Military musician looking for new keyboard

[stinkynathan]

Hello.

I am a member of an Army National Guard band and play keys in a rock band that plays a lot of "standard" and modern rock, country, and pop tunes. (It's not as lame as it sounds. We really mix some things up). I recently found out that my keyboard is up to be replaced within the next year or two and I need to put together a wish list so that it can be added to our units wish list.

When I joined the rock band five years ago, I inherited a Yamaha S-80. It doesn't seem to me to be the most friendly of keyboards (seems that others think that, too) and the manual has been almost no help.

Since I didn't get to order the S-80 and subsequently didn't do the research, I have almost no knowledge of what's out there in the keyboard market. I love Dream Theater, so of course I've at least heard OF the Kurzweil and OASYS, but that's about it. The K2600 looks interesting even just for the KB-3 mode.

So I'm looking for something new. A wide range of organs (with drawbars, etc...) and pianos is vital. There's also a chance that things with our bands will be restructured and start moving to a more improvised/jamband style within the next three years, so a wide variety of patches would be a plus.

 

[GigMan]

Hey stinkynathan

1st off, thanks for your servcie to our country... and great screen name.

For your situation, I think you should check out the Yamaha S90ES - great piano sounds along w/a host of other sounds as well. Other contenders I'd check out as well are the Roland RD700GX and the Kurzweil PC3X - all 3 of these 88 key machines are great and any of them would probably serve you fine... you just have to decide about the features and the specific sounds that you like on each unit.