The best, most useful and enjoyable keyboard you ever bought?

[Morrissey]

1 hour ago, cphollis said:

Does anyone see a pattern here?

 

All I see is red

[wineandkeyz]

3 hours ago, Dr Nursers said:

S70XS for me - super heavy but had the best time with it and at the time had killer sounds.

 

I consider best, most useful, and most enjoyable as three different categories.

 

The Yamaha S70XS has been and still is my most useful keyboard to date. It covers a lot of ground sonically, has a great-feeling action, serves as the master keyboard in my rig, and is short enough to fit in my Honda CR-V, even in its road case.

 

As for best keyboard, I'd probably go with my Weber grand.

 

For most enjoyable, I have to go with the Minimoog Model D I used to own, although I'm having a ball right now learning my way around the SK Pro 73 I bought last fall.

[Steve Nathan]

[ElmerJFudd]

2 minutes ago, Steve Nathan said:

Purty! 

[dbhoosier]

My Yamaha YC88.  A few months ago I probably would have said my Nord Stage 3 Compact but I just seem to always prefer the sounds and experience of the YC now (I actively use both).  My old Yamaha DSR-2000 was a lot of fun back in the day as well, though...

[ksoper]

Best:  Moog One

Most useful:  Emu Emax

Most enjoyable:  Moog Voyager 

 

But there can be only One. 

[Redknife]

C7

[drawback]

4 hours ago, cphollis said:

Does anyone see a pattern here?

Nord “leads?”  😉

[Mills Dude]

21 minutes ago, drawback said:

Nord “leads?”  😉

The plural of 'Nord lead' is 'Nord lead'.  Hence the winner by a margin -- Nord lead

[cp-the-nerd]

If I can take into account bang-for-the-buck, I have to give a nod to my Korg Minilogue XD. The thing is so damn versatile and fun for a budget polysynth. It makes me smile every time I start messing around with the analog control knobs.

If anyone wants a solid analog polysynth for well under $1000, you would be crazy not to consider the Minilogue.

[Tom Williams]

Best: Current Kurzweil PC4-7.  I've only scratched the surface, and it's already replaced two keyboards for gigging.

 

Most enjoyable: PC-361, probably because I got very deep in my understanding of its programming.

 

Most useful: The one I made most use of was probably the Ensoniq EPS (13 bit).  In addition to being my never-since-equalled backup band, it also served me as a piano, string section, Synclavier, and wavetable synth.  Add polyphonic portamento and polyphonic aftertouch, and you have one honkin' keyboard. 

[PaulArtola]

My Roland XP-30, expanded with Vintage Synths and Keyboards of the 60s & 70s, makes jamming with all type of musicians fun. Easy to dial in a patch that supports whatever sound I want to play, and nice design for getting to them. Bought new in 1999 to get me on this started on this adventure.

 

- Paul "Uncle Chrome" Artola

 

[ImproKeys]

Nord Stage 2 HA76. 

[TJ Cornish]

Korg OASYS for me. It was so far ahead of everyone else I played it for 9 years until it died with no GAS symptoms. Got another 8 years out of the Kronoses that replaced it.

[drohm]

Most useful: NS3 Compact
Most loved: Yamaha S7x grand piano
Most fun: Hammond XK5 w/ 3300 
Favorite synth: Prophet 6

[pinkfloydcramer]

I've reconsidered. The most useful keyboard I've ever had was a pre-MIDI Yamaha SK20, because it kept me from getting fired. I had somehow BS'd my way into a blues club house band (think Opie in a band with the cast of Sanford and Son) but things were shaky- the Kurzweil K1000 I had been using wasn't cutting it for organ, which was the only sound I used. The SK20 had a hot sound and cut through the din of the Peavey pawnshop house PA, even with a Peavey KB100 keyboard amp carrying FOH. The Leslie effect wasn't bad either, in fact superior to the clones of the day which included the Korg CX3 and the new (at the time) Hammond XB2. Setup time 5 minutes. Good ol' days. 

 

For sheer fun nothing tops my Kimball upright freebie church piano. Playing ragtime and blues on it is a gas, nothing else responds like it when I dig in. 

[dongna]

Yamaha S90ES for me.

