JediMasterThrash

Took me a while to figure out what I was going to do. But I'm currently thinking of getting a set of ultimate support 36" stands to hold monitors behind the keyboard, and the adam T7x as monitors. In A/B youtube vids, the adams seemed to blow away the others. And For my purposes the 8" seems a bit too large

I'd say accurate piano sound isn't my top requirement, more room filling orchestra/string/synth/pad layered sounds

As kind of a comparison, the Kohler KD-160 I have has about 5 speakers, none of them are aimed at me. Three are under the baby grand hood, I think they're 8". They are more muffled with the hood down obviously, then you open the hood to take the lid off. But it still sounded good with the hood down. ANd there's two speakers , maybe 5", underneath aimed down. So the speakers are all aimed up or down from the back of the piano, and it fills the living room with great sound. I'm looking for something like that. But in a nice package.

So near-field monitors are maybe not what I'm looking for then. What type of monitor/PA should I be looking for if filling a living room with sound is the goal vs. just hearing it from 3 feet away from the speakers.

I've listened to a bunch of comparison sound vids on youtube (for whatever that's worth, but I can't find any of these things local). Focusing on strings and some synth-pad. To me the roland and korg sound is different from the yamaha and kurzweil sound. The yamaha montage and kurzweil pc4 sound more like a keyboard/synth doing the strings/brass/orchestra. The kronos to me sounded like the real thing. The kurzweil in particular sounded like it nailed video game rpg and some movie strings/orchestra sound. Not saying either is bad or good. In fact I could understand some posts saying the korg tone doesn't stand out in a mix as well because it's more of an open sound. Yamaha montage I wasn't as impressed with, but the pc4 was definitely a full lush tone. But I liked the kronos tone more. It just sounded a fraction more alive vs. digital. Between the roland fantom and the kronos, I'd say they're each different, definitely have their own unique sound, and both sound amazing. But the kronos presets seemed to resonate with me a bit more. But I'd be happy with either.

The QSC and Yamaha 8" specify ~55Hz-20kHz -10dB range. While the JBL 308p mkii is 37Hz-24kHz. From experience, the difference in spec'd bass response isn't really noticeable?

putting it up on speaker stands isn't out of the question. I just didn't know if I wanted my face to be just a few feet from the speakers, especially if they're bigger ones. I'd lean towards filling the living room with sound vs. sitting in a tweeter cone. I've also read a lot of the bigger speakers have more white noise in them, which is fine for rehersal/band, but not solo house playing.

I'm trading up my current digital ensemble piano for a keyboard workstation (kronos 2 or something similar). I'm wondering about what's a good monitor speaker for this keyboard are. From that point of view, I mean something that's quality enough to reproduce the quality of sounds from a higher end keyboard model. Full range of bass and treble, articulate, and not much coloration. I figure spending something in the 500-1k area for monitors for a 3k keyboard is reasonable. But the use case for these is primarily my living room. I'd like something that does a good job of filling a living room with good sound, versus filling a venue. And that means also something that's a bit more omnidirectional. I see QSC cp8 gets recommended as very high quality. But it seems like they may need an external sub-woofer and I'm not sure if i need 8" size. Or 2000W headroom. The JBL 305p MKIi is what I've been leaning towards based on my research so far. It has the bass response built in so it doesn't need a subwoofer. The tweeter is designed to be wider angle so not as directed. Even though it's 5", it's spec' or permanent ear damage 126db anyway. My main question on the JBL is whether two 5" is enough (I'd be getting two for stereo), or would I want a 6 or 8" version? I'd rather keep it small, something that can live under the keyboard, as it's just going into the living room. But if 5" won't cut it I can go up.in size. And is there anything/brand that might be a better option to consider. Thanks,

