Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

Most inspiring board on the planet 2019


Recommended Posts

What board is, or would be (you think), most likely to inspire you to play, sing, learn, and generally stretch your chops?

 

Money no object. Portablity, up to you. If it needs a DAW, or drum machine, or whatever, that's OK, but which?

 

So many of you are gigging with bands alot, nothing beats that, but for this thread, it's just you.

 

Two boards right now really catch my eye: Fantom and Genos. Fantom vids are everywhere, but here are two which put the Genos in the picture, and perhaps explain the price tag also.

 

I love Andrew Gilbert's take and demos.

 

It's long---I started at an interesting part, but this guy is pretty interesting from the start LOL

 

For those with less patience:

I hate the young and genetically entitled.

 

Fantom obviously leans to sound design, while the Genos asumes you'd rather be playing. That's what I need: something which really is fun to just sit down at and go. I think we all know there are many great boards gathering dust. I was just reading a thread where a guy dusted off his Kronos to check it's sound quality again in response to some question. Maybe that's because there is a considerable fiddle factor to get what you really want out of some these things. That does not inspire me. On the other hand, the Genos has much more limited deep editing of sound than a Fantom or Forte or Kronos. Those pros at Bonners seem very OK with that LOL.

RT-3/U-121/Leslie 21H and 760/Saltarelle Nuage/MOXF6/MIDIhub, 

SL-880/Nektar T4/Numa Cx2/Deepmind12/Virus TI 61/SL61 mk2

Stylophone R8/Behringer RD-8/Proteus 1/MP-7/Zynthian 4

MPC1k/JV1010/Unitor 8/Model D & 2600/WX-5&7/VL70m/DMP-18 Pedals

Natal drums/congas etc & misc bowed/plucked/blown instruments. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 17
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

I guess you can compare those 2 boards, sound vs sound, but there are considerable diffs in approach

 

I have 8 years on Kronos and very interested in adding Fantom.

 

Folks have differing priorities - I call it

defining your requirements. Long term.

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess you can compare those 2 boards, sound vs sound, but there are considerable diffs in approach

 

I have 8 years on Kronos and very interested in adding Fantom.

 

Folks have differing priorities - I call it

defining your requirements. Long term.

 

Absolutely. I'm trying to grasp "the approaches"

 

Check this out on the Genos.

"Styles"

Then there is the "Ensemble Mode"

The variation and control of multipe instruments--4 parts..I'm not sure.

I think you have some serious voice recording options also....

 

Now in Kronos you have Karma, which is supposed to be very fun. Many Kronos owners don't use it often---I get that impression reading a bunch of threads. Other people love it.

 

Fantom may be right there with the sequencers and great drum kits....that's what I'm trying to figure out now. The Fantom sound is unbelievable. Keybeds the best. The 6 you could move around. Incredible connectivty, for synthesis there is no comparison. Fantom is killer synth, fantastic control of all the sounds. V-piano impressive. I'm not sure how bad the organ is....haha that's what I want to see: B3 shootout Genos vs Fantom. They do both have drawbars and rotary emulation. Everybody says Meh about both, but they don't seem terrible to me. If they are as good as Numa C2x, that would be fine. I bet they are better.

 

The Genos seems like the best robot playing partner anybody ever manufactured so far......

The Fantom is a sound animal.

RT-3/U-121/Leslie 21H and 760/Saltarelle Nuage/MOXF6/MIDIhub, 

SL-880/Nektar T4/Numa Cx2/Deepmind12/Virus TI 61/SL61 mk2

Stylophone R8/Behringer RD-8/Proteus 1/MP-7/Zynthian 4

MPC1k/JV1010/Unitor 8/Model D & 2600/WX-5&7/VL70m/DMP-18 Pedals

Natal drums/congas etc & misc bowed/plucked/blown instruments. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am the wrong person to advise on arrangers.

