Which keyboard for £1500 / $2000 US / $3000 AUD / $2500 Can.

[anotherscott]

I mentioned the Casio MZ-X500, but I forgot you just got rid of a PA700, which is probably a better and fundamentally similar board. (It's possible the Casio might beat it in seamless transitions, though...?)

 

[Biggles]

For myself, at $2500 Canadian I would buy a used Korg Kronos 61 key or 88 key because:

1. it's ridiculously fun to play. the sounds are amazing. the depth of the instrument's capabilities is amazing. there are like 6 or more TYPES of sound engines in it, and tens of thousands of sounds at the flick of a wrist.

2. you could gig with it, not that I currently do.

3. you can load new sounds into it.

4. it's a workstation. it does everything.

5. it's a great master controller.

I think an 88 key might be hard to get used for $2500 canadian, the 88 keys stay around $3000 canadian, but it's close. You might find such a deal if you were sharp.

If I needed 88 key weighted at $2500, and I wanted to go new, I'd get the Yamaha MODX 8. At $2349 it's a beast.

If I wanted a new Korg at $1500-canadian I would go with the Korg Kross 2, and I'd be sad every day that it wasn't a kronos.

None of these would make me a better musician. I already own an acoustic piano and I think that time on my best instrument, spent in a disciplined manner building technique will make me a better musician, not anything I buy.

A Kross 2 is a non starter, I just sold one.

A Kronos would be great but it is £1500 more than I want to spend but I am nit discounting one.

A Krome does not come into the mix. Simply do not like the small fiddly buttons with text so small I have great difficulty reading it.

 

[anotherscott]

A Krome does not come into the mix. Simply do not like the small fiddly buttons with text so small I have great difficulty reading it.

Are you talking about the on-screen buttons or the physical buttons?

 

[Biggles]

Scott

The physical buttons.

 

[anotherscott]

Unlike on-screen buttons, that's at least somewhat addressable, e.g. with a Brother Label maker. But yeah, you shouldn't have to, and stage readability is a common Korg issus... hard to see (and sometimes tightly spaced and/or weakly labeled) black buttons on a black background. It bugged me on my M50 and Kronos.

 

[Biggles]

I have been watching the Roland videos on the FA series and making so notes so duly armed I went off today to the nearby Music Store where they had on display an FA 07.

Plugged in a pair of headphones powered it on and took out the notes and my iPad on which I have the Manual for the FA series.

I worked my way through the notes and created a new Studio Set which is a a group of up to sixteen instruments. I saved the Studio Set to a user location then set about customising it by changing the instruments and setting it so that a group all sound together and added a split.

Resulting sound mix was very good to my old ears.

Then into Pad mode and selecting Pad Utility and pressing the second Pad and all the sixteen instruments were then assigned individually to one of the sixteen Pads thus its very easy to switch between instruments within the set.

With a layer of three instruments sounding via a held chord with my left I then pressed one of the Pads to select a different instrument, resultant effect was I could play the newly selected instrument with my right and the sounds being held by my left were maintained, so no tone cutoff.

More tutorials on advanced layers and Fx then another trip to the Store to take it on to the next stage (hopefully my Studio Set will still be there) and apply some FX and see how things then sound.

So if all goes according to plan then after the visit it will be time to horse trade on the price or on any freebies they can include as they are £50 more expensive than the store that will not be named who are 20 minutes away.

 

[paulmapp8306]

At present, a hydrasynth...

But I have an rd2000 and fa07 already along with a peak, so the hydra adds most to what I already have.