TJ Cornish

The first instrument that was transformative for me was the Korg OASYS. Best in class sounds at the time, enough resources to do lots of layering/splitting, easy to do a band click track off a sample pad, and best control surface. I loved that thing to death - literally - it took a bump in its road case and the CPU heatsink fell off and shorted something out. It cured my GAS for 9 years, though. The Kronos went forward in a lot of ways, but some of the panache was gone.

If I had to do everything from one manufacturer, it would still be a Korg Kronos. If I only had to play products from the vendor where they have a competitive offering (meaning that since Yamaha doesn't have a full-fledged clone wheel I could still use my XK-5), Yamaha. If they nitpick and say "Stop whining and play organ on a YC" I guess I could maybe put a YC over the Montage M, but I would be tempted to go back to the Kronos.

Might want to check to make sure that is still the case if you do any gigs for money. That matters a lot with my insurance. A business policy is needed to cover equipment used for business.

Aftertouch requires a lot of pressure to activate (it’s bad on the 6 and 7, virtually impossible on the 8), and then you go from nothing to 100% very quickly. One note on the action especially as it relates to piano sounds - tweaking velocity curves is essential. On my Fantom 7 I found that setting the curve to “light” and limiting the max velocity in the scene for the piano layer to 118 prevented tinnyness from always being in the top part of the velocity curve. This may not be as big of a deal on the 8, but for the 6 and 7 it makes a big difference.

What do you want it to do? The Fantom strengths include a pretty logical architecture, great physical control surface, and the entire catalog of Roland sounds. VPiano is acceptable if not class leading. There are some limitations - I don’t think it sounds as good as some other options (probably some stuff in your Grandstage, Yamaha latest-gen such as Montage M), pattern-based sequencer with a short pattern limitation, and some system timing limitations that I have found annoying for certain types of music. Aftertouch also is pretty much broken.

The secret to playing guitar sounds on a keyboard (other than not doing it at all) is to voice them like they would be voiced on guitar strings. A simple major triad chord never comes out of a guitar. Some of the challenge is you need to spread your hands a long way to match the string spread. My favorite “Why is the universe this way?” Moment is the fact that one of the most recognizable synth sounds - the Oberheim saw strings on Jump - was played by a guitar player. In the other direction, one of the most famous bass lines - all of the stuff on Seinfeld - was played on a Korg M1.

I’m curious how old some of the stories in this thread are. Now that keys have been established for 50 years and have sounded good for the last 10 (meaning the ability to replicate other instruments like piano, Hammond, etc., obviously there have been good synth sounds for more than 50 years) I think this sentiment is either found in specific individuals who have ego problems (a concern in every generation), a legitimate concern where they maybe have had the reverse experience where keys players steal all the guitar lines, or a conscious decision to have a particular sound in the band (where hopefully they would have the sense/courtesy to not invite a keyboardist only to not let them play). When I’m teaching keyboard playing - usually to folks who have only piano experience, I say the first rule of keyboards is “don’t play guitar sounds”. This doesn’t mean don’t ever play guitar lines - sometimes there isn’t a guitarist and the keys player needs to cover it, but there is a need to look at this from an orchestration perspective rather than a copy machine perspective. As an aside - the problem I have is not enough of either keyboardists or guitarists that have anything beyond basic skills. I’m a church guy and the world is filled with churches that would love to have skilled musicians but don’t. In many parts of the country, this is one of the best places for playing live music. I’ll leave the faith part of the discussion out of this thread, but my life has been made full and meaningful through my involvement in church and related groups.

I totally agree on store insurance policies; I think the question was about homeowners insurance, which while certainly better than the retail scam, still has enough loopholes that some investigation is necessary.

I have not collected any data, but I suspect 15W isn’t enough to run a lot of keyboards, and a 5v supply is very limiting as well - pro level boards that can push +12dBU or better can put more than a 5V swing on the outputs. Very basic opamps are fed by +15v/-15v, and good pro stuff with headroom probably a lot more, so that means step up conversion in the board for those functions, not to mention the heat of modern processors and more than one keyboard with fans. The full-fledged USB-C spec probably is enough - that can negotiate up to 48v/240 watts, however as you mention, now you have a connector where it looks like you can use any supply, but only high-current laptop-style USB-C bricks will work.

External power supplies are about two things: Cost reduction as often that means the keyboard doesn’t have to be UL listed, and weight savings. If a person is passionate in either direction - e.g. “my 11lb keyboard is SOOOOOO heavy” or “Any piece of gear without an internal power supply is garbage”, the market has an option for you. I personally travel pretty heavy and prefer stuff with internal power supplies and the feel that comes with heavy construction. My cords are IEC on the keyboard end and Powercon on the supply end that plug into my rack. The idea of USB-C as a power connection is interesting - one challenge is that there tends to be a length limit to the length of the USB-C cable - not sure I’ve ever seen one longer than 2 meters. I sure love USB-C on laptops, though!

YMM(Massively)V, but for me: If I’m using my gear to make money - e.g., paid gigs, that should be covered as a line item, and for that matter, getting something to the effect of “DJ” insurance that includes some personal liability if someone trips over your cord is a good idea. If your gear is used in your home for pleasure only, you may not need additional insurance as it’s considered personal property. Obviously check with your agent as this I’m sure differs for each company and possibly each state.

The last several big workstation announcements have not coincided with either NAMM: Montage M October, Roland Fantom September, Kronos 2 November (can’t remember on Nautilus).

