Aynsley Green

Agreed, I feel the OB6 is enough for what I do - cuts through the mix in the way that I have been trying to achieve on my other synths for years! Such a classy instrument. The OB6 is very limited in ways that the System 8 is not, but the rounded 'Roland sound' is sometimes too smooth for its own good, in a live context. The plasticky build quality and the 90s Matrix looks make me reluctant to use it on stage these days, too. Maybe I'll upgrade to the OBX8 one of these days if I need two sounds at once - it's just too damn big! Any opinions on that 'Cloneberheim'? I also bought the Prologue 16, thinking it would be the ultimate for live gigs (16 voices, VCOs, 61 keys, DSP) - but the timbre is rather moody and dark, much like its looks - fantastic for epic/filmic/warbly sounds (nails 'Blade Runner'), but not so great for live pop contexts. It might be down to the filter design, but things get very midrangey. Some very cool stuff happening in the Logue SDK scene that take it into all kinds of interesting territory, but again, unless you bypass the analog filter it's hard to escape that 'Prologue sound'. Using the Digital Oscillators live is also a challenge, given some of them can take 10 seconds to load, if they load at all! Still a great synth, but a very different flavour to the others. If the OB6 is Champagne, and the System 8 is Whiskey, then the Prologue is a Stout.

I learnt synthesis on a Roland Juno 106, which I foolishly sold - however, the Roland System 8 does everything that 106 did, and more (yeah it's fake analog, who cares). The System 8 engine by itself is massive, but with the ACB PlugOuts it's an entire synth collection in one box. C'mon Roland - System 16, all of the PlugOuts on board, aftertouch, 61 keys, metal chassis, better FX - you're just leaving money on the table!

A lot of flights won't take anything above 33kg in weight, so that's out. I used to fly with a NS2-88 (32.9kg in the flight case) - never again. The NSC4 is much easier at about 18kg, but still a pain. M6 would be 5kg more than that - so that's an issue. On the other hand, Yamaha's tend to be quite easy to backline, and unlike Nord, you can bring your show on a USB stick and quickly load it up (you can sort of do that on Nord but it requires a MacBook and it is slow) - so that may be a viable solution once Montage M's start proliferating. And I agree, the Fantom-06 is a very portable 'good enough' board for nearly any gig. I don't use it often, but it has saved my arse several times.

Agreed, even cheap keyboards have a built-in interface, if not DAW integration, these days. The External Section (the master controller features) on the NS4 uses 1 Synth Layer, and still has the same Split limitations (which is absurd). The Yamaha YC88 plays much nicer with others (submixer, proper MIDI features, USB interface, XLR outs) and is half the price. The 2GB of Piano Memory is disappointing in 2024, but it's not really an impediment. Once you load on the important stuff - White Grand XL (the Steinway), Bright Grand XL (the Yamaha), Stockholm XL (the Rhodes) and Wurlitzer 2 XL (the Wurly) - there's still a fair bit of room for the 'character pianos'. It does look fantastic, but how do you fare with the weight/bulk? Even the M6 is a bit heavy for flying around, it's nearly a dealbreaker.

Saw Todd Rundgren just the other week, he still sounds great!

Been using the Nord Stage 4 Compact a fair bit - it is a deep machine, but it's still fundamentally not a Workstation. There's quite a few limitations: Splits can only be where Nord says you can have them (a serious problem) 'Scenes' are not really Scenes at all (a serious problem) Patch management is still fiddly, and Set List mode is now gone (a serious problem) There is User Sampling but it's not great, no multisampling - I haven't had much success with it Multi-oscillator Synth sounds are limited - if you want to fake a Juno, it'll cost you all 3 layers Hammond is pretty good for Rock, but too aggressive for Jazz/Gospel The Synth Section is still a bit polite - it won't replace your Analogs If it's a fiddly gig with lots of patch changes/splits/bullshit I'll use the convenient-but-average Roland Fantom-06 up top, and occasionally connect the Laptop to it if I really need something specific, but I try to avoid that Pandora's Box. Would definitely consider the Montage M6 if I were doing more of those kind of gigs.

As a portable all-in-one, yes. The Yamaha YC is a good alternative - great action, great sounds, for half the money. The Yamaha Montage M also looks crazy powerful, for less money, but it's heavy.

Yes, but this is an advertisement - this isn't the live set-up these cats usually run. J3PO, Nick Semrad, Dennis Hamm, Rai Thistlewayte, Corey Henry, Larry Goldings, etc - I've seen all these mega-players live, and they don't run a laptop, they run a Nord/Yamaha and a Sequential synth, 90% of the time. Heck, Dennis Hamm plays an old Motif XF (and still sounds great). I do know guys on big touring pop shows who run Omnisphere and so forth, but touring logistics and complex patches are a big part of that equation. Different tools for different jobs, but after running a Spectrasonics + Mainstage rig for 3 years, I really don't buy the laptop hype.

