Need recommendation for keyboard workstation with cool pad sounds

[ayylmao]

I'm very very fond of spacious sounds like this:

Now, to narrow in the range, I'd like it to be a keyboard workstation below the price of $1100

Been looking around, but doesn't seem to be many norwegian retailers who's got a wide variety of keyboard workstations...

Would be nice to have some recommendations, thanks in advance!

[jonesg]

I have a korg kronos workstation, its rather complicated to use, I would recommend getting Omnisphere2 instead, especially for pad sounds, its very lush.

In fact I rarely listen to the internal pads in my korg, the Omnisphere is far better. Add any of the after mkt sound library's for omnisphere, they are cheap and sound great. Listen to this walk through, John used to design pad sounds for all the korg keyboards.

 

 

Omnisphere was $480, Johns library was $50.

Use any cheap midi keyboard,

I use Reaper for a DAW, its very cheap and powerful

[midinut]

With a budget of $1100, why not just get a used Triton Extreme? I agree with the above statement about Omnisphere. It's a mad pad creator. But if you've got your heart set on sounding like a Triton Extreme, why not just get one and call it a day. Korgs' current offering is the Kronos and I have one of those as well. Highly recommended and yes there is a learning curve. I just don't think you'll find one used in your price range. Also, even the Triton is going to require some learning how to use it fully. Another possibility might be look for a used Korg M3. PM me if you're interested. I happen to have a M3-73 sitting in a box not being used.

[MIDI Maniac 2016]

For $1100, buy a used Yamaha Motif XS6......it pretty much does it all .....sampling, sequencing, zillions of arps, USB 2 for fast sample loading and saving....I think it has over 2600 samples and it has 128 note polyphony.....my Motifs put all my other gear to shame for sheer sound quality....and it's built like a tank....probably weighs 35 - 40 pounds......it has 61 keys and aftertouch....it has over 1000 built in sounds....you can layer up to 8 samples to make a voice and you can layer up to 8 voices to make a performance......you get that much layered, you can do pretty much anything...you can also add sounds to a voice or performance just by striking the keys harder.....you make certain sounds that are only heard at higher velocities......you can also plug in a volume pedal that never needs batteries and fade layers in with that......add a second volume pedal and assign it to whatever parameters you want and change sounds with your foot as you play.....it doesn't do only volume......it can adjust pretty much anything....

 

The degree you can set that synth up before a performance is amazing......iron out the finest details and save it to USB stick so you always have it......

 

This video shows the preset sounds in that synth....even though this video shows a budget version, it still has the same sounds and the Motif XS6 sounds better....it has better converters:

 

 

You can also find sounds by category search very quickly to save time......

[Karma1]

I agree with midinut about buying a used Korg M3, or for that matter, even the older Korg Karma. I have both of those and they are great for pad sounds which I use a lot in my ambient music. Although Omnisphere is great as well if you want to go for a software synth.

[moogerfooger]

ditto on the M3