Looking for power, but not a workstation

Hi all!

I'm looking to buy a new live keyboard. Sick and tired of carrying with me several keyboards that weigh too much. I want something with really great sounds, but not an entire built in studio. Ie, not a workstation per se.

It seems to me though that the best sounds available out there can be fins in the workstations.

Here's what I want:

+ 61 keys (73 tops)

+ GREAT sounds. I mean state of the art.

+ Some kind of drawbars that work well with organ sounds.

+ Well suited for live performance. I want to press ONE button (or pedal!) to immediately jump to the next sound in the song.

Here's what I don't want

- A built in studio

- Millions of parameters that I'm not very likely to use.

Preferably not more than $4000

Thanks in advance!

Well, at least the budget isn't 200 .

Tell us a bit more. What are the features that you most likely don't use, especially synth engine wise, on the other hand what do you need? Do you want more of a rompler, VA or analogue? Combo? What type of music you play and what kind of sounds you need?

Just for general idea, you probably want some kind of "performance controller":

Nord Stage

Kurzweil PC3

Korg SV-1

Korg M50 (maybe)

Roland Juno-G, Juno Stage, Juno Di (IMO, MEH)

Roland Jupiter-80

Yamaha Motif XS (well, not sure if this counts, not sure about PC3 either)

Or something along those lines. IMO it may not be wise to go against workstations if they have the features you need. Often these boards are pretty much taken from the workstations anyway. For example Kronos may not be so bad of a choice, though of course you can save by buying something cheaper. It's light anyway...

WOW, what a budget!!!

First Korg is the company that uses 73 keys the most. Nord is the only other company, that I know of, that uses that amount also.

OK back to point here are a few choices in your ball park.

Korg Kronos, yes it is complexed but it is worth it.

Roland JP-80 physical modeling will give you great sounds but this board will be an acquired taste both sound wise and in the appearance department. Very much a gamble at this time.

Nord Stage Compact, good acoustic pianos, great organ and electric pianos, and a decent amount of sounds, good VIRTUAL analog synth onboard but somewhat limiting in the amount of sounds, and would be limiting as an only keyboard.

The thing about a workstation is, you can ignore the workstation features, and use it just as a playing keyboard If you are willing to do that, the Korg Kronos is a contender. You have the drawbards, and the Live Set feature lets you group all the sounds you are going to use live together, so that with one touch on the touchscreen you switch from one sound to another - and you do that seamlessly, without losing the tail of the sound, and without cutting off the effects from one sound to the next. Real cool, I think.

If having features such as a sequencer that you don't use would bother you, I think the Nord Stage is the only game in town. If it has all the sounds you need, it will do them very well and you will probably be very happy with its simplicity and sound quality.

Get the Kronos it will be worth it. Now 61 unweighted or 73 weighted?

I agree with the folks that say a Kronos is a strongest contender... just ignore the features you don't care about. Other multi-function keyboards with drawbar-level organ control would be Kurzweil (PC361 comes closest to your specs... and also includes a whole lot of workstation functions for you to ignore... and I'm not sure about its quick patch change capabilities), Roland VR-700 (but 76 keys, and generally not sounds that would be called state of the art), Hammond SK-1 (supposedly starting to ship this week), Nord Stage 2 Compact. That's really your entire short list. (You could also almost include Nord Electro 3, but since the Stage 2 is in budget, it's a much better choice in terms of quick patch change, and being able to play more than one sound at a time, as well as some other features, some you may care about, along with a bunch you won't). Don't ignore comparing the feel of the keys, too, in terms of finding the board you will most enjoy playing.

Sounds like the Jupiter-80 to me ... Kronos could be a contender ... But I think the Jupiter-80's raison d'etre is sound, perfgormance and simplicity ...

Personally, without hearing either first -- sound being key here -- I would lean towards the Kronos myself (I like a full-featured-and-then-some workstation) ... but Kronos is going to have many features you don't need cluttering up the UI ... (You can't have everything at once ... )

Forgot about the Kurzweil PC361. Great board and has been marked down to $1,500 US, a great price without sacrifice. What else do you need? Are selling anything? Need an amp, stand, pedals, so forth?

Don't be afraid of the sequencer in the Kronos. You don't have to use the sequencer and the board sounds wonderful.

Nord Stage 2 73 compact is another option if you want synth action (or you can get the regular 73 for hammer action). They are pricey but you did say $4000 and they are under that, though not by much.

Smells like someone should check out the Jupiter-80.

edit: oh wait.. you want 61 keys..

Thanks for all your input!

The music I'll be playing mostly is modern pop/rock/hardrock. I'm mainly looking for a rompler I suppose, but a decent VA engine is always nice. I'm not very good at synthesis though, I'm more of a piano/organ player.

Today I have a Korg SV-1 (which I like) and an old Korg X50 (which I don't like, but I got it crazy cheap).

