Members keyskid Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 Hi, My church is considering on getting a synthesizer, it'll be mainly used for live church services, but also recording from time to time. With the budget, I think can only choose between Korg TR, Yamaha MO6, Roland Juno-G, Roland Fantom Xa... From some of the review online, comparing the natural/acoustic sounds, Yamaha might be better and more realistic, but Korg TR is good for synth and brass sound, and personally, i'm quite impressed by the after-sense key of Korg TR. Can anybody give me more technical and detail advice on comparing the them? or would you have any other better suggestion which is at similar price range? I need some of these voices to be at least acceptably realistic as compare among each other choices of brand: piano, drawbar organ, section brass, string(including solo violin to orchestra strings), woodwinds(flute, sax, ...), And besides, are any of them hard to operate(at least for changing the voice in live)? because it'll probably be used by musician's from youngsters to adult of 30's 40's... and may i know roughly how much will each of these keyboard cost? and how long are they in the market already? because i heard that normally these vendor release new products every 4-5 years. thank you =) regards,cornelius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cygnus64 Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 Can anybody give me more technical and detail advice on comparing the them? Nope. You seem to have it under control already, and have figured out that all three are basically variations on the same theme and have their certain characteristics. All ya gotta do is pick the one YOU think sounds the best. string(including solo violin to orchestra strings), None of them will have a decent solo violin. For strings, I find the Yamaha string sound much weaker than the other 2. and how long are they in the market already? because i heard that normally these vendor release new products every 4-5 years. They have been around awhile, but they are still very modern and nothing is going to take their place anytime soon. Maybe next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jez Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 It doesn't matter how long something's been on the market. Just because someone updates their product doesn't mean the one you have automatically becomes {censored} If it does the job now, it'll do it just as well 20 years from now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 Here's my standard answer to this question. Boring but here goes... These are budget boards. For the same money you could get a used Yamaha Motif ES6 or Triton Extreme. Recently discontinued pro boards with similar sounds but with much better build quality. I'm not sure where the prices are right now but they should be well under $1000 on eBay and cheaper if you have an active local craigslist. Both boards are easy to make program changes on live. The Triton gives you smooth seamless program changes without doing anything fancy (something very important to me when I'm doing P&W) but the Motif will too if you put everything in a Mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 I have an MO6 that I am thinking about selling. It is in near mint condition with original box, manuals, etc., only used at home and kept covered with a keyboard cover when not used. I upgraded to an XS6 and was going to give the MO6 to my oldest son, but he is more interested in learning to program my Ion. So the MO6 has been sitting in the box for a while waiting for me to decide whether to send it to Ebay. I really do agree, however, with mrcpro that in your price range it would be a very good idea to consider a used top-of-the-line board from the last product iteration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bgi Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 Listen to mrcpro. Not boring! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members theextremist04 Posted February 26, 2008 Members Share Posted February 26, 2008 With a little elbow grease I managed to get great acoustic sounds out of my fusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members keyskid Posted February 28, 2008 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 Nope. You seem to have it under control already, and have figured out that all three are basically variations on the same theme and have their certain characteristics. All ya gotta do is pick the one YOU think sounds the best. i downloaded the demo's of all three of models... TR did not have demo track which give show me that it have the brass i want. (such as when u hold the key, the section brass will go softer but come back loud again, if accent on the key, it'll be loud)... or is it something any workstation can do with tweaking the decay or attack? can the three models do it? btw, how will you rate the sound below for three of them in terms of the presets they have before needing to tweak anything? (myb just which one is 1st choice, then 2nd and 3rd):1. Acoustic piano2. B3/drawbar organ3. Strings (Solo of Section)4. Brass5. Warm Pad (just to hold on the keys to provide backup during