Bif_

You mean the preset recall buttons? Everything that's under the keys.

What a dumb place for the controls. It may have been smart to add that feature........accessibility. Plenty of room above the keys. Nice that it's programmable though.

Yeah, but without me you're nothing. Also with me you're nothing. Hmm. I have nothing to add, but by adding it I must have added something, even if it WAS nothing, thereby rendering my response potentially off topic.

For clarity's sake, my previous post is the only one that's truly on topic.

I recall the insane effort that Yamaha invested in the Motif's EP's. Saw a video of their obsessive attention to detail, citing research in specific Rhodes pianos, effects, etc. The Japanese engineers seemed to be crazy obsessed, and this was just for EP programs on a workstation. I'm confident they COULD break down how to get to a great Leslie sound, but I suspect it's not deemed a priority, or it would have otherwise been done. Regarding Neo licensing (or whatever they'd do), That's the move they make when they're ready to retire. Doing it now would likely destroy their current business model.

Hang in there - I reckon a Yammy synth is coming! Might be the SK30 though. I owned an SK30 back in the day. What a great board at the time. I got a lot of mileage out of the monosynth section too.

Just watched the video on the linked page...... The dude in the video was 'playing' the knobs, never touched the keys. How "exciting".

Not to belabor my responses, but; - Yes, the Forte is way ahead and one of the main benefits I'm enjoying versus the PC3 I previously owned. - Kurzweil's website has a ton of programs. You can load any of the PC3's programs into the Forte so you should be able to find something similar to what you're looking for and tweak as opposed to creating a sound from scratch. I'm a tweaker, not a programmer, and this has served me well. - The PC4 has 256 note polyphony but less FX blocks. In my experience, the Forte's polyphony isn't a practical limitation. If you're trying to layer 4 pads with long decays, you may run into problems, but generally speaking, you don't need to do that. Layering sounds that don't have long decays, Kurzweils voice stealing algorithm works extremely well. But I agree with what you've said, I'd like more of everything too. I must say, I'm intrigued by the Kronos, but I can't justify the expense. Looks like a wonderful machine.

I have something similar, but it's 88 keys. Oh wait, that's my Forte when I leave the power off.

All manner of pianos in the Kurz. They are wonderful. Setting up splits and layers is dead simple on the Forte, much, much easier than on the PC3. Dedicated buttons allow setting up to a four sounds (layered or split) with ease. Easy to change key ranges and octaves. It's possible to run out of FX blocks but I don't consider that to be a practical limitation. The Forte has 'Favorites', with 10 sounds on dedicated buttons directly beneath the display. This single feature (IMO) makes the Forte extremely desirable for a church setting where many users can't navigate otherwise. I've set ours up so that any of or players knows they have strings, EP, AP, organ, several synth pads, etc., easily accessible. I also set up the AP and EP's so that additional layers have various string/pads layered. These can be combined with each other or the EP or AP, creating many variations under one 'Favorite'. I can't speak to the ease of use of the Kronos (as a comparison) as I don't have any direct knowledge, but I think the Forte's user interface is about as easy at it can get for a high-end synth. This facet of this thread is very complex. When you start talking about the caliber of player available. Mainstage has been mentioned and I'm savvy enough to figure it out, but I don't want to be the 'Mainstage' guy at our church and therefore be forced to set up all those programs for every song we do. (Yes, we're doing top 40 Christian worship music). We've used some tracks for some synth parts on occasion but mostly have a piano player and a 'keys' player. As our 'keys' player, I cover as much as I can on a Motif and the Forte. Trying to cover signature lead synth parts, pads, often adding organ parts that might not otherwise exist, while blending "make it sound like the record" and "make it your own". Many layers to this onion.

Link fixed in my post. Still not working for me, sorry. Sorry it's not working. You can also search "pc3 Leslie comparison" on YouTube to find this. Try this. "https://youtu.be/616uZSd6xmg" (copy and paste without the quote marks)

Link fixed in my post.

Regarding comments in this thread related to the PC3/Forte Leslie, I believe the effects program I'm using works well in the live setting (no disrespect to anyone's opinion). Watch this video for a comparison of it to a real Leslie. I recently sold my PC3 and purchases a Forte. The organs/leslie effect on the Forte did not knock my socks off when compared to the PC3. They are mostly the same or at least similar (but certainly not bad). I own a Neo Vent and love it. The PC3/Forte effect is obviously not as good, but in a live band setting I enjoy using it. I've taken the Vent before and for ease of use, it's just not worth switching the Vent to bypass when using other sounds and again, it gets harder to discern in a band. (FWIW, top 40/contemporary church band). I still rely on the program that's demonstrated in the video. It also can dial in some distortion (using the mod wheel) that adds a very nice grit to the tone. It suits me well and evokes the Leslie vibe well. I can't say how it compares to the Kronos as I don't have direct knowledge.

A fan blowing across the instrument may help mitigate the problem. Condensation is a byproduct of humidity and the dew point. Air movement lessens that effect.

