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The most useless, disappointing keyboard you ever bought?


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On 3/16/2022 at 2:09 AM, Synthaholic said:

Useless: Sequential Six-Trak

Had one of those along with the Drum-Traks. Loved the drum machine, hated the keyboard. I used it for the water drop sound only. Everything else sounded so thin and static. Granted it was stacked with a MemoryMoog and a Rhodes Chroma so it was competing with the big boys for playing time, and got none.

 

One I bought years later and hated was the Oberheim Matrix 6. It was like a Juno but without the chorus and reverb to save the sound. It fell off of the stand and never worked right after that. Ended up in a dumpster. I wonder if someone in my small town is telling a story about finding a Matrix 6 in the dumpster that only needed minor repairs. :)

This post edited for speling.

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On 3/15/2022 at 11:35 AM, mate stubb said:

Rhodes Stage 88. The most sluggish low dynamic playing, heavy and awkward to move, muffled dead non-cutting tone beast I ever struggled with. 

The dilapidated house I rescued my Hammond A100 and Leslie 147 from also had a Rhodes Stage 88 buried under piles of junk in the back room. Even I was like "ehhhhh maybe." I was glad when the owner of my favorite local studio picked it up instead. I wound up using it on a session for my wife's solo album, and even after it was cleaned up, boy did it have some issues -- I had to come up with a sparse, thoughtful part to get around all the dead and sticky keys! The song had one big climactic moment on an F chord, which was great, because the low F key stuck, so you got exactly *one* low F per take. :roll: 

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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Yikes!  Now I remember why I stopped visiting this forum- such a friendly group with tons of experience and smarts, it’s all to easy to lose hours of my day on subjects that often have little to nothing to do with playing/practicing my keys!  Oh well, hard to resist this topic!

 

I’ve got 2 prime candidates:

 

1. In 1988? I bought a Kauai K1 II, paid $750, a boatload of money for me back then.  It was the sounds that were so incredibly disappointing, and this was WAY before I began having any kind of active discernment of sound quality, that came about 20-25 years later, so I know these sounds had to be atrocious.

 

2. Yamaha Motif XS 76 key. I hadn’t played keys in years and bought it for its features, its supposed do-it-all capability.  Embarrassed to say I was all in for over $4k, and what a waste, ended up selling it for $1,400 a few years later.  I found the sounds to be uninspiring, and beneath the top layers, which were very user friendly, I found it very obtuse, something designed by engineers for engineers.  This was my first workstation, really had no idea what I was buying.

 

What I learned:

- A very expensive lesson on how to waste time learning a board that is ill-suited to me.  What I could have really used was a stage piano.

- Start off modestly with a low-priced board, preferably used, to get my feet wet and discover what I actually need and want.  

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On 3/23/2022 at 3:14 PM, RABid said:

Had one of those along with the Drum-Traks. Loved the drum machine, hated the keyboard.

 

I had the successor drum machine, the Tom. Loved it, especially the tuning feature. 20 years ago I lent it to a guitarist friend and he lost it, then couldn't remember even borrowing it. 🙄 Believe it or not, I still have the expansion cartridge. It had a fantastic castanet sound, and at the time I played a lot of Thompson Twins, so it was a match. spacer.png

 

EDIT TO ADD: I just, on a whim, checked eBay prices for the Tom: $800-$1300! 🤪 You would have to be a fool, or just wealthy and curious.

The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers

 

People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin

 

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The Crumar Bit One was absolutely the worst synth I ever bought. I guess there was a good reason it was as cheap as it was. Horrible sounding, keyboard trigger problems. After two weeks of frustration, I took it back to West LA Music and they let me exchange it for an Ensoniq ESQ-1. The ESQ-1 was several hundred dollars more expensive, but they did give me a full refund on the Bit One. Had lots of fun with the ESQ-1...

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On 3/26/2022 at 9:02 PM, LarsHarner2 said:

From 23 years ago I feel as though the Alesis Qs6.1 didn't live up to the hype- the rubber buttons were not responsive for patch changes. Pianos weren't great yet I fell for the marketing

I agree that there was a lot of marketing hype about the alesis pianos. The jazz piano card for the alesis fixes that problem. There’s a lot more good stuff to like on that board…

 

cheers, Mike

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On 3/25/2022 at 12:26 PM, RandyFF said:

 

 

2. Yamaha Motif XS 76 key. ... I found it very obtuse, something designed by engineers Satan for tormenting engineers musicians.  

