Members RockPianoman Posted September 21, 2014 Members Share Posted September 21, 2014 I buy mainly used gear as money is tight......I think different brands / models have different strengths and do different sounds better than the others......with me, I prefer the Motifs for sound quality but also since I have started buying a house, a whole world of new expenses have opened up and I don't have money to spend on gear like I used to.... I still use a Motif ES6 as my main board and even though I can hear that the sound sets are improved in newer Motifs, there's nothing wrong with the sounds in my Motif.....if you do side by side comparisons with any gear you can pick out the differences and what is better but if you don't, you can get by with older gear fine..... I would recommend getting a nice Roland, a Motif and a nice Korg (especially if money is tight like it is with me) and between the 3 you really have things covered.....if you are rich, buy whatever but there's ALWAYS going to be newer and better sounding gear coming out or they would go out of business.....I'm totally fried on packing up gear to sell on Ebay to buy something new and after you really get to know the newer gear it often has poor build quality, and isn't really much of an improvement and you often miss what you had before.... I use this gear which is all older but I have no problems with wishing I had better gear: Yamaha Motif ES6 (don't buy the rack as the keyboard version does sooooo much more)......you really need one synth in keyboard form to use as a workstation....If you can get a Motif XS at a good price, it is better (faster loading and saving via USB and a better sound set although I bet the display in the Motif XS would cost ALOT more to replace if it went out).... Roland XV-3080 or XV-5050 rack synths (I have both and they aren't that expensive used)....even though the XV-5050 has more modern sounds built in with a bank or 2 and improved effects, the XV-3080 is way better as you can access over 1000 user sounds from the Smart Media card WITHOUT LOADING THEM.....the XV-3080 is also way easier to edit without a computer as the display is a lot bigger.... I posted this under my other name on here: http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/...97213-36445521 Korg Triton Rack or Triton Extreme if you can afford it....keep in mind that if the display goes out in the Triton Extreme, it may cost more to have it replaced than the board is worth..... Yamaha P-35 piano for better acoustic piano for recording or live than any of those boards (I have a P-70...same thing really, just older)....not only will a P-35 give you a great acoustic piano sound, but you can play all your synths from the weighted keys....by the way, playing from weighted keys can save a lot of time on recording as often you don't hear sounds unless you strike a key so bumping a wrong key may not even come through.....this is one reason so many people like weighted keys for gigs...it's also a good idea to play with a lighter touch as this makes this work for you even more when you do this.... I have many other synths but these are my main ones that I use to write and record..... I will probably buy some newer gear sometime (I'd like a Roland Integra-7) but as I said, money is tight and this gear I listed really gives you soooooo much to choose from that you should be covered (I remember back when keyboardists didn't have that many sounds to choose from when I first started gigging in the early 80's)......we're spoiled now and wanting the latest and greatest is only natural, but the latest and greatest can also take sooooo much of your time learning how to use it.....time you could be making great music...... Another thing to keep in mind is going with gear you already know to save you from the learning curve.....I enjoy writing and recording music a lot more than learning how a new board works.... Another thing to keep in mind, all this gear was either their best or nearly their best when it was released (not the P-70)......this gear I listed wasn't entry level gear.....I had a Yamaha P-200 piano before too which was their best when it was released and I have no regrets getting the P-70......it fills all my needs and is way easier to move and the keys aren't as stiff and the keys are much quieter than the P-200 keys.....they are also much quieter than my Motif 8 keys.....when you play a small place, people can hear noisy keys.... To be honest, going with the gear I listed I would not use the Korgs or Rolands for acoustic piano even if they had expansion boards but would definitely use the Motifs for this even with no expansion boards and I wouldn't need the P-70 piano at gigs for that.....the Korgs definitely do the best organ sounds but the rest of the sounds are kinda hard to grade......they all have hits & misses when scrolling through presets but there are 1000's of sounds between them all.....if you can't make great music with that gear, it's not the gear's fault......that gear has been used on so many hit records that it's ridiculous, for example, the Roland JV-1080 is well known to be the most used synth in recording studios in history and all the sounds from it plus a ton more are in both of those Roland synths.....this is just one example..... The Korg Triton rack has a TON of user presets (between 500 & 1000) and I wish more synths had that many and there are tons of sounds you can download and load from online which lets you take advantage of those.....I would replace the floppy in the Triton rack with a floppy / USB / SD card unit (they are exactly the same size on Tiger Direct and give you all 3)......the Triton rack holds 8 expansion boards vs 2 in the Triton and it also holds the Moss board and Mlan board (I wouldn't want the SCSI board).....digital optical output is standard on every Triton rack and if your board only has coax digital input, there are inexpensive converters for that.... Free sounds for the Korg Triton / Triton rack http://korgforums.com/support/triton-classic.