“640KB [of RAM] ought to be enough for everybody.” - Bill Gates I think it is interesting to see the progression of technology in fast forward (or actually fast reverse) from our chair in 2024. We stand on the shoulders of giants in every area, for sure. I have wondered what a modern “moon shot” keyboard would look like. Korg did a moon shot in 2005 with the OASYS, and I played my serial number 00034 for 9 years because it was way beyond anything else out there. The Kronos went forward in sound quality but backwards in terms of hardware quality and user interface (among other things, no light ladders on sliders/knobs), and everything Korg has made since are lesser instruments. I picked up a Fantom in 2021 largely to regain the control surface features, and was delighted at the simplicity of the instrument which essentially solved what I thought was the major limitation of the vast majority of boards out there (at least workstations that I have owned) where individual parts don’t sound the same in a performance/combi as they do alone due to insufficient effects processor resources. I now have a Montage M8x which combines the fully-populated effects architecture (and then some) of the Fantom with the better sound quality of the Kronos, however IMO the Yamaha is a step backward in usability. Listening to various forum whinges (including my own), it is clear that there are nits to pick on everything (I have more than a few that I have discovered on the Montage), but many of these relate to UI or feature segmentation decisions (e.g. no sampling on the Montage M8x, no piano roll sequencer). There are a few calls for more polyphony which is definitely hardware-constrained, but it is SOOOO much easier to work around this these days with a little planning and reasonableness. I think probably that any hardware moonshot that would be done today would be in the form of a new generation of ASICs from Yamaha, or another PC integration like the OASYS/Kronos; not sure what could be done with a $25K+ hardware budget these days that couldn’t be done with a $5K hardware budget and software. It’s a good time to be a synth player.

If you are open to learning stuff, check out his channel. I have learned a lot. I apologize for quoting your more recent post than spending the time to inline quote your various slights about him being vacuous clickbaiter.

Dude, this is a keyboard forum. Take a chill pill. The guy in the video programmed the Synclavier for a ton of people including Michael Jackson. His channel is fascinating and includes fairly deep content on lots of great synths. Sit back and enjoy and let him have an opinion.

I was playing - finishing a multi-day conference. Was on the road just after bar close. I escaped the city without incident, but the flashing lights make me sick knowing that a few people have made life alteringly bad decisions. Glad for my bed and hugs from family members!

For those like me that are too young to have been Synclavier-aware during its heyday, the Anthony Marinelli videos have been really enlightening as to what the secret sauce was. The Synclavier is legendary with good reason, and other monster synths of the day including the Fairlight CMI, CS-80, and Yamaha DX1 made huge marks on the world, however in all cases, modern options fully encompass the originals, and based on some historical look backs that I have meandered through the last few months, 40 years of hardware and software advancements have not made me all that nostalgic. I would love to go visit one, but I won’t be getting another mortgage to bring one home. If for some reason I won the lottery, of the two original mega synths, I’d probably opt for the Fairlight, even though the Synclavier was more capable.

I have this one. I use it for work, not music, but it has been invaluable for that.

My Roland Fantom 7 has this, so does my Kronos, Montage M8x, Hammond XK5, and many other pro level keyboards. Those here - and there are many - screaming about weight get the plastic boards with wall warts. C'est la vie.

The M8x requires Gator's largest keyboard case - the Gator GTSA-KEY88D, which adds 33lbs to the M8x's 62, bringing the total to 95lbs and 15,068 cubic inches. The Gator wheels are fantastic, though, which makes a big difference. Ironically, my Hammond XK-5 is in an EWI plywood-style case which adds 50lbs, plus custom foam, a divider, and the Hammond pedal, bringing the weight of the XK-5 to darn near the M8x. My biggest complaint about the M8x is that it is so thick - I'm sitting on a pillow to get my elbows high enough so I'm not imitating a T-rex. I assume there is some reason for the depth, but yikes. My daily driver is a full size Ford Transit cargo van. As you pointed out, the low load-in makes all the difference compared to the typical manhood-compensating pickup truck, of which the loading height seems to increase with every model year.

Shout loudly “Ha! I’ve screwed up way bigger gigs than this! What are you looking at?” And keep playing. In all seriousness, nobody died and probably few noticed. Dust yourself off and do the next show.

It’s unclear to me if cases count in the weight calculation. I carry an XK-5 in a hard case and a ROMpler of some kind in another hard case, plus a back pack full of cords and pedals and a rack with a mixer and IEM system. Total weight is pushing probably 300 lbs, but it’s in manageable pieces. I’m a church guy that plays most of my shows in a nice room with an easy load-in, so that hasn’t been enough of an annoyance to do less. I did purchase a Fantom 7 as the 80/20 keyboard - in theory good enough for everything in one package. I tried organ on it and while maybe no one else noticed, I did, and it didn’t take too long for the XK-5 to rejoin the rig. If that makes my gigging age -200, well, I guess I will be here a while.

This (the last one) is at least the third video I have seen people post where they simply misunderstand the instrument and call them bugs. He is not wrong about the pattern structure being odd, but he completely misunderstands what Live Set does.

Most expensive main-line keyboard since the Korg OASYS: Nord Stage 4 Lowest dollar per cubic inch ratio of a flagship workstation: Yamaha Montage M8x Out-of-stock-est audio interface manufacturer: MOTU

Thanks for that link! I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I saw this video on TV of Herbie Hancock demonstrating the Fairlight on Sesame Street. At the time I had a $29 Casio of some kind with about 4 octaves, but the name "synthesizer" resonated, so I gave my little keyboard the title promotion to "synthesizer". It awakened my love for the intersection of technology and music, and helped me endure the 'hell' of classical music piano lessons, knowing that there was more out there to explore.