CyberGene

Such a shame, the Argon and Cobalt are great, especially for the price.

As much as I like the aftertouch on my Hydrasynth, which was made specifically to glorify a controllable poly AT, I still find it tiring to play for more than 10 minutes and then I have sore fingers and wrists. And then there are the rest of the AT implementations on almost all keyboards which are considerably heavier to engage. I doubt the Nautilus would be an exception but who knows.

Digital pianos are too much into piano and Rhodes and not so much about other sounds, especially synths. The CK is close though and is in my shortlist 😉

While having my MODX6, I was constantly being amazed at how good every single sound was. There’s absolutely brutal no compromise quality to Yamaha’s sound approach. However working with it was way too awkward and ultimately I ended up using it as a preset-machine, one patch at a time which is what made me feel I’m not using it as expected and so I sold it. I’m kind of sorry though. I’m wondering if they can simplify it by providing a board with all its sounds without any programmability, just selecting patches and maybe split/layer two parts. In an even tinier and lighter body. Would buy it before I blink. I almost ordered the Fantom-06 yesterday but something is stopping me. I may still purchase it but I prefer sleeping a few more days over the idea.

When I purchased an Alfa Romeo last month, a small gift was left by the dealership in the car, a bottle of Aperol. I didn’t even know what that is, but luckily it was explained on the bottle how it’s all about (what turned out to be a recently becoming very famous) Aperol Spritz cocktail with Prosecco wine, so I started making myself one each evening as an aperitif and I love it ❤️ Already finished the bottle 😀 But my wife says that cocktail is too watery and light..

What has happened with Roland on Thomann? For the last few weeks almost all Roland products disappeared. I thought it might be about Roland being in troubles but it seems other European stores have them and Muziker (a Slovakian store that I’ve used a few times) was just restocked with Fantoms. Really odd.

For this particular project I prefer using presets, while the Hydra is to satisfy my lonely needs for geeky sound design when at home. But frankly speaking, I am a bit tired of sound design lately. Realistically, I can live as easily with presets too, that I only edit slightly to taste.

Pretty tempted to press the purchase button of my Muziker cart with a Fantom-06 and a Roland CB-B61 bag. And these complaints about too many patches are not working! 😀 You should all try harder!

Is there not a way of searching for patches by narrowing down through categories/sub-categories like on the MODX?

@AnotherScott thanks, really helpful 👍🏻

I’ve been researching lightweight 61-key boards that can be transported as a backpack with proper soft-case with shoulder straps, stuff like Yamaha CK61, MX49/61, Korg Kross, etc. I had the requirement of iOS compatibility (class-compliant USB audio) because I am strongly against workstations due to their complexity, hence the need for an iPad to add more sounds, drum patterns, etc. However my aversion to workstations is based on my awful experience with the MODX which was ridiculously difficult to work with, especially for jamming and live playing with on-the-fly manipulation. However I stumbled upon some videos of the Fantom-0 series and I was amazed at how intuitive the workflow is, especially compared to the MODX. For the music I do acoustic piano and Rhodes are not very important. What I need is excellent synth sounds and the Fantom might be just what I need. I’m wondering if a Fantom-06 can be used entirely standalone (without an iPad) for my use-case which is to create songs with my band on the fly. Basically I need either good drum patterns or easy drum sequencing on the spot, then adding/recording some sequenced bass lines and similar elements and then we jam over it. I see there’s a sequencer with song mode, so maybe that’s what I should use? Also, I see there’s integration with Logic which is my DAW, so that’s an added bonus. If I come up with some working idea on the Fantom during a rehearsal, how easy it would be to develop it then in Logic and then move it back to the Fantom for the next rehearsal? Like for instance adding audio tracks to the Fantom and arranging a bit more complex song with intro, verse, chorus, etc?

Unfortunately not. Where I live the sidewalks are terrible and I also pass through a non-paved park too. Your hint about high inertia with these boards is good, I didn’t think about that but I can imagine the effect on the shoulder straps. I think I’m seriously leaning towards a Kross 2 or MX61 or even MX49 since the band I play in is mostly electronic sound oriented and even where there’s a piano needed, it’s not about any 88 key virtuoso fireworks 😀

Has anyone used the Studioligic soft case to carry the Numa Compact as a backpack? Is it comfortable enough? I’m considering the NC2X with the soft-case to go to rehearsals by foot (as an alternative to my Numa X Piano 73 which I can only transport with a car but that’s been rather difficult as of late). I’ll be having a 20-30 minute walk uphill from my home and I’m worried the Numa and the bag are too long and may touch against my legs and make that “hike” a nightmare. Also, although it’s lightweight, it’s still 7kg + 2kg and that can already be on the verge of being heavy for long walks. Which may sway me into ultra-lightweight 61-key solutions such as the Korg Kross 2 or the Yamaha CK61. Any advice?

Yeah, but in terms of spectral content, a piano has a very fast percussive attack followed by a very fast decay that removes the percussive chaos followed then by a rather slowly changing spectral content only going through a slow sustain-decay. So, with an ADSR you can do one or the other but not both. Notice, I mean approaching the piano sound realistically in terms of timbre, hence filter envelope. If we’re after just following the general amp curve of a piano sound, then the AD approach will work.