 

Don't expect Karma to be your ' auto arranger '. On the surface, it might appear that way.

It can help with an instrument part or 2. I especially like it for Drum pattern variation.

 

On my Disco Daylight, I use Karma [ go to .09 or 9 secs] to handle the repitive funky guitar part, for example:

 

You are correct, Karma is not easy to tame. Not much user usage.

The trick is to simplify it. IMO, less is more.

Why fit in, when you were born to stand out ?

My Soundcloud with many originals:

[70's Songwriter]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spending time with an instrument that offers an incredible amount of depth demands a different sort of discipline than something that simply is, like a piano. There's no reason why you can't simply sit and play an instrument like Kurzweil's Forte, you just have to devote your time to specific goals. Not that I claim to be great at it, myself! In practice I rarely have anything like enough time at home to sit and focus on musical development.

 

Next year, though, I intend to finally retire and devote a great deal more time to music (and music technology, admittedly, since solving technical problems will always be a reflex for me.) My "desert island" keys are currently the aforementioned Forte. I'm sure it helps that I've spent decades with one Kurzweil or another, so getting around on it is pretty much second nature. That kind of relaxed connection to an instrument feels like an important part of helping me to focus on musical growth.

Acoustic: Shigeru Kawai SK-7 ~ Breedlove C2/R

MIDI: Kurzweil Forte ~ Sequential Prophet X ~ Yamaha CP88 ~ Expressive E Osmose

Electric: Schecter Solo Custom Exotic ~ Chapman MLB1 Signature Bass

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great topic. Most inspiring for me is whatever those Pnau guys used on that song "Solid Gold", that stuff is super inspiring. I don't know what boards they used though, so I'm probably not giving you much help here. But if you listen to that song with really good headphones or some nice speakers, you'll know what I'm talking about. I'm sure they talk about that production and their gear somewhere.

Some music I've recorded and played over the years with a few different bands

Tommy Rude Soundcloud

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cool topic.

 

Up until recently I would had a somewhat lukewarm appraisal of the Nord Stage Classic 88 I've had for years as the most inspiring board on the planet.

 

But I recently bought the Korg PA1000 arranger from a kind fellow on this forum. And I have been completely blown away.

 

First off, with 66 watts of 2 way speaker power built-in, it's like having open air headphones on, the sound reproduction is rich and detailed and can go somewhat low. It's the main reason I bought this board.

 

I've had a handful of arrangers over time and have never been into the arranger functionality, it just seemed too much like the boom chaka coming from mall organs, so cheezy and uninspiring. Though I've always enjoyed the many rhythms an arranger has on tap.

 

So imagine my surprise to find I LOVE the Styles (arrangements of bass/drums/perc/ and 5 accompaniment tracks). I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but I've gone from ashamed to declarative. You combine these professionally sequenced tracks that sound like you've got amazing session players backing you up- you combine it with a sound quality that blows my mind- and you start to get the picture- THIS KEYBOARD IS THE REAL DEAL.

 

Meaning, I've never been remotely close to this inspired by of the dozen or so boards I've had before. Except for the keybed, this board gets 9 or 10 out of 10 for everything from sound quality to quality Styles, to well-thought out musical interactions, user friendly features, speaker quality- you name it.

 

Of course not all the Sounds are top-notch, but I've never had a board that I wasn't embarassed to play a sax or flute or most brass, except perhaps as background pads. Not so here- they are SO expressive, even without the button tricks, just with velocity and AT. Mind you, these are beginning days and I still feel funny about busting out my virtual sax on a keyboard, esp in an exposed setting, but there are times when you need your woodwinds and brass.

 

I really enjoy the MP3 recording- so you're playing a Style, jammin' along, you hit a record button, another press on the screen, and your recording. Then you play back those recordings using the 2 players, with a crossfader between them.

 

And the drum sounds- OMG, so present and well done, and for example the afro-cuban beats- they sound just like my buddies that I play with in the park, a bunch of conga players.

