MotiDave

My first board ever was a Roland, i"m emotionally attached to the brand - for some things that 'Roland sound' is just great. This looks really sweet for function and capability - it also looks absolutely ginormous! Holy crap it looks huge in every direction possible. I didnt check weight specs, i assume its heavy too. I"d be a 7 customer so expecting in the 40 lb ballpark which means it needs (imo) a sturdy case so another 30-40 lbs for case.

Game Changer.

I own four. I think i may know where they are. I don"t use any of them - i run straight HW only

I"ve been gigging with a Yamaha wart for 3+ years. I bought a spare after this forum freaked me out but I"ve never had an issue.

I flew from San Diego to St Louis for a show, our rider called for a Motif XF7. I showed up with a USB stick and my flash board of samples and the guy showed up at the venue with a Motif XS7 and said 'what?' You"d be surprised. I fly in with my keys now, i bought a lightweight board just for it. I"m now flying with a MODX7 in an SKB molded ATA case - total weight is about 35 lbs, under length limits for airlines. We usually fly SW as guitar players bring 2 guitars, so it flies free. I have status on Delta so it flies free there too. Other airlines its just standard luggage rate, no oversize/weight fees. OP - might as well get a Motif XF vs XS. Anyone with an XS can load their file into an XF, but you can"t go backwards from XF to XS (not without 3rd party software to convert it). I have a Motif XF7 i"ll Sell cheap if you"re interested.

No. Bands that are backlining equipment are going to a venue with a full sound system. Keys player runs through a house monitor for stage sound. Have a PPA at the ready, if they ask for a KC just bring the PPA and tell em you did him favor

I had no idea that Yamaha owned Korg. That"s a wow for me. I"m so out of touch. I can"t help with the 88 question, my first question is if strength/pain is the key priority driving the light action need - is OP completely against playing a synth/semi weighted action? And would 76 keys meet the need. Night and day in terms of required force but you don"t have the expression of a piano-type feel and you dont have 88. Good luck to OP ... wish you well brother.

Yeah, I dunno. Seems like only the guys are having fun. The gals seem reluctant ... maybe they just think that song sucks as much as i do. I dunno, can"t quite put my finger on it ...

I agree, Lars was right about Napster, he"s right about streaming. Your friends should be giving you lines of coke so they can hang out with your groupies.

I was hoping for Foreplay, and I got bamboozled into listening to jazz. You guys get me every time!

Hey, remember before they had electricity and if you wanted to play loud you just beat the sh** out of the keys really hard? no patch living ... can"t even imagine. I never had a board without patch memory, though my first one only had about 14 memory slots and about every 3 months the board would have an internal spasm glitch and wipe all the programs out. Its ironic to read this thread on an internet based computer forum (iPad for me) - imagine if we had to type in code, compile it, and execute every time we wanted to communicate a random thought here. Or write in assembly language. Or just write 0s and 1s. We wouldn"t bother - we"d just go outside and meet up at the arcade or liquor store. Life is too short for me and i"ve too many other things to do - i"ve learned bits and pieces of synthesizing (not nearly enough) during the act of programming patches - but i am not the explorer many here are. I learn for as long as it takes me to get what i want, then i press save and stop. When i cant find a sufficient patch for the next thing I want, i find the closest I can and tweak till i"m there. Again - save and stop. But you guys knob on ... have fun. No objections here.

dont try that with a Kronos or montage 88.

Keys on my MODX7 are fantastic for me, but i"m a moron rock hack. I play mostly synth-type or electric keys based loud rock band rock n roll, when I use piano its not nuanced and i don"t care. I have maybe one song per show where precise velocity control would have meaningful impact on a song. I wouldn"t bother to bring a second weighted controller for one or two piano songs in an entire show if they paid me twice. Screw that - I just set the global curve to soft and intentionally program out some of the velocity sensitivity to compensate for the poor velocity control ... I just bang and rip it. I do one Bowie set that is a lot of piano with songs like Life on Mars, Oh You Pretty Things, Lady Stardust, etc.. but a second controller even there? fugghetit, its just gonna have to rock its way out. The piano tones are very good imo, just not very controllable, gotta program it to get it to be just right. MODX is not the right board for nuanced piano players. I thought the MODX8 sucked when I tried it out for kicks at a store, like playing thru mud. Slow, sluggish, sloth-like response and still fairly poor controllability imo. But I hated Motif XF8 too. Not every board is for every player. If you"re playing piano bar solo or velocity control-sensitive keys - just don"t get a MODX. Buy a big weighted board, put it in your big car or van and carry that big giant heavy behemoth into your show. Get a rocknroll cart so you don"t kill yourself. I"ll stroll in with my 7 on my back, flip it up on my Ultimate AX-48 with one hand, rock the house with everything from synth to EP to FM to 'Analog' to AP to organs, adding in great non-key sounds and sound effects here n there, and i"m happy. but thats just me, ymmv.

