Another "Help Me Pick a Second Board" thread

[MathOfInsects]

Honestly, the thread went toward them, but brass and strings are a tiny part of my requirements.

I think they may have seemed more important because it was, not just something you listed, but also one of the few things you mentioned that is not so great on the NS3C you'd be pairing it with, either.

 

I didn't mention that. It did come up, but I wasn't the source. I use a second board for horns and strings occasionally for weddings when there is no horn section, and it's "second" in the truest sense there, meaning I'm also playing my bottom board at the time. I wrapped it in to my bullet points, since that's a second-board situation, but in fact the FA is actually most fine for those, since I can just set and forget a Studio Set with horns and strings. And on reflection, I'm never doing synth stuff then anyway, or at least nothing that isn't more-than-ably covered by the NS3C, so if I had to lose any item off the list, that would be the one.

 

What I am most in need of is a good synth-primary board with non-menu-y interface so that I can respond nimbly in real time to what's happening musically.

 

I really liked the MODX demos, and it would be nice bang for the buck.

 

But that Virus. Wow. We bonded. And it checks all the boxes. (Except horns, as noted.) I am going to sleep on it and if I still like it tomorrow, that may be the answer.

[ProfD]

Brotha MOI, grab that Virus Ti2. Get to work finding the brass and string sounds in the Ti2. It will do more than get through a wedding band gig.

 

IMO, a synth is great for those auxiliary sounds. Better than a ROMpler because of real-time access (knobs) to tweaking sounds on the fly.

[o0Ampy0o]

You tasted the nectar of the gods.

 

Get the Virus.

[MathOfInsects]

Ironic to be considering getting a 'Virus' after this last year"s festivities.

 

And by 'to be considering,' I mean 'to have just purchased and brought home.'

 

We"ll see if I"m brave enough to go trial-by-fire tonight. Second half of the double is a new BL so I may play it safe. Flip side: it"s an R&B gig and this board was made for it.

 

I checked almost all my boxes with this, for just over my budget. I may need a moment to myself to 'reflect.'

[AnotherScott]

Honestly, the thread went toward them, but brass and strings are a tiny part of my requirements.

I think they may have seemed more important because it was, not just something you listed, but also one of the few things you mentioned that is not so great on the NS3C you'd be pairing it with, either.

 

I didn't mention that. It did come up, but I wasn't the source.

When I said you mentioned it, I meant you listed it as one of the bullet points you were looking for the board to fill in your OP... and of those bullet points, it was one of the few that was not a strength of the NS3C you already had there. Which is why my first reply looked to clarify that, when I asked "I assume by 'workable-to-good horns and strings' you'd like something better than what you can get on the Nord, yes?" Which in turn was why I initially ruled out any Nord Wave possibility.

 

in fact the FA is actually most fine for those, since I can just set and forget a Studio Set with horns and strings.

With your request being "Help Me Pick a Second Board" to go with your Nord, I thought the goal was to entirely replace the FA with something that met all your bullet points, especially since your second paragraph explained why the FA was not working for you. Of course, if you can continue to bring the FA for brass/strings, it's no longer a concern for picking your new board... I just did not get the sense that you had any intention of continuing to use the FA as well, I thought you were looking to fully replace it. Maybe the thread title should have been "Help Me Pick a Third Board". ;-)

 

But you found the board you want, so all is well! :-)

[Mjazz]

Ironic to be considering getting a 'Virus' after this last year"s festivities.

 

When it comes to keyboards, nothing says Modern Times quite like this audience-facing back panel ...

 

 

You can explain to those who ask WTF that it's your personal on-stage decontamination and viral containment unit.

 

[MathOfInsects]

I went for it and brought the board last night (and brought the FA-06 too just in case).

 

I did not need the FA.

 

This board is a monster. I dropped a few leads, a couple of pads, and one or two other patches into the 'Favourites' bank, and found it simple to run back and forth among them. Screen is small but I knew where to look for info.

 

The actionâ¦.the soundsâ¦.the on-the-fly adjustabilityâ¦.the actionâ¦.the soundsâ¦.

 

Damn.

[ProfD]

This board is a monster.

 

The actionâ¦.the soundsâ¦.the on-the-fly adjustabilityâ¦.the actionâ¦.the soundsâ¦.

 

Damn.