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mmmmqac Posted September 22, 2014 Members Share Posted September 22, 2014 Thanks for the good post RockPianoMan. More than half of my gear is second-hand, and I have no regrets at all. I also used the "best of each category" approach when selecting my synths so as to ensure a broad pallet of sounds. That's an interesting observation about weighted keys too. My categories for synth selection were synthesis types: FM (A DX7, later replaced by TX802)Analog Subtractive (An Oxford Synth Co. OSCar, later replaced by Oberheim Xpander)Rompler Subtractive (Emu Proteus 1)Additive (Kawai K5m)Physical modelling (Korg Z1)Full-sized piano (Roland RD-300, later replaced by FP-7F)Sampler (Mirage, replaced by Casio FZ-1, replaced by Kontakt) There is no way I could have afforded the Xpander, Z1 and RD-300 brand new Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted September 22, 2014 Author Members Share Posted September 22, 2014 Thank you.....I wish I had more extra cash like I used to, but home improvements and bills use it up pretty fast..... That's a cool list.....I'm not very familiar with a couple of those but very familiar with most of them....I started gigging before the DX7 was released (MIDI came out in the same year, 1983).....I played my first show for pay in Jan. 1982....I almost bought a Yamaha PF15 but I'm glad I didn't (it had no MIDI).....I bought the PF80 later and later regretted it as I wanted the PF85 which had sampled acoustic pianos in it (the PF80 sounds were made by FM (DX7) which never did good acoustic piano sounds....the PF80 was a heavy board compared to my P-70 (about 30 pounds on the P-70).....the P-35 is about the same and is the current model....almost identical.... Since the P-70 has no pitch bend and modulation wheels, it's not as good of a controller as it would have been but I found a way around it....I posted this under my other name on here a while back: http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/...97109-36428751 A super easy way to add pitch bend and modulation wheels to a piano like I did is the same way but with a DX100......since the DX100 can be played as a guitar with a guitar strap, the direction of the wheels is reversible....if they are backwards, hold the PITCH B MODE SET button while powering up. The wheels on the DX100 work as good as any on any synth and the unit has rubber legs and can sit on the piano without scratching it. The P-70 doesn't have aftertouch but most budget boards don't have aftertouch.....even the Yamaha P-200 I had didn't have aftertouch and it was a top of the line piano.... By the way, I really like the DX7 inside the Yamaha SY77 / TG77 / SY99......it's so much better than the previous DX7's before it and has a full set of nice effects too.....it doesn't have that DX7 flavor to every sound like the DX7's before it....the sounds sound like samples......I love it....I currently have a TG77 (sold my SY77 & SY99)..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted September 22, 2014 Members Share Posted September 22, 2014 I think for new romplers, the Yamahas or Roland Junos are the bargains.For used? There are a lot to choose from. But I agree on the Roland racks.I don't know how well used Motifs or Motif ES's go for. They're definitelyworth looking act though. I already have the Fantom sounds on a Roland Sonic Cell.But I had thought about an XR rack as a sampler too, sincemy touch-screen on my Korg M3m is so unreliable. My next synth module might be a Waldorf Streichfett. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted September 22, 2014 Author Members Share Posted September 22, 2014 I had looked at the Roland Fantom XR rack, but they ask so much for them used......you usually can't get them for under $600 so I went with the XV-5050 since I sample with the Motif ES.....I only paid $225 with free shipping for my XV-5050 and it was like brand new......there isn't much difference between the XV-5050 and the Fantom XR besides the polyphony (64 vs 128).....there are some extra sounds in the Fantom XR too and sampling.....the display is tiny in the XV-5050 but I edit it with the computer.....I like the USB jack on the front panel (that's where everyone should put it).....editing the XV-5050 with the computer is easier than having any size display....I do the same thing with my Roland JV-1010 (I have a Windows 98 laptop by the keyboards for it.....Windows 98 works better with that one).....people say they get Windows XP to work with the JV-1010 editor but it never worked right for me......I use the Windows 98 laptop for other software that won't work with XP too so it's worth having it around .... I haven't ever played a Waldorf Streichfett.....I'm totally unfamiliar with those......I usually buy romplers as my budget is so tight.....I've heard the Junos are really nice but I haven't played those either.... One thing I liked about the Fantom XR rack was it has it's own removable storage......every synth should have that.....none of the Motif racks have that....the card slot in the Fantom XR can be adapted for different kinds of cards that hold large amounts of data.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted September 23, 2014 Members Share Posted September 23, 2014 I had looked at the Roland Fantom XR rack, but they ask so much for them used......you usually can't get them for under $600 so I went with the XV-5050 since I sample with the Motif ES.....I only paid $225 with free shipping for my XV-5050 and it was like brand new......there isn't much difference between the XV-5050 and the Fantom XR besides the polyphony (64 vs 128).....there are some extra sounds in the Fantom XR too and sampling.....the display is tiny in the XV-5050 but I edit it with the computer.....I like the USB jack on the front panel (that's where everyone should put it).....editing the XV-5050 with the computer is easier than having any size display....I do the same thing with my Roland JV-1010 (I have a Windows 98 laptop by the keyboards for it.....Windows 98 works better with that one).....people say they get Windows XP to work with the JV-1010 editor but it never worked right for me......I use the Windows 98 laptop for other software that won't work with XP too so it's worth having it around .... I haven't ever played a Waldorf Streichfett.....I'm totally unfamiliar with those......I usually buy romplers as my budget is so tight.....I've heard the Junos are really nice but I haven't played those either.... One thing I liked about the Fantom XR rack was it has it's own removable storage......every synth should have that.....none of the Motif racks have that....the card slot in the Fantom XR can be adapted for different kinds of cards that hold large amounts of data.... You got a deal on the XV5050. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RockPianoman Posted September 23, 2014 Author Members Share Posted September 23, 2014 Certain olders synths had their own VERY expensive memory cards or cartridges for storing sounds and data but since you couldn't connect these to a computer to backup files they were pretty lame.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members workstation M.I Posted April 1, 2015 Members Share Posted April 1, 2015 The thing I love about Casio is I can upgrade to BRAND NEW for a relative song from my old gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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