 

Just sayin'

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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

-Mark Twain

 

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Yamaha DX7. Ordered without chance to try it before buying, no internet, no reviews. Hoped to get decent Hammond, pianos and epianos out of it. Still hate the sound of it from hits if the eighties. Heavy beast, keybed was nice….

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Back in the early 80's I managed to pick up a Mellotron 400D. I was so in love with the idea of how cool it was to have one that I was trying to use it on just about every song in the full time Holiday Inn band that I was in. Of course everyone else in the band hated it because I couldn't keep the damn thing in tune. I finally got tired of the tuning and the novelty wore off. I sold it a few years later for $125 and felt like I'd gotten a good deal. *sigh*

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/19/2022 at 11:57 PM, mpn_user7629 said:

 

I didn't really enjoy playing one too but for a time, it was all I had e-piano wise.

 

When the pandemic hit In 2020 , I saw a CP-30 outside a closed thrift store. I could have taken it home but said to myself FORGET IT!!!

The CP-30 was my first "proper" electronic piano for gigging. Used it alongside a Wurli, A Hammond X-2, a Korg Delta and a Moog Prodigy. Apart from it being a pig to carry, I actually quite liked its fairly unique sound, which was so much fatter than the CP-20. Way better than the Crumar DP80 I had at one time that I could tweak to get a piano-ish sound on about three notes in one octave, but everything else sounded like some kind of electronic experiment.

 

Another Crumar I had for a while was the Trilogy. Played it in a theater production alongside someone with an Oberheim OB8. Boy, did I feel like the poor relation! Again, it was good for maybe three or four sounds.

 

Other lemons: EX-800, Rhodes Suitcase and the Poly-61 that I thought might be as good as the Polysix...

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On 4/11/2022 at 1:47 AM, dickiefunk said:

Not useless but very disappointing was the Roland RD88

What are the reasons you were disappointed with the RD88?   I have been thinking of getting an RD88 for its zen core support, but its lack of a midi in is kind of a deal breaker for me. 

 

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On 4/11/2022 at 7:51 AM, AUSSIEKEYS said:

M audio Keystation 88 pro. Their first 88. Bargain price at the time for a controller but inconsistant key velocities made it horrible to play.

 

What a wonderful front panel that thing had (although programming it with or without the Enigma software was a PITA). And what a complete turd of an excuse for a weighted keybed it was. And it was heavy. And it played like crap. Did I mention it was heavy? With my first Laptop rig I had every button, knob & slider assigned to a function and loved it, but I could never bond with that action. I even asked a tech about either replacing the keybed with one from someone else or separating the front panel from the unit entirely. He declined to even entertain either idea.

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4 hours ago, mcgoo said:

 

What a wonderful front panel that thing had (although programming it with or without the Enigma software was a PITA). And what a complete turd of an excuse for a weighted keybed it was. And it was heavy. And it played like crap. Did I mention it was heavy? With my first Laptop rig I had every button, knob & slider assigned to a function and loved it, but I could never bond with that action. I even asked a tech about either replacing the keybed with one from someone else or separating the front panel from the unit entirely. He declined to even entertain either idea.

 

Yes it looked so good on the floor and cheap i had to have it. I was on the way to a funeral and dropped in to window shop a music store while in the area.

 

They were doing a introductory price and as i got a great deal on it i took the punt. After the 3rd board the action was acceptable but i still didnt like it. Fortunately when i sold it broke even on it because the buy price was so low. 

 

It was very heavy and part of that was due to the other thing I also hated (if i remember rightly) is that it had an MDF sheet as a base. Thats a lot of weight in that.

 

I hate MDF as a base as its so suseptable to water damage where a ply base is much less so plus its lighter.

 

Alas controllrr wise it was more geared for the incoming DAW "awakening" more so than a stage controller 

 

If they had only put in a decent keybed i think it would have been celebrated. But then the amazing at the time price would been a little more and they may have pushed into a different price comparison bracket??? 

