chrisfp99

For me it's a no brainer. I admire the dedication of you guys but I've been gigging for 45 years and have never taken more than one board, or had more than 61 keys. With my main band I'm still gigging with my beloved Korg N364. I've had 6 other boards but 5 have gone back, including a Kronos (too complicated and too heavy). I also work with 3 other bands and as the Korg is basically full (but beautifully set up for my needs) I got a Roland FA06. Yes the action is horrible. But more than that the basic sounds (piano, EP, organ, strings) aren't great. For one of the other bands I need a lot of synth and the Roland does a pretty good job for that. Couple of years ago I also joined a blues band and treated myself to my first 88 - a Kurzweil SP6. Only 256 sounds but I loaded the PC3 sound set. It'll do splits and layers and has 1024 multis. I always stay in multi/combi/performance mode and just program all the sounds of all the songs I need in there. Then for each song I punch in the multi number and change sounds via footswitch. That's why I wouldn't consider a board with no numeric keypad (Nord, Yamaha). Pianos are great and I'm happy with the organ sounds I've got (check out Boston Screamer) and wouldn't ever bother with external gear (have seen the Vent mentioned many times but don't really know what it is). My main consideration at my age is weight. Not interested in anything I'm going to struggle to transport. I've considered the PC4 but there's a lot in there I wouldn't use (although smooth sound transition would be great as the SP6 is a little sluggish on patch change). Have been checking the Kurz website periodically in the unexpected hope of a 76. And lo and behold now we have one. I mean who uses the top or bottom few notes anyway? This is so much looking like my perfect keyboard that I'm not sure what I will do with myself without the eternal search to occupy me. The action would have to be pretty awful to put me off. I may sound a bit of a cynic (and I wouldn't argue with that) but I do pretty well in diverse bands and I agree with an earlier comment - the audience don't care what the keyboard action's like or whether the keys trigger high or low etc. I just want one board, light, capable of splits and easy to get to the sounds I want. This is it. Probably a long wait before it arrives in the UK but I'm in no hurry. And I'll pay whatever the price. Just my two cents.

So how does this differ from the Artis? Seems to be cheaper but have better sounds. What's going on? Could be perfect for me.