keyboard of choice?

[ericcsong]

right now, leaning towards the yamaha s90 es. anyone use one of these?

[danove]

I did some extensive research on available keyboards/Stagepianos a year ago before I decided for the RD300SX. Among the few that passed sound requirements, it was the one with the best sensitivity at the keys.
It is also lightweight (but you will need a pair of good powerfull active speakers to use it in stereo).

I went through many reviews before trying out. Most reviews highly praised the 300SX, but a few did not. So I'll quote the one most annoyed with it, in case you haven't seen it. (Unfortunately I have lost the source, but hope nobody will sue me for it)

**************
"..If you split the keyboard into two and play bass in the left hand, the bass gets sustained along with the right hand which is very frustrating
Why is it i can spend under 500 euro for a simple Yamaha keyboard that alllows me to play bass, piano and strings at the same time but not on a stage piano at twice the price? It works on the RD-700 SX but not on the 300. The bass is still terrible though. no expansion, no sequencer, no arpeggiator, no internal power supply. Supposed to be a MIDI controller, but the joystick is useless and there's no aftertouch. Tthe non-grand piano sounds are not really improved, the keys are lighter but feel funny. No facility to store midi files, as you can on the 700SX. The sustain is better than on the original RD700, but still not as long as on an acoustic piano. The electric pianos are not nearly as good as those on Roland's expansion cards or other people's romplers. The Wurlizer in particular sucks. There's no CP80 electric grand at all, even though the RD700SX has one. Instead, there's some synthy sustained sound in the electric piano bank, and yet another useless DX7 replica. Thanks a lot. B3-type organs are OK--not as good as a dedicated clone, of course, but not even as good as a good rompler. Church organs are not very good, and there's no Vox or Farfisa at all. I'd give the piano a 10 and the rest a 2, so I average that out to 6. Unfortunately, no aftertouch, but what 88-note weighted board has it? The featured piano is just, without question, the ****! Pianos are all excellent w/ the exception of that same ****ing honky-tonk piano. The organs are for ****! I don't know why they even bothered putting this dimestore Casio noise on here. Why no mid knob? When switching between presets sustained notes hold on until you let go of the pedal. Cool. When switching between Setups they cut your **** nose off. When layering tones in a setup, and switching between two setups, the RD-300SX confuses the zones in regards to the fader levels. Every time you switch, it plays zone number one at full volume, regardless of the fader settings, really annoying when you want to start the song with a clavinet and end up with the flute solo voice that doesn't come in 'til measure 84, even though the fader for zone two is maxed and zone one is not even on.

"What the hell is wrong with Roland staff???? I have a SR-JV Session in my XP-80 and the piano sound (XPA:002, i.e.) is SO much better than any piano in this RD-700, I think they're getting really lazy, I was expecting that a keyboard that came out in 2001 had some amazing evolution in the sounds, but instead... All sounds are crappy compared to my old XP-80 with a Session expansion board. They don't sound realistic at all... No evolution"

************
Anyway, I got it and use it in studio production as a controller of an XV-5080, and occasionally it goes on stage for a good piano sound.

/Dan-Ove

[roadking]

Originally Posted by ericcsong

right now, leaning towards the yamaha s90 es. anyone use one of these?

My wife is the keyboard player in our house. We have a Kurzweill digital baby grand. After a fair amount of research and in-store tryouts/demos, the S90 ES is the one she's hoping for.

[Bevelman]

I bought a Yamaha P120 which I quite like the sound of. The thing I've found though, is that the action is a little too heavy for my liking. Quite the opposite for the Yamaha pianos that I've played. I got a gigbag and stand for it as well and I've gigged with it a couple of times.

[EnFuego]

heres a clip of somebody from Korg giving a Demo on the Korg Triton Extreme 76 (also comes in an 88):

http://www.gearwire.com/media/korg-triton-extreme.mov

[Alan Porton]

Hi Eric,

In addition to playing piano/ keyboard professionally, I also play keys at church in a P & W band. I used to own a Kurzweil PC2r rack synth & Korg CX-3 (B3 organ clone). I currently have a Yamaha S90 at home & play on a Roland RD-700 at church in addition to a software B3 program via laptop & played on an M-Audio MIDI controller. We also have a Yamaha grand piano.

Between these major name brand sample player synths (Kurzweil, Roland, Yamaha, & Korg), you'll find certain sounds (voices) you may like better than others. Not that one's better than the other......only different flavors. Yamaha has the best piano voice reproductions, Kurzweil has the most realistic sound voices overall (yet many voices sound thin & compressed) Yamaha, Roland & Korg have some of the strongest synth voices (strings, horns, pads, etc.). Incidentally; if you're looking to recreate exact synth sounds from contemporary Praise & Worship recordings......your best bet would be to go with a Roland.
None of these sample synth boards faithfully emulate a Hammond B3. That's one reason our church decided to utilize a laptop and buy this:
http://www.native-instruments.com/in...f354fa&flash=9

I was quite a bit skeptical about using this "B3 in a box" until I actually heard how great this sounds! The Roland RD-700 organ voices sound like a toy in comparrison!

You didn't mention whether you have an acoustic piano in addition to the synth, or if the synth's duty will have to cover for an acoustic piano?
If the synth will be for "everything"......I'd probably purchase the Yamaha S90ES.

Please feel free to email me if you have other questions or comments you'd like to discuss.


[email protected]

[Charlies3]

Although I spend more time and energy on guitar forums, I'm a keyboardist first. Last year I wanted to upgrade my keyboard and tried everything I could get my hands on Roland RD 300/700Sx, Yamaha CP300, P120, Clavia Nord 88, Korg SP250, Kurzweill SP88, PC1, Casio PX310. Each had it's strength's either in terms of size/weight, cost, sound , feel, programability. In the end, I wound up with the Kawai MP4. This is a seriously undermarketed yet overperforming machine. Kawai is a big player in the acoustic piano market but their presence in electronic keys is much smaller than Roland, Korg, Yamaha. As such I found their offering suited my needs very well. I wanted a board which covered the basic sounds great (piano, elec piano, organ). I have little or no need for fancy space sounds. The action on the Kawai was, to my touch, the most pianistic of all. This too was a big consideration for me after coming off a semi-weighted board. The other problem with Kawai is there aren't as many dealers so it's hard to find one to try out. I wound up gretting mine from Kraft music, great people to deal with..

Charlie