What�s "your" board?

[Threadslayer]

I can't find a keyboard that I enjoy playing more than my acoustic piano. Somehow, my mistakes just aren't as glaring.

 

There's something to that. I've always found that a nice acoustic piano is far more forgiving of my sloppy piano technique than any snarky electronic substitute I've found.

[3rdAct]

For gigging, the Electro 5D checks almost all the boxes for me. The B3 clone with drawbars and the sample section make for a nice top board (which I currently pair with the P-121 on bottom). It's also easy to move around and has a nice interface. Given that it also has a nice piano section, I need only take the Electro to practices and quick-turn gigs. I would, though, like a more suitable keybed and perhaps a little more synth functionality (like pitch bend and mod wheels).

 

For home, I'd like a nice acoustic piano, but I don't see that happening anytime soon! Perhaps I'll get a P-151 or Kawai one of these days...

[3rdAct]

I can't find a keyboard that I enjoy playing more than my acoustic piano. Somehow, my mistakes just aren't as glaring.

 

There's something to that. I've always found that a nice acoustic piano is far more forgiving of my sloppy piano technique than any snarky electronic substitute I've found.

I find that an acoustic piano sounds good with a wider range of chord voicings than the electronic versions.

[RABid]

Kronos 2 61. My do everything board. It sits on top of an RD2000, and between a dual manual Hammond XK3x and a stack of synths. But it is easily my dessert island keyboard.

[Docbop]

I started learning piano as an wishlist thing so my first piano is a RD-2000 and I like it a lot. I wanted a good keybed similar to an acoustic and I can adjust the key touch from light to super heavy I use for trying to strengthen my fingers. I also live in apartment size and controlling volume was important for me. I have since bought a old Wurlitzer console piano, but it is loud, so I only play it when my neighbor is a work.

 

My wishlist is to get a workstation so I have all the bells and whistles and can do some basic recording. Which workstation that's tough to decide, the Fantom is new and offers a lot, Kronos and Montage both are old and need for a major update or replacement.

[mate stubb]

No surprise here. Her name is Diana.

 

http://www.hotrodmotm.com/images/hammond/55-b3.jpg

[David Emm]

I started out with my family's Yamaha baby grand and oddly crisp Shoninger console. As I moved out & away from them, I took up with a series of iffy electric pianos & one great Wurly. I naturally gravitated toward synths and I owned several small Rolands & Korgs, a Kawai K5, 2 Prophet-600s, etc. Then I acquired a Korg 01Wfd workstation, which was my first big love. The range of sounds was amazing and I cut my teeth on it as my first sequencer. The keys were Klack City, but who cares, it meant real power. I played it live for a time, lugging a box of $#@! floppies along. It never blinked. I still have a mass of its sounds as EXS24 instruments.

 

"My" board now is mostly a pair of CME XKeys & Logic Pro. I'm semi-old & generally creaky, but my old piano technique translates well because XKeys are flat. Works well for me. It also hands me laughably easy access to Alchemy and the rest. Being able to sit in my underwear and add tympani flourishes to things casually occupies a surreal Venn point between science fiction, First World privilege and a superpower that can double as a mental condition.

[Joe Muscara]

I love my Kawai RX-2 to bits.

 

I have a Hammond A-100 with a Leslie 45, it"s nice, so is my Wurly 200, my Mojo 61, and are my ever-growing collection of Casios. They all have their place. But the acoustic piano is number one for me.

[Mike Warren]

I can't find a keyboard that I enjoy playing more than my acoustic piano. Somehow, my mistakes just aren't as glaring.

 

Yeah, there's something magical about an in-tune acoustic piano.

 

I don't have room for an acoustic piano, so my Forte is it for me, sometimes coupled with Ravenscroft 275.

 

Stay safe everybody!

 

You too Tom.

[Nathanael_I]

My Kawai RX-7 is the best piano I've owned and a dream come true to have a long grand piano in the studio. The Nord Grand is very satisfying to me for a MIDI controller/desk piano (I don't use the internal sounds - but love playing the VSL Synchron Steinway samples on it). For synths, I have a vast preference for Fatar's premium TP-8S action. All of my best synths have this action and great wheels/joysticks. I will pay for good controls - I want an instrument, not a sound generator.

