Keyboard With Special Sauce

[Moonglow]

Perhaps inspired by all of the “best of 2023” segments I’ve seen lately…

 

Was there a keyboard you found to be truly special? One that stood out from the others, one that had some extra “mojo” or “special sauce.” Doesn’t matter if piano, organ, synth.

 

I’ve played Steinway concert grands and a couple of glorious B-3s, but there was a Fender Rhodes Stage 73 Mark I the keyboard player in my dad’s band had that was incredible. Wonderful tone, action felt like butter, fantastic FTE connection, perfect amount of bark when needed. I don’t consider myself to be a bona fide Rhodes player, but everything that could potentially make a Rhodes great came together with that axe.

 

What’s the first keyboard that pops into your head?
 

 

P.S. I actually ran into the aforementioned keyboard player a while back and asked him what ever became of that Rhodes and he said he sold it. 🙁

[Canoehead]

There was a local music store in the 80s and 90s where I would work occasionally.  They had a gorgeous looking, playing and sounding, Young Chang 5’ 10” baby grand.  Many of the local players came in to play it and commented on how much they liked it.

 

Sadly, while being delivered to the eventual purchaser, it was tipped off the truck ramp!  The store owner wanted to save a bit of money and sent two guys instead of the usual three for a grand delivery.  It was repaired, but never approached its pre-fall glory.

 

Cheers,

Gord

[EscapeRocks]

The one keyboard that always holds a special place for me was my original Prophet 600.    It was a birthday present from my parents in December 1983.  It introduced me to MIDI, computer music, etc.. I was 20..about to be 61 in 2 days..

Looking back I wish I'd kept it.   I spent hours upon hours exploring synthesis, and this new-fangled (to me) MIDI.    Hooked to an Apple 2E.    Its that start that ingrained how MIDI works into my brain, and helps me do what I do today.  

 

Ahhh....good times  <sigh>

 

[PianoMan51]

Moog Matriarch. I’m not a synthesist. But every other synth I’ve had has either bored me or repelled me. This one just seems to invite me to play. 

[NewImprov]

A friend of mine has a ‘57 B3 and Leslie 122 in his rehearsal space studio that is the sweetest organ I’ve played. I even joined his band just to play it regularly. When we gig, I’ll use my Mojo most likely, and be disappointed.

[David Emm]

Like EscapeRocks, the Prophet-600 is a fond memory for me, as my first poly. I went from a Minimoog and a Roland SH-2 to finally being able to play chords. That's why I was amused/annoyed to see the Pro-800 appear, heh.

 

However, it would mainly be Roland's D-50 that wowed me, with a serious special mention for Korg's DW-8000. I was working in a mom & pop shop and couldn't afford the D-50 at the time. I got to play it a lot because we were hawking it to churches, several of which bought one as an organ replacement! (Imagine those services...)

 

The keybed is one of the very best to ever grace a synth. I'd pay large bucks to have THAT mechanism available for sale. Why can't Roland revisit THAT? Argh! As the timing of things developed, I ended up with a mint-y used Korg 01W workstation in an ATA case, which was the far better creative move. Things I learned there make the Cloud D-50 even more enjoyable now.

 

I've had enlightening experiences with a lot of 'boards, but the D-50 delivered big and set a high standard for playability at a vital moment.

[mate stubb]

My Chroma + Expander rig dripped special sauce all over the floor.

[Dave Bryce]

Has to be my MiniMoog.  Still the standard sonically to which I hold (most) other synthesizers.

 

dB

[stoken6]

Hammond C3+Leslie in a studio when my school band recorded our demo. You never forget your first time.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Motif88]

My Dyno-My-Piano Stage 73 Rhodes with an MXR phaser… I’m glad I don’t have to move that beast 2x a week. The Dyno-My flat top modification using the actual Rhodes case and new hinges for access to the keyboard made a perfect platform for the Oberheim Modular 8 Voice and whatever came next before I moved to the KX-88.

 

 

[Floyd Tatum]

7 minutes ago, Motif88 said:

My Dyno-My-Piano Stage 73 Rhodes with an MXR phaser… I’m glad I don’t have to move that beast 2x a week. The Dyno-My flat top modification using the actual Rhodes case and new hinges for access to the keyboard made a perfect platform for the Oberheim Modular 8 Voice and whatever came next before I moved to the KX-88.