 

And having Styles that are well done in all these different music genres means that you've got the worlds best practice and accompaniment partner, 'cause learning all the different parts of the Style is second nature once you got good sounds and patterns.

 

And being able to bring the show on the road- I REALLY don't get the PA4X and Genos owners who don't have built-in speakers! I just bought a little 5 pound Paxcess 280W lithium battery and inverter, a smallish rectangular 5 pound battery, that'll power the onboard speakers AND my QSC K10 for 3 hours, with a fair amount of bass whomping. Unbelievable, the battery was only $170.

 

And the built-in vocal processor of the PA1000. There's freakin' knobs and top panel buttons just for that!!! Practically worth the price of admission to have ready access to presets, volume, harmony and fx amount right at my fingertips. And the quality of the fx is just fantastic.

 

Bottom line, it sounds like you're fishing for a recommendation. You sound alot like me. I tend to get lost in the learning and programming of a board, sometimes spend more time at that than actually playing. The Nord Stage was a welcome change because of that. But this board changes all the rules. You've got to learn your way around 'cause it does so much cool shit that you want to just keep going and going.

 

I've never been immersed in a board before like this. I have considered (only half-jokingly) having a music ministry that requires a PA 700 or 1000 in order to participate. I mean, what an incredible way to learn an instrument, if you were a beginner and was blessed to have stumbled up these instruments and someone to guide you- for certain people, like myself, it'd be a huge inspiration to learn and play music.

 

I am totally bummed though that it's only a 61 note board and overall the keybed gets a 6/10 from me, it's noticeably harder to play the last 30% or so before the fall board, it slows me down and pisses me off that an otherwise knockout board is held back by that. And I'd never buy a PA4x or Genos, too expensive, and I love me on-board speakers!

 

I've almost started threads a couple of times 'cause I'm wondering if I just haven't had a good, newish board in a long time and if the quality of sounds are just better in general now than they've been in the last 10 years or so. But I've also heard that the design philosophy in the past was you roll your own sound with workstations, and the sounds come mostly pre-rolled with arrangers. I imagine that has changed in the last 10 years, what with SuperNatural sounds and many different examples of that.

 

But basically my question was going to be, is the sound quality I'm hearing and expressing thru my playing an outlier, or has the sounds you can get from a modern board so much higher in quality than was generally available-? I was going to ask AnotherScott 'cause he has the PA1000 as well as a number of other boards made in the last couple of years. I had the M3 and the Motif XS, and I still have a Nord Stage Classic. I do have pretty sweet APs, EPs and organs on the Nord, but otherwise I've never had a board that even approaches the sound quality of this one. The new Fantom sounds intriguing- though I'm probably better off not having those endless tweaking capabilities to distract myself with.

 

Randy

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Steinway D, Yamaha CFX, or Fazioli

 Find 660 of my jazz piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first choice would be a Moog ONE. In reality, I would never be able to afford one, so choosing a KB that I would have been able to afford when I was gainfully employed.

it would be the Novation Summit. It combines 3 over-clocked Digutal Osc, with a great analog filter, great FX, 4 LFO's and a lot of other sound sound shaping modulation options.

 

The only thing that rattles my cage is that the Summit was introduced for $1999 but the price has been increased fo $2199 and it hasn't even shipped. :taz:

 

 

 

Mike T.

Yamaha Motif ES8, Alesis Ion, Prophet 5 Rev 3.2, 1979 Rhodes Mark 1 Suitcase 73 Piano, Arp Odyssey Md III, Roland R-70 Drum Machine, Digitech Vocalist Live Pro. Roland Boss Chorus Ensemble CE-1.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Spending time with an instrument that offers an incredible amount of depth demands a different sort of discipline than something that simply is, like a piano. There's no reason why you can't simply sit and play an instrument like Kurzweil's Forte, you just have to devote your time to specific goals. Not that I claim to be great at it, myself! In practice I rarely have anything like enough time at home to sit and focus on musical development.