Complexity is in layers. I want the simple things to be simple. THe complex things I probably won't tackle (ever). Is the kronos still quick to power on, pick a layered string orchestra, and just start playing a star wars theme? That's probably 80% of what I'll do. And that's where just having a really good key action and really good strings sound matters the most. And I'm sure i'd probably be satisfied with a XE20 or kross strings/synth. It's probably still better sounding than the 15 year old keyboard I'm used to. Though having listened to some of the kronos demos on youtube, those strings and synths sounds are pretty amazing. The next things I think I would play with is just trying to split the keys and doing some arpeggiator rhythm with some synth solos. It seems like there's plenty of the combi presets that are setup to be good enough for my purposes already. So from that point of view, if I can just scroll through to some really useful synth combi/layered presets and they sound pretty good and provide some variety, that's probably the remaining 20% And then for guitar jamming, if I can just scroll through some backing drums and maybe trigger a simple arpeggio or rhyhm to go along with the drums while I play, that's probably all I need there. Is it relatively easy to do some dynamics on the fly, adjusting effects and modulation using the joysticks or knobs? I will say the kross 88 videos were pretty impressive. The simple style wheel and preset wheel seemed intuitive, and the two master effects adjust knobs looked looked easy to use. Even that lighted button pad seemed pretty simple to learn. But I haven't really found any good videos showing the kronos in use. The main reason I was moving from kross to kronos was the strings sound quality, multi-samlpes, and the RH3 weighted hammer action. So I'd say if the top 90% of the things I would do are quick/easy/intuitive, and the other 10% I may never do are deep menu editing with a steep learning curve, that's OK with me. But I am still open to a more intuitive/simpler to use keyboard. But having heard what I've heard of the good key action and great synth/strings sounds on the kronos, and the create combinations and presets. I wouldn't want to sacrifice too much of that at the same time. But I am envisioning that in the future, I or my kids might start using more advanced features. I still don't think I'd ever really edit presets much, but making more use of sequencing or backing tracks or layers, I might get into that. I'm primarily a guitarist, and I literally spend years tweaking every knob on dozens of pieces of equipment and swapping pickups and creating and recreating all my guitar presets tweaking every parameter. So I really, really just want a keyboard with great presets. I don't want to do the endless preset tweaking on keyboard that I do on guitar.

Yeah, not really sure how all the auto accompaninent features work. Or what I'd really say is a desired/required. With my current Kohler-140, I can select from several rock beats, start an intro and one of four variations. By default it's only playing drums. And then I just hit a B-minor chord on the lower strings and it kicks in an accompaniment riff in B-minor. And my primary use of this feature is to jam on guitar with the backing track. So in reality, I'm not constantly hitting chords on the piano to have it follow me anyway. I just hit the B-minor once and then just jam out from there (I play a 7-string so B-minor and B-lydian are my favorite noodling modes). If I'm arranging something, then I usually just cycling through the drum-only to record a drum track, then play a rhythm over it and record that, and then play those back to jam guitar over. So I'm interested in other arrnagement type modes that might be present. But I don't have any real requirements on it. I've been looking at speakers. I'm not sure if two 5" will be good enough (looking at JBL 305p MKII) or if I need to go up to 8" for home usage (lke a 308 pr QSC CP8). Though the QSC doesn't have built-in bass support. I like the jbl feature of a wide sweet spot, since it'll be used for living room purposes. But it's definitely not a high-end speaker.

Definitely looking like Kronos 2 88 is probably what I'm looking for. I think I could get the same set of features I need on a lower end kross something. But it seems like the kronos is a step above just in basic key hammer action and sound/sample quality. And the karma engine is a auto-accompaniment feature. Curious what is the equivalent in other brands.

What is the kronos 2? I see it listed online, but it's not listed on the korg website.