That’s true but in practice the iPad experience for musicians is pretty same across all varieties (including the rather limited number of hosts and plugins). Which is in huge contrast to the endless combinations of hardware and software when using a laptop. See, you already start answering with concrete examples 😀 That's what I’m asking for. People from Anchorage who reply and people from the other part of Alaska (I’m from Europe, so my example was apparently not good because I am not very familiar with Alaska, never been there and I thought all of Alaska is the same 🤣)

BTW, almost no synth provides an envelope that would gradually decay while the key is being held like the piano. Which is such a pity. Wondering whether first synth creators thought about that. And nowadays everybody just copies over the classic ADSR with a fixed sustain level.

Not sure why you’re still not getting it 🧐 Nowadays, when people use an external device, they bring either a laptop or an iPad along some keyboards. That’s it. A laptop or an iPad. Two particular classes and the iPad is actually a very specific device, not even a class. Which is why the question is about the iPad because it has its own set of audio/MIDI hosts compared to the desktop OS-es and people will certainly encounter different challenges when connecting it to different keyboards that theoretically support it. You’re inclined on reducing all that matter to the general principles and while that’s the correct way of approaching it, it’s not the easy way for musicians to understand. It would be like someone asking whether a Ferrari is good for Alaska and you starting to give lectures on how it’s not about the particular car brand and location but tire compound, suspension geometry, earth climate science and whatnot. Yeah, you’d be right but you’d probably help zero people that asked for that practical advice.

Filter envelope is applied by using the current filter cutoff as its starting point. Which means that even if you have a slow attack, it would start immediately producing sound if you have some cutoff amount. Which is why you may need a separate amp envelope attack. Etc, etc. P.S. and in the above example you can’t solve the problem with using a fully closed filter as starting point because then you will have a way too big brightness jump. Yeah, you can fix that with a smaller filter env amount but then you will end up at different peak 😉 It’s all interrelated.

You’re focusing too much on the actual word that I used, “integration”. All digital pianos with MIDI can be used to control VST-s but some are better than others. And not only because of the keyboard action. Sensors matter, touch curves matter, presence of audio interface matters (if you would like to bring back the audio through the piano’s speakers), specifics of MIDI matter (e.g. sending 0 or 1 on silent press, sending MIDI off velocity, etc). Asking someone about how well a particular piano integrates with a particular piano VST is a valid question (although the word “integration” is not precise indeed) and focusing on the word itself is not very productive. Yeah, it’s all MIDI, so theoretically it should always work. But that’s not the question, right? I appreciate you bringing precision in the matter but I don’t think it was really what I asked. I’m asking how well a musician can use a Kross with an iPad and I am asking people who have really used it.

P.S. And BTW on their website Korg mention about how one can use Korg Gadget and Korg Module on an iPad with the Kross but there are not many details, so I’m wondering if they mean any type of deeper integration (as discussed above) or if will be just simple MIDI as with any other keyboard? Any experience anyone? Since I own both Gadget and Module but haven’t used them much so far.

As I explained in my PS, I just didn’t phrased it well and asked two questions: how compatible the Kross is with the iPad and how well a musician can “integrate” it with an iPad for live playing where setting split zones quickly, etc. matters. The latter question is specifically about the iPad because on a desktop you have much more software and DAW/host capabilities to control these things there. How sure can you be about that statement? I’m not, which is why I’m asking. Frankly, I prefer opinions of people who tested the particular combination rather than people who think something should work in theory. Maybe you’re right after all but again, I prefer real testimonials. And yes, it can be the iPad’s fault but I prefer knowing in advance if it works with the Kross for live playing rather than which device/keyboard fault it would be when it didn’t work. Thanks, it makes sense. I’m not a native speaker, so I probably messed those two meanings a bit.

@kanefskythanks but I already knew all that 😀 I didn't ask about explanation of what class-compliant is but whether that class-compliant audio and MIDI work well with an iPad because, for example, in the past people complained that the class-compliant audio and MIDI in the Numa Compact used to have huge latency when used with an iPad and in many cases you don’t have any control over buffer size, etc on the iPad, which might be due to default settings on the side of the class-compliant interface itself. As far as I know a later firmware update on the Numa reduced the latency. And when asking about iPad integration I don’t mean a special iPad app for keyboard control, but instead how well an iPad setup works. And no, I don’t mean to compare with Android or Chromebook because nobody (that I know) uses those for music. I am asking specifically for an iPad setup (to avoid people sharing impressions from a desktop OS where often special drivers are provided and that’s not the case with an iPad). Have you used a Korg Kross 2 with an iPad? If so, does it work as expected? Low latency? No hangs? P.S. Well, yes, I didn’t ask my question above well, because I asked both about how well the Kross worked with an iPad, in terms of stability and latency, and also as a MIDI master controller where indeed it doesn’t matter whether there’s an iPad or any other device.

Thanks, didn’t even know Korg had USB Audio interfaces in their (cheaper) boards. How good is the integration with an iPad? Like, for instance, on the CK/CP/YC there’s excellent four-zone MIDI master functionality and on the Numa X it’s even better, treating external and internal zones almost equally by e.g. observing the split point.

https://yamahamusicians.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9811 Seems like you can’t really distinguish them as far as I understand (but V1 is only black, so with the other colors it’s V2). And the V2 supports class-compliant USB MIDI unlike V1. I’d also assume the same applies to USB Audio which certainly means only v2 works with an iPad.

I’m also currently in research for a very lightweight 61-key board that can be worn in a backpack style bag, supports class-compliant audio (hence iPad) but also has internal sounds. So far CK61, MX61v2 are the only boards that match. Which one would you choose and why? I would also consider the Studiologic Numa Compact 2X although it’s 88 key but otherwise is very compact (indeed) and lightweight and has a matching backpack bag.