Kurzweil Artis7 or Nord Electro or Yamaha MOXF8

[AnotherScott]

I'm pretty sure they just need to update their website. Any Kurz dealer in the US can get any Kurz product.

They can special order it, but for whatever reason, they are not stocking it.

[Aidan]

IF you want strong organs it is the action that will kill you not the sound engine.

 

Many times, this. If you want to stay lightweight (and the budget will stretch to it), I'd consider a pairing of the MOXF8 with a Hammond XK-1c on top, or get an SK-1 (not much more money) and get the benefits of a little all-in-one scratch board you can cart to very informal gigs or rehearsals.

[zxcvbnm098]

Sweetwater, Kraft, B&H all are carrying it the Artis 7..

[rickzjamm]

For light weight & ease of operator use get the Roland FA-06.

All the sounds are very good... organ is not on par with Kurz KB3 but will work for cover band environment nicely.

[rickzjamm]

Also no drawbars on the FA-06, everything has to be pre-programed. May be a deciding factor for you.

[Outkaster]

It's worthless. You can never get everything from one board. When will people start realizing this.

[marczellm]

For light weight & ease of operator use get the Roland FA-06.

All the sounds are very good... organ is not on par with Kurz KB3 but will work for cover band environment nicely.

I subjectively and respectfully disagree. IMO organwise Kurz < Roland < Korg < Nord.

[rickzjamm]

Yes subjective is key to the forum, that's what makes it tick.

I agree, there's no one board that covers everything... but we can dream.

[BlueAndGreen]

It's amazing how little the Artis-7 is talked about. I can only imagine Kurz are losing out on this board. Yet it fits the 76-note do-it-all bill pretty nicely, as the SP4-7 did before it. Maybe it's overpriced but there are still too few options in this area.

 

Is this partly due to relatively few Artis owners - at least on this forum?

 

I may have missed it, but I don't recall seeing any owners chime in with any extensive reports on this beast, and I've never seen one in a store to demo.

 

After about 6-months, I like the Artis7 even more.

One of my bands does Southern rock and other heavy guitar stuff at festivals and the pianos cut through the mix fine and the KB3/drawbars is sweet as well. The action seems to have softened up a bit.

[video:youtube]hJAFFH6tdH8

 

[jimkost2002]

OP says STRONG piano, E Piano, Organ, Brass Strings.

OP says sticking to one keyboard is a priority.

My question to OP:

Do any of these sounds take precedence?

What are you using for amplification?

Forget the FA-06 , it's not bad at all and great for the price but you get what you pay for.....

I would say you are best off with a Nord Electro 5

Many folks here seem to think it's too expensive, but it has the best build quality to weight ratio available, and now you can split and layer....

Yamahas are great for everything but organ

Kronos is great but too heavy and bulky and the keys suck for playing organ

Kurz is great but same thing as Korg and not as realistic sounding as Korg

And yes, I have played all of these many times in backline.

 

 

[AnotherScott]

Forget the FA-06 , it's not bad at all and great for the price but you get what you pay for.....

not to mention that he says he needs at least 7x keys

 

Kronos is great but too heavy and bulky

and a bit over budget

 

Kurz is great but same thing as Korg

post asked about the lightweight 76 key Artis7, there is no comparable Kronos

 

 

So okay, we're looking for

* piano, electric piano, organs, brass, strings

* single board solution

* 73+ keys

* within a roughly $2500 budget

* lighter weight a plus

 

My top picks would be Roland VR700 or Kawai MP7, for having the best compromise dual-use actions. Also Kurzweil PC3LE8, but at 54 lbs, that's a bit of a bear. Though none of these are real lightweights.

 

If you're willing to compromise on action, then you can get the weight down (and in some cases get better sounds) with the Artis7 or Nord. As mentioned, Yamaha lags on the organ. Though you don't necessarily need the laptop/VB3 the OP mentioned to get a clonewheel function with it... an iPad and Galileo (or Garageband) can do it.

