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

[tucktronix]

So far, these boards have been the most useful and fun to play..

 

10+ year club

Yamaha S80

Casio PX5S

 

New Additions

Korg Kronos

Yamaha YC88

[YashN]

• Kurzweil K2500XS
• The same K2500XS upgraded for free with Live Mode, Vocoder Mode
• The same K2500XS upgraded for a small sum with KDFX, that I installed myself.

Upgrades to that would be:

- K2600*S - Triple Mode

- Any Kurzweil with Cascade V.A.S.T. and Dynamic V.A.S.T., e.g. from PC3 onward. However, they have no Live Mode and no Vocoder Mode.

 

30+ Years of V.A.S.T., I started with the K2000.

[yannis D]

Enjoyable: my Yamaha silent piano

Useful: Nord Electro 5d

Fun: stylophone. It generated more positive reactions from the audience than any other keyboard I've ever played 😉

 

[Justin Havu]

Best:

Most useful:

Most enjoyable:

 

My old Motif XS6 ticks all of these boxes.  Felt great, sounded great, and was fun to play around with.  Only reason I got the MODX-7 to replace it was I needed a single gigging board that had seamless patch changes, without the sound cutting out, which the Motif didn't do.  Sadly, the MODX needs some new end panels as there are some cracks in the cheap plastic.  If I could find one cheap enough, I'd swap for a Montage 6.

[Ibarch]

You never forget your first love. 

 

Mine was a Roland U-20. Yes it a was a rompler but in 1990 nothing could touch it for the sounds it had. It made those FM based synths sound like cheap casios. Time may not have been kind to it but I was the envy of everyone back then. 

 

I dug it put the loft last week, where it had lain for the last decade just waiting for me to find the time to restore it. It booted up first time and the sound of that piano and the JP8 strings and brass took me right back. The keybed may now be a mess of red goo but the sounds are still as I remember. It served me well for 15 years. 

[LarsHarner]

Tough call: can I go by decade?

1990's- Yamaha Sy55 - i took it everywhere and wasn't worried about it in places

             Fatar Studio 900  * with my Korg SG1 Rack (my favorite piece of gear ever)

2000's - Yamaha Motif 6- original- built really well

              Triton Le

2010's - Kawai ES8-

              *Yamaha P95 and later P145

              Roland Juno Gi had built in digital recorder- but sounds weren't good

2020's-  same day- post pandemic got Nautilus 61 and Arturia KeyLab MKII

 

In a nutshell- I would rate the ES8 as my best keyboard/piano. The one that really like put on the map in terms of how satisfied I was would be the combo of the Korg SG Rack and Fatar Studio 900. 

 

[brenner13]

I thought this was a resurrected thread…

 

Depends on the one I’m currently playing and having fun with. 

 

When I just wanna blow off some steam and rip some gnarly bass and searing leads…Subsequent 37 is my first reach.
 

Tied for second place are MiniFreak and HydraSynth Explorer. They both have so many different types of synthesis. Love to get drones, arps, or sequences going with those and get the Moog to really sing on top of ‘em. Better than therapy.
 

When I need to try out some new iOS app or sound libraries, Numa Compact 2X is a dern good controller. It’s a decent board to practice for gigs on too.

 

Speaking of gigs: VR-09 is my main board. I’m currently doing organ for a local blues band and having the time of my life. MODX7 supports the gigs with better piano’s and hornz. 
 
If I have the house to myself, and a little of that rare stuff called free time, sometimes I like to get out the melodica and work on my breath technique. An empty house is mandatory for this instrument, though…😝

 

[JoJoB3]

B3 and piano being the ultimate but of the 'keyboard' variety it's probably the EPS 16+ I'll remember the most.  Sooo many years and so much music and sound on it.  There was blood in that turnip.  A sampler. SMDH.
Still have it.  Now it's the ARP 2700 and SP404 MKII (fun city).

Of the 'useful and fun' in the latest 'keyboards', still the cheap, 12lb Roland VR09 is up there (plug it in, play). 

[felis]

Late 80's = Matrix 6 - first, longest owned, most explored, and most fun.

 

Now - Kurzweil PC4-7.

 

I've forgotten most of what was between those.

[zeronyne]

I've had my Triton Pro X since it came out at NAMM, so 25 years at point.

But my all-time most useful keyboard was the Juno 106...not for its analog goodness or low end thump, but because it was the only keyboard I owned at the time. I played a TON of garage/party gigs doing 80s songs (which at the time were just "current songs") with just the Juno and MAYBE some sort of piano I managed to borrow. 6 notes of polyphony seemed to do the job. Sometimes, constraints are the fuel for creativity.

[nadroj]

Nord Electro 4.

 

Stupidly limited, but the most enjoyable keyboard I ever had. Took it to literally every gig I played when I owned it.

[Mighty Motif Max]

14 hours ago, brenner13 said:

I thought this was a resurrected thread…

It is, from 2022...

 

My answer back then was my Motif XF8. I would still say that's the most enjoyable. However, the most useful for me has definitely been the MODX7 - I've used that for everything over the last few years, and (especially when combined with an SK Pro 73), there's very little I can't cover sufficiently for almost any gig. It's much lighter and my Motif stays back home now.