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I’ve had many disappointments but the “winner” has to be the Siel Px Jr - I needed a bottom board for my Juno 60 back in the 80s. It sounded truly awful. It played OK until it stopped producing sound after a month. At least it was heavy and fairly expensive.

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Ugh the DX-7 still have the mark 1 and a DX-7 2....nice keybed but that's about it. The 2 has slightly better sound, I found it in a garage and refurbed it.

On 3/29/2022 at 4:37 PM, Jon E said:

Yamaha DX7. Ordered without chance to try it before buying, no internet, no reviews. Hoped to get decent Hammond, pianos and epianos out of it. Still hate the sound of it from hits if the eighties. Heavy beast, keybed was nice….

 

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On 4/17/2022 at 6:24 AM, DrEsophagus said:

Ugh the DX-7 still have the mark 1 and a DX-7 2....nice keybed but that's about it. The 2 has slightly better sound, I found it in a garage and refurbed it.

 

Yeah, never understood the love for the DX7, there are very few sounds I like, though at the time it offered a lot compared to dealing with expensive and out of tune analog synths

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Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

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PAIA Stringz 'n Thingz. 

 

It was the very first keyboard I ever bought - purchased the kit from PAIA as a freshman in high school, I think. Took me weeks to solder and build, and another couple weeks to trouble shoot and correct all my errors. 

 

And when it finally worked, it sounded...horrible. Thin, anemic, completely unusable. 

 

But what a learning experience in terms of electronic assembly. It was what prepared me for a summer job soldering and building microcomputer circuit boards a few years later.

..
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On 4/17/2022 at 12:57 AM, JKS111 said:

I’ve had many disappointments but the “winner” has to be the Siel Px Jr - I needed a bottom board for my Juno 60 back in the 80s. It sounded truly awful. It played OK until it stopped producing sound after a month. At least it was heavy and fairly expensive.

That Siel is one fugly board!  Is that a dashboard air vent on top??

 

image.png.869103722ec4f0c332ebbca2946c9bfd.png

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2 hours ago, timwat said:

PAIA Stringz 'n Thingz. 

 

It was the very first keyboard I ever bought - purchased the kit from PAIA as a freshman in high school, I think. Took me weeks to solder and build, and another couple weeks to trouble shoot and correct all my errors. 

 

And when it finally worked, it sounded...horrible. Thin, anemic, completely unusable. 

 

But what a learning experience in terms of electronic assembly. It was what prepared me for a summer job soldering and building microcomputer circuit boards a few years later.

I had one of those! I actually liked mine, but I also had an ARP String Ensemble, so I didn't use the PAIA for that kinda role. Just a different texture.

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On 3/29/2022 at 4:37 PM, Jon E said:

Yamaha DX7. Ordered without chance to try it before buying, no internet, no reviews. Hoped to get decent Hammond, pianos and epianos out of it. Still hate the sound of it from hits if the eighties. Heavy beast, keybed was nice….

 

LOL. After gigging with at Rhodes Chroma topped with a MemoryMoog I moved to a DX7. Every time I picked it up I thought "Wow, this thing does not weigh anything." :)

 

I will admit, every time I turned it on I thought that I was sacrificing sound to have a keyboard that stays in tune.

This post edited for speling.

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On 3/15/2022 at 9:08 PM, Jim Alfredson said:

Roland VK7. I probably should've gone with the 'new' Korg CX3 (the digital one). The Roland didn't sound too bad except for the chorus / vibrato, percussion, and Leslie sim. Oh and those non-waterfall keys. Mine had the issue where it would sometimes randomly spit out digital noise at ear-bleeding levels without warning, requiring a hard power cycle. God that thing was a turd.

Don't forget about the non-usable extra voices and glue issues. The VK8 was possibly worse.

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Hammond B-2, Leslie 122, Hammond Sk1 73, Korg BX3 2001, Leslie 900, Motion Sound Pro 3, Polytone Taurus Elite, Roland RD300 old one, Roland VK7, Fender Rhodes Mark V with Roland JC90
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