Members thecrayonset Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 Noob-keyboardist / guitarist looking at this as a good all-rounder for a) home recording and b) also for gigging. Some reviews saying piano sound is weak - any thoughts?Any similiar keyboard at similiar price which might have stronger piano sounds? Band is indie pop /rock (rem / arcade fire ). Other key sounds (for playing live) would be organ, xylophone, elec. piano. Thanks Rocky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members evildragon Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 That is a MIDI controller, it doesn't have ANY sounds, apart from virtual analog synth engine inside. So don't expect realistic sounds, only synthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Yoozer Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 Some reviews saying piano sound is weak - any thoughts? A guitar has a weak trumpet sound; it's a matter of using the right tool for the right job. Any (virtual) analog synth is going to give you an imitation of a piano. Any similiar keyboard at similiar price which might have stronger piano sounds? Not with that load of sliders and knobs on it. If you don't need them but just the sounds, a Yamaha MM6 might do the job - if that's too expensive, you'll have to see if you can get lucky with a Casio WK or Yamaha PSR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xmlguy Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 That is a MIDI controller, it doesn't have ANY sounds, apart from virtual analog synth engine inside. So don't expect realistic sounds, only synthy. On the contrary, it has 9 sampled waves beyond the basic waves and noise: 8 ORGAN9 HARPSICRD10 ELECPIANO11 SLAP BASS12 RHODPIANO13 RHOD TINE14 WHURLY EP15 CLAVINET16 ANA BASS That's not as much as the DWGS/PCM waves on the R3/Radias, but it's better than nothing. There's no acoustic piano, only electric pianos, and nothing multisampled of course. Regardless, it gives greater depth to the engine to have these sampled waves, unlike some other VA synths like the Ion/Micron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thecrayonset Posted January 13, 2009 Author Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 thanks all - particularly to xml dude. Pity on the acoustic piano sound front - it seems like a strange omition (to this noob)? so I guess back to the original Q - is there something similiar to the Novation X-1 (i.e price c. $500, midi controller / synth) with a nice acoustic piano sound?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pogo97 Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 The x-station is a great general purpose controller and audio interface with a pretty decent synth as a bonus; I'm quite happy with mine. You could easily add a piano module to it if you need a little piano. If piano is your dominant instrument, though, you'd likely be better off looking for a stage piano with midi out; the touch will be more piano-like and it should have a decent piano sound. 61 keys is pretty marginal for piano playing. The omission of a piano sound isn't actually strange. Synthesizers don't make piano sounds; for that you need a sampler or rompler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jez Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 thanks all - particularly to xml dude. Pity on the acoustic piano sound front - it seems like a strange omition (to this noob)? so I guess back to the original Q - is there something similiar to the Novation X-1 (i.e price c. $500, midi controller / synth) with a nice acoustic piano sound?? If there's anything brand-new in the And before anyone bitches that they're hard to use, they're not If uneducated white trash like me can figure it out in 15 minutes in the music shop, anyone can! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pr3Va1L Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 On the contrary, it has 9 sampled waves beyond the basic waves and noise:8 ORGAN9 HARPSICRD10 ELECPIANO11 SLAP BASS12 RHODPIANO13 RHOD TINE14 WHURLY EP15 CLAVINET16 ANA BASSThat's not as much as the DWGS/PCM waves on the R3/Radias, but it's better than nothing. There's no acoustic piano, only electric pianos, and nothing multisampled of course. Regardless, it gives greater depth to the engine to have these sampled waves, unlike some other VA synths like the Ion/Micron. Not only that, it also has some single-trigger enveloppes (LFO) you can use.. Including one to do piano. I haven't been able (nor have I tryed) to do a realistic piano sound, but my EP sounds are pretty good, and if they'd been intelligent and added an "organ speaker sim" in the already big effects section, this thing could have done organ very well, too (Maybe if you add a Leslie sim stompbox...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Karma1 Posted January 14, 2009 Members Share Posted January 14, 2009 I have an X Station 49 and it has some really excellent electric piano sounds. I recently did a recording session at my studio with new age music pioneer Steven Halpern who was famous for his Fender Rhodes sounds back in the 80's, and he was very impressed with the electric piano sounds on the Novation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Diametro Posted January 15, 2009 Members Share Posted January 15, 2009 You can find Alesis Fusion 61 for that price ... a nice board with a quite good piano sound ... head and shoulders above anything like a MM6 or Korg X50, imo ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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