While I am as mad as hell at a few shabby software company behaviors, let's take a moment to praise some good ones.

I have a Korg 01Wfd that has run for 15 years now. I got it 2nd-hand, its been through numerous airports when I played live and all its asked was a new battery and disk drive, which still work today. I bought a TR61, mostly as a controller compromise, but its turned out to be a great buy with a good sound beyond its more modest status.

reFX Nexus has always run smoothly. Its like a mini-Virus in a plug and does ambient things as readily as razor-sharp dance patches. Its a solid go-to synth.

MOTU Symphonic Instrument is a keeper. Its easy to debate fine points of sampling and idiomatic classical playing gestures, but
for a 'mere' $279 program, its a powerhouse, even as a stand-alone. They always answer their mail and phones promptly and I always get a "Here's how to fix that" response. Same with my recent re-application of their MicroLite MIDI interface. A new driver and off it went. THANK YOU.

Apple has done me right repeatedly. The very few issues I've had, they've addressed readily. That's why I'm on my 4th Mac.

Astralis has been working for a pal in Australia for 3 years and nary a peep of trouble.

Roland is legendary for toughness. He's using a GT-6 and loving it. I once dropped a Juno-1 down a flight of stairs and it kept going. Boss pedals will still be here after the Bomb and roaches will nest in them.

I have an ENSONIQ sustain pedal that's worked for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. Holy bleep, huh?

I have an E-mu Planet Earth whose only issue is a loose encoder knob and it plays right on.

If more software houses had this good a record, I'd buy more software!

Anyone else have some kudos for their favorites?

My Roland RD-600 is the first keyboard I ever owned. I used it on every gig I've ever done from the age of 19 to 28. It was always rock solid and never gave me any problems whatsoever, until about 7 years in I broke a key on stage from playing too hard. I said to myself "No biggie, it's fairly old. One broken key in 7 years is a pretty good rate" So I brought it in to get fixed. I got it back, it took 1 month, and I had another broken key. Couple months later another. This happened at least 5 times before I finally upgraded to a PC3x last year. The board is now retired in my buddy's studio with 1 broken key I never ended up fixing.

On the other hand I'm still using the sustain pedal from that board as my main pedal. I had bought a Roland DP-8 but it broke about 1 and half years later.

Yamaha-Equipment that is just about indestructible. From their Electric Grand Series ages ago, to my Current Motif ES8. Yamaha did me well on warranty too. Sometimes went above and beyond. With the release of the Motif XS series, they made a big leap in terms of user interface, which has always been their nemeses in electronic KB's. They're learning.

I can't imagine "breaking keys". Now, I did manage to break few strings on my first electric grand, but that was when I was trying to learn how to tune it and had the tuning hammer on the wrong string! DUH!.

Although I have Yamaha higher up the ladder in terms of overall build quality, Peavey stands the torture test of time.

Ensoniq-back in the 80's, I was a bit reluctant to buy an Ensoniq because a few KB players told me they had trouble with their's. But Ensoniq had come out with the TS10, and I had my regional dealer standing behind it if anything happened to it, and he would give me loaner if it were to break down and I had a gig. Never needed a loaner. I worked that KB regularly, went through a number of factory upgrades, installed the max amount of sequencer and sample playback memory, and it never skipped a beat. I certainly got my money's worth out of that board.

Prophet 5-Rev 3.2. I bought this new in 1981, and a few years ago I finally had to get it worked on. A few worn out switches, one bad osc, and it needed a new KB action. But that synth was used daily from 1981 and I had it on the road when I was playing 5 to 6 nights a week for 3 years on the hotel circuit. Never really had any trouble with it. I don't use it very much these days, it sits in my music room covered, but I do plug it in on occasion to A/B it against a sound I am working on that originally came from the Prophet 5. To this day, this is a great synth.



Cheers,


Mike T.

NI software, man that shit is the shizzle.

I have an Ensoniq SD1 that'll be 18 years old in September (with the original sustain pedal)...I've owned it for 14 of those years as the third owner. It goes to church with me every Thursday and Sunday and still gives the electric guitarist a run for his money. I had one major crash in the time I've owned it and that was user-repairable.

In contrast, my Alesis Ion (which I generally enjoy) required a volume control replacement one month after the warranty ran out.