I haven"t played weighted keys since I was a kid at the piano. I"m like you, weighted boards for me are like running in mud. More thought, work, effort to just try to get there. I accept I play with less nuance on semi/unweighted.

I once had a BL co promise a Motif XF7. Called twice to confirm. We fly in , get to the venue for soundcheck and its an XS7. BL dude is 'what, thats the same, isn"t it?'. I said uh no, i can"t put my flash board with custom sounds into it. And my library file won"t load even for preset waveforms (samples). I ponder how long it would take me to try to program an XS to get close to what I need for that set (it was a Bon Jovi tribute, so fairly credible sounds are kinda important to justify why anyone would bother to fly us in for a show to begin with). The splits and layers are trivial and quick, but the underlying Voices (in Yamaha speak) took me tens and tens of hours to develop over time. I"m panicked now, i don"t have that much time. Dude calls around and says he"s got it - leaves and comes back 30 min before downbeat with an XF8. Ok, i can load my programs. Up loaded and running in under 5 min. Had to play a weighted 88 which was slow and sluggish compared to semi-weighted for a mostly synth set, but made it thru. I muddled around with Mainstage and creating a laptop rig, i never got as far as Song 2 w.r.t. sculpting exact tones. Just didn"t take to it, didnt" spend time to learn it, and just gave up. Still wish I could but no time for that tech study project. Too busy learning the notes I need to play. Next Fly-in show I bought a MOXF6 that could load all of my programs, and i havent flown into a gig without my own board since. I have severe BL Trust Issues now. Now 2019 - I upgraded to a MODX7, back to 76 semi keys which is lovely for me. Point - Depending on what the artist does, the exact model can be necessary, unfortunately.

I think OPs question reveals his answer. He wants the grand. Get the grand. A 6" piano in a 20" room - doesn"t seem overwhelming to me. I mean - its a music room and it has a fabulous grand as the centerpiece. Nothing out of order here ... you could still fit a band in there if you actually wanted to. We"ve all crammed in much smaller rehearsal spaces, thats for sure

If you set up performances for each song, you can absolutely save the EQ settings plus a lot more... Or just go and adjust the PA channel EQ? I seldom tweak EQs in the MODX, really. Seems fairly well mixed internally. Sometimes i want to emphasize a particular frequency range, but I never had felt the need to re-EQ performance just to get them to sound right. I"ve never looked for a global EQ settings, not sure if it exists and not sure you"d want to EQ every performance the same anyway. you can adjust EQ of individual parts or the performance overall and save it forever, but yes that is each performance one by one. And of course, you can"t modify and then save a preset itself - but you can modify it and save your new version to User memory. much depends on the band, the songs, the performances (sounds) you"re playing, the notes you"re playing, etc. Usually the sound system matters the most in my experience. I"m reluctant to retune all performances to one individual PA unless that is the same PA the band will play through in live shows. ... yes ... interesting observation. Ive noticed that performances are 'brighter' in most every sound system than they sound in my headphones (ATX50s). Earlier someone else asked 6 ot 7 - do not doubt or hesitate - get the 7 without doubt. Its freakishly short on footprint and light for a 76 and that extra octave is gold. The main reason I got the MODX7 was i had been switching from my Motif XF7 which was too heavy and big for fly-ins to a MOXF6. But MOXF6 lacked that extra octave and was a pain for menu diving to do much of anything too on its tiny monochrome screen. MODX7 interface is so easy compared to prior Yamahas ... finally an interface that is relatively easy to do advanced things. Its just a lot easier at everything for gigging imo. Local gigs is an easy backpack, fly ins ride as standard luggage rules (not oversize/overweight) in an SKB or Gator molded TSA case.

