Your best keyboard sithesizer.

[mymemory]

For all those electronic musicians:

I know this is a complicate topic because of the ammount of variables to consider like sound, interface, price and use (studio or live).

I want to know what would be your "first keyboard" (if you only had to choose one in the world beside Siclavier), a "secund option" and a "must" that is that unit you think every body should have.

If I had to choose one keyboard only I would take the Roland JV-90. Why? because it has 76 keys, a lot of sounds, LA sinthesis, it is not that big and it is a wonderfull controller. The sounds are ok, I would like to have the Nord Lead keyboard sounds but it is very hard to use.

My secund choice would be a Kurzweil K2500RS, but I do not know for how long because it is a night mare to use. I may take a Akai sampler later on.

A must: Roland JP-8080, that is a unit I think every body should have, just because it has ver good sounds and is very easy to use, the easiest I think.

Roland JV-90 (http://www.vintagesynth.org/roland/jv90.shtml)
Roland JP-8080 (http://www.vintagesynth.org/roland/jp8080.shtml)
Kursweil K2500 (I was talking about the rack mount version) (http://www.vintagesynth.org/kurzweil/k2500.shtml)

[cr2sh]

My Korg MS2000 was a nice synth for the money and I just sold my JP-8000... I've got to get a rack mount workstation for hte road. (Yes, they offered me a travel position and I accepted! YAY!)

Looking at a k2000 or maybe one of the Trinity Racks... who knows. Any experience with those? Anyways.. my must have keyboard is a little program called REASON. ;)

[kiwi_the_iwik]

I would've loved a Roland Jupiter-8 (but they're STILL monsterously expensive - they used to go for over $10000 NZD!)

Even a Jupiter-6, or a Juno-60 would've been brilliant...

In the end, I went for a Juno-106 (better than the -60, but with a portamento instead of an arpeggiator) and an Ensoniq EPS sampler (and a Yamaha RX-21 Drum machine...)

They're sitting in their boxes still, after years of faithful service. Now, I just don't have the time or the room to use them.

C'est la vie!

[vollspacken]

Originally posted by mymemory
I want to know what would be your "first keyboard" (if you only had to choose one in the world beside Siclavier), a "secund option" and a "must" that is that unit you think every body should have.

- my micromoog is still awsome... only one oscillator but for basslines it's unbeatable - add a midi interface and you got the bomb (and it has an audio in, too... you can fire all your samples through the moog-cascarde filter and resample them... sweet!!!)

- nordlead2 rack - use it live so you don't have to carry the moog around and it's cheap...

- mpc - everybody needs an mpc

GoGoGo:) :) :)

[howard]

i hear the alesis qs 6 and qs 8 are great for the price. anyone here use them much to agree or disagree?

[springscansing]

The only keyboard I'd have is the one on my powerbook.. you know, the one running Max/MSP?

I would have a midi controller or two. Maybe just a UC-16 so I could do without a midi interface... or maybe plug in my MOTU Fastlane 2x2 USB interface (simple, but effective), and plug in a Doepfer Drehbank and a Continuum Fingerboard.

If you haven't seen the Continuum Fingerboard, well, check out this movie:

http://www.cerlsoundgroup.org/Continuum/Movies/ContArabv6exp.mov

It KILLS any "keyboard" in existance.

So yeah.. basically I'm the classic minimal laptop experimental guy. Screw tonality! hehe

[Taft]

Originally posted by howard
i hear the alesis qs 6 and qs 8 are great for the price. anyone here use them much to agree or disagree?

I've got the qs8 and it is a great machine. But I'm not into electronic music much. I bought it for the more "natural" sounds it has. For the price, its got great piano and organ sounds and has nice, sturdy keys that feel great for piano playing.

I've used it in a few bands, and its great to travel with as well. And the sounds that I use are great, though I admit I haven't played with them as much as I could have.

But it really isn't a great "electronic piano" (like the top end yamaha's and such) as the piano sounds aren't quite as good as some other weighted-key keyboards (they are still very good--just not concert-pianist good). And the action is a little heavy for fast synth or organ playing (I'm probably going to pick up a smaller synth with very light action for this).

But all in all, the qs 8 is a great machine for the price.

Taft

[ExoticFish]

I really like my Yamaha CS2X!

[3rdpath]

well i've slimmed down my rig over the years...

but i think my favorite synth is Reason. i run it with performer on a dual 1 ghz and i can do 80% of my work with just reason 2.0.( and a fatar 88 key controller).

i have rolands, a proteus 2000, korg ms2000( the vocoder rocks) and some other stuff...and i'm using it less and less.

wish i hadn't sold all of my analog stuff:(