Nuff said brotha MOI. You've found your "alternative" KB. Nord covers bread and butter. Ti2 is the jam.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you find enough sounds in the Ti2 that it could be used as a main KB in pinch.

[Adan]

Great to read a thread with a happy ending. Or is it a "happy ending"?

 

Be careful, MOI, I hear the Nord is a jealous mistress.

[agitato]

Does the modx6 have better horns/strings than the mx49/61?

[Delaware Dave]

If you are willing to back in time a little bit a PC3 would fit the bill. Has all the elements that you are looking for and because it is no longer the newest line of Kurzweil you can pick one up for your current price. With all of the outdoor gigs we've been doing with limited stage space I've been using the PC3 and covering all of the bases (using a Vent for the leslie). The PC361 certainly will cover what you are looking for and in your price range.

[allan_evett]

 

This board is a monster. I dropped a few leads, a couple of pads, and one or two other patches into the 'Favourites' bank, and found it simple to run back and forth among them. Screen is small but I knew where to look for info.

 

The actionâ¦.the soundsâ¦.the on-the-fly adjustabilityâ¦.the actionâ¦.the soundsâ¦.

 

Damn.

 

No kidding... Great choice! The Virus instruments have addictive sound and interraction capabilities. A radio commercial producer I did some work for, circa 2000, had an original Virus module; he raved about it. I had one of the Snow tabletops, but didn't quite connect with the interface. But the sound, wow...

Here's a T1 demo I just discovered. The only thing I have similar in sound quality and VA goodness is the new Fantom, and that will cover horns and assorted bread n' butter sounds too. Man, if I had the $$ this would be a more versatile replacement to cover the territory my Prologue 16 does. When a VA causes one to reconsider his existing analog poly, it speaks volumes.

 

[video:youtube]

[AnotherScott]

Does the modx6 have better horns/strings than the mx49/61?

 

The MX has a subset of Motif XS sounds. It probably has all the same basic horn/string voices as the XS, but would be missing at least the alternate articulations (which can be invoked by buttons on the higher end models, buttons that don't exist on the MX), and if any of them originally had two insert effects on them, on the MX, they would have only one. (The MX only has 166 mb of the 255 mb of wave samples that were in the Motif XS, but it is not clear exactly what's there and what's missing.) The MODX has, not only the full XS sound set (complete with whatever alternate articulations and effects they may have had), but also the additional horn/string sounds that were added for the Motif XF, and still more that were added on the Montage. While "better" may be subjective, at a minimum, there's certainly a lot more in the MODX!

[Stokely]

Just to throw another idea, since the Virus is being mentioned: I got a great deal on a Novation Summit and I think it sounds stellar. I used to have a Virus B and loved it, to me the Summit sounds like one review said: a "hifi Virus". Neither one comes out of the gate where you think "cover band" but you can certainly do bread and butter synth stuff with them. The Virus has maybe a slightly better keybed and the best aftertouch I've ever played I must say.

 

My current rig is a MODX7 and the Summit. I've got an ipad that hooks into the MODX7 easily and that has really expanded possibilities. Honestly with the synths you can get on the Ipad the Summit is kind of a "nice to have extra" for me, though mainly I use b3 organ on the ipad. The MODX is no slouch either, though I dislike the plastic toy feel and wall wart. Then again, it's so light that I can lift it off the stand with one hand using the front or back lip under the chassis so that's a plus!

 

I'm a person who like simplicity and dislikes a fiddly rig. Yet the ipad has really grabbed me. I have a fallback plan where if it poops out for some reason I am ok, I just play the keyboards! So my tentative plan, tested well so far, is to have MODX, Summit and ipad all going into a usb hub (unpowered works). The audio goes into the MODX via usb, midi flies around back and forth via usb. Using the app Midiflow, I can have either keyboard controlling the ipad, or both, or none using Midiflow presets. These presets are also able to send bank and program changes to ipad, Summit and Modx so I don't need to scramble if we do a request out of set list order I even took my little Korg nanoslider unit and connected it to the hub and it just works, not sure I really have a spot or need for it though. I've done five gigs now with the ipad and it's been rock solid, sits right on the MODX so I don't need to worry about a laptop.

 

I think if I only had one keyboard right now, I'd just get a cheap used one or a controller and use the ipad for the brain. The sound quality is really top notch and it's pretty easy to control the various apps as they can map existing controls to inner functions. I already was bringing an ipad to gigs for controlling my monitor mix anyway.