niacin

If 2 boards is ok I'm back at go with the Vox and use the split to play one internal sound and one from the external board/module. Lightweight with the vibe and feel of a real instrument and I’m really not seeing the alternatives to the Vox. But mostly, like Drawback, I think we're going round in circles. Maybe a Numa X piano 73 with an iPad for the extra sounds would do the trick? I don't own one but reviews give the Rhodes a big thumbs up and the iPad integration is brilliant. Or maybe we're at Nord. It was always on the cards 🤣

Tthe physical controls on the Vox are somewhat limited when it comes to the EPs. The Nautilus 61 and 73 don't weigh a tonne. Transistor organ hasn't been mentioned. So the tradeoff is basically the vibe: "looking & feeling like a 'real instrument'," and yes unfortunately the Nautilus looks like a computer with a keyboard attached. You want 'vibe' and quality EPs and we're back at the SV1/2 or the Crumar offerings. But then you want splits and panning and midi control and phrase triggering and all this other stuff that screams computer with a keyboard attached. At some point you gotta choose. Basically what Drawback said.

when they get through that list I’d like an updated CX-3 engine please, the current one sounds so 2001.

suggest you look at a Korg Nautilus, if you’re not thrilled with the EPs you can load in those from Purgatory Creek, they’re Keyscape quality or better, and it has all the functionality you want.

The effects are where they are in the audio chain because the original wasn’t designed to allow splits. The combination of ‘baked in’ effects for the EPs plus one fx bus works perfectly given the original aim. I think they did as much as they could with OS 2.0 to expand that. I’m not sure what grounds you have for thinking the limits are ‘needless.’. They’re a result of hardware and processor decisions made in the original design process, it just wasn’t designed to do what you want. A Nautilus might be worth a look, similar quality EPs, all the functionality you want, and a whole nother level of quality up from the CK you’ve been looking at, and you can load in the electric pianos from Purgatory Creek, which are Keyscape quality or better.

atm your option is to set up a split, turn the volume down for the sound on one side, midi it to another sound source, set the key range to match, and play the second source from the Vox along side the internal sound on the the other side of the split. I do this a lot.

as MOI said he’s obviously watched someone playing thirds and probably chords and possibly the lick you mention. At this age his brain is pretty much a sponge and his modus operandi is imitation. Toddlers love pushing their physical limits, their bodies are pretty flexible at this ago so I wouldn’t be concerned about him stretching his little fingers to reach the notes he’s watched mum (I think it’s mum filming) play. Yes there’s budding intelligence, but suggest it’s not that it’s unusual but rather than we tend to grossly underestimate what kids are capable of.

Ok, it's great to see the kid exploring the piano so intently. But ... I teach preschool in a long daycare setting and have a digital piano set up for children to explore. Sometimes the preschoolers' younger siblings come into our room, and sometimes they sit down for a time at the piano. And they do what little Gavrill is doing. They start out pressing the white keys. They're the ones closest to them. And it sounds musical to us because they're playing only the white keys. And we go 'wow'. And then they get to the black keys. Notice as soon as Gavrill starts on the black keys the video stops. Cause it sounds to most people like he's playing 'wrong' notes. (Hans Groiner is funny to musicians but totally lost on most people). Except to him. He's just exploring the different sounds he can make with the piano. Gavrill might just be the next Yuja Wang, but there's nothing in the video to suggest that.

So one of the limits with the Vox is that while the OS 2.0 allows for splits, both sounds have the same effects and they cannot be sent out individual outs or panned separately, so while your Moog bass patch can be happily split with a Rhodes with auto-pan because the auto-pan is tied to the Rhodes, if you add a phaser in the effects section your Moog bass will also go through the phaser. If there’s ever a version 2 of this board this is one of the things folks would like to see addressed.

I’ll also note that the effects are the same for each part so that will overdetermine the routing.

I’m not home now, but the text you quote says that the midi channel for the lower part has to be different from that of the main midi channel setting. With the organ, when the split button is off the lower part of the organ responds on the midi channel set according to the text you quote. When you switch the split button on, the lower part of the organ plays from the lower part of the Vox keyboard and responds on the same middle channel as the upper part as set for the main midi channel. If you want to have 2 non-organ sounds play as a split you have to turn the split button on and both sounds respond on the main midi channel. There is no way to set the second sound to be played from a second ‘lower’ manual - and therefore a second midi channel - the way you can with the organ.

If I set up a split on the Vox and assign another keyboard to channel 1 (the default) it will play both sounds either side of the split point the same as if they were played from the Vox’s keyboard, but that may be just the default, I don’t know if you can assign different midi channels to each sound or not.

the two sounds either side of a split on the Vox both respond on the same midi channel.

Tremolo is kind of baked in to some of the Wurlys as auto-pan is to some of the Rhodes, but you can turn it off with the pitch lever, and you can set the tempo with the tap tempo button otherwise used for delay.

the CK wurli improves with amp sim dialed in, but yeh agree the Vox is far better. I’ve found the CK great as a rehearsal board, I think i could get through a gig ok with it but it wouldn’t be my first choice for electric pianos or anything else for that matter.

I quite like upright piano #8 on the Vox, it came with the O.S. update with extra sounds (iirc it’s actually a baby grand). The rest aren’t great. The CK piano is fine, typical Yamaha, very useable. But the OP asked about electric pianos.

i think once you go down the keyboard + software path you’re reconciling yourself to adjusting the velocity curve to get something playable. This is where the Mojo-61 has it over the rest imo, the finger to sound connection is really good out of the box: the way it responds makes me want to keep playing. I also have a GSI Gemini module with the same electric pianos, but I haven’t been able to get them to play as nice hooked up to other keyboards. ymmv.

I have both and agree the Vox is much better for electric pianos. The winner though is the Mojo 61, a little ahead of the Vox , with the Yamaha a distant third.

Lachy has covered Voodoo Child, there's a few recordings on so you can make up your own mind about the level of fire or 'watered down aggression' he brings. I'm not sure I'd accuse Jon Lord of 'watered down aggression' either, sure he could play pretty, but there was plenty of fire when he wanted to go there.

Hammond: - SKpro-61 - SKXpro - SK25 pedalboard or GSI/Crumar: - Mojo 61 - Gemini rack module - spinet pedalboard Actually I already own most of these, just not the Hammond pedalboard.

For some years I gigged with a Hammond SK2 and a rack of gear: a Fantom Xr that was replaced by an Integra, then adding a GSI Gemini (which I still have) & the aforementioned Dexibell SX7. I also had a V-Machine (since sold) velcroed in place inside the rack.

For an 11-piece function band I started playing with late last year I’ve gone from the 2 keyboard rig I started with to 1 keyboard and a small rack which I was already carrying anyway with a Radial KL-8, to which I have added a Dexibell SX7 I bought a few years back. Power, leads and stuff velcroed down in the 4u rack, quick and easy plug and play. I made the change cause for this particular gig the SX7 gives me a more satisfying sound palette than the second keyboard I was using (Nord Wave 2) and i don’t need the extra keys on this gig.

I enjoyed some of it but found maybe half the tunes laborious, parts not so fun to play once you get much past True Colours, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun & What's Going On, synth programming to do and multi-part splits and layers to cover the lines, songs like I Drove All Night & All Through the Night & I don't need to play again, hopefully you find it more fun than I did.