Members TIMKEYS Posted April 17, 2011 Members Share Posted April 17, 2011 How do you like it? Getting ready to buy another keyboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 18, 2011 Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 I have played one. I like it OK. What would like to know about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted April 18, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 I have played one. I like it OK. What would like to know about it? I am not really a techno whiz guy. I dont need a bunch of bells and whistles. I am playing a RD300sx now , love how simple it is to make it do the the few voices I need for a country/beach/older classic rock type band. My focus in on playing and not programming. Is it straight forward like the RD300 series boards. I basically need a back up board and really dont like the action on the RD300gx ,,,, its a tough too weighted for my tastes. I am down here in BF texas with not alot of keyboards in the music stores. I wanna know if its worth making a good sized drive to play one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 18, 2011 Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 OK. Well the Acoustic Piano sounds are very close to what you are used to, but maybe a tad closer to the Roland Fantom series. The electric pianos are pretty good. The board has good organ sounds, draw bars, and can do both lower and upper parts of the drawbars with the switch of a button. It has a pretty fair leslie emulation and a button to activate it. The organ will be a big improvement from your RD. I know you can layer organ and the other preset sounds together. I am not sure if you can layer the other sounds with each other but there are presets that already have layers built in (Piano/strings for example). There are some simple editing buttons (EQ and Reverb) on the front panel and some deeper editing functions in the menu if you so desire. The action is 76 key organ/semi-weighted action with waterfall keys. I found playing piano on it to be less than optimal and not as good as Clavia's Nord Electro 3 which has a bit heavier action but a different interface all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Strenge Posted April 18, 2011 Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 I haven't played it (or competitors) that much, just put in a bit o time in Sam Ash, but I liked the action on it. I don't care for the electro's action, but I'm sure I'd get used to it over time. I did not think the Roland's leslie was that great on it compared to the Nord and especially the (very expensive) hammond xkc. The organ sound was nice but the fast leslie just didn't sound good IMO. Two big pluses for the electro 3 for me would be: weight, or lack of it; and the ability to use all the sample libraries--though I don't have practical experience to how well that works. If it works well there are a ton of nice instruments to load into it based on the samples on their site...not sure when the new hammonds are out but they look to be similar to the electro 3 (albeit maybe without the sample libraries...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted April 18, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 OK. Well the Acoustic Piano sounds are very close to what you are used to, but maybe a tad closer to the Roland Fantom series. The electric pianos are pretty good. The board has good organ sounds, draw bars, and can do both lower and upper parts of the drawbars with the switch of a button. It has a pretty fair leslie emulation and a button to activate it. The organ will be a big improvement from your RD. I know you can layer organ and the other preset sounds together. I am not sure if you can layer the other sounds with each other but there are presets that already have layers built in (Piano/strings for example). There are some simple editing buttons (EQ and Reverb) on the front panel and some deeper editing functions in the menu if you so desire.The action is 76 key organ/semi-weighted action with waterfall keys. I found playing piano on it to be less than optimal and not as good as Clavia's Nord Electro 3 which has a bit heavier action but a different interface all together. Thanks ,,, I guess I will try to find one to play .. to behonest I dont use acoustic piano at all ,, my go go piano sound is rhodes. It just seems to work the best with my band. An acoustic piano competes for sonic space with our rhythm guitar. the rhodes just slided into the mix. On organ with my stage piano , i typically use organ 3 , its the percussion organ,, i use an accordian patch , and steel drums , thats pretty well it. I hate to just go buy a 300gx as a spare ,, would like somthing a little different. I like roland sounds,, so thats a pluss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 18, 2011 Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 Do you want draw bars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AnotherScott Posted April 18, 2011 Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 The action is 76 key organ/semi-weighted action with waterfall keys. I found playing piano on it to be less than optimal and not as good as Clavia's Nord Electro 3 which has a bit heavier action but a different interface all together. Just to point out that this is a very subjective area... although I think the E3 is a great instrument, I find its action for piano to be awful, and I think the VR-700 action, while obviously not optimal for piano (as no unweighted keyboard will be), is far better for piano than the E3 is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AnotherScott Posted April 18, 2011 Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 Well, the VR700 will give you the lighter-than-300gx action you want, and better organ. But if it's mostly going to be for organ, with just "emergency backup" use as a piano/rhodes, and you need just a handful of other sounds, there are some options that would be a lot easier to carry around than the rather big and heavy VR700. The aforementioned Electro 3 could be a good choice for that, as can the forthcoming Hammond SK1. I'm not sure whether they specifically have steel drum