Mighty Motif Max

They're pretty different feeling - if you're not playing a lot of uptempo music (ragtime, modern pop/disco stuff), you should be fine with the PC4's keybed. I however am not...having owned one since 2021, I just find it frustrating when I do a gig with it because the keybed just isn't where I want it to be, and the pianos also don't work for me really. When I first got the PC4 and was just playing slower pieces and classical stuff (no jazz/ragtime/pop gigs because of COVID), I actually really liked the keybed, as you'll find in some old posts from me. But over time I grew to really dislike it. If you like the feel of Roland's PHA4-Standard/Ivory Feel G keybed (Juno DS88, FA08, FP30/30X, etc), you'll be fine with the PC4. I'm not a fan of either. There's just a point where the action physically doesn't return fast enough for some parts, and no amount of finger strength can overcome that (think for disco string lines at 125bpm). I'm actually planning on upgrading to a Nord Stage 4, which has the "M"/medium variant of the TP40 action in the K2700 - which is the "L"/light version. That's still not a super heavy action even in the medium variant, so I'm sure the K2700's is not in the same position as the PC4's keybed.

Korg is the way to go, by far. The Nautilus is your best bet for a current product. I say that as a Yamaha/Roland/Hammond user who’s saving up for a Nord - I just don’t have those types of gigs, but I like the music. In the past, I also have done the vintage Korg stuff for the sake of emulating some the older Nightwish patches and such (the N-series Korgs from the ‘90s), but I would strongly suggest sticking with a current keyboard. If you really decide you want some of those older patches, you can get older rack modules (like the X5DR) that will get you there without dealing with a full keyboard that’s probably getting a bit old to gig with (that type of gear stays in the studio for me).

Happy Birthday Dave! And I'm so sorry about your dog!

I’m not sure how either the full Ivory or the Korg Module version stack up, but my go-to piano sound set on my MODX is the Synthogy American Grand, which is also based on the samples used in one of the Ivory models. It’s great for louder rock stuff as well as more moderate pop stuff. It’s my default for live use, over anything else I’ve tried.

This really depends on the gig for me - as odd as it sounds, I actually have gotten some decent usage out of the Hammond SKpro's monosynth, since it's almost always paired with my MODX7 as the "main" board. Programming isn't hard and it sounds pretty good. If a gig is truly synth-heavy, I'll pull out my Fantom 7. I'd love to use an actual synth in a gig rig one day, but I don't own anything quite like that right now (like an Osmose, Take 5, or Anyma Omega). Genres for band gigs are mostly modern worship, modern pop, electronic, '80s pop/rock, symphonic metal/hard rock. Some jazz fusion stuff in there as well.

This is super interesting - I used to use a DP-10 with my PC4, but eventually realized that it was never at "0", and so there was always a small amount of sustain present in half-damper mode.

It's an old sample, but I've been pretty happy with what I hear out front when we have another keys player that week. The other folks largely use the 5-6 presets I've set up, so it's been helpful for me to hear how it really sounds out front, since our monitoring is in stereo but the final FOH mix is summed to mono. The livestream also has main keys in mono, but aux keys in stereo. The presets I've set up for our church's NS3 88 are more or less the following: Upright/Grand - Panel A: Queen Upright L with Bright EQ, KB Touch = 2, Hall Reverb 2 on the Bright setting (usually a small amount, but this can be cranked up for ambient passages) - Panel B: Royal Grand 3D XL with Bright EQ, KB Touch = 2, Hall Reverb 2 with Bright setting (usually a small amount, but this can be cranked up for ambient passages) Bright Pianos - Panel A: Black Upright L with Bright EQ, KB Touch = 2, same reverb settings as above - Panel B: Bright Grand XL with Bright EQ, KB Touch = 1 (I think), ping-pong delay available on a switch, Hall Reverb 2 with similar settings as above Rhodes/Wurli Panel A: EP1 MK1 with Bright EQ, Twin amp sim, compression, Auto-Pan and Phaser 2 available on switches, mono delay with a medium delay time available, and Hall Reverb 2 w/Bright Panel B: Wurlitzer 2 Amped, Trem with medium depth/rate, compression, Hall Reverb 2 w/Bright All of the above have either a modified Supersaw Pad or Warm Pad 2 available to switch on in the synth section and a basic B3 with rotary, CV Chorus 3, and a small amount of drive (no percussion) on the organ engine, ready to switch on.

I'm not seeing any specs on polyphony yet - hopefully they didn't cripple it that way. The GO:KEYS 5 looks like a good contender for a controller with built-in audio for a Mainstage rig, maybe paired with a Nanokontrol for CC/mod control if necessary. I'm thinking for those basic use cases like at a church for a pads player, or something.

I use the Queen Upright most of the time on my church's Stage 3. It doesn't suffer as much in mono as many of the samples do. They don't have the White Grand loaded in, so I haven't gotten to play with that.