[marino]

Rhodes Chroma, DSI/SCI Evolver and Pro 3, Oberheim Matrix-12, Kurzweil K2600

[AnotherScott]

On 3/16/2022 at 3:34 PM, Morrissey said:

 

All I see is red

 

[Pa Gherkin]

I’ve had a bunch but my B-3 ranks among the top along with the D50 which is still cooking and still sounds great to me.  Most recently the SKPro is high on my list.

[The Real MC]

Moog Memorymoog Plus.  Bought it new at the fire sale at Moog Music (Buffalo NY) back in 1985, they had just ceased all synthesizer manufacturing in the wake of the DX7.

 

I cut my teeth on that thing - it saw many gigs, I learned a lot of sound design tricks on it, and my day job as systems engineer was valuable experience to fix the well known reliability problems.  My internet (in)famy came from publishing my fixes.

[Rofox]

Roland RD200. Bought new in '86/87. Loved it from first touch and bought it on the spot. Eight sounds, three of them usable and two superb.
No other instrument I've owned has provided the same playing experience - the SA sound generation combined with the keyboard feel provided a connection and response that was second to none and it formed the basis of my solo keyboard rig for 10 years until it was stolen. Piano 3 had so much bite when you hit it yet could be caressed, the same with the two EPs.  Paired it with an MKS20 transposed down an octave for extra goodness.

[Justin Havu]

I've got its much bigger brother, the RD-1000.  Heaviest piece of equipment I own, but it sure sounds good.  Only issue is that some of the keys make a clacking noise when released, which tells me there's a felt strip that needs to be replaced.

[mate stubb]

1 hour ago, justin_havu said:

I've got its much bigger brother, the RD-1000.  Heaviest piece of equipment I own, but it sure sounds good.

 

HP4500 owner here. Think home version of the RD1000 but with speakers and stand. It still scratches the SA itch.

[MathOfInsects]

The single board that checks all the boxes in the thread title is the NS3C, with nothing in second place. Split the title into separate components and the answers multiply, though...

[Sam Mullins]

The boards I have now are the best I've ever had (Kronos, Stage 3) but if the question was "what was the biggest leap in usefulness and enjoyment" ...definitely the Yamaha S90ES.  First time I was really happy with an action (one of the rare good weighted actions that also had good pressure sensitivity) and very good sounds for the time.

[ProfD]

For me, it was the Korg SV-1 hands down (no pun intended). 😁

 

The SV-1 was my Rhodes on steroids until I got the real deal.😎

[Shamanzarek]

Might have been a Kurzweil PC88MX. I used it for practicing at home and for gigs with Boss PK-5 pedals. Took it on a European tour and the sound crew was raving about how great it sounded. Didn't hold up but it was great while it lasted. Replaced it with a PC2X/O which didn't work out nearly as well despite having tone wheel section and more sounds.

[mcgoo]

Most useful would have to be my Kronos LS. The versatility and power of it are pretty incredible. However, as a jack of all trades, I ultimately find it to be a master of none and I'm currently in the process of converting back to a laptop based rig. 

 

Most enjoyable would likely be my Wurlitzer 200. I've gigged that thing a decent amount and it's simply an inspiring joy to play. 

 

Best is my Multimoog, which I got in 1979 and still have and use. Cut my synth teeth on it and bringing it to an audition helped me land my first road gig. That little baby has been my biggest game changer! 

[Stephen Fortner]

Useful and enjoyable have two different meanings for me. The most useful was my first Kurzweil, a K2000 I bought in 1995 and still have. I say that because in terms of the number of different sounds I got out of it and ratio of paying gigs played to its cost, it has worked harder than anything I’ve owned since. That’s mainly because being a broke-ass grad student in the 1990s motivated me to squeeze every drop out of programming I could out of it, seek out aftermarket samples, etc.

 

Enjoyable is a tougher call because I’ve enjoyed so many. The piece of gear I’ve gotten the most enjoyment out of is probably the Leslie 142 I acquired a few years later. Not a keyboard, but it adds such vibe and dimension to any organ sound put through it, even from a source like an old ROMpler or DX7. (I mainly used it with my Roland VK7 but now it sits connected to my XK-3C system.)