PX5S, MOXF8, or ... ?

[rickzjamm]

It's all give & take in the keyboard world, find what works for you... price, ultimate AP sound, key bed feel, the weight of the beast, etc. in the end it's a marriage & compromise! And that's not always a bad thing.

[MalH]

The words 'marriage' and 'compromise' in the same sentence? Never!

[JeffLearman]

Neutral:

1) The key surface - it's more a textured plastic than an ivory feel, but I do prefer it to smooth plastic.

If you ever play in a humid enviroment, you'll move this to your Positive category, I'm convinced. I didn't even notice that it was humid when I tried the PX-5S until I moved to the MOX8 and suddenly wanted the little bottle of baby powder I keep in my kit bag.

 

I didn't really care for the "fake ivory" feel at first. But as soon as I noticed the humidity and the way it handles it, I became a huge fan.

[Mike Martin]

Hi MHaylock. Have you had a chance to try any of the Rhodes sounds from the forum yet? They are much much better than the factory ones and well worth exploring if you haven't yet done so.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the "Vintage Keys" set from Dave Weiser, which I understand is the the most highly regarded. I did not find much change to the underlying tone of the Rhodes - just EQ and effects. The download file is only 22kB, so it is obviously not adding any new samples.

 

If you download the new "All File" you're getting some of the most popular new Rhodes Stage Settings as well as new strings and more.

[TomKittel]

Hi MHaylock. Have you had a chance to try any of the Rhodes sounds from the forum yet? They are much much better than the factory ones and well worth exploring if you haven't yet done so.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the "Vintage Keys" set from Dave Weiser, which I understand is the the most highly regarded. I did not find much change to the underlying tone of the Rhodes - just EQ and effects. The download file is only 22kB, so it is obviously not adding any new samples.

 

If you download the new "All File" you're getting some of the most popular new Rhodes Stage Settings as well as new strings and more.

 

Rhodes video:

 

Piano video:

 

 

[JeffLearman]

Another option that comes in very close to the 35 lb. limit is the CP4 - which can be found for under $2K (with a little creative searching). That would do the job very well. From close to a year's live experience with the CP4, I'm quite attached to mine. Though the user interface is a little quirky at first, the finger-to-ear connection is fantastic - possibly the best I've played on a digital piano. Plenty of bread 'n butter sounds on board to work with, too.

Well, I found a CP4 (owner-return, full warranty, at a good price) and bought it. I figured the action is great, the pianos are among Yamaha's best, and I can always add sounds using outboard gear later. The 38 lbs is more than I'll want in 10 years, but it's 17 lbs off what I play now, and I could reduce that by nearly 10 by getting a gig bag. It fits perfectly in my 15-lb rigid foam case.

 

I sure wish you had mentioned that its zones are useless except when controlling externals. Unless I'm missing a trick, the most you get with internal sounds is split and layer, with one voice each. So, there's no way at all to get three zones each playing internal sounds.

 

But I'm between bands now, and will suit my needs at blues jams and playing with friends quite nicely.

 

I'm going to miss some of the sounds of the MR76, but several of those I'll be able to sample. I'm keeping the MR76; with a few dodgy keys, it's not worth much on resale. It'll be nice to have a keyboard to leave set up at home, too.

 

I'm not fond of any of the EP patches on the CP4, but killing all the FX I found that the samples are quite nice and I just need to EQ and FX them to taste to get very much what I want. I'll definitely sample the MR76's SuitcaseRds, which is one of my favorites for layering with other sounds esp piano (when I want to make purists gag. ) The MR's marimba and vibes I like a lot more than the CP's also, so I'll sample those.

 

I sure do like the CP4 action. I like its pianos though they all sound a bit too much alike; it's too bad they can't toss a Steinway in there. But the CFX "Rock" preset is remarkably similar to the MR76, without the MR's flaws (it has some looping artifacts on certain samples -- I'm so used to that I hardly hear it any more. Funny how we learn to forgive some flaws and others drive us nuts, with our favorite gear.)

 

Thanks to everyone who helped! I think I'm going to like a lot about the CP4, though my first impression is that I'm learning what a really great bit of kit the MR76 has been all these years, amazing for a 1997 keyboard. Of course, it's not fair to compare a workstation with a stage piano.

 

I also really like the CP4's panel layout with all the controls close to the keyboard. It sits quite nicely beneath my NE2.

[HSS]

Thanks to everyone who helped! I think I'm going to like a lot about the CP4, though my first impression is that I'm learning what a really great bit of kit the MR76 has been all these years, amazing for a 1997 keyboard.

I agree about the MR76... I bought one in 1997 and finally let it go a couple for years ago, unfortunately for far too little. It was a great board with many quality sounds, even by today's standards, but it was a heavy beast.

[AnotherScott]

Well, I found a CP4... I can always add sounds using outboard gear later....I'll definitely sample the MR76's SuitcaseRds, which is one of my favorites for layering

What are you going to use to house your samples?

[JeffLearman]

For now, laptop, mostly just for home use. Eventually, some sort of pad/tablet. I may regret not going for the MOXF, but I am digging the action on the CP4.

[AnotherScott]

Well, the obvious big differences as a performance board are that CP4 does have the better action, and Yamaha's latest/best AP and Rhodes. MOXF has the full Motif XF sound set, lighter weight, and the ability to store custom samples internally (including other nice AP and EP sets from Yamaha and others). But one area where I'm not sure how they compare is in some of the other performance attributes we've talked about, like patch remain and the ability to change your RH sound without causing a glitch in your LH sound.

[JeffLearman]

No useful patch remain, sadly.

 

Something I noticed that is nice -- maybe it's typical these days. When using master keyboard (controller), if I play and hold a note and change to another patch that uses a different MIDI channel and then release the notes, the note-off messages are sent for the previous MIDI channel, not the new one. Ditto for sustain.

 

What that means is that you DO get patch remain when using it as a MIDI controller. Not that it's a very full-featured MIDI controller, lacking much in the way of sliders, knobs, & buttons. Two expression pedal inputs and one footswitch, in addition to the sustain pedal jack. I'd be a bit surprised to see anyone using two expression pedals, given the other limitations.

 

The architecture is pretty simple. You're always playing in "performance" mode. A performance has 3 parts: main, layer, and split. Main is always active; layer and split have buttons to turn on and off and a slider each (you pick via a button whether the slider is volume, master chorus, or master reverb.) Each part has an independently selected voice.

 

The 16 buttons on the right select either voice categories or performances. Normally, voices. Whenever you're playing, one of the three parts is selected; pressing a voice button changes the first voice in that category, and you can use mod wheel or +/- to scroll to the one you want. So, no random access. (Were there random access, you'd have useful right voice change with left voice patch remain. If you can comp on bass for a few beats you have patch remain at the cost of several button ops. You can pick which voice in a category comes up first.)

 

When you select a voice, it comes with its default insert FX, which as far as I can tell, you can't change. Which is too bad, since I'd like to make my 'go-to' epiano be one with different FX settings.

 

A voice (or part) gets two insert effects. The set of effects available seem to be different for different sources; for example I don't see damper resonance for Rhodes. Not that I'd bother.

 

In "performance direct selection" mode (with a damn blinking red button, argh, looking for my black tape) pressing one of these 16 buttons changes to that performance, but all voices drop out for a moment even if they match. Shift +/- to change between 16 banks.