[The Piano Man]

20 hours ago, Ibarch said:

You never forget your first love. 

 

Mine was a Roland U-20. Yes it a was a rompler but in 1990 nothing could touch it for the sounds it had. It made those FM based synths sound like cheap casios. Time may not have been kind to it but I was the envy of everyone back then. 

 

I dug it put the loft last week, where it had lain for the last decade just waiting for me to find the time to restore it. It booted up first time and the sound of that piano and the JP8 strings and brass took me right back. The keybed may now be a mess of red goo but the sounds are still as I remember. It served me well for 15 years. 

I still own, and occasionally use live, the Rhodes 760 (essentially the U20 in a different format)

 

Still looks pretty cool and I can quite imagine how cool it was to own that U20 back in 1990. The main piano sample is still useable in certain band contexts.

[Melving]

NI 61 MK3...  Makes VSTs fun   Ducks and runs...

[Dave Keys]

These are all time contextual but here goes:

 

Roland U20 - yes it's a rompler, but it was 1992, I was 18, broke, and never had a board before then that made authentic Piano and string sounds. I traded in 3 analog synths to get one.

Korg Kronos 2 61 - the swiss army knife of boards. 

Yamaha YC73 - a real players instrument. 

Casio CT S500 - a joy - no wires, no amps. Just pick up and play - the sounds are awesome, the action v playable. 

[J.F.N.]

11 minutes ago, Dave Keys said:

These are all time contextual but here goes:

 

Roland U20 - yes it's a rompler, but it was 1992, I was 18, broke, and never had a board before then that made authentic Piano and string sounds. I traded in 3 analog synths to get one.

Korg Kronos 2 61 - the swiss army knife of boards. 

Yamaha YC73 - a real players instrument. 

Casio CT S500 - a joy - no wires, no amps. Just pick up and play - the sounds are awesome, the action v playable. 

 

Which 3 analogs did you abandon for the U20? 🙈🙉🙊 

 

I don't want to think about things I've sold and traded during the years... 

[Jose EB5AGV]

3 hours ago, Dave Keys said:

Casio CT S500 - a joy - no wires, no amps. Just pick up and play - the sounds are awesome, the action v playable. 

 

Do you, or someone else, know if that action is the same than the one on the CTX-5000/3000/800/700?

[kpl1228]

Yamaha DX7 when it first came out checked all the boxes for me. I made payments on it as a VERY young (in my late teens) bar musician and after playing very subpar, broken-down and inadequate keyboards from the '70's (you gotta start somewhere) the DX7 was heaven. Nonstop noodling, and finally I could "sound like the song" in the cover band I was in. Such an all-around workhorse in 1984.

Sometimes I miss that feeling of youthful musical joy and discovery with a cool new groundbreaking instrument. Ever since that day I've been chasing the dragon, so to speak.

[J.F.N.]

12 minutes ago, kpl1228 said:

Yamaha DX7 when it first came out. I made payments on it as a VERY young (in my late teens) bar musician and after playing very subpar, broken-down and inadequate keyboards from the '70's (you gotta start somewhere) the DX7 was heaven. Nonstop noodling, and finally I could "sound like the song" in the cover band I was in. Such an all-around workhorse in 1984.

Sometimes I miss that feeling of youthful musical joy and discovery with a cool new groundbreaking instrument. Ever since that day I've been chasing the dragon, so to speak.

 

And I assume you became a Master of FM programming? I have never managed to get anywhere with FM (can't say I have been that persistent), but one of my good synth geek friends was in the same situation as you as a young asipiring keyboardplayer, worked his behind off until he'd saved up enough for a DX11 (DX7 was too expensive), and for a long time after he finally could afford it and bought it, that was his only synth. He of course is since then a bad ass FM synthesis programmer..

[johnchop]

Most fun: Korg M3

Most useful: Kurzweil PC3

I think my days of workstation keyboards are behind me though.

[ProfD]

On 4/16/2024 at 8:32 AM, zeronyne said:

... it was the only keyboard I owned at the time.

 

Sometimes, constraints always are the fuel for creativity.

Fixed that.😁

 

The *most* music seems to be produced with the *least* amount of gear.😎

[BluesB3]

I'm not a synth guy so take this FWIW.

1. '58 B3 w/ Bob Schleicher converted 50C Leslie
2. Wurly 200A w/ Warneck amp
3. 145 Leslie (makes any clone sound better)
4. CP73 (it's new and I'm just finding my way with it, but I like the simple programming and general build quality. I'm not a pianist so my comments on the action would be worthless.)
5. Electro 2 (can't compare to a real Hammond, but serviceable into a mini-Vent. Band members seem to like it. Durable and reliable)

Honorable mention goes to my Farfisa Combo Compact. I'm not nostalgic for it and I can pretty much get the sound on my Nord or CP, but it did serve me well throughout the '70's. It was a heckuva lot easier to tote to gigs than my Baldwin Orgasonic.

[HammondDave]

For cover bands, my current MODX+. Can replicate any keyboard sound (except the B3), easy to program and perform with, and weighs 17 lbs. Hard to beat that!

[Zydecat]

I've had a Yamaha YC73 for the last year or so, and am really happy with it.  Very usable organ, piano, and EP.  The strings, brass, accordion, etc are also good in my opinion.