Yeah, that was the beginning of me learning how to do cover tunes by myself. Breaking down drum parts, bass parts, etc. I've advanced with that and sequenced quite a lot of cover tunes over the years. It's a curse at times in that when I listen to music, I sometimes get wrapped up in the constituent parts rather than being able to listen to it as a whole. All true, and I finally figured out how nice it is to add reverb (except the bass, NEVER add reverb to the bass )

The other thread "GAS Flashback-Digital recorders' prompted this post, but for a very different reason. Around the mid 80's I was all about the one-man band concept. I'd seen an artist using Oberheim's DSX sequencer (pre-midi, and proprietary format). Way out of my price range. At the same time period, I'd been in a 5 piece Christian rock band (during the beginning of the CCM movement). The band had broken up, and not a lot of people that wanted to play the genre, so I decided to buy a Fostex 250 (4 track to cassette, to create my own accompaniment tracks), and a Yamaha RX-15 drum machine to use with my newly purchased DX-7. I knew very little about recording, but optimized my setup by putting drums on a track, bass on a track and two other keyboard parts on the remaining two tracks (all using the DX-7. I played a live part on the DX. My inelegant solution for tracks, was that I mixed the Fostex tracks to standard audio cassettes, one song per cassette. I also purchased an outboard DBX noise reduction unit to minimize hiss since it was all going through a decent PA (Yamaha EM300 and two of those huge Yamaha 2-way 15's they sold at the same time). I sang, and had another male and female vocalist, so three part harmony with recorded tracks and live DX-7 played by myself. I just dug out the Fostex (I'm purging some old possessions) and have listened to a few of the tracks I recorded. I'm amazed at how accurate my timing was considering I played it all live to tape, one track at a time, using only the drum track for timing reference. I'm also amazed at how much mileage I got out of the DX-7's sounds. Funny thing is that I didn't put reverb on anything! (I just didn't know any better.) That setup worked so well since each song was on a separate tape, I could change the order of our songs on the fly. Since the DX was "the keyboard" then, it was musically relevant. At the time it was a great sound and great way to perform.

Well, I had far better luck fixing the Casio than making the half moon switch. I'd worked on this Casio back in the summer while visiting my daughter in Florida. It had been damaged during a move. With limited tools, time and workspace I could not fix it, even with the help from here as I'd posted about it at that time. My daughter and her husband were home here for Christmas and they brought it along. Took about three hours total for teardown, repair, reassemble and testing (played it for a bit). The actual fix was about 15 minutes, snapping weighted arms in place on the bottom of a few dozen keys. I now know how to pull the entire keybed out of a Casio DP. Another skillset in my brain and some restoration of my DIY chops.

FWIW.......I've got less than $15 in this switch. Got the 3 way switch for $9, it's smooth as silk. The project box was $1.50 and the 1/4" stereo plug $1.75, all on Amazon. Had cable laying around.

BINGO! Success!! Thank you. My DIY ego is bruised by my oversight. I'm grateful for the assistance here. Funny sidenote.....I made the wiring changes, hooked everything up and.......it didn't work. Thought I'd lose my mind. Finally figured out the 1/4" stereo jack I was using was wonky, something weird with the sleeve. Had to bend it a bit to get it to work, a poor connection between the point of solder connection and the actual sleeve. Many thanks for all the responses and assistance here. Great people here. Although my DIY chops are weakened I'm getting ready to try to repair a Casio DP for my daughter. We'll see how that goes.

I'm using this switch. CLONK I've wired it as follows: "Neck position" = 'Slow', sleeve is braided ground wires to pin 8, tip wired to pins 2,3. "Bridge position" = 'Fast', sleeve is braided ground wire to pin 1, ring wired to pins 6,7. "Center position" = 'Stop', sleeve doesn't go to either tip or ring The braided ground is around each of the two wires but are twisted together and soldered to the sleeve on the jack. I also put a jumper wire on the switch from pin 1 to pin 8. I know that's redundant but did it anyway. When I plug it into the Vent, the Vent doesn't respond in any way to the position of the switches, UNLESS I toggle the fast speed via the Vent's switch. If I do that, then move the remote switch, regardless of the position of the remote switch, it goes to slow speed only. I'm reasonably certain the Vent is operating correctly as I was able to toggle slow, stop and fast using jumper leads directly to the jack when plugged into the Vent remote output.

Thanks for both responses. To clarify, I have an original neo ventilator and therefore need a single pole double throw switch to have selection of slow and fast speeds. I'm using a stereo shielded cable with the braided Shields going to the sleeve and each of the stereo pair going to the ring and tip respectively. I picked up the three-way switch to simulate a half moon switch. In the center position the sleeve is open to both the ring and tip, thereby stopping all speaker rotation. My wiring is correct but it doesn't work. I have no idea why something this simple doesn't work.

The OP seems to want to stay with specific Yamaha gear (as ProfD just mentioned). Here's food for thought for his specific request. Your comparison of the three keyboards mentioned is apples and oranges. I can assure you the Motif Classic 7 has a far better keybed than the MOXF 6 (and probably the MODX 6). I have the ES 7 and MOXF 6. They are night and day different. The ES plays like butter, the MOXF 6 is tolerable but not as good. Also, going from 76 to 61 keys may be more noticeable than you've considered. The MOXF 8 should provide a nice playing experience but not necessarily better than the Classic 7. Depends how important weighted keys are to you. Moving the MOXF 8 will be tougher than the Classic 7. The MOXF 6 weighs around 12 pounds, it's easy to schlep it around. The MOXF series should have a better sequencer and will certainly have more sounds available but if you don't need more sounds that doesn't matter. The other consideration (if I'm you) is how long do you think your Classic 7 will hold up? Depending on how much you use it, it may be nearing the end of its life.

I know how to do this but it isn't working. Losing my mind over it. I have a three way switch (made for switching pickups on a guitar). I've wired it correctly but the Vent won't respond to it. I plugged a 1/4" jack into the Vent and used test leads to jumper from ground to ring and tip to actuate slow/fast speed. It works perfectly. I connected the three way switch to the 1/4" jack using test leads. It works perfectly. When I solder my wiring to the jack, it won't work. I'm using a cable that has two wires, each with their own braided ground around them. I connected the ground braids at the jack and switch and use each of the wires for ring and tip respectively. And yes, I've tested the wire and each conductor has continuity. I've done this type of easy stuff all my life but guess I'm missing something. Any suggestions?

I learned in business long ago, you don't copy bad ideas.