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I guess I should explain what I want a little more...

 

I play piano, but do not have an acoustic piano in the house. I have 2 keyboards: an Alesis QS8, and an older Casio 76-key synth that I've had for about 4 years. The QS8 is too large and bulky to carry to most of the gigs I play (small, coffee-house gigs), and I have already had to cancel a gig once because I simply couldn't fit it in the space provided. The Casio is much smaller, and not nearly as bulky. However, it doesn't have any sounds that are really all that great. So, I would like some sort of in-between item, to put between the Casio synth, and my amp, that I can have different piano sounds, and I would like them to sound good. Piano, organ, and clavinova sounds are all I really need; I don't do strings, brass, percussion, etc.

 

Thanks!

-Brandon

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For piano, you could look at a used Emu proformance module. They're all over the place, and dirt cheap usually.

 

As for organ and clav, that's a tough call. You can find stuff that just does organ, just does piano, or does a whole ton of sounds. For some reason (with a few recent exceptions), they never package clav in there, and you rarely see a "piano/organ" module.

 

You could look at an Alesis nanopiano or nanosynth, which I think has QS sounds in it. Very conveniently sized as well.

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That Nord sounds to be exactly what I need, but it's pretty darned expensive. Still, maybe it's worth saving up for?

 

Does anyone know of some place where they sell them used? Or that Kurzweil 2CPR seemed pretty nice too, and a lot closer to my price range. Are there any sound samples anywhere that let the buyer know what they sound like?

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Originally posted by 88Fingers

That Nord sounds to be exactly what I need, but it's pretty darned expensive. Still, maybe it's worth saving up for?

 

Definately, but I hope the Casio will allow you to play it in expressive ways...

 

Anyway, check out an E-mu Vintage Pro module. Should contain quite a number of organs and EP's, and a clav. But pianos? I don't know.

 

The XV-2020 is another good suggestion. Its big brother contains a ton of sounds - it's an XV-5050. Also closer to your pricerange.

 

The E-mu Proformance would be on the dirt-cheap segment, I guess.

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Originally posted by DodgingRain

Do they make a QS rack? Then he could just dump his QS8 patches to it and use the casio. I have no idea though if they actually make a QS rack, not into that sort of synth.


Maybe motif rack with piano card or cs6x with piano card. Arent' there a ton of things that do the piano/organ sounds?

 

 

No, I don't believe a QS rack is made, and even if it was, I'd like to find some better sounds.

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Originally posted by 88Fingers

Is this the Performance Emu you're talking about guys??




Thanks!

 

 

Yeah that would be it.

 

I had a Proformance/1+ that I used for some time. I sold mine on ebay though.. for a lot more than I expected. The problem is with polyphony, it's only 16 notes polyphonic, and if you're using a sustain pedal, you're going to run out of notes very fast. This can even happen on keyboards/digital pianos with 32 notes polyphony, especially when you have stereo samples. The Proformance pretty much gained its popularity for usage in electronic and dance music. Ironically, it's not all the useful for actual performance; but a neat feature is you can daisy chain two of them together to double the polyphony, which is nice because for a module from around 1991, it really did sound good.

 

The Alesis Nanopiano is another cheap 1/2 rack piano module that is probably more useful out of the box.

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