Aynsley Green

True, the Montage M is a big upgrade over the MODX, but it is much heavier and pricier. The MODX is crazy value, one can find a used old MODX6 for ~$800 these days.

The YC series are excellent, but rather limited. If you need flexible patching, many layers/splits, Scenes, Synths etc - the Montage M6 or the cheaper MODX+6 might be the better choice. There are some very good third-party libraries for the Montage ecosystem. The touchscreen means you can jump around sounds quickly, and there's a dedicated volume knob for your USB audio. Action isn't great, though. Roland Fantom-06 is similar, and has slick Mainstage integration, but the internal sounds are bit average, and it has polyphony issues. Action is suprisingly good, however.

Be sure to upgrade to the latest firmware - the new 'H4' organ model, 'Studio' Leslie and 'Hamburg' Piano are all big improvements. There's also a new Patch-wide EQ which is useful for mellowing out the pianos.

The Yamaha MODX+ is insane value, I just bought a second one. There are some great third party libraries, and FMX can do some beautiful stuff.

Agreed, the tubes in the XK5 make a big difference. There are stompboxes that can give you a similar 'glow' - anyone using the Lounsberry Pedals?

Don't you mean Suzuki?

Out of the box it does sound a bit 'digital' - much like the Hammond SK series, it does take some tweaking of the many parameters. Here's what worked for me: 'B3 1956' Tonewheel Model Deep within the Viscount Editor app is the option to enable the AO-28 preamp algorithm, hidden within the Overdrive FX The most recent firmware added the 'Model B' Rotary Model, it is only accessible via the Editor, and there's a lot of settings you can tweak therein Add a bit of 'Rotary Gain' Dial in the Spring Reverb to sound as trashy as possible You might want to exclude the Pedals or Left Hand Bass from the Overdrive, which you can do in the Settings Profit It's pretty convincing through a PA in stereo, with nice bass response (due to the myriad of ways you can tweak the bass), certainly better than my old Hammond SK2. Not as nice as my Leslie 3300, but what can you do.

The new Score View inside Cubase 14 is taken from Dorico - quite possibly a game-changer. Finale is gone, Sibelius hasn't been updated in a decade, the Cubase/Dorico/Yamaha ecosystem is going to be huge in 5 years.

I've had the Nord C1, Hammond XK3c, Nord C2D, Hammond SK2, and the Portable Hammond Mk 1, and the Viscount Legend Soul 261 kills all of them, sonically and otherwise. It's everything I wanted from a gigging Hammond - straightforward, portable, and it has a built-in interface if you need other sounds.

The Roland JD800 was the successor to the D50, was it not? And a successful one, at that. Speaking of Roland, there were many ACB products, and it lives on in the Fantom EX, but there was no successor to the System 8, which could have been amazing with a few tweaks

I had a MODX6, really wanted to upgrade to the Montage M7, but it's just too heavy to fly with. 19kg becomes 35kg in a flight case with pedals, cables etc - some airlines won't even take an item that heavy. Chances are there will be a 'MODXM' in a couple of years, made of plastic. I've been trying to reduce my 'fly-in rig' to one central keyboard - tried the Nord Stage 4 Compact, which does do the trick, but the Synth Engine isn't very ballsy, there are limits on what Splits and Layers you can do, and the User Sampling is laughably basic. In the end I went for the MODX7+, which weighs 8kg (18kg in a flight case), and has 1.75GB of storage, so it can house the excellent third-party Pianos and still have room left over for SampleRobot (included) to go ham on the specific synth presets I need for the show. So, in theory I can have my OB6, Juno, DX7 and Piano samples all coming from one machine in stereo for the whole show, with maybe a Backlined 88 MIDI'ed in for Pianos, which would make those 'plug and play' outdoor gigs much smoother.

Oh yeah, I had that XK3c stand and bench, much chunkier than they needed to be, absurd. I'm just using a regular On Stage H-stand (as mentioned earlier) and an OnStage bench, folds up neat and weighs very little

Yes, it has the same 'Physis Plus' engine as the Viscount Cantorum Plus, but it's a limited version. You get the Baroque, Romantic and Symphonic models, with no tweaking beyond A=440 and Reverb. It sounds quite realistic, and unlike Hauptwerk, is easy to use. I used it in on a church gig through a nice PA + Subwoofer with a Concert Band a few weeks ago, and it won over the sceptical parishioners. You can hear that engine here: https://youtu.be/zuqVlZGC31I?si=eN1-OYsJwzPMyRQ2 Yes, pretty happy with it. Tweaking the Overdrive FX and Leslie 'Model B' proved to make all the difference - it's impossible to replicate a Leslie, but I can gig out with this sound, for sure. It is ironic that I have only gigged it as a Pipe Organ thus far, and still have yet to do a Hammond gig on it, but this year has been busy. Between the 5 sets of Drawbars and two Preset Buttons per Manual, you can get around pretty quickly. Those extra preset and pedal keys would probably only get use if one were playing serious Pipe Organ repertoire (which I can't). The Rotary Switch and Pitch Wheel do get in the way of the Preset Buttons somewhat, but with practice it's fine. Some days I do wonder if I ought have sprung for the 273 + Pedalboard 25 combo, but it's already a bit of a beast to move - barely fits in my sedan. That said, the soft cases go alright - I can carry both the 261 + Pedalboard 18 in one trip from the car in a 'farmers carry', and then the Stand + Bench + PA on its wheels - it's easier than I thought it would be. It's well-thought out - there is 'lip' under the hood of the top of the case, making it easy to pick up from the floor, the Swell Pedal attaches to the Pedalboard via thumb screws quite easily, and the Pedalboard is powered via MIDI-bus power - making for a rig that can be set up in 10-15 minutes.

The Soul is the newer model from the Live, though I hear they're quite different. There are a lot of different Tonewheel samples in the Soul, including the 1930s one. Big advantage of the Soul the seperate bass output, which solves the left-hand bass problem once and for all.

I'm using this stand, which folds up fairly small. https://on-stage.com/multi-function-stand The Soul 261 is a bit deep, it barely fits under my arm, but it's manageable. Not as svelte as the Nord C2D, but not a chonky nightmare like the Hammond XK5 Kit. One might argue the heft and wooden finish give it a bit of 'stage presence'. Pedalboard 18 is killer, surprisingly light, comfortable layout, sensible size, gig bag is OK, and unless you're playing Bach you probably don't need the 25.