End of 07-08 gear reviews

[SilverDragonSoun]

Enough GAS for now, but I'm thinking about replacing S90ES with new fantom X8 next year if it comes out and acquiring finally black baby grand, which I always wanted and never had it.

 

I made this mistake earlier. My sound seemed to really suffer IMO and I noticed the songs I recreated didn't sound as crisp or as full. I found the sequencer on the Fantom X8 nice and the board had alot of features but the sound always seemed to be thin IMO in many areas. Hopefully the new Fantom offering will address this.

[Jazzwee]

Jazzwee, I have found exactly the same problem with backing rhythms on both my XS7 and FP-4. They're just all too busy - seems like their main purpose is for the programming team to show off.

 

In the end I've decided to go with my CP33 plus an iPod running a collection of backing tracks for specific songs, either from Abersold or www.jazzbacks.com (the latter of which I can heartily recommend if you've not looked before).

 

Hi Aidan, I've just gotten some Aebersolds, which are great, but sometimes I want to play with it faster or slower and of course there's no way to do that. At the moment, I've just got the Ipod/Iphone with Aebersolds as my current solution and just doing the Piano.

 

If you want to know about the busy, the Jazz stuff in the S90ES is extremely busy. There's not even a a simple hi hat. The rhythms are so complex that even a pro would probably get lost! I don't know what the purpose is of all the complexity. Now Aebersold stuff is intuitive. The "real" drummer leads you.

 

I'm wondering how busy the XS arpeggios are and if they're just like variety that's in the S90ES. Yamaha doesn't really focus much on Jazz stuff unfortunately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Strategery]

OMG... Silverdragonsoun....this is the BEST Christmas avatar or pic I've seen in a while! :D

 

Randy

 

It seems as if Santa may have G.A.S.

 

http://members.cox.net/enetrealdeals/images/avatar3316_3.gif

[Bill H.]

For a long while I've been thinking of getting rid of the XP-80, but I'm a bit reluctant, because it's quite light and it has good controller functions.

 

Unless Roland truly replaces everything this this amazing little board is capable of with the next generation Fantom, I'm keeping mine. I consider it a rompler classic. Because if it's talents, it still gets played twice a week in my praise band, so it's not like it's just sitting around either.

 

I am really anticipating what Roland probably will roll out in January. My hopes are very high because of the V-Synth GT and it's fantastic interface.... re-introduction of the 10 key pad, knobs that access independent fields on the display... that ingenious cursor-dial combo...

 

 

[delirium]

If you want to know about the busy, the Jazz stuff in the S90ES is extremely busy. There's not even a a simple hi hat. The rhythms are so complex that even a pro would probably get lost! I don't know what the purpose is of all the complexity.

 

right, rhythms in S90ES have no sense at all. Much better in the XS where you can edit/alter rhythms or create your own plus changing tempo is easy, and sound of drum set in XS is really good.

[Jazzwee]

looks like I've got to check the xs at GC

[burningbusch]

Regarding the MIDI drum rhythms in these workstations/DPs/arrangers, when playing jazz/latin and even rock/pop, they ALWAYS elicit the feeling in me that I'm playing a home organ. I have the Tyros 2, which has better MIDI programming than the Motif XS, IMHO, but it still sounds like MIDI. The Korg M3, with KARMA can introduce randomness and the complexity of the playing can be controlled. All these things help, but don't correct the main deficiency. I think these MIDI drum patterns far more effective when used in the hiphop and electronic genres.

 

If I wanted backing tracks/rhythms for live or practice I'd just create them using Band in a Box 2007 with RealDrums and play them back on an iPod. That way I can control the key, tempo and arrangement.

 

The FP7 does have a unique feature with the Audio Key whereby you can load up a USB drive with audio files and play them back by pressing any of the lowest notes on the keyboard. They can be set up as loops, e.g. a 16 bar med tempo swing, or entire songs. They are streamed from the USB device, which is unique in the DP/workstaion world. Because they are streamed, load time is nearly instantaneous and you're not limited in size. Most of the time it's required that audio is loaded fully into RAM before it can be played back.

 

Busch.

[delirium]

maybe that's streaming audio is unique for keyboards, but for practicing playing along purpose is not flexible enough. With midi rhythms I can time stretch, edit/change voices, mute some tracks etc. Thats essential for me. And the quality of sound that way playing rhythms in XS is excellent. Nobody force you to use GM sounds, I change usually instruments anyway.

USB stick streaming is OK but no better then separate mp3 player.

 

[burningbusch]

The Audio Key feature as it's implemented in the FP7 is better than a separate MP3 player in a few ways. You can have, for example, A-1 as a 16 bar pattern and A#-1 as a 16 bar chorus variation. You can have the A-1 pattern loop indefinately. When you press A#-1 it can be made to trigger immediately or wait until A-1 is finished with its pattern. You can switch to any pattern at any time, either immediately or wait until finished with the loop. You can't do that on an MP3 player. You also cannot do seemless looping on an MP3 player--I've always found there to be a pause. Switching between patterns and songs is much quicker on the FP7. You just press a key.

 

Busch.

[delirium]

nice, if you also can change the tempo without changing the pitch that would be great. Some mp3 players can do that.

Since there is not a big display on FP7 or FP4 manipulating with these loops can troublesome I guess.

 

[Mike Davis]

mics!

[Jazzwee]

so Busch, is this a good enough reason to pick the FP7 instead of the FP4?