200 though. IF we carried The Roland line Id get the G8 hands down. Even I could figure out that GUI. The Korg is great but the learning curve is HUGE....just looking at the manual.I can get around The Roland without opening the manual...like a MAC!

Surely, then, as a diehard techno-geek PC lover, isn't the Korg PERFECT for you?

I mean, who needs EASY?

You would think so...I understand however

A manual learning how to put 12 parts together to make a fully functional PC should be about 20 pages at most. The mother board manual may have 20 pages.
One of 4 the Korg manuals is 240 pages!! NOT PERFECT AT ALL.

Even the Tyros is half that and most of it is like the Roland...... intuitive and not needed. I use the manual as a reference not a tutorial. One HAS to read the Korg manual to do practically ANYTHING with it.

The Motiff is not that much better in that regard. The Fantom looks like every PC screen I have ever seen the way its laid out. Even the EFX racks are drawn as racks,

We decided not to carry Roland but if i could get a new G8 for $2450 I would be all over it.

Kingfrog,
Even if you don't sell Kurzweil there...you can get a88 version for abou $2200 (maybe less) It's the sound baby! As they say.

And TOTL workstation featurss, MIDI and controller functions.

I had one here for 2 weeks.
May have one again. (module version as I don't need another keybed)

Lee

I understand the slim manual to make a functional PC, King.

It's the stack of books you need to KEEP it that way once you actually use it on the Internet that you don't acknowledge...