Another Rig Advice Thread

[Al Quinn]

I"ve been in search of a single keyboard rig for years but have come up short. This year I bought an SK Pro 61 thinking it could be the one. It"s solidly built, has great organ and leslie sim, and I like the mono synth a lot. After a couple of gigs it became clear that the APs and EPs weren"t doing it for me so I bought a Dexibell SX7 sound module. The SX7 APs are excellent; the EPs are very good but not great. The SK Pro midi implementation is very good. The action is surprisingly playable for APs and EPs even though it"s a semi-weighted action. Of course, action is personal and you would have to form your own opinion. I wanted to fully control the SX7 module from the SK Pro so that the SX7 could be on my amp and out of the way while performing. Unfortunately, some help was needed so I bought a Midi Event Processor Plus and got everything working as desired. All in all, it"s a great sounding portable rig and I"m happy. I bought a shallow 2U case for the SX7. It has enough space to hold my pedals, wires, power strip, Event Processor Plus, and Radial Key Largo (used to pump up the SX7 gain), which allowed me to eliminate my wire bag.

[AnotherScott]

The SX...EPs are very good but not great.

You've tried the optionally downloadable ones, yes? Maybe it's worth checking out what you might be able to load in as a soundfont...?

[ElmerJFudd]

I was thinking the same re: sf2

 

This one has been floating around a long while.

 

https://www.audiobombs.com/items/493/jrhodes-1977-mark-i-rhodes-sound-fonts

 

Maybe some useful ones here.

 

https://www.hispasonic.com/noticias/dsk-music-presenta-hispasonic-sampled-series/3685

[nadroj]

Well, it's a new day. Yesterday I was all about the E6 and Minilogue. Today I'm all about the SK-PRO.

 

I just need to suck it up, find a shop that has all or most of these keyboards in stock, and spend a day trying them out. I'll have to ignore the specs and take away the one that speaks to me the most, whatever it is. Unfortunately that means planning a day trip to several stores waaaaaay down in the Mid-South of England.

[Al Quinn]

The SX...EPs are very good but not great.

You've tried the optionally downloadable ones, yes? Maybe it's worth checking out what you might be able to load in as a soundfont...?

 

Yes, I've tried the downloadable ones. They're actually pretty good but I'm looking for better. It's basically the difference between "sounds good" and inspires. Thanks to a previous conversation with Elmer sound font EPs are my next step.

[Al Quinn]

I was thinking the same re: sf2

 

This one has been floating around a long while.

 

https://www.audiobombs.com/items/493/jrhodes-1977-mark-i-rhodes-sound-fonts

 

Maybe some useful ones here.

 

https://www.hispasonic.com/noticias/dsk-music-presenta-hispasonic-sampled-series/3685

Thanks, good stuff. I will get to this soon. It may appear I'm slow to move on this but I've been away from my gear for the past week and a half but we're back together now.

[AnotherScott]

It may appear I'm slow to move on this but I've been away from my gear for the past week and a half but we're back together now.

You call a week and a half slow to move? I've got stuff I've been wanting to play around with for years that I haven't gotten around to yet. ;-)

[Al Quinn]

Yeah it's slow for me because I actually detest spending time on gear stuff as it's a time suck that impacts my musical development. So I try to keep gear related stuff to a minimum and, when there's something to do, I like to just bang it out quick and get it behind me.

[Aynsley Green]

I can confirm that the NS3C action sucks if you're expecting a somewhat weighted piano feel. I use a weighted controller for those bits.

 

I like this solution. There are affordable, fairly light weight, weighted actions that are significantly more pleasant to play piano on. Like the the Kawai ES-110, PX-5S, P-125, FP-30X. Others that are lighter schlep tend to use the Fatar TP-100 which is meh for me. ymmv

 

I have never liked the Nord Stage 88 action, such great piano sounds trapped in that mushy action, yuck. Gigged a NE6 for years and really liked that Waterfall action as a compromise between Hammond playing whilst still being able to play piano on it. Have gigged a MODX recently and I really have no complaints, other than the cheap action (but the price is right). I have been contemplating the NS3C + Kawai ES-110 as a weighted controller myself (Kawai's actions are killer). Gives you options for 'smaller' or 'bigger' gigs, having two boards for mental separation (saves you having to do splits, but still a bit annoying to program compared to having two totally separate boards), gives you those nice drawbars, etc. The Nord Hammond engine is pretty good, but the Hammond XK5/SKPro engine is the King these days - I may yet sell my Hammond SK2 and upgrade.

