Modern KBs--Every Sound All at Once

[ElmerJFudd]

20 minutes ago, jeffinpghpa said:

I guess it's all relative, too.  My teenage years were in the 80's and my 20's were in the 90's.  The era of owning a Rhodes, Hammond, Clav, Mellotron and MiniMoog and taking that out was before my time and I didn't really dig into mastering any of those vintage sound palettes until the 2000's started and I started to have disposable income to buy vintage instruments and amps.   By that point, I was married, in graduate school and starting a family, so went from gigging 4-5 nights a week to about 2.  Acquiring vintage instruments was a big passion for me 10-15 years and starting around 2017 I just lost the interest, sold those things off to better homes, and moved to all current generation technologies and workflows.

 

I agree with ProfD, that for the music I do, any pro level keyboard with a wide jack-of-all-trades sound palette can be functional for the sounds that I need for the music I do.  Everything else is creature comforts and player experience.   That being said, I'm still constantly buying and selling gear and haven't yet outgrown the excitement of finding a great deal or unboxing the latest and greatest.

Cars, stamps, coins, video gaming machines, sports memorabilia, or model trains, RC cars, planes, and boats, computers, watches.   Collecting things of fascination is a fairly common human behavior.  

[AnotherScott]

3 hours ago, Al Quinn said:

I recently saw a new product that featured the MKS-20 sound) it puzzles me. I did hundreds of gigs with my MKS-20 back in the day. It was wonderfully responsive but didn't sound all that realistic. I loved it at the time but sold it when we had better choices. I don't quite get the affection people might have for that sound today.

Yeah, the beauty of the MKS-20 was that its sound was very piano-like for its time, and that it responded so naturally. Sampling it just for the sound (considering the options available today) without getting that responsiveness doesn't seem so appealing. But then again, I suppose you could say the same for a CP70/CP80, and in that case, I really do like having the sound.

[NKB4691]

I've thought a lot about this recently with posts on this forum and others, with people asking/talking about things like "which (x) feels/sounds most a real (y)?".  Very similar to when I played guitar and people talked about which guitars/amps had the "best" tone.

 

To me, it's mostly subjective and comes down to what YOU like.  If you're searching for something that feels/sounds like what you have in mind, great!  But OTOH, if you have the cheapest piece of gear, like the way it sounds and feels, and can get past any stigma that others may place on it, you can probably make some really great music if you spend your time focusing on the playing.

 

One thing I will say regarding "getting past the stigma":  Confidence plays a huge part in just about anything.  If you have something that you think sounds great, but you think others look down on, it may reduce your confidence, which could impact your playing.  Also, people being the way they are, even if you don't think about it and make great music, some people may think less of it because they perceive your gear to be inferior.  Not much you can do about that other than not worry about it.

[ElmerJFudd]

On 3/16/2023 at 12:15 PM, AnotherScott said:

Yeah, the beauty of the MKS-20 was that its sound was very piano-like for its time, and that it responded so naturally. Sampling it just for the sound (considering the options available today) without getting that responsiveness doesn't seem so appealing. But then again, I suppose you could say the same for a CP70/CP80, and in that case, I really do like having the sound.

Not to mention how the hype and aura of these instruments plays into their market value.  Someone with aspirations of collecting legendary instruments from each generation needs deep pockets for acquisition, repair, maintenance and space.  Hence - digital facsimile.  

[Tom Williams]

On 3/16/2023 at 3:18 AM, EricBarker said:

I’m scared shitless if I’m faced with an unfamiliar piece of gear and expected to perform on it. Maybe I’d actually do a decent job, but I’d be sweating bullets the entire time.

This.

 

I was part of a band audition back in the 1980s that went pear-shaped because we had to sit in on the other band's equipment, and I had worked up all my moves / registrations / Leslie Speed changes to enhance the songs, and I couldn't find *anything* on the supplied keyboard.  I've dreaded playing with others' equipment since then.

[ProfD]

On 3/16/2023 at 10:34 AM, jeffinpghpa said:

That being said, I'm still constantly buying and selling gear and haven't yet outgrown the excitement of finding a great deal or unboxing the latest and greatest.

Brotha Jeff, that's good source material for another thread because it's so true.😁

 

The excitement of gear acquisition is very real. I enjoy the day I bring a piece of gear into the lab and put it through its paces.

 

Then, there is the anxiety of selling and boxing up that piece of gear and taking it to UPS to ship out.🤣

 

Finally, there's a relief in knowing that package arrived at a new home. The positive feedback rating helps too. 😎

[Stokely]

Thinking a bit more on this--and partially because I'm wrestling with spending (what feels like to me) a lot of money on something I've wanted for quite a while, weighed against the fact that I'm playing cover gigs for rooms of people who quite literally wouldn't care if I was playing a 99 dollar home keyboard (or worse, nothing at all and running tracks as a couple bands around here do)--I think it boils down to inspiration.  Some instruments (or plugins in my experience) make you want to play them.  How much is that worth?  That's the conundrum that only each person can answer for themselves    I'm thrifty by nature and love deals (I head straight to the clearance racks when looking for clothes!) which makes it pretty tough when you also pine after the upper end gear!   Bottom line, I can't justify that gear as a "need"--it's a "want" and that's ok.   

Another competing factor is doing all these outdoor gigs where I worry about the elements, that stuff takes a toll on gear to some extent no matter how careful you are.