Lyon

Thank you all so much; this has been incredibly helpful. Based on everything I've learned here, I'm now more weighing the 73-key Vox Continental versus the VR-730. Aside from the drawbars (virtual vs physical), the difference in action, and the relative strengths of their EPs and organs, what are the principal differences between those two? It seems as if the Vox does have some other sounds on board, for example. And how are their actions different? Is the Vox more responsive or slightly more weighted? (On the subject of actions, I read some nice things about the 68-key Dexibell VIVO S1, but wasn't sure about its organ and EP sounds.)

Maybe I'm imagining this, but I seem to recall that when playing around with the SV1/SV2 in the store, the thing would actually respond to changes in my attack the way a Rhodes would on the rare occasions I got to play one. Would the Mojo, VR-730 and Vox all behave this way as well? I think part of the problem here is that I know I need to compromise, but because my experience with electronic keyboards is so limited (that Roland FP-9 was my first and last), I'm not sure which features/functions/characteristics I'm going to enjoy--or miss--the most.

Oh, man -- I knew I'd come to the right place. :-) Even when I was gigging (on a Roland FP-9 with a Kurzweil Micropiano box--talk about dating yourself!), my arrangements were simple: just trio and quintet stuff, nothing complicated with the keyboard. It would be nice to replicate the sound of a full rhythm section, but I could also live without it. I've never worked with layers, but think I'd enjoy messing about with splits. Do you think I'd miss the octave on a 61-key instrument when playing bass lines and comping? I tried scads of keyboards before I eliminated the fully-weighted variety: everything from the Yamaha CP88 and P515 to the Kawai ES8 and ES110, the Roland FP-90 and FP-30, the Korg SV1 and SV2, and anything else I could get my sweaty hands on. The Korg was my original favorite, but I found the organ didn't excite me as much as the electric piano sounds, and then there are the weighted keys (which I like in principle, but don't want in this particular instance), and the price. There were a lot I couldn't try, too, including the MODX7 and the Vox Continental; but my B3 friend thought the non-B3 organ sounds on the Vox were its strengths, while I was a bit wary -- perhaps foolishly so? -- of those virtual drawbars. (I can't remember now why I eliminated the MODX7--probably something silly and arbitrary. But I was also starting to feel like I was looking at instruments that could do a lot more than I really needed them to, and on top of my other criteria, I'd like something easy to use: just sit down, punch a few buttons, and play.) Are the actions on the Mojo, the VR-730, and the Vox Continental equally suited to organ and EPs? Is one better for one or the other? I guess I'm looking for a good compromise--something where I can learn to slide around as I might like to on an organ, but that wouldn't be so light I'd notice the absence of any heft when pretending to play a Rhodes.

Hello everyone, Longtime lurker, first-time poster. :-) I've learned a lot by reading forum posts, and now I need your expert advice. I'm an amateur acoustic jazz pianist, but have always loved B3 and Rhodes sounds. For my birthday, I'm going to get myself a keyboard to compliment the nice upright in my home music studio. After much waffling and gnashing of teeth (and a long conversation with a friend who is a professional B3 player), I realized that despite my ingrained biases, I didn't need something with 88 weighted keys and a great piano sound; I have that already, and it doubles as a place to rest my stereo equipment and wifi router. My budget is ~ $1500, and I won't be using this for gigging, just for playing at home alone or with family and friends. I've tried out a bunch of keyboards at Sam Ash and Guitar Center in Manhattan, including several I learned about through the forum, but nothing I could find on display quite did the trick. So after reading lots of posts and consulting with my B3 buddy, I have narrowed my options to two that I have *not* been able to try for myself: the Crumar Mojo 61 and the VR-730. It seems like these are very different beasts, and I am torn. I like the idea of a compact keyboard with an authentic B3 sound and what folks say is a really good Rhodes sound, but I also like the idea of a 73-key instrument that is easy to use and can do a little bit of everything. (I'm not much of a synth guy, but I'm sure I would enjoy putting an acoustic bass in my left hand and a Rhodes in my right, messing about with some of the other electric and acoustic sounds, using the looper and USB recording capability, etc.) Not being a professional organist or Rhodes player, I doubt I'd know the difference between a good emulation and a super-accurate one -- but I've heard enough of both instruments to know the difference between a good one and a bad one. And mostly, I'm just after pleasure: Being able to sit down and hear some of those sounds that I've always enjoyed and rarely had the chance to make myself, whether playing solo or accompanying my son on trumpet. Any advice? Or should I just flip a coin and get it over with? ;-)