I would like to have somehting that is not too heavy, so I guess weighted keys are out of the question (even though I prefer playing on those). And I just want ONE keyboard in my rig. If Rudess can survive with just a ONE set of keys...

Accessing new sounds fast is a must. This will be a live performace keyboard only. The Kronos solution sounds nice. Though I thought the Kronos was in the $8000 range? Is it even released yet?

I do not need any accessories, such as pedals or stands. I got that covered.

The Nord Stage 2 seems like a strong contender. I like having everything up front. I'll have to check it out some more.

Always dreamed of having something that says "Hammond" and the SK-1 seems cool. But I'll be missing out on "synth" sounds there I guess.

The Jupiter-80 seems to mostly handle synth sounds, or am I wrong?

Tried the Korg M50 and it just wasn't up to par soundwise

The problem is these modern workstations do so much stuff that I don't even know about. The thing I definitely don't want is the ability to record stuff. I don't mind if it can work as a VST with my computer though. i don't want a messy UI. I am very old fashioned that way...

Kronos 73. It's not too heavy for having weighted keys!

OASYS was in $8000 range. Kronos is $3000-$4000 range. And it's in some ways better than OASYS (seamless sound transition, for example).

Many of those don't have drawbar-level organ control. I'm not sure about the Jupiter 80, but that at least eliminates the SV1, M50, and all three Roland Junos. It pretty much eliminates the Motif as well, though there are some slightly kludgey ways to simulate clonewheel functionality. Even then, it's not the best sounding organ, and you can't fully simulate 9 drawbars with 8 faders.

45 pounds. (Only 6 pounds lighter than the 88, btw.)

The lightest possibility with weighted keys would be the 76-key version of the Nord Stage 2, which is just 38 pounds. Though having a single action for both piano and organ playing is always limiting. Two boards also means that if one keyboard develops a problem (failure, it gets dropped or something gets dropped on it, someone spills something into it, whatever), you can still get through the gig on the other.

Since light weight is an issue, you could do something like a 61-key Kronos or PC361 and put a 24 pound weighted-88-key Casio PX-3 underneath it (using it as nothing but a controller) and still be under budget. (Or even cheaper for the 88 and almost as light, a Yamaha P95, Korg SP170, or other Casio... the PX-3 has the virtues of being lightest and having some extra nice MIDI controller functions of its own, as well as more sounds in case you actually did want to use it for anything other than controlling the Kronos). The Stage 2 as a top board would also work... it would put you a bit over the $4,000 line, but not by much.

Nord Stage 2 HA76 or if you want a lighter action, the SW73.

Organ, vintage keys, pianos, samples, synth, one board.

If I had that money to play with I would go for a Solaris.

Nord Stage 76: 16,5 kg (36lb) - hammer-action keys

Nord Stage Compact: 9,7 kg (21lb) - 73 shorter semi-weighted keys

Nord Stage 2 would cover your needs nicely.

+1 vote for NORD. I grabbed a Nord Stage (classic, 73) years ago when I was under the same constraints. It's performed awesome for me over the years. I was so tired of the workstations and do-it-all boards. In doing-too-much, they did very little for user friendliness and outright fun factor. The Nord has been a godsend.

Hell yeah, especially if the guy already has an SV-1. Though that would make a 2 keyboard rig. A pretty bad ass one!

Given his criteria, I'd go Kronos personally and just ignore the sequencer.

Nord Stages are great, but people seem to forget the Roland VR series, which Nord ripped off, concept-wise. Their newest one is the VR-700 and has real drawbars (76 keys tho'):

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=1063&ParentId=80

I mentioned that earlier in the thread, and I've had another chance to play it since then. Out of all the "drawbar organ and piano" boards out there, if I had to play both sounds from the one action, this might well be the board I would pick. I haven't played the Hammond SK series, but the VR700 action is very nice for organ, and yet also surprisingly decent for a non-weighted action for piano. If you must play piano from you organ action keyboard, the VR-700 feels better than any of the Nords or Kurzweils, IMO (or Kronos, for that matter). You can argue about how close to "state of the art" the sounds are, but the organ and piano sounds are definitely good enough to gig with (though I didn't get a chance to listen to the EPs or its left hand bass setups). I'm still put off by the heft of it and the fact that you can't pan different sounds to different outputs, and its MIDI controller functionality is more limited than I'd like (i.e. no aftertouch, and you can't store presets that include program change commands for attached devices, as you can on many other roland boards as well as the competing Kurzweils, Korg, and some Nord)... but for a decent sounding, decent feeling piano and drawbar organ, I'd seriously consider this.

If you are looking for a Kronos, check this out:

http://www.proaudiostar.com/korg-kronos-61-synthesizer-workstation-61-key.html?gclid=CJWGtN22kqoCFQSt7QoddTcSwA

It's where I bought my brand new Ultranova for $500. Seems if you call them they will give you a far better price.

I still like the specs on the Solaris better - 4 OSCs, 4 LFOs, etc.

So I wonder Taragalinas what you bought (if anything)?