sounds, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dan88z Posted April 18, 2011 Members Share Posted April 18, 2011 Nord has some nice accordions in their sample library, but no steel drums. Though, you could take a steel drum sample and use their sample editor to convert it to their format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 19, 2011 Members Share Posted April 19, 2011 Yeah I don't know if any of the boards have steel drums on board. The VR may have GM sounds but I don't know. I guess you could sample them on the E3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted April 19, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 19, 2011 Do you want draw bars? Drawbars are nice ,, had them on a hammond I had in the house as a kid and had them on my old vox combo organ back in the day. Very nice to shape organ sounds on the fly. They are not a deal breaker though. Steel drums are , since I play in a band that does trop rock on the beach 4 nights a week. gots to have them. I do think the VR has them ,, down loaded the manual and looked it over. I need to stay with a single board rig , since we have a small stage issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted April 19, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 19, 2011 Well, the VR700 will give you the lighter-than-300gx action you want, and better organ. But if it's mostly going to be for organ, with just "emergency backup" use as a piano/rhodes, and you need just a handful of other sounds, there are some options that would be a lot easier to carry around than the rather big and heavy VR700. The aforementioned Electro 3 could be a good choice for that, as can the forthcoming Hammond SK1. I'm not sure whether they specifically have steel drum sounds, though. Weight isnt a big issue ,,, Its a steady house band gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 19, 2011 Members Share Posted April 19, 2011 Well if acoustic piano is not vital but rhodes and organ are, and steel drums onboard is a given, the VR-700 is a good combo and should be pretty user friendly. It is hard to fault the board and it will do a lot more than expected. Will you sell the RD-300sx? What keyboard stand do you use? Do you stand or sit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members livestagekid Posted April 23, 2011 Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 The biggest problem with the VR-700 is Nord do the Electro which offers great Piano and Organ sections and the Sample library, in a lighter and more compact keyboard. It's nice to have the physical drawbars and slightly bigger keyboard but everything else is better on the Nord in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AnotherScott Posted April 23, 2011 Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 It's nice to have the physical drawbars and slightly bigger keyboard but everything else is better on the Nord in my opinion. I don't know whether this matters to the OP, but the other thing that's better on the Roland is that you can split and layer sounds, which you can't do on the Nord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 23, 2011 Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 If it is your only board that would be a tremendous plus and a definite need for me. I do agree as a second board it is a bit bulky. as the main board with a proper VA on top yes I can see that one. The problem is many organ piano guys like to have quick access to both and also like them to be treated as separate instruments. It is being a purest kinda of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted April 23, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 If it is your only board that would be a tremendous plus and a definite need for me. I do agree as a second board it is a bit bulky. as the main board with a proper VA on top yes I can see that one. The problem is many organ piano guys like to have quick access to both and also like them to be treated as separate instruments. It is being a purest kinda of thing. I run a single board rig. I like things really simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 24, 2011 Members Share Posted April 24, 2011 Yes I like things as simple as possible. My rig is compact but more complex than I like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted April 24, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 24, 2011 Yes I like things as simple as possible. My rig is compact but more complex than I like. I think players fall into to two types , those who need alot of whiz bang sounds and those that just need traditional sounds in an easy to use board that doesnt require alot of programming and didding with to get the job done. The VR700 looks to be a pretty simple straight forward board for a guy like me. No doubt it has features that I will never use ,, just like the features I never use that are on the RD300sx. I basically just need a back up instrument for at home ,, and to be able to pull out and use if my gig board goes down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mate_stubb Posted April 24, 2011 Members Share Posted April 24, 2011 The new Hammond SK-1 looks like it will smoke this old thing. The organ sounds a hundred times better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 24, 2011 Members Share Posted April 24, 2011 I THINK IT WOULD BE A GREAT BOARD. Try it. if you like it sell the SX and Buy 2. Then you can do all sorts of cool anal stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 25, 2011 Members Share Posted April 25, 2011 Sell the SX. If you like the VR buy 2 of them. Then you will then have a true back-up, dual manual organ, lots of flexibility, you can save identical programs, and it will appeal to you anal behavior, which we all seem to have from time to time. Do it man.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -groovatious- Posted April 25, 2011 Members Share Posted April 25, 2011 Then you can do all sorts of cool anal stuff. Sounds like ass to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted April 25, 2011 Members Share Posted April 25, 2011 Kick Ass, maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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