ok..heres the skinny..Ive owned or played almost all the keys you can imagine..all have problems..I have a Hammond xk3 and the vro9..nothing touches the xk3, but its over 2 grand and I got vr9 for under 1000..its very close to VK8 but not exactly..the twin leslie makes a huge diff in sound..and you gotta do the work and really program it the way you want..percussion is processed by chorus/ vib which is not like B3..and if the B3 sound is at a scale of 10(altho one B can sound diff from another) xk3 is 9.5 vk8 is about an 8 and vr9 would be maybe 8.5..but I can pick it up w 2 fingers and throw it over my shoulders! Ive been gigging and studio for 40 years and these days its about ease..don't blame your tools...a good musician can get a decent sound out of anything..the pianos are ok etc but a lot of it is in your head..if you midi up an 88 weighted keyboard to any piano sound it automatically sounds better..try it (im sure a lot of you guys have)..listen its great to have all the best stuff..sometimes it isn't practical..especially if youre an opening act for a biggie..no time, no stage space etc..youre lucky to get out alive..oh another thing..when u mic a leslie on stage it usually comes out sounding mono anyway..the VR9 ans the xk3 leslies are more than adequate..even Don Leslie said so shortly before he died..as far as piano, the Roland people keep sampling their pianos too close to the hammers..I hate the hammer noise around maybe 800-400k or so..take it from Yamaha,,no hammer noise on my Motifs.bottom line...you get what you pay for you take what to need to each different gig..don't blame your tools..if you want a B3 ..buy one and pay someone to move it..I started in 1973 on all what would be considered vintage stuff and..with all the gremlins, and what it sounds like thru the pa, make it easy on yourself..I used to drag all that stuff around w me includind more modern 88 key motifs etc, but I was just impressing other keyboard players and the sound out front was not any different so...stop complaining, and looking for perfection.it aint here! thx for listening to an old pro..