Wow, blast from the past! I've used an MG-10XU in the years since posting this thread, and mount it on a mic stand or on an attachment on my keys rig for some gigs.

It should be in the IFX settings I believe...you'd want to bypass the leslie simulation.

New board from Roland - seems to be a stripped-down RD-88. Additional abilities including USB audio are purchasable via Roland Cloud. https://www.roland.com/global/products/rd-08/

I swear by the Etymotic Research ETY Plugs - I've used these guys for the past three years and, so long as you wash them and keep them clear from earwax blockages, I don't notice too much high-end cutoff. I have also used the Hearos plugs previously mentioned here, and don't find them to be quite as good as the ETY Plugs. You should be able to get around a year out of a pair if you take good care of them. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EarPlugPro--etymotic-research-ety-plugs-high-fidelity-earplugs-large-fit

Electro-Voice just released the next generation of their ZLX line - the ZLX G2. 8", 12", and 15" options, passive and active versions. Weights are 23.46 lbs, 32.67lbs, and 37 lbs, respectively. I actually ran into one of these (the active 12" version) today at Guitar Center and played some recorded keys tracks I've made through it. Coming off of a week of gigs using my ELX200-10p model, these new models are not quite there IMO, but they're a perfectly reasonable speaker. Of course, I only tried it in mono with recorded tracks and it was on a shelf, so not exactly ideal conditions. Might be worth checking out. https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/zlx-g2-powered-loudspeaker/ https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/zlx-g2-passive-loudspeaker/ I will say - my experience with my ELX200-10p, the next model series in the lineup, has been that it's a good general-purpose speaker but is lacking in the low end compared to even my old Yamaha MSR100, which was a mere 8". I notice it mostly when playing left-hand bass with my SK Pro - the low end drops off fast. It's also not a fan of Minnesota temperatures and needs significant time to warm up enough for the DSP to turn on - not a great fit for unheated storage in winter.

From another thread...

I love my MODX for gigs as a do-it all (well, other than organs, though the Organimation patches work in a pinch). However, it's absolutely something that you don't tweak on the go much. I've gotten reasonably good at building Performances fairly quickly on the fly, but that's for more general things like patches, splits/layers, levels, some basic Scene settings (levels and parts on/off), reverb sends, controller filtering, and eq's. Anything further isn't going to happen in that environment. For actually dialing in stuff while playing, my Fantom 7 is superior in many regards (mainly because you can see more stuff for different parts simultaneously). However, for actually creating patches when I have time, the MODX is easier to use than the Fantom for me. But it's nowhere near as quick. That's why I actually (heresy alert) programmed a synth lead on my SKpro 73 for one of the songs in our set...it was way faster to get a patch that was in the ballpark using that, even though it's literally a monosynth added on to a clonewheel.

The Motif XF with its full sequencer had a max of 64 songs, and another 64 patterns if you used that mode. So I wouldn’t be surprised… The nice thing is that the Montage doesn’t require you to use songs to have multitimbral setups, unlike the Motif (Mixing mode was how you got up to 16 sounds available). That 64-count limit was a pain then.

I'm surprised that they would have effects controllable via hardware but not EQ...I mean, analog consoles without effects were the norm for a long time, so not having EQ controllable without the app seems unusual to me.

Um, so plenty of indigenous people call the land allotted to them by the government (regardless of the injustice of that situation to begin with) by that name...well, some of my friends refer to it as "the rez", but that's about it. Maybe this varies by the state.

@Julius D Majestic Studios

I love that you are using that kind of a rig for what appears to be a church event. I’ve done 4 boards once or twice (well, 3 plus a grand piano), but it’s never been that synth heavy. Very cool.

Ya know, this is getting insane. Here's my take that no one asked for - I'm not a big fan of Beato's, but that's not through any fault of his own. He's just focused on a different lane than generally attracts my interest musically - and that's okay. Thank God for diversity - I'm sure plenty of his viewers wouldn't like some of the stuff I like, and so forth. And I think it's awesome that he's getting in the mainstream news. We need more positive musician coverage. Go Rick! Even if I don't watch his stuff much. Y'all do realize you don't have to like someone's music all that much to support them as a fellow musician, right? Same as any other field/topic.

The KurzweilK250 email list group is still active over at Groups.io (we migrated from Yahoo a few years ago). https://groups.io/g/KurzweilK250/

I was going to recommend the MG10X/XU but you said that was a bit too deep. That’s my gig mixer, and I use a mic stand adapter to mount it to a mic stand base. Easy, small footprint.

I used to run a basic Hauptwerk setup (back when they had the free edition in Version 4), but I now have a digital Baldwin D421A that is sufficiently nice-sounding for my needs. On the other hand, it does have full midi capability, so the option is always there. I just don't feel like shelling out the $$ for the current versions of Hauptwerk and some additional sample sets (and the laptop that I ran V4 Free on is long gone). Once they removed the more affordable options, it became too much of a specialty item for me to invest in.