Old Romplers keyboards that will still last for many years ?

[seanl]

 

 

Any love here for sayyyyyyy EMU Proteus 2000 or 2500?

[joegerardi]

I'm old ROMpler central-

K2VP with (to quote a famous person) I love to bits;

E-Mu E-Synth;

Kawai K1 II;

Kawai K4;

Roland GS-64;

Alesis QSR

 

They all work, and they all still offer me sounds that I can rely on. The K2VP particularly is a beast- it still sounds relevant, strong and ballsy. Kurzweil makes great equipment- don't be afraid of it dying.

 

Besides, if it does, it's so cheap theses days, you can just get another.

 

..Joe

[Tripp323]

Love my old romplers. I have a Korg T-1, and a Roland JX-305 that are both pretty old, but they play and work great. Sometimes have to change an internal battery... but otherwise, even the T-1's old floppy drive still works! I have newer keyboards, but I go back to certain PCM sounds often, such as the T-1 grand piano, the 'dusky sax' patch, and some of the sound efx on the JX. There are many used romplers on eBay

[willf]

I still have a Korg 01W/Pro (not X) and apart from the display being a little dim and some of the switches sometimes needing two presses it is working fine.

 

[Bosendorphen]

My Alesis QS7 that I purchaased in 1998 still works great! I used it on a few gigs last year. My old Kawai K4 still works just fine too. My guitarist has it now so I bought another on eBay just for the sounds and nostalgia but I also played a few gigs with it last year.

 

I also got a used Emu Mo Phatt a few years ago in mint condition and it's great!

 

Apart from old romplers I still have my Polysix which I added MIDI to 15 years ago. Still use it in my studio. Also have my old Roland MKS100 sampler which is pretty useless but has some custom samples I created that I still like (even at 12 bit). The QuikDisk drive went up but I just port samples from my computer via MIDI as I found the entire library online.

 

My studio use is mostly virtual although I do use the Fantom X7 quite a bit and occasionally my QSR, Emu and Polysix. The new UVI Synth Anthology II has some nice and accurate Korg DW8000 and Kawai K4 sound/samples in it. My DW8000 is on permanent loan so it's nice to have some sounds.

[Kenny Ingram]

The keyless JVs/XVs last a really long time as well. eBay is full of 1080s that have had no less than 5 owners. I have a 2080 in great condition.

This is my sentiment exactly! My 2080 has been perfect, and I'm sure it's had well over 5 owners before me. You'll have to replace the external battery every now and then, but that's to be expected with these older ROMplers.

[Bosendorphen]

My Alesis QS7 that I purchaased in 1998 still works great! I used it on a few gigs last year. My old Kawai K4 still works just fine too. My guitarist has it now so I bought another on eBay just for the sounds and nostalgia but I also played a few gigs with it last year.

 

I also got a used Emu Mo Phatt a few years ago in mint condition and it's great!

 

Apart from old romplers I still have my Polysix which I added MIDI to 15 years ago. Still use it in my studio. Also have my old Roland MKS100 sampler which is pretty useless but has some custom samples I created that I still like (even at 12 bit). The QuikDisk drive went up but I just port samples from my computer via MIDI as I found the entire library online.

 

My studio use is mostly virtual although I do use the Fantom X7 quite a bit and occasionally my QSR, Emu and Polysix. The new UVI Synth Anthology II has some nice and accurate Korg DW8000 and Kawai K4 sound/samples in it. My DW8000 is on permanent loan so it's nice to have some sounds.

Last year I bought a used Ensoniq SQ-1 Plus as I had a lot of sequences done on my KS-32 in the 90s and wanted to port them back to see how they sounded. It was only $113 and in near mint condition! Only had to replace the battery - had all my old patches and a RAM card so was good to go.

 

The QSR/QS7, K4, Emu MoPhatt and even Polysix and MKS-100 are my "legacy" boards/modules so that I can recreate certain sounds in old sequences that I want to re-issue as library material or for my band. Just added a Mellotron last year to my studio setup.

[CEB]

Anything from the S90 series

[Music Bird]

I used to own an old 90s RadioShack home keyboard that has that old ROMpler engine. Sounded like an old Casio as well. I like that 90s ROMpler sound since I listen to a lot of old 90s Indonesian music that uses them quite often. Id say Sound Canvas was big there (though more likely from videos Roland S-50, U-20 and the E-series arranger keyboards). Also, they used 01/W, and Ive seen Technics and Korg Trinity as well. I just watched a video of a 90s performance and I saw.

Technics KN-920, Roland S-50, Korg Trinity, Yamaha keyboard (maybe an old arranger from the 90s). They use ROMpler violins and flutes. They also love the fact that it either has a built in sequencer or customizable auto accompaniment so they can make songs fast.

Edit: see youre from Mexico. Do you play any specific music that needs synth brass, accordions, tubas, harmonicas, etc. like duranguense, cumbia, Tejano, Latin pop, etc.?

Im planning on getting an old 90s ROMpler or arranger/home keyboard soon. Most of the stuff in my area are ROMplers (unfortunately not many old ones) or analog synths.

[Stokely]

Not as old as many of these, but I expect I'd still be using my Motif classic if it had any semblance of a decent organ. That was a very nice keyboard but I replaced it with a pc3, which has a much better b3 sound IMO. Unfortunately it hasn't proven as reliable as the Motif.