 

If you're jonesing for the Korg Minologue XD, go for the Prologue 8, or maybe even the 16. 4 voices will drive you insane very quickly - I have the Prologue 8 and even that voice limit is annoying - it's such a great synth, really needs the 16 voices and 61 keys to spread its wings. With the 3rd party addons it can nail Retro, Modern, Soundtrack, Weird Shit - it's killer. A Nord Stage 3-88 + Korg Prologue 16 would be an absolute death-rig, if you only need basic Hammond capabilities. That said, the synth engine in the NS3 is no slouch, either.

[cp-the-nerd]

I actually happen to own a Minilogue XD module and a Nord Electro 6D. That's a really strong combo. The Minilogue XD has a cool little joystick for mod/pitchbend control and it really lets you rip a great mono lead while you play via midi connection. I do butt up against the 4 voice limitation when I'm doing poly synth stuff, so sure a Prologue 8 would be ideal, but in terms of portability and cost, the XD is second to none. As an add-on synth section to another keyboard for gigs, it's fantastic.

 

I've had the Electro 6D for about a week and my nitpicks are few. It's just silly Nord doesn't put pitch/mod controls on it, like being deliberately stubborn for no reason. Also, the effects/EQ controls are pretty clumsy if you're trying to adjust on the fly. Other than that, I freakin love the thing and despite being my first semi-weighted keyboard, I find it a joy to play. The high quality auxiliary sounds have been a ton of fun, too. A really inspiring keyboard.

[nadroj]

UPDATE: I've potentially got a buyer for the Roland, which is good, but more out of the blue and more excitingly...

 

...Someone local has asked if I'd be willing to trade the MODX7 for...

 

...A Dave Smith Prophet Rev 2. I almost shat myself when I saw the message.

 

Of course that would mean I wouldn't have enough for the Stage 3/SK PRO if I were to sell them all, but the chances of them being sold together in a window where I have no gigs is looking less likely every week. An Electro 6 (if I were to pick one up) and a Rev 2 with Mainstage for backup would leave me a very happy camper for a long time, especially since I could do 95% of my gigs with the Electro alone.

Aah. Part of me really wants the Prophet. It's not as full fledged as the MODX, and probably not as practical for some gigs, but I'd play it a hell of a lot more than I currently do the MODX (which is basically sitting on top of our family Yamaha Clavinova acting as a glorified £1100 MIDI/Audio interface) I'd need to go and have a look at it to make sure all is kosher and not too good to be true, but if the guy is serious I might be very tempted to make the trade.

 

Thoughts?

[stoken6]

UPDATE: I've potentially got a buyer for the Roland, which is good, but more out of the blue and more excitingly...

 

...Someone local has asked if I'd be willing to trade the MODX7 for...

 

...A Dave Smith Prophet Rev 2. I almost shat myself when I saw the message.

This is a want vs need, heart vs head decision. I'm just looking up at your original requirements (great organ, multitimbral, good AP/EP, build quality) and the Prophet fails on 3 of those. Combined with an Electro? Only you can decide if that rig is "multi-timbral enough" and sufficiently versatile for your needs and the gigs you do.

 

Having said that

I'd play it a hell of a lot more than I currently do the MODX

is probably the most telling sentence in your post.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[hardware]

I"ve had my dream rig for 7 years.

A Physis K4 and a 1U PC I built.

 

I"ve got lots of other hardware but VSTi"s sound so good I rarely drag any extra gear.

Except the HX-3.5 module.

 

I consider it lightweight and with decent action although that"s not important for me.

 

Best rig I ever used.

Only upgrades I"ve done is add the Strymon USB MIDI controlled Dual Phaser.

 

Two trips to my vehicle.

Rack and Controller, then the Speaker Tree.

Even my Dolley is a 9' pneumatic tire, folding aluminum kit I can lift w/ 2 fingers.

 

I even leave the dolley under my sub rather than make 3 trips.

No mo lugging 4 me.