Members guyincognito Posted October 22, 2014 Members Share Posted October 22, 2014 Hey all, sorry to add yet another "compare x with y" thread but I'd appreciate some input/suggestion. What I'm most interested in is acoustic piano, organ, and a decent enough selection of string, analog-ish synth etc. type sounds (bonus for tweakability, though I don't necessarily need the whole VA thing). I want something pretty portable, probably 61 keys, I'm not too picky about keybed action, and I'm not really interested in any sequencer/arpeggiator/sampler type stuff. You may notice that the VR-09 is exactly what I'm looking for as far as features - has all the sounds I'm looking for, and I like the interface (I'm a guitar player with a pedalboard full of knobs, diving into menus is not how my brain is wired), and it's basically what I'm leaning towards. The sounds are definitely solid enough for my liking, but I do find myself getting greedy and wanting better sounds too - I definitely bonded with the SK1, and part of me says "spend more to get the tone of your dreams and don't look back" - I really like all of its extra sounds but as far as I can tell it's just not capable of venturing into synth-land the way the Roland is? If I went that route I would also consider eventually picking up a dedicated synth as a second keyboard on top of that (Gaia? Mopho? KingKorg? I was thinking maybe KingKorg + XK1 might be the ticket until I discovered the piano sounds on the KK are garbage). Of course, that solution is getting bulkier, and even regardless of price I would be losing the advantage of convenience and all-in-one of the VR-09. I think I've done my homework but is there anything out there that I've missed with a similar feature set but richer tones, and not costing too much over $2000? If I were made of money, or if keyboards were my primary instrument I could just go for the Nord Stage and call it a day but that's not an option. (I suppose SK1 plus something else is starting to creep that high anyway though) (I also tried a MOXF and really liked it - piano and orchestra sounds were my favorites out of anything, but no drawbars and I thought the Roland synth voices had more mojo, so I don't really see it fitting into the big picture of what I want) Ehhhh... thoughts? I'll probably pull the trigger on the VR and be happy with it but I'm curious for feedback from people more experienced in this field than me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members XK3cS-3300 Posted October 22, 2014 Members Share Posted October 22, 2014 Have you checked out the installable libraries for the SK? There was another one added a couple of days ago: http://hammondorganco.com/support/downloads/voice-libraries/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AnotherScott Posted October 22, 2014 Members Share Posted October 22, 2014 I definitely bonded with the SK1, and part of me says "spend more to get the tone of your dreams and don't look back" - I really like all of its extra sounds but as far as I can tell it's just not capable of venturing into synth-land the way the Roland is? Right. There are some synthy sounds, but no synth functionality per se. No real-time controls, not even pitch and mod wheels. If I went that route I would also consider eventually picking up a dedicated synth as a second keyboard on top of that (Gaia? Mopho? KingKorg? ... Of course, that solution is getting bulkier, and even regardless of price I would be losing the advantage of convenience and all-in-one of the VR-09. A very small (and inexpensive) add-on synth could be something like the Micro-Korg. (I also tried a MOXF and really liked it - piano and orchestra sounds were my favorites out of anything, but no drawbars and I thought the Roland synth voices had more mojo, so I don't really see it fitting into the big picture of what I want) Many of those sounds are also in their MX. You said that you "don't necessarily need the whole VA thing," and also that a KingKorg over an XK1c might have worked for you if the combo had included a better piano sound, so for another pretty compact and cost-effective combo, you could consider the MX-49 over an XK1c. (And the Hammond has enough MIDI functionality that you could easily play the MX sounds from the XK when you needed more than 49 keys, something you may want since the smaller board would be the source of your piano sound.) But yes, you're running into the ever present keyboardists' dilemma... the boards are so different, and you can never get everything you want in one keyboard, there are always trade-offs. You like the Hammond's organ emulation better than Roland's, the Roland synth sounds more than the Yamaha, the Yamaha's piano/orchestral sounds better than any of the others... well guitarist, welcome to our world. ;-) Unless your needs are very basic, you can pretty much forget getting everything you want in one board, especially a lightweight and moderately priced one. You're lucky if you can get everything you want in two! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guyincognito Posted October 22, 2014 Author Members Share Posted October 22, 2014 Absolutely, that's exactly what I've been figuring out. Pretty overwhelming but very cool learning the nuts and bolts... Follow up question, if I got the vr09 now, and then went for an SK or electro or whatever later for piano/organ, how would the vr09 stack up as my second unit for synths? Its synth presets were a part of what attracted me to it, and I understand they're twrakable to a certain degree, but I just don't have the experience to know what I'm missing.. Ya know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AnotherScott Posted October 22, 2014 Members Share Posted October 22, 2014 The VR-09 synths are very tweakable, though you need an iPad to get beyond the basics. You could also look at the Roland FA-06 which I think has the same synth engine, but has much more extensive on-board editing. The FA-06 also has an organ that is almost (but not quite) the same as what's on the VR-09, but it does not have the immediacy of drawbar control (you have to go into an on-screen menu to adjust the virtual drawbars). The FA is a much more flexible board overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted October 23, 2014 Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 I'm using my VR-09 primarily as a synth at the moment. I'm not really a synthy guy, but I get lots of cool noises out of it anyhow! I have nailed the sounds for "Just What I Needed", "Turn Me Loose", stuff like that. And I haven't even busted out the iPad yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guyincognito Posted October 25, 2014 Author Members Share Posted October 25, 2014 Thanks for the feedback everyone, I did end up going with the VR09! I won't be too surprised if I still get a hankering for an upgrade later on, but at least I have everything I want in a cheap little package, and can find out what features and tones I actually end up using in real life before I make any bigger investments... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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