*most* of my instruments are from 10 to 20 years old. My Yamaha G2 grand, to start with, was made in 1972 IIRC. Then I have a Matrix-12, a TG77, a Wavestation SR, *two* Fatar 2001, a Yamaha VL1m, Roland XP-80, Kurz K2600R... the newest instruments I have are the Kurz MicroEnsemble, AN1x, Andromeda, SE-1, Evolver, and a few softsynths. Nothing too recent.

I must say that besides normal maintenance, I've had few problems. Recently I've changed the battery on the TG77 and that was a pain; to access the battery, you have to basically disassemble the whole instrument. Then I'm waiting for Yamaha to send me a replacement ribbon for the AN1x, as the original one is gone. I'm not playing the Matrix-12 live anymore, because is very sensitive to small voltage fluctuations. The data wheels on Roland instruments tend to jitter and go worse over time. The Andromeda has several little quirks... but besides that, I must say that most of my instruments have behaved quite well for the large majority of their existence. (touch wood)

Hah. Same issue here.

My Nord Modular works like a champ!

My A90 is 18 years old and will finally need an adjustment/fix on the pitchbend/mod lever as it doesn't always return to "0". I had had the midi contacts replaced once as well.

My JD990 is about 15 years old, goes to every gig, sounds great.

My M120 line mixers are going on 20 years old, and I've had two of them repaired once. Not bad.

Almost forgot! My two M120s seem to work perfectly after many, many years (I lost the count). Still using them live.

+1 for Yamaha.

My S90 is getting pretty old and has never given me a lick of trouble other than frequent keys breaking which Yamaha took care of by replacing the keybed free of charge to a second owner out of warranty.

is it 10 years a long time to count? Anyway. My Nord Lead 2 still rules after all those gigs, some air travels and a "capuccino shower" some years ago.

I just gave one of my grandsons my 20 year old RD-200 to start piano lessons with. Hopefully they will get him something better within a few years. The action is pretty light. Boy, when it came out I thought it was the bomb. It was supposed to have the same piano sound samples as the RD-1000.

D-550 still going strong.....

I´ve made the mistake to buy too much software,- but didn´t make the mistake to sell too much hardware. Today, I regret I´ve sold some too early just because it was bulky.



Moog:
Minimoog D (no failure within 30 years)
Oberheim:
Xpander,Matrix-1000 (only 1 chip failed since I buyed ´em new)
Roland:
MKS70,MKS80,D550 (only 1 Curtis chip failed in MKS80)
Yamaha:
KX76,TX816,DX7mkII,TG77,TG500 (no failures,- battery exchange only in decades)
Roland/Rhodes:
MK80 (no failures at all),- great keyboard action...
Korg:
M1Rex,Wavestation SR,SG-Rack (no failures)
EMU:
Proteus FX (no failure)

Mixers:
Roland M160 (2),Rolls RM302,MAM LM122 and Mackie CR1604VLZ
(all is working ´til today,- some cleaning jobs of faders of the M160s)

Midi gear:
Sycologic M16/M16R (x2)/M16X (real workhorses, no failures)
Anatek Studio Merge (x2),- excellent...
Miditemp PMM88E (most advanced MIDI processor ever made)

Hardware samplers, sampleplayers, drummachines:
Akai S-1xxx series (3 out of 4 still running without failures)
Oberheim DPX-1 w/ single-outs (x2),- still running ...
EMU Drumulator (customized),- runs perfect from 1st day...
Roland R-8 incl. all cards,- acts as a perfect midi-controller w/ 5 banks of 16 velocity sensitive pads, each assignable to separate midi note numbers and channels.
Alesis SR-16.

A.C.

28-year-old Polysix still works fine. Had a new battery installed and some mainboard traces repaired in 2003 but after that, it's fine. Plus it's been through a lot of gigs and fell off its stand onto a concrete floor with only a minor crimp to the particle board end cheek.

It stays in my rehearsal studio although I have used it recently in my recording studio as it has the MIDI retrofit.

Also have a 24-year-old Korg DW8000 that just needs some key contacts cleaned, otherwise fine.

My cheezy Roland MKS-100 sampler is 22 this year and still works too!

Also my Kawai Q-80 hardware sequencer still works great. Disk drive is fine and the battery has yet to be replaced after 18 years! Kawai's stuff works forever it seems.