WARNING: This post may ramble a fair bit, as despite much googling, I still feel Iknow nothing about workstations and their capabilities so I don't know if I am asking an unreasonable amount!
At the moment the cornerstone of my setup is my XV-5080. It is wonderfully expressive, rich and versitile, and the ridiculously high polyphony and multitibrality is a gift. It is however an arse to gig with. Apart from having lots of flapping MIDI leads, it is not possible to change performances without using the controls on the front panel, meaning it has to be within flailing distance on stage. I do a lot of musicals and my band are fairly progressive (we open with Sirius by Alan Parsons project - 12+ voices mapped to various parts of an 88 note-r!), so I frequently have to change between exotic splits and layers at short notice which are beyond the capability of most MIDI pedals.
What I'm looking for is a workstation that has:
Finally the price! Ideally I'd want this as cheaply as possible and will happily hunt around for second hand gear, with an absolute upper limit of £2000 (effectively < $3000), although if this isn't possible, I'd still be interested to know what is capable.
Many thanks!
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At the moment the cornerstone of my setup is my XV-5080. It is wonderfully expressive, rich and versitile, and the ridiculously high polyphony and multitibrality is a gift. It is however an arse to gig with. Apart from having lots of flapping MIDI leads, it is not possible to change performances without using the controls on the front panel, meaning it has to be within flailing distance on stage. I do a lot of musicals and my band are fairly progressive (we open with Sirius by Alan Parsons project - 12+ voices mapped to various parts of an 88 note-r!), so I frequently have to change between exotic splits and layers at short notice which are beyond the capability of most MIDI pedals.
What I'm looking for is a workstation that has:
- Good bread and butter keys (piano, ep, organs)
- Passable other acoustic instruments (strings, horns etc)
- Very strong synth capabilities. Leads not so important as generally handled by my JP8K, electric guitars would be good.
- Ability to use many layers and splits simultaneously and can switch between them quickly (foot pedal ideal)
- Sequencer for basic backing loops, arpeggios and drum patterns
Finally the price! Ideally I'd want this as cheaply as possible and will happily hunt around for second hand gear, with an absolute upper limit of £2000 (effectively < $3000), although if this isn't possible, I'd still be interested to know what is capable.
Many thanks!
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