Keyboard players: any Synth/Workstation suggestions?

Discussion
1

Hey there folks, I’m in the market for a keyboard and thought perhaps my fellow prongers might have some suggestions.

Basically I’m looking for a digital workstation with some decent synthesis capabilities (so one can create their own sounds rather than just relying on presets. Something with a sequencer and possibly an arpeggiator. A board that’s intuitive and songwriter friendly. And lastly something relatively small, 61 keys or less. I’m looking to spend around $600 or under.

Any ideas? I was thinking about maybe trying to find a used Korg Triton. I remember playing on one of those old 90’s roland workstations and found them kind of sterile.

Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks!

2

looks like you can get a cheapy [url http://www.backstageauctions.com/catalog/1030-ministry-al-jourgensen-tour-album-used-a-30-roland-keyboard1/ai/0/11085/]here or [url http://www.backstageauctions.com/catalog/1031-ministry-al-jourgensen-tour-album-used-a-30-roland-keyboard2/ai/0/11086/] here

hell you could get both and come in on budget!
Late,
grmpysmrf

3

I’m a little old school, but I have played a lot of synths. My favorite are (each will run you $350 or less)

Kurzeil k2000-any workstation from this line is nice. The newer, the better. The one I have is from the early 90s, but it is a workstation with a built in sampler, sequencer and effect presets. Great sounds, especially for acoustic type sounds, strings, pads and moogs. The MIDI is set up very nicely. It interacts well with digital studios.

The Yamaha DX7 has cheesy and dated presets, but many are classics. However, it is easy to use and the synthesizing has many palates. A great pick for strange and unique sounds.

The MicroKorg is great for arpeggiators. Lots of modern sounds and sequences. Its very affordable and the built in vocoder is cool.

4

Wish I could help! I’m hopeless.

I’ve got a Korg 01/W and that’s awesome, even though it’s nearly 20 years old now. Still have fun with it.

I remember someone here gave me some great advice with that… who was that again? My memory is shot to shit, hardly have time to post these days :frowning:

5

Thanks for the suggestions folks.

@grmpysmrf - While those would be cool to have since they were owned by Ministry during the good years, they are basically midi-controller keyboards and not what I’m looking for.

@realmdemagic - Hmmm… I’ll have to check out those Kurzeils. I know Kurzeils are famous for having good sound and good sequencers, but how are the synth sounds? I’ve always wanted to grab a Yamaha DX7 due to how legendary they are, but some people have told me they are actually very hard to program. (I know you said they are easy… wish I could try one out). As for the MicroKorg it seems to have some very cool functions but also seems to be one of those keyboards that any jackass off the street can press down a key, turn a knob and come out with a lame techno song. I suppose a lot of it is in the way one uses it.

@evil dildo - Hmmm, KORG 01/W looks pretty cool and has some good reviews. I hear people say that Korgs don’t have the best realistic sounds but I’m not really looking for too many of those, and I rather like the Korg digital synth sound. I’ll keep this one in mind.

Thanks for the suggestions, damn I really wish I could try some of the older boards in person.

6

I highly recommend the KORG Triton series (I have the Triton Extreme), or any of their workstations (the M1 is a classic, as is the O1W). Check out this site for some help, you can click on any of the brand links on the left and browse all of their synths.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/

Stick with KORG, Yamaha, Emu Systems, Kurzweil, and Roland for good ‘all-in-one’ workstation solutions. Most, if not all of the synths on this site are out of production, but for the price range you’re looking at, you’ll most likely have to buy used to get what you want. The great thing about this site is they list current used market value on the product pages, which can be very helpful when you’re poking around eBay or Craigslist.

I love the Triton Extreme, it’s served me well for four years, and I’m producing all of the main melodies and rhythms on this album I’m finishing. It’s loaded with killer presets, but also has powerful editing capabilities, and a very user-friendly sequencer. One cool feature is the in-track sampling, which enables you to record vocals and guitars directly into the synth (albeit in 3-minute increments). I used that feature a lot when recording demos last year (the “I Prefer” cover I posted here was recorded and mixed entirely on the Triton). I now have a decent stand-alone multi-track recorder, so I rarely use it, but it comes in handy for adding accompanying guitar tracks (or even back-up vocals) to sequences for live performances. Oh, and the Triton series boasts excellent arpeggiators.

One synth that comes to mind (and might well be within your budget) is the KARMA, which is known for its ARP editors. It also carries the Triton synth engine, though it has a smaller aresenal of sounds compared to the actual Tritons. Still, it’s a very good synth, and those market prices seem kinda high on their site, I’ve seen them used for under $1000 online:

http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/karma.php

Hope this helps.

1002

7

The Kurzweil synth sounds are quite good. You can also use the effects (choruses, reverbs, etc) on the patches themselves. The units are designed to add to, so there are several libraries available you can add to the factory sounds.

The algorithm editing doesn’t get as exotic as the DX7, but the kurzweil can push out some very powerful sounds.

I agree on your thoughts about the microkorg, but it does have a lot of classic sounds, and can be quite awesome if you know your way around a synth. Most newbies aren’t as creative and therefore it just sounds “typical” to the casual listener.