Studio vs Live are two different things, and I think the Big 4 know this. Just because it sounds good in isolation on stereo monitors 3 feet from your ears in your small home studio, does not mean it works in a big room on a big PA in a mix with 7 other cats on stage. I have yet to get Keyscape to work live, the sound is way too 'Hi-fi' and stereo-reliant to work in a band mix - this is important to cut through the din of 2 electric guitars. I have yet to hear a synth plugin that has more balls than a true analog through a big system - 'balls' are important to cut through the din of 2 electric guitars. I have yet to make any Hammond plugin feel right when MIDI-learned onto some cheap faders - working the drawbars is important to cut through the din of 2 electric guitars.

There was a time that plugins were vastly better than hardware - making the hassle/unpredictability of using a laptop on stage worth it. That time has passed - the NS4, the Montage M, and the new breed of hardware synths all sound fantastic. Laptops have their uses, but they are such a ballache. I have a NSC4 at work. It is a huge upgrade from the NS2, but still has some weird limitations, which is a bit annoying given the damn thing costs as much as a small car. GREAT: Organ sound is much improved and controls are well thought-out, Pianos breathe nicely, fast-ish programming, FX very good, flexible-ish FX routing, portability NOT GREAT: Organ sound is still too aggressive for non-pop and can't really be tweaked, Synth Section is still too polite - it won't replace your analogs, Patch management is still fiddly, Splits can only be where Nord says you can have them (a real problem), 'Scenes' are not Scenes at all (a real problem), Multi-oscillator synth sounds eat up precious Layers (as far as I can tell?). It sounds great, but I'm still getting used to it. I came up on the Japanese boards - I've always found Nord's way of doing things unintuitive. A great rig would be a YC88 on the bottom for pianos, and NSC4 up top for organ/synths/fiddly bits- neither board too heavy (unlike the Montage M), great actions, great sounds, for around ten grand.

True, I can't speak to the iPad or iPhone rig. I can't say I've seen anyone using it on my side of the pond, most cats still use Mainstage, if they're not using Hardware. I am intrigued as to how small ReezeKeys has gotten the iPhone rig down to, though!

In a perfect world, but this happens all the time. The number of gigs I've showed up to and the Backline 88 is some clapped-out 20 year-old Korg, the sustain pedal is broken, there's no time in the sound-check to quickly cook up the patches you need, and after the show the bandleader says 'hey where was the Synth on Song X tonight?', and then you look like an asshole. I have done the laptop thing on tour - when it worked it was convenient, but flawed. Little things like jumping from one patch to the next very quickly, cranking up volume for solos (harder than you might think), having enough keys for your splits, volumes within patches, dialing up a patch not in the set list, etc. One time my Mainstage file for that show wouldn't open for no good reason, 20 minutes before the show. I was frantically redoing it just as we were about to go on - I got a real bollocking from the tour manager for that. Made me look real professional. Ultimately, you have show up prepared and sound good on every date of the tour, so you get called again. I see not trusting Backline to do their job as part of that equation. 70% of gigs you get what you asked for, great - the Fantom is your Upper - for the other 30% of gigs it saves you from what could be a complete disaster. Ok this is pretty wild, haha. Do you have a picture of it all set up?

Yeah, maybe it works for some, but I've given up on that whole endeavour - even if the laptop thing was reliable, touring is always a curveball. Case in point - Fly-in gig just last weekend with the Fantom06: Festival gig, 20 minute set-up time - Backline company provided nothing you asked, but it's ok because you brought your Fantom - you can't trust these Backline bastards. 15kgs, guitar sized, sits atop your normal luggage. Problem solved.

If you spend $5000+ on a laptop/interface/controller/software solution and spend countless hours tweaking its many moving parts, and it still isn't reliable in a professional context (happened to me more than once), that is not a viable solution. If you spend $5000+ on say, a Nord Stage 3 Compact that you can fly with, set up in two minutes, sounds great, and will last you ten years even if you throw it down the stairs (happened to me more than once), that is a proper solution. I know a few big touring dudes who run the Mainstage + Fantom06 rig for speciailised things like backing tracks, one-shots, big Omnisphere Multis - that makes sense because it has built-in redundancy. They'll still have a Nord or a Yamaha underneath for the common sounds, 90% of the time. Am doing a 100% Fantom06 fly-in this weekend, incidentally. I'll report back if it blows up mid-gig 😉

As the saying goes 'buy expensive once, or cheap twice'. Cheap gear really isn't worth it, trust me. MODX has some great sounds and libraries, I definitely like the pianos better, but the action and build-quality still weren't up to par for me. And no real Hammond or VA synth! The Fantom is a bit more expensive, but has all the features you'd expect of a workstation, and a decent action. The common sounds definitely require more spit-shine than the MODX, though.