I'm ok without onboard speakers. As for weighted, I've had a Kohler-140 digital ensemble piano for about 15 years now. My muscle memory is all built on those weighted keys so I don't want to veer too much away from it. But semi-weighted might be ok. But I am kind of used to that ability to just rest my fingers on the keyboard without drepressing the keys. I mean not a fully hand weight, but I'm assuming anyone who's played a real piano knows what I'm talking about, you can put some finger/hand rest weight on the keys without depressing them. The light keyboard keys usually lack the dynamics and feel I like. It is a requirement for sure that the keys support the light/heavy touch dynamics. I'm not sure if non-weighted keys support the touch sensitive nuances emulation or not. I like playing star wars themes and need to be able to build volume just with finger attack alone. I like feeling some resistance agianst the strong attack. And the ability to touch very softly to get a light sound and get soft re-touches without fully releasing the key. Vs. a strong hit will sustain a lot more. The kohler-140 includes a full style play with 4 refs and ins/outs, and it has chord matching bass/rhythm along with the drums. The strings and octave strings patches sound great for star wars themes. It really lacks in synth pad/lead sounds though. I can't currently find any patches that sound like 80's AOR or powermetal synth leads on it. What's the actual difference between a kronos, kronos LS, and krome ex workstation?

Hello, I'm looking to get a new keyboard, but I'm not quite sure exactly what style I should be looking for (keyboard, synthesizer, stage, portable, workstation, digital piano, etc). I'm hoping if I can describe my primary uses, you might be able to suggest a few models. Budget 1k-3.5k range My primary use cases are 1. Playing movie soundtracks, so I want a good selection of good sounding strings/orchestra preset tones, including octave strings. 2. Playing synth/keyboard sounds from 80's rock/AOR, progmetal and powermetal. So I want a good selection of these synth preset tones you might hear in bands like journey, dream theater, stratovarius, etc. 3. Running backing track (drum/bass/rhythm) off the keyboard while jamming on guitar or keys. 4. Recording out to PC for recording/composition. 5. Composing drums using keydrums. 6. Playing in the living room, but I won't rule out someday taking it somewhere to play. Requirements, 1. Not tied to a piece of furniture. I won't move it a lot, but I'd want something that's a standalone keyboard so it could be moved more easily. 2. Good realistic key dynamics and weight. It doesn't have to be top of the line realistic feel, but it should be closer in weight and throw to a real piano vs. a cheap keyboard. I definitely want good dynamics, it should respond to soft/hard presses, and be able to depress and do partial re-tapping, etc. 3. Supports 3-pedal accessory. Or at least the two sustain pedals. 4. Recording out (XLR, etc) 5. Great selection of the strings/metal synth sounds out of the box/presets. I don't want to spend time creating my own presets, I'd like to just power on and play. 6. 88-keys Optional: 1. Build in speakers if they are good quality/fill a living room. I'm not opposed to external speakers if the right keyboard for me doesn't have them. I'd rather have the better keyboard that requires external speakers than settle on a keyboard just to get built-in ones. But in a toss up between option A/B it could lean me towards one or the other. 2. Some more advanced accompaniment features. Like a automatic accompaniment or arpegiator. I don't do any of that now, but maybe someday in the future it would be something I might get into. I probably won't ever be doing those live layering methods. But just some backing tracks that might be a level above the basic 4 drum fills plus lead-in/lead-out in a style (Which is my basic requirement. I've been trying to find good u-tube vids for research, but the vast majority only focus on the piano sounds. I'm also really interested in just how easy it is to power-on and play, and the videos either talk too much without showing how to use it, or play to much without showing how to use it. But I'm really liking what I hear on the korg kross 2 88 vids. Some totally 80's synth tones and the "stranger things" arpeggiator and a 700+ presets with synth pad/lead/strings. And there's combi function which add backing accompaniment with presets. And multiple presets are layerable up to 16 layers. It's got knobs to adjust effects on the fly. It seems to cover the types of features and sounds I want. The downside is it's apparently still more of a great beginner keyboard vs. a high-quality one. Review say the key action isn't the best, and the audio samples lack dynamics of more expensive models (like multi-samples to make it more lively). Other options like the Krome 88 or yamaha DGX 660 are apparently somewhat outdated compared to newer models (older sound engine/sampleset). The GX sampleset on yamaha I read is an older library of lower quality samples. New stuff like the RD-2000 may be a bit too complicated? I really want that power-on and play, easy quick navigation and setup. I don't plan to do much preset tweaking or deep editing. Not that I trust everything I read on the internet so that's why I'm asking for some direct advice and experience. Thanks,