 

I echo this, regularly. If you possess four serious workstations, you're only using a loose 25% of each. IMO, that goes double for Kurzweils, which are modulars in slab form.

 

As for the topic, there is a meaningful populist inspiration to be found in the option of multiple oscillator models for the Korg 'logue line. Its a brilliant move if you know that you are mainly synth-minded. That also applies to the poly-aftertouch-equipped Arturia MicroFreak. That's the first Big New Thing I've seen in a while that has a meaningful end use rather than being a buzzword feature.

 

I'm an old piano plunker, so I still sniff even a mega-synth for its piano angle. I went 97%-Logic so I could have acoustic instruments on tap as well as synths, so the Prophet X is still resonating with me. Having the 8Dio library as oscillator food is outstanding and the user RAM makes it semi-perfect. I've owned 3 Prophets, so another instrument from Dave would be welcome. If I was a bit more of an insane sound designer as part of my tool kit, I'd lean towards the Waldorf Quantum. Again, user sample space draws me to an instrument, so the Q's stout granular side alone would be a wild thing. The option of three different sound-generating methods per patch is sci-fi territory. That advanced touch screen is almost like something sexually warped from a David Cronenberg movie. :puff::wacko:

 

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So many great replies, thank you! More! I'm on the run, but I really want to reply to many of those.

 

OK Genos clonewheel and the styles made for it:

 

I have love/hate relations with yamaha since 70's :) I used to compare my Suzukis to the Yammis, my first really nice instrument was a Yamaha Clarinet I bought in Hong Kong in 1985, I still have it. I had pf 85 electric piano which was tough and held value well but was swapped out for SL-880 in the early 90s. My Young Chang upright U-121 is a clone of the U1.

 

I looked hard at the ModX, but UI turned me off---the structure not the physical controls. Now there is at least a sequencer! Same feelings about montage: must be good, but not for me. I'm afraid the sheer noise and ease of use of Genos may have melted my cynicism....

 

Here is Sonicstate Nick taking a tour of Yamaha's museum, recently: Organs go way way back:

 

 

Here we have an east euro minstrel who really gives a flavor of what that might be like, with his Genos and Ketron SD90 (and he now also has a Fantom 6):

 

 

Next step down from Genos is new PSR-SX900, which apparently is selling like crazy. Here we have a defender of the Korg PA1000/700 with alot of experience on these type of 'entertainer' boards:

 

I have a DM12 which I enjoy, so the lack of raw synth level control on the Genos bothers me less. I can always go "deep", or try to LOL. At 62 my biological clock is ticking and I want to be playing more than tweaking, if possible :)

 

The "entertainer" or arranger boards have really matured, and here is famous Woody to show his new one: the infamous PSR-SX900, no less. Look how much Genos is in there.

 

He has a bunch of new videos about it, very fun to watch.

 

RT-3/U-121/Leslie 21H and 760/Saltarelle Nuage/MOXF6/MIDIhub, 

SL-880/Nektar T4/Numa Cx2/Deepmind12/Virus TI 61/SL61 mk2

Stylophone R8/Behringer RD-8/Proteus 1/MP-7/Zynthian 4

MPC1k/JV1010/Unitor 8/Model D & 2600/WX-5&7/VL70m/DMP-18 Pedals

Natal drums/congas etc & misc bowed/plucked/blown instruments. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't think about this too much because it can drive you crazy. I made a few mistakes purchasing things based on what people say around there which didn't suit my needs.

"Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello"

 

 

noblevibes.com

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine was on a Yamaha C7 but I think it was the ROOM that made the difference for me. I happened upon Sweetwater's HQ and nobody was in their sound studio, and they let me play the Yamaha there... Something about the acoustics in the room made that piano sound soar, and I was pulling some creative playing that had previously escaped me!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...