 

 

That is interesting!  I've never seen that case modification before.   Was the case modification standard with all Dyno-My-Piano mods?

[K K]

Yep, those things on the sides are referred to as arm elongation handles.

[Motif88]

13 hours ago, Floyd Tatum said:

That is interesting!  I've never seen that case modification before.   Was the case modification standard with all Dyno-My-Piano mods?

I think it was…It was such a long time ago. They may have offered tiered modifications but I don’t recall. The case mod that creates the flat top was huge benefit. Check out this link - 

 

https://www.fenderrhodes.com/history/dyno.html

 

[Motif88]

Just found the Dyno My Piano story on YouTube - 1st of 3 parts here:

 

 

[ProfD]

Back in 2015, the Korg SV-1 was that KB for me hands down (no pun intended).

 

From an FTEC perspective, the SV-1 felt/sounded like a modern Rhodes on steroids ((amp, mod and FX). 

 

IMO, Korg Italy really did a great job in capturing that EP flavor.😎

[Paul Woodward]

Don’t laugh, but the Korg DS8 for me albeit more as a studio instrument. I loved that board and did so much creatively with it. I have had two more since which I restored and sold, but often regret it as they had a sound that was quite unique.  Not sure how it would fit into a rig now, but so much fun had with it back in the late 80’s…and it would still make a decent midi controller with aftertouch.

First time I became aware of great sounding boards was the Kurzweil EGP which was a 73 key piano based on the K1000 sounds. Felt great playing piano on that.

 

[Delaware Dave]

22 hours ago, NewImprov said:

A friend of mine has a ‘57 B3 and Leslie 122 in his rehearsal space studio that is the sweetest organ I’ve played. I even joined his band just to play it regularly. When we gig, I’ll use my Mojo most likely, and be disappointed.

i have a '57 and a 122 in my living room.  anything played after that is noticeably worse.

[CyberGene]

The Yamaha P90 stage piano. It just had the mojo I couldn’t find in the other stage pianos I’ve owned since. 

[16251]

I bought a Roland FP7 without playing it. I lugged that thing around for years. I really liked the acoustic piano sound (before Super...whatever.) I gave up wedding band/club gigs in 2009 and sold FP7 and I bought a Casio 320 Previa, unfortunately I hated the C. I then decided to search for a FP4 since I did like the acoustic sound and it was lighter.

 

Here's where the Special Sauce keyboard get answered:  The Roland FP4 had very expressive action, I still miss today. Wish I never went for FP7, could of saved my back a world of pain.  I ended up selling it cause I didn't like the Rhodes sound and was determined to have a board with both a acoustic and Rhodes which was a spiral downward for a while when I decided to go Red (Piano 3,) but that a story I've told before.

 

Anyway - FP4 was special.  (Just thinking it was a time when I had a Boston hotel gig with trio for a couple of years.)

[D. Gauss]

i miss this one for a buncha reasons (1981 casio mt-40). sadly, i sold it to a good friend a coupla years ago for 10 bucks (now they sometimes fetch $300-$400).  Way back in the day, we went out on a small tour with the Hooters and the sound of the built in, cheesy, yet wonderfully endearing Casio beatbox (just ask soft cell) coming through the huge PA at the start of our show was something else. I bought it in a wacky electronics/watch/gift shop in NYC Penn Station.

 

 

 

[jazzpiano88]

For about 10 years, half of which had a Juno106 on top and then an Akai Mx73 + TX7 + Juno (Aframe).

 

[eric]

I had to think about this one for a moment. There are two instruments that had special sauce for me, representing my earliest interaction with a "pro" digital piano and a "pro" clonewheel for the time period, late '80s into early '90s. It was the early days of my original touring band that played ska/reggae/pop and we were starting to record some of our music in the studio.

 

The two instruments are Korg SG-1D and Korg CX-3 (original analog version).

 

I had been using synthesizers (Roland JX-8P, Korg M1R, Yamaha DX7IIFD, Roland Juno-106) as my live rig and playing acoustic piano and Hammonds at home. In the studio, there was a Korg SG-1D that I used with MIDI connection to my synths. The SG-1D was THE industry standard for portable digital pianos during this time. I'd never played one and it was magical to me, having that nice weighted action, the internal piano sounds which were top notch for the era, and having this as a MIDI controller for my other synths. It kind of blew my mind and I love listening to some of those tracks where I was using the SG-1D...of course the studio also had a very nice Yamaha grand piano and I used that quite a bit as well.

