I had a wonderful time at NAMM 2020. I know many of you want to know more about what happened in the Viscount booth and in particular, the new 70s stage keyboard. In full disclosure, I"m a Viscount Legend Artist and I performed and presented at the booth.
On the floor there were 3 models - the 73 and 88 with a Fatar action (Elvio said it was similar to the Nord action although I"m not sure exactly which one) and the wood action 88. I liked the action on all of them although the wood action 88 was extremely nice to play. The 70s comes standard with an ep module (5 rhodes, 2 wurlitzers, and an e grand) and a sound collection bank which has pads, strings, choir, brass, keyboard, organ, bass, guitar, bells, marimba, and other sounds. More sounds will be available for the collection bank. For an extra cost, you can add two modules - the acoustic piano module and the clavinet module. It"s very easy to add the different modules. Three screws hold the top rail and you can easily remove the rail and add different modules. There is a full effects section which you can easily add several effects like reverb, wah, etc. You can also split the keyboard and it has an extensive midi implementation.
Even though I had never played the keyboard, I was surprised at how intuitive it was to play. Having different modules made it dead simple to understand which sound was playing. One thing I immediately noticed was how easy it was to control the volume levels if I had two voices layered or in split mode. There is an easy to read display and a 3 band eq as well. I really liked the look of the keyboard. It has a flat top where you can put another keyboard like the Viscount solo on top. There is also an iPad editor where you can dial in your sounds.
The big question - how does it sound? Playing at NAMM is never the best way to audition a keyboard especially with all the ambient noise. However, I thought the sounds were extremely playable and detailed. I really enjoyed playing the acoustic pianos. There are eight models and separate dynamic and brilliance knobs. I wish I could have spent more time on each sound but time is always limited at NAMM. Joey Defrancesco played the 70s with a trio (drums/sax). He mainly used the piano, ep, and bass sound. I was very impressed at the bass sound! It had a nice woody thunk.
If anyone has questions about the instrument, let me know.