8

…about the DX-7

I found out a few years ago that I’m not really the synth-collecting type. For some silly reason, I always wanted to have in my possession, my ‘dream team’ of digital synths - KORG M1, Roland D-50, and the Yamaha DX-7. I finally scored a DX-7 II FD, mint condition, back in '05. This board looked brand new, it was incredible, and the crystal-clear sound of the presets has to be heard to be believed…the DX-7 is truly a great sounding synth. Now, as for the sounds themselves, it’s all barebones pianos, bells, synths, and some percussive sounds. They’re not very attractive or useful on the surface (most musicians in the '80s pumped these synths through FX processors to dress up the plain voices). My highlight of fiddling around was discovering the synth voice that Front 242 uses prominently in “Until Death” (among many other songs…very popular sound).

Once the honeymoon was over, I started looking into programming my own sounds, and that was the end for me! I think that because I grew up learning and playing full-blown workstations/samplers, I had no patience and wasn’t willing to invest the time in learning to program the DX-7. It really is a beast to program, and my hat’s off to those who CAN program it with relative ease. Anyway, I owned the synth for about a year, then sold it on eBay for more than I had paid. It was kind of a bummer parting with it, but I ended up rarely using it.

1002

9

…about the DX-7

I found out a few years ago that I’m not really the synth-collecting type. For some silly reason, I always wanted to have in my possession, my ‘dream team’ of digital synths - KORG M1, Roland D-50, and the Yamaha DX-7. I finally scored a DX-7 II FD, mint condition, back in '05. This board looked brand new, it was incredible, and the crystal-clear sound of the presets has to be heard to be believed…the DX-7 is truly a great sounding synth. Now, as for the sounds themselves, it’s all barebones pianos, bells, synths, and some percussive sounds. They’re not very attractive or useful on the surface (most musicians in the '80s pumped these synths through FX processors to dress up the plain voices). My highlight of fiddling around was discovering the synth voice that Front 242 uses prominently in “Until Death” (among many other songs…very popular sound).

Once the honeymoon was over, I started looking into programming my own sounds, and that was the end for me! I think that because I grew up learning and playing full-blown workstations/samplers, I had no patience and wasn’t willing to invest the time in learning to program the DX-7. It really is a beast to program, and my hat’s off to those who CAN program it with relative ease. Anyway, I owned the synth for about a year, then sold it on eBay for more than I had paid. It was kind of a bummer parting with it, but I ended up rarely using it.

1002

You know, I would love to collect synths but just don’t have the space or money to do so.

I used to own a really kick-ass analog synth, the Yamaha CS-60. Fucking amazing phat analog sounds, it was killer! Unfortunately the thing was such a beast that it was such a burden to transport whenever I moved, which was fairly frequently at the time. And even though it made bad ass sounds and you could program it, there was no way to save what you programmed other than to kind of draw a picture of the knob/slider settings. Eventually I needed some money and sold the synth, reading that it would be virtually impossible to repair once it ran into any kind of trouble.

I still miss the thing today [:(]

But hey, hate to bump my own thread again but come on there must be some other prongers who are synth heads that might give me a suggestion or two!

Like Wempathy: do you still play and if so what do you use today? What synths have a soft spot in your career?

Right now I’m thinking I’ll buy a KORG Triton (the original or the LE) cause it seems you can get these guys for under $500 if you shop around!

10

Thank the Lord for the Nord. The Nord lead or the Nord mini seems to be the favorite of many fine musicians. I’ve played on it but have never owned one but found it responsive and varied.

11

Thank the Lord for the Nord. The Nord lead or the Nord mini seems to be the favorite of many fine musicians. I’ve played on it but have never owned one but found it responsive and varied.

Yeah, GD a friend of mine owned the Nord Lead 2.

It was a killer synth, made all those nasty analog sounds…

and the best part was that the pitch wheel was made out of stone!

I still think certaing albums have that sound (ohgre, early 00’s)

12

Trent’s a big Nord Lead guy, that synth is all over his work dating back to the late '90s. It’s a good purchase if you want to re-create all of the classic analog sounds of the old Moog synths, Jupiter, ARP2600, Prophet, etc.

1002

13

…about the DX-7

I found out a few years ago that I’m not really the synth-collecting type. For some silly reason, I always wanted to have in my possession, my ‘dream team’ of digital synths - KORG M1, Roland D-50, and the Yamaha DX-7. I finally scored a DX-7 II FD, mint condition, back in '05. This board looked brand new, it was incredible, and the crystal-clear sound of the presets has to be heard to be believed…the DX-7 is truly a great sounding synth. Now, as for the sounds themselves, it’s all barebones pianos, bells, synths, and some percussive sounds. They’re not very attractive or useful on the surface (most musicians in the '80s pumped these synths through FX processors to dress up the plain voices). My highlight of fiddling around was discovering the synth voice that Front 242 uses prominently in “Until Death” (among many other songs…very popular sound).

Once the honeymoon was over, I started looking into programming my own sounds, and that was the end for me! I think that because I grew up learning and playing full-blown workstations/samplers, I had no patience and wasn’t willing to invest the time in learning to program the DX-7. It really is a beast to program, and my hat’s off to those who CAN program it with relative ease. Anyway, I owned the synth for about a year, then sold it on eBay for more than I had paid. It was kind of a bummer parting with it, but I ended up rarely using it.

1002

i have one at work and think they’re awesome, but… it uses fm synthesis, one of the first to use this type of synthesis i believe, and as such is considered very hard to program. plus, it has a very distinct sound, so is not much good as an all round work horse synth. and they’re deceptively heavy. so great to have, but not what you’re looking for.