quietness in a song)6. Woodwind (Sax, Flute, Oboe)7. Guitars (nylon, acoustic strumming/plucking, electric guitars)8. Bass (Fingered bass, and slap bass)9. Synth sound. in terms of using it in church which play the songs mostly from hillsongs and integrity music, or planet shakers, may i know the comparison of which one might be more suitable. and which one might be more userfriendly to use... such as easy to change sound during live event. we know that triton extreme is good, but it's not easy to find one near my place...and for the mobility, it might be a little bit too heavy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members keyskid Posted February 28, 2008 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 With a little elbow grease I managed to get great acoustic sounds out of my fusion. get great as in Korg TR, Yamaha MO6, or Roland Juno-G? =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted February 28, 2008 Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 possibly better ... while flawed, the Fusion does have the capability to go way beyond these boards ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members keyskid Posted February 28, 2008 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 possibly better ... while flawed, the Fusion does have the capability to go way beyond these boards ... Fusion as in Alesis Fusion or what? haha =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members midi Posted February 28, 2008 Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 Stay away from the Juno - go w the MO6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted February 28, 2008 Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 Fusion as in Alesis Fusion or what? haha =) Si, senor ... Do some research on it ... You may be able to snag an awesome deal on one ... It's definitely a board for the more adventurous type and its certainly not without its adherents ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cygnus64 Posted February 28, 2008 Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 btw, how will you rate the sound below for three of them in terms of the presets they have before needing to tweak anything? (myb just which one is 1st choice, then 2nd and 3rd): 1. Acoustic piano 2. B3/drawbar organ 3. Strings (Solo of Section) 4. Brass 5. Warm Pad (just to hold on the keys to provide backup during quietness in a song) 6. Woodwind (Sax, Flute, Oboe) 7. Guitars (nylon, acoustic strumming/plucking, electric guitars) 8. Bass (Fingered bass, and slap bass) 9. Synth sound. Thats like asking if Blondes are hotter than Brunettes. The sounds are entirely up to you, and only you can judge them. I can say that the TR doesnt have a particularly good piano sound. I personally prefer Yamaha, but if I went down your list and really thought about it, it would probably end up a tie. I dont know the JunoG well enough to compare it, I tried it and thought it was very nice. If I was choosing from the 3, I would go with M06 strictly because I like Yamaha sounds as a whole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted February 28, 2008 Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 Keyskid, these are very common boards that are in just about any Guitar Center. I don't know where you live, but if you can drive to your local GC and try them out. Even if it's somewhat of a drive. If I really had to choose between the three you are interested in, for your (and mine) application it would be the Yamaha. But if you want to get into editing or creating your own sounds, then the Juno is on top because it's much easier to figure out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members smaltonian Posted February 28, 2008 Members Share Posted February 28, 2008 Here's my standard answer to this question. Boring but here goes...These are budget boards. For the same money you could get a used Yamaha Motif ES6 or Triton Extreme. Recently discontinued pro boards with similar sounds but with much better build quality. I'm not sure where the prices are right now but they should be well under $1000 on eBay and cheaper if you have an active local craigslist. Both boards are easy to make program changes on live. The Triton gives you smooth seamless program changes without doing anything fancy (something very important to me when I'm doing P&W) but the Motif will too if you put everything in a Mix. I have to concur... I "shopped' for 2 months in $1000 range and was quite dissatisfied with all the budget boards you mentioned.... I finally found a "used" TRITON EXTREME 76 key at GUITAR CENTER for $900... This board blows all the others TR-61, MMO 6 & Juno G (which felt toyish to me) away Shop around it's half the fun... But like the man said you can get a PRO "used' board for the same $$$$$$$$ Steve Altonian http://www.soundclick.com/stevealtonian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members keyskid Posted February 29, 2008 Author Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 Stay away from the Juno - go w the MO6. May I know what's wrong with Juno-G? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xmlguy Posted February 29, 2008 Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 .With the budget, I think can only choose between Korg TR, Yamaha MO6, Roland Juno-G, Roland Fantom Xa... Seems like everyone missed the recording aspect of his requirements. Only the Juno-G has a 4 stereo track audio recorder on board. If the church doesn't already have digital recording gear, that would be the essential feature to push the Juno-G well ahead of the rest. It's also expandable to enough recording time to be useful. They all sound good in general, however the Juno-G can expand its ROM with an SRX board (as well as the Xa). The TR can add sampling with the EXB-SMPL board, but that doesn't make it a multitrack recorder. The MO6 lacks audio recording (or any audio input), sampling, or expansion, but has good built-in sounds. If the church is separately budgeting for recording equipment, it might be better to combine the budget to get the new Fantom-G, the Motif XS, or the Korg M3 to get the higher end synth engines along with their audio recording/mastering capability. I agree with the other replys that checking out the used market is a good idea too. A lightly used Fantom X6, Triton EX, or XS6/7 might be available to get more features at a reasonable price vs. new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xmlguy Posted February 29, 2008 Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 May I know what's wrong with Juno-G? Take a listen to a demo of the Roland SRX boards, particularly the SRX-07 and SRX-11: Roland SRX Demos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cygnus64 Posted February 29, 2008 Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 Seems like everyone missed the recording aspect of his requirements. I didnt read it that way. My take was that he would be using it to play live, and as an instrument in a recording, not the actual mechanism to record with. Since the OP seems to have done his homework, I bet he knows this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xmlguy Posted February 29, 2008 Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 I would also recommend the PSR-S900 because it has audio recording (simple stereo to USB) and the sounds of the voices that it inherited from the Tyros 2 are superior, including custom drawbar organ designer. It may be a bit out of your price range, however, at around $1,599. The SuperArticulation trumpet, sax, guitars and bass simply have to be heard to be believed. They are superior to anything else I've heard, except for the Tyros 2. At least give a listen to the demos on the Yamaha site. The arranger features, while not popular in this forum of professional keyboardists, may be very popular for the range of players you indicate. The S900 also has a vocal harmonizer, with pitch correction, to "help" some vocalists who may have more enthusiasm than talent. The PSR-S700 is cheaper at $999, but loses the Super Articulation voices as well as the harmonizer vs. the S900. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xmlguy Posted February 29, 2008 Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 I didnt read it that way. My take was that he would be using it to play live, and as an instrument in a recording, not the actual mechanism to record with. Since the OP seems to have done his homework, I bet he knows this. Could be, but most churches don't have recording studios. Usually have some ancient analog recording gear with no editing. Churches with recording studios probably wouldn't be looking for synths under $1 grand. But your guess is as good as mine until the OP replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bgi Posted February 29, 2008 Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 IMHO If he intended the synth to be the recording studio, that would have been laid out more clearly in the original post. I'd bet he didn't know about the recording capabilities of the G and Alesis. If he did, he'd know the rolands and yammers can't do that. Anywhoo, a good used ES or a MO6 would be my pick over the boards mentioned for the sounds. The MO organs are very nice with the sliders acting like drawbars and they also have a good assortment of the incredible "sweet" voices, guitars (nylon and 12-string are great), etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xmlguy Posted February 29, 2008 Members Share Posted February 29, 2008 IMHO If he intended the synth to be the recording studio, that would have been laid out more clearly in the original post. I'd bet he didn't know about the recording capabilities of the G and Alesis. If he did, he'd know the rolands and yammers can't do that. Anywhoo, a good used ES or a MO6 would be my pick over the boards mentioned for the sounds. The MO organs are very nice with the sliders acting like drawbars and they also have a good assortment of the incredible "sweet" voices, guitars (nylon and 12-string are great), etc. The PSR-S900 has the Sweet! (and Live! & Cool!) voices too, and if you think those are incredible, then you'll really like the Super Articulation voices, which are better. The S900 also has a full drawbar designer. The MO6 would be a good choice. The S900 may be a better choice, or perhaps a used XS6 or Tyros 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.