[psionic11]

I own a Nord Stage 2 ex hp76, but I have grown to love and prefer the Horowitz Grand on the Kurzweil. The TP40 action also helps, compared to the TP100 in that particular Nord.

Have you ever tried running a MIDI cable and playing the Nord pianos from the Kurz action?

 

Hi Scott! I have indeed. It did sound very nice. And I did previously own a Nord Piano 2, with (albeit slightly different) TP40 Keyboard. But I still really like the triple strike. It just seems to work. For me, Nord pianos sound fantastic when other people are playing them. But when I play them myself, I am never entirely happy unless through headphones or seriously high end stereo speakers, which I do not own personally.

 

I have 2 favorites -- a Kronos 61 and a Nord Stage 2 HA76. Love that TP40 action!

 

I had a Forte 7 for about a month before I returned it. I liked the TP40 action on it, but I didn't get along with either of the pianos on it.

 

The Kronos and MODX7 pianos are nice and polite, but lack a certain bite and dynamic range.

I thought the Integra piano was a nice change from the Kronos, until I got the Nord.

 

The Nord though needed just a bit more body and ambience.

I tried layering all kinds of combinations of the above pianos, including a Privia PX5S, which has the 2nd best piano action in my studio.

 

To sum up, the final winner for me was layering and hard panning 2 Nord pianos and playing them from the Stage 2:

White Grand hard left, Silver Grand hard right. Very slight EQ on each.

 

So Piano Man, an option might be to experiment with layering pianos in your setup.

The Triple Strike that comes on the Kronos is indeed fun to play, as is the Bosie.

My triple decker is the dual Nord pianos layered with the Orchestra + Timpani on the Kronos... hours of fun!

[psionic11]

My answer is exactly same as dB's.... .. Kurzweil Forte ticks all my boxes, but my Kronos (unweighted) is a close second.

Funny - my Kronos (the unweighted board to which I alluded) is my #2 as well.

 

I also think they complement each other really well. I honestly think that between those two, I have everything I need...

 

 

Another card carrying member here. Except Kronos 61 is #1 by far, for all things synthesis.

 

The Stage 2 HA76 is there for those long piano sessions. Semi-weighted on top, piano action below.... nice.

 

[allan_evett]

Acoustic board is a Kawai K-2 upright; have been using that more lately - digging into technique exercises, and trying to relearn some college pieces from The Well Tempered Clavier.

Main board in the home studio is an MODX 8, which has become my 'desert island' life history of Yamaha. That also drives a bunch of software instruments, with Ravenscroft 275 being my go-to piano for recording. Still have a couple older modules, but have sold off most of my rack gear and analog stuff. #2 board at home is an original Kronos 61; eventually that title may go to a Fantom 7 - which is quite a learning work-in-progress, and almost a life history of my Roland experience.

Main board for stage - since 2017 - has been a Stage 3,76. More often than not it's by itself, but it's been gigged with the Kronos or Fantom several times. Either combination is almost overkill for live work now.

[Fleer]

Vox Continental (reissue by Korg).

Love the sound, the action, the looks, the build and that mesmerizing tube. Got three of them, two 73s on top of each other and a 61 to go. Man, I love them.

[El Lobo]

My gigging board is a Nord 5D. But I'm not gigging now, so my Stay Home board is a Casio PX-S3000. Fun to play, nice piano sound and action.

 

But I'm a sax player much more than a keys player, so my axe is a Martin Official Music Man model tenor sax which I bought new in 1963 for my budding career as a young rock 'n' roller. Still have it, still play it. It's my first and forever love.

[Mykhailo]

[Music Bird]

Casio CT-X3000 with Yamaha MX49 as a tie. I couldn"t choose only one.

[Baggypants]

Roland VR-09. The "One" â¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸

 

Souped up with Frankies CTRLR, of course!

[Mark_OA]

I don't want to miss any of them, but if I had to choose, it would be the Kawai. That instrument is such a joy to play. I sometimes even play it without turning it on because of the feel of the keybed. I know, it's weird, I don't care. I never want to be without it. My boards:

 

Kawai MP11SE

Viscount Legend Solo

Dave Smith Prophet Rev2

[Mark_OA]

Vox Continental (reissue by Korg).