[Dave Weiser]

there are several ol romplers that i would really like to have but they are old and dont know how much more they would last

 

Like a D550 module,roland jv1080,roland mks20(that famous piano module) a kursweil k2000r series, korg 01 pro X,

Or a Korg T1. alesis Andromeda, VL1 rack module

 

Or just not worth having them becuase future problems?

 

BTW i see to many M1s playing still

 

 

I always advise people against getting older romplers - the farther back in time you go, the shorter the life expectancy of many of the components. And in some cases, like the old Kurz gear, there's a real shortage of replacement parts.

 

And it can be a real pain or impossible to get files in and out of the things if they don't have USB. A good parallel would be buying computers from 20 years ago.

 

In my own experience I've found that with older digital rompler type boards, my *memory* of the thing is far more pleasant than an in-person encounter with one in 2019. There are exceptions - for me, the Ensoniq VFX, EPS16+ vintage stuff is quite good. The other exception is the Synclavier I got to play a few years ago at Benny Anderson's (ABBA) studio. But everything else - including Emulator II, Korg DSS1, Kurz 250 (I know right?!) all felt like poop in person as far as action and build quality.

 

 

 

 

[J. Dan]

The Korg Triton Extreme is one I think will last awhile, and still be very useful. Great sounds, a lot of variety too.

 

My trusty Triton Classic is still hanging in there every Sunday morning with the praise band at church.

 

Still have my Triton Pro. I don't gig with it anymore since I got the Kronos, but it was part of my gig rig up until around 6 years ago. I think more many gigs, it would still do well.

 

2 caveats: 1) some of the panel pushbottons have gotten flakey and some don't work. Good news is they are a standard off the shelf part for anybody comfortable doing a board level desoldering/soldering job.. 2) it still has floppy drive and SCSI port for external drive. I still have an old Jaz drive that works fine with it. I have seen some folks online replace their floppy drive with an SD card reader and that apparently works fine.

 

My sample memory is maxed out at 32 MB which is tiny by today's standards, but enough to add sounds and sound effects that can't be done with the ROM sampleset.

[Quai34]

When I bought my stage 2 in January 2011, I decided I wanted to get all the old Rompler I had been dreaming of when I was too young and too unwealthy to buy them...I had bought at that time the D50 and the TC892 that I still use a lot so, I went for the Matrix 1000, Proteus 2000 full of cards and XV5080 ditto, full with SRX and JV cards....I use all of them live all the time...and in the studio too....

In fact I'm maybe a very old fashion guy, I haven't bought any VST yet besides the one shipped with Cubase...

But the collection doesn't stop here, I did the same with DSI, in fact I'm in live with the 80's synth generation so I bought also the P08 and the P12....So, no shame to buy old when it works...

[Dave Keys]

The Roland U20 was a solid workhorse for me.

[ProfD]

Old thread resurrected right on time.

 

A few days ago I was able to lay hands on a Kurzweil K2000 V3 in a used gear music store.

 

That K2000 had some excellent sounds and the keybed felt great including aftertouch.

 

If that K2000 had the sampling option, I would have been tempted to rescue it.

[J. Dan]

The Roland U20 was a solid workhorse for me.

 

I came really close to getting that. I had lusted after a D-70 but it was out of my price range. I owned a PolySix, and a couple Casios - CZ-101 and VZ8M. But nothing that did any kind of sample playback - nothing for pianos, etc. The U-20 was within my budget. I had joined my first gigging cover band under the condition by the band that I needed to buy an adequate board. Initially I was borrowing a D20 from a friend to get through the gigs. When I went to buy the U-20, the JV30 had just been released and my friend who owned the music store recommended buying that instead. That turned out to be a good move. It included the same sound set as the SC-55 sound canvas - the Roland GS as well as the older MT-32. Whether that keyboard or modules, by tapping into the GS set along with RPN's, NRPN's, and SysEx, I was able to leverage essentially the same sound set for decades. Just a really good universal bread and butter collection of sounds that covers all the bases for the most part. Depending on the style, I'd say much of it still stands up today.

[The Real MC]

I always advise people against getting older romplers - the farther back in time you go, the shorter the life expectancy of many of the components. And in some cases, like the old Kurz gear, there's a real shortage of replacement parts.

 

To be fair, that's also true of ANY keyboard made since the about 1983 (with very few exceptions like Moog Voyager). By then, custom ICs were becoming the norm (I chose 1983 because the DX7 relies on custom ICs. Well the CS-50/60/80 did too but they weren't produced near the quantity of the DX). SMT made miniaturization a reality and improved the cost/feature, but they also rendered repairs moot. Few tech shops have the tools to repair SMT, and even then it was more cost-effective to just replace the entire circuit board - *IF* it was still available.

 

Some stuff is just built poorly. My Apple LED Cinema Display crapped out just before the holidays. Right after the warranty expired too. After reading around I learned I was far from the only owner with the same problem, and their build quality is suspect. I usually opt for repair, but in this case I decided to replace it with a Dell monitor as the cost was better (it didn't hurt that I had some Amazon gift cards from my employer!). Apple usually builds good stuff but that monitor was not one of them. And I was gentle with it too.

 

And it can be a real pain or impossible to get files in and out of the things if they don't have USB.

 

The Kurzweil 1000 boxes in my system had the most comprehensive MIDI implementation for their day (MIDI was three years old when they came out), especially SYSEX. I/O was never difficult for me.

 

But yeah, the MIDI implementation of most other boards was wanting...