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What is your dream vintage keyboard?


Phil O'Keefe

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If I could wave a magic wand and give you any vintage keyboard on the planet, which one would you want?

 

Would it be a vintage Steinway or some other piano? Or a B-3? Or maybe a Clav? Baldwin Electric Harpsichord anyone? How about a Minimoog or other monosynth? Or maybe a Moog Modular or ARP 2600? Is your dream vintage board a polysynth like a Prophet 5 or a Obie OB-Xa? Or maybe something harder to find, like a Rhodes Chroma or a Yamaha CS-80?

 

Hey, pick what you want - but you only get one. What's it going to be?

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When I say you only get one, that wasn't intended to mean it would be your only keyboard for life - what I meant is I'm only going to be able to magically give you one keyboard (or maybe two if you ask nice ;) ) - you're still welcome to keep any other keyboards you already have, or that you can get in other ways. :)

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Yes if its only one I'm going with the Steinway!

 

Would be my choice too, with a very large room and a tech to keep it in bestest condition; also fitted with the latest midi or whatever too. Could also be a shelter from the storm. The soundboard could be cover from incoming. 'tis why it's called a Grand piano. smiley-happysmiley-wink

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I was fortunate enough to go to a school that had an old Steinway 9' grand. It was one of the first pianos that I learned on. I found a way to get into the auditorium when it was locked and would spend hours with that piano.

 

If I could have one of those magically appear then that would certainly be my choice.

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Congratulations! :cool2:

 

Did you get the 16 voice, or the 8 voice version?

 

I got the 8 voice version. I will definitely be getting the upgrade chip to 16 voice in the near future. Still, even with 8 voices, this thing is a beast.

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How many oscillators per voice does it have? And are they DCOs or VCOs?

 

 

It has two oscillators per voice and a sub oscillator. This can also be stacked (at a loss of polyphony) for some very thick and interesting mono leads and basses. The oscillators are DCO (most purists will undoubtedly prefer VCO); there are also two effects available per patch. I should point out that the reverb is absolutely outstanding. I'm hoping DSI will consider putting out a rackmount effects unit in the future as I would definitely be in the market for such a thing.

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A DSI effects unit definitely would be something that would grab my attention too. :)

 

As far as DCO vs VCO, I know there are a lot of people who prefer the later, but back in the 80s I thought DCO's were a godsend - I used to hate oscillator drift and unwanted tuning issues.

 

I don't worry too much about the purists - I just go with what I like the sound and features of. My most recent synth purchase is a modeling synth - it models the old Roland JX-3P from the early 80s that used DCOs. I have a review of it that will be running shortly, but the short version is that overall they did a pretty darned good job with it - at least sonically. There are a few other issues, but the sound is really, really close to the original.

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While I am primarily a guitarist, I dabble in keys. That said, I already kinda scored in this department.

 

A while back, the owner of Caribou Ranch was auctioning off some stuff. For you whippersnappers out there, Caribou was essentially the world's first destination/resort studio - at the dawn of the obscenely high recording budgets. Best of everything during recording's salad days.

 

AAR, I scored the house Hammond B3, Leslie 122RV and Leslie 145. These were there when the first album - Joe Walsh & Barnstorm was recorded when the studio opened in '71, and there the day in '85 when a control room fire shut the place down when Amy Grant was recording there. In the meantime, they appeared on records by Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Rick Derringer, Frank Zappa, Billy Joel, Supertramp, Elton John... the list goes on. You can hardly listen to a classic rock radio station for an afternoon without hearing one or more of 'em.

 

They'd been warehoused for three decades, so there was some maintenance in order, but they are now all kicking on all cylinders.

 

If I were to brass ring it again, I'd shoot for a Bosendorfer grand piano. As long as we're blue-skying it, make it a 290 Imperial with the full eight octave keybed. Need to find a place to put it, though. :)

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I would love to go back to 1987 and bring back my OB-Xa with MIDI. Sold it when I got off the road to help pay for school.

I cant see myself paying 8k for one. If anything ill end up getting an OB-6 desktop to add to the OB-6 keyboard and make it a 12 voice.

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