Flawless execution, well done! Once again a well played 'its not my vibe' variant successfully assuages the unwanted band and leaves them happy and wanting more of said masterkeyboardplayerdude! If people can take even one bit from this thread ... it is this. Every other alternative response is less attractive than this simple and timeless beauty. I tend to know the musicians that ask me to play with them already - i know their talent. Generally they are more talented than i am. Not a problem. But 'the vibe' thing is critical to me, i have to want to play the music. Once i hear 'yeah, we do a wide range of classic rock - mostly 60s and 70s, folk and blues ...' i"m Out. I"m a head banger - i need that rush of crappy hard rock to get vibed lol. No point lying to ourselves here. Or if I know the lead singer is not a great front person. I just don"t want to play in a band where the front person isn"t a great singer or isn"t a charismatic front performer. Or is really fat. Sorry. Come to think of it-i have a new add to that singer list - if the asshole tells stupid lame pun-inspired jokes that either indicate he"s a douche or preview the next songs title ... between every song. Every. Single. Song. Lesson learned tharrrr.

Wasn"t MODX released in September?

I moved from Motif XF7 to MOXF6 as a fly-in board, and now to MODX7. Sound wise MODX isi a modest but identifiable improvement. Much better APs imo, a lot of new sounds with motion controls, plus all the old MOXF ones you liked ... I don"t use alot of FM but others find that a great add. My bands have all said it sounds better but its not night and day to my ears. Its a modest step up, not a quantum leap. But in terms of gig-friendly, programming ease, live set function, and god bless a 76 key version that is only 3' longer than MOXF6, its night and day a more usable gigging board imo. Super knob sounds dorky but can actually do some cool things. You know the hassle to rearrange set lists in MOXF, its easy in MODX and best yet you can read the screen! I love its ease of use, light weight, portability and power packing punch. I use it as a one-board gigging machine, very easy to create all the layers, splits, switching parts on/off (to expand from one set of splits to 2, 3, 4 different split scenarios) that I need. Easy to import all of your MOXF programming you"ve done in the past, as you learn MODX"s new power you can still play what you were playing yesterday. I take it on fly-in gigs and its under the weight and length limits in an SKP molded case so it flies as standard luggage = free on SWA, free for me on Delta due to my FF status. My travel band always flies SWA as guitarists and bass players bring stuff too. Its a cheap keyboard for a pro gigging machine - i don"t know what competes at $1500? I have a GC bud who gave me a 15% coupon, so i only paid $1300-ish. A lot of guys love other brands, all"s cool - i can"t knock that. But if you were good with MOXF, you"ll really like MODX alot. Jmo.

I"d be careful with a few of the ideas here: 1. if you learned a handful of audition songs, gotten yourself to their audition, set up all your pro gear, and started playing with the band ... its a bit late to say you"re kinda too busy. Plus - if you wanted to audition for them, you"ll want to audition for someone else - and word will be around soon enough if you join a different band. 2. If you try the ol 'i tried out for another band and it just felt like a little better fit - but you guys are great, good luck!' - you"re likely to get hit back with 'oh, no worries brah, its all cool - so whats the name of the band you"re joining? We know a lot of the bands around here, we"ll come see your play'. DOH! Best not to make up clever shit. Avoid elaborate stories, someone above said it right - the more you talk the sooner you"ll get caught. Might as well just come out with it and tell them they suck. Otherwise just tell them a version of it doesn"t feel like the right set for you, its not quite your vibe, blah blah - something vague and non-judgmental like that. Simple, easy, non-offensive, and you"re out.

I turn down band offers frequently. A lot of us do, some of us not because we are so great but because reliable rock keyboardists are 10x harder to find than a guitarist or bassist. We are unicorn-like. I always use the 'you guys are great but its not my vibe' excuse, personally. Ive used the 'don"t have time for another project right now' too. Only use that one if you"re not going to immediately take on a different project you like, though - as they will hear about it. And technically the first one is true - playing with a gaggle of hacks is not my vibe. I won"t play in a band if everyone is at my skill level. I need a much better lead guitarist and much better lead singer, talent wise, than modest ol me.

I take umbrage. I get it, bro, and I wish it wasnt me that had to divulge this. Take some time ... let it sink in, this can"t be easy. But the signs were all there. Witness: your bright red shirt - waving as a glorious albeit subconscious admission of red-flagness. You already knew when you got dressed, you just didn"t know that you knew

There are no red flags with keyboard players. Only guitarists, lead singers, bass players and drummers. Oh, and that annoying sax guy.

I worked in R&D for one of the big golf mfgs for 4 yrs. I"d tell you it makes a fairly small difference and probably not worth the cost of changing, but that all depends how obsessive a golfer you are. If golf is THAT important - every difference is a difference.