Love the sound, the action, the looks, the build and that mesmerizing tube. Got three of them, two 73s on top of each other and a 61 to go. Man, I love them.

 

Wow... 3 of the same board. You're not kidding that you really like it!

[Lady Gaia]

My primary source of inspiration and exercise is definitely my piano, a lovely 7'6" Shigeru Kawai that seemed more to scale in our prior home:

 

 

... than it does in our cozy Seattle condo:

 

 

It's still just as delightful to play regardless and I can't imagine ever wanting to give it up. When it comes to actually recording anything, however, my Kurzweil Forte is a much easier instrument to work with. At the moment, however, we're hiding from the pandemic in our secondary residence where there aren't any keyboard instruments at all, which is more than a little disconcerting. In time we'll get that sorted out but getting anything done, like bringing in the intended composer's desk, is an extra level of complicated at the moment.

[Mark_OA]

Serious envy at all of you guys who have a grand at your deposal.

[Al Quinn]

Beautiful piano Lady Gaia! I had the good fortune of playing a 7'6" Shigeru Kawai at a piano store in Boulder last month. I was absolutely blown away!

[Mighty Motif Max]

Nice! Always wanted one of those, but I didn"t really have a valid need for one, having several acoustics already and plenty of keyboards.

[Mykhailo]

Nice! Always wanted one of those, but I didn"t really have a valid need for one, having several acoustics already and plenty of keyboards.

 

In Blue Rodeo we have a rock drummer, pedal steel, sometimes 3 guitars, and a bass through an SVT. Even with all of the amps in isolation cabinets, our FOH engineer and I had trouble getting my acoustic accordion to sit right. Didin"t matter how nice the mics were, acoustic instruments can only be pushed so far over a dense noise floor...Then someone hipped me to the roland, and just like that all of my problems went away. FOH engineer can just ride the fader up/down like he would any line level keys. Godsend. It"s also nice to be able to dial up hundreds of different reed sets, concertinas, they even have a corodovox set!

[Lady Gaia]

Beautiful piano Lady Gaia! I had the good fortune of playing a 7'6" Shigeru Kawai at a piano store in Boulder last month. I was absolutely blown away!

 

Indeed. I've played the SK-7 probably a half dozen times. An exquisite piano !

 

I was fortunate enough to get one when they were still building a reputation and have been madly in love ever since. Meeting the master craftsman who oversaw the construction when he flew from Japan to set the action to my taste (!) was a treat. The two times we've moved since, on the other hand, have been absolutely terrifying. Thank goodness it survived the ordeal unscathed.

 

Random aside: I was born in Boulder, but haven't been back in too many years. My dim memories were fond enough to consider making it our mainland retirement spot before I got a job offer I couldn't refuse in the Pacific Northwest.

[ewall08530]

When we started to self quarantine on March 13 and I knew I was going to stream a weekly music show I put away my practice piano, (Yamaha P125) and brought in my Casio PX S-3000. I really love the 04- Stage Piano sound and the way the action feels. In addition I"ve edited the string resonance and damper noise and it really enhances the piano experience.

 

Someday I"d love to get an upright in my place but I have an older home with a smaller than standard front door/entry. I would likely have to have it widened. $$$ But that seems a long way off and a lower priority these days.

[Justin Havu]

MODX7...If only it had better action and aftertouch. Otherwise it is definitely my favorite board right now...so quick and easy to navigate and goes way deeper than I know how to so far. Still finding new things inside this thing. So much fun.

I might eventually look for a Montage when the used prices begin to drop a bit for the better action and more surface controls. I"ve definitely become a Yammie fanboy again.

 

Same here. It sounds great, it's easy to use, and it's super lightweight. Just wish it had aftertouch.

[Aussie_Chicago]

"THE " board I play almost everyday .....63 cherry B3

 

 

My live rig is either a Legend live with 142 or a Crumar Seven with Legend solo. Crumar is inspiring to play , Rhodes , wurli and clav great, AP not so much .

 

[rod76]

My main board