 

As for which sounds best, not only are these things largely subjective, but also, different boards are best at different things. Also, remember that with the flash option, there are other sounds that can be loaded into the MOXF (some nice optional pianos, for example).

[jimkost2002]

Good points, as always, Scott!

I got to play an artis 7 and its not really right for the organ components, IMHO

The OP may be able to get a deal close to his budget with a NE5 73 at Proaudiostar.........

[allan_evett]

I don't see the NE5 being a top choice here - as it doesn't have a versatile, go-to bread n' butter synth engine. Also if you want to add any controls live (Modulation, Pitch bend, etc.) you're out of luck. Great piano/ep-clav and organ keyboard though; and it will import sounds from the Nord Sound Library.

The Kawai MP7 is a good recommendation if a properly weighted action is necessary; the full-size Artis would also be a good choice - and offers full drawbar control via the front panel sliders.

 

I spent a solid block of time with an Artis 7 this past Saturday, and was very impressed. If the majority of my gigs were of the small stage, single-keyboard variety I'd have an Artis 7 yesterday. It's compact, fairly light, and sounds extremely good covering just about anything. The German Grand based Programs provide a lot of sonic choices, and play very expressively. I'm somewhat neutral when it comes to the TP8 action, but on the Artis 7 the hand-ear connection just clicked for me - more so than the PC3 I owned back in 2010-2011. Really, I don't recall hearing a bad patch on the instrument. Great bread n' butter coverage, and it sounds classy.

Regarding the KB3 organ engine: it's a very capable clone - especially within a wide-coverage instrument. It's certainly out ahead of the Motif-based organs. Yeah, the NE5 organ is a step up - as it's based on Nord's latest clone, but none of them are a true, tonewheel organ. And even each of those have different 'personalities'.

[AnotherScott]

I don't see the NE5 being a top choice here - as it doesn't have a versatile, go-to bread n' butter synth engine.

Good point that, while he emphasized "piano, electric piano, organs, brass, strings," he will need other occasional other sounds to fulfill the rest of "ultimate gigging keyboard with bread-and-butter-sounds for rock/pop/occasional jazz gigging." That said, there are a wide range of commonly used synth sounds available in the Nord sample library... but yes, there are limitations there in the lack of things like filter sweep, modulation, portamento, pitch bend. Similarly, the VR-700 doesn't have portamento. Not everyone needs these things, but it's worth noting that they're not there.

[bennyray]

The NE5 is very good and if you do not use Synth that much that would be my choice and its just came out so you're not going to be outdated by the keyboard for awhile at least. Plus you get the free Nord library.

[jimkost2002]

I took the emphasis on "piano, e-piano, organ, brass, strings" to mean that a "bread and butte" synth engine was NOT a priority.

I think so much of the advice we all give so freely here is also about UI-what are we most used to/comfortable with......

To that end, I consider myself lucky enough to have been in situations where I've had to play a set or a night with whatever the backline had or didn't have. I learned to brand/instrument agnostic for a long time. I always liked what I grew up with most of all, so, I got back around to being "task specific" instead of "instrument specific". But always to an ear with SOUND.

I remember Steve Hayes saying "You can't get tone on a diet"....so, where are we making compromises and where are we not.

 

To me, the goal is "Find the instrument that gives you the quickest access to the sound you need" and "Find the instrument that embodies or is closest to the sound you hear".

 

[sherry]

If Korg would just have made a 76 key synth action Kronos,you'd have a killer LIGHTWEIGHT board. I'm still wishing, but not holding my breath.

[AnotherScott]

I took the emphasis on "piano, e-piano, organ, brass, strings" to mean that a "bread and butte" synth engine was NOT a priority.

Right. But "not a priority" doesn't necessarily mean "doesn't need it at all" so the question is just how little he needs in the way of synth. But since the OP hasn't been here in almost a month, we may never know. ;-)