 

As for the CX-3, I first played one of these at a gig where my band was opening for another larger act and I used the keyboard player's CX-3. Having only played Hammond for a short period of time on my A101 at home, this was also quite a special thing to be able to get authentic organ sounds in a portable package! I ended up getting a CX-3 as soon as I could and used it until the Hammond XB-2 was released and that took the early '90s clonewheel game to another level.

 

Here's a picture of me from that studio session in 1991 playing the SG-1D. In the background is my Juno-106 and DX7IIFD. Somehow I never owned a SG-1D, though I really wanted one...I had to make a choice between that and the XB-2 as I was a starving student and barely eking out a living working three jobs, LOL.

 

[allan_evett]

I bought this Yamaha CS-50 in mid-1979.  Though I sold it in the late 1980s, it eventually found me again.  This photo is from 2015, around the time it finally found a permanent home with a collector out in Colorado. 

 

I first saw a CS-50 in early 1979. A fellow keyboardist gave me a generous tour of his CS-50, and I was enamored with all the sounds - and the colorful front panel too! Other than playing a bandleader's Arp monosynth, my exposure to synths had been limited up to that point. Having access to 4-voice polyphony was a lot of fun, and I remember getting a lot of mileage from the ring modulator section; lots of 'special sauce' there.

 

 

[marino]

There are so many... I think that every good instrument has a signature sound.

Some of my favorites:
- Boesendorfer Imperial 290 at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1985 (I think). Perfectly regulated and balanced, it seemed to read my mind. I had never experienced such a connection with a piano; after the audience went home, I kept playing it until they had to close the venue. I was dragged outside in tears, seriously.

- The Rhodes Mark 7 that I played at NAMM 2009 (thanks again, Dave!). Wow, that was the best Rhodes I have played in my life. The balance, the control, the sound... too bad they weren't able to pursue that project.

- Rhodes Chroma. Need to say more?
- DSI Evolver and Sequential Pro 3. Thanks Dave (the other Dave, too!)
- Moog 15 and similar configurations. Absurdly fantastic sound!

[brenner13]

I’ve loved and eventually loathed then loved again most boards personally encountered early in my voyage down the rabbit hole of instruments.
 

Roland JX10 was my first real synth way back in 1986. However the DX7 was all the rage while I was still honing my JX chops. Then the D50 and M1 splashed…I was too poor to trade up…continued to tweak and savor my JX. It eventually wore thin on my ears so nabbed a used Yamaha SY77, which complimented the JX so well, in such a different way, it gave new life and refreshed my love of my first board. I gigged those two boards for over a decade, really not in want of anything else…until I did.

 

Nabbed a Korg MS 2000r in late 2000 as Mars Music stores were liquidating. My first knobby synth, albeit an early virtual analog with plenty of aliasing and only four note polyphony. Still loved it for many years…until I didn’t. Roland VK-1000 came along to give me drawbar organ action in my rig. Definitely lighter than a Hammond of the times, but still nearly as voluminous as a chop; took a good sized wagon to transport that thing. It has pretty raw samples and really does not sound very much like a Hammond. Still loved it for the unique, expressive dirty organ sounds. Eventually a good deal on a used Yamaha EX5 replaced the SY for a beastly stage presence. 
 

The VK1000 was just too big as I started hauling the PA for the band, so nabbed a used Fantom X6 to go on top of the EX5. Lost the drawbars, but liked the EX5 organs well enough for that hard rockin original band of the time. Loved this more compact and fairly comprehensive rig, until…

 

That band finally ran its course and I landed a spot in a decent cover band and needed drawbars again. Preordered a VR09 in January 2013…took delivery in May. Liked the Fantom’s UI as well as the pianos and other synths for 80’s covers better than the EX5, but could not deal with only 61 keys on both stage boards so traded up to an X7. This was the best, lightest weight rig up to that point. Absolutely rocked that rig for many years…

Until I really wanted some weighted 88’s. A super deal on a demo Kawai ES100…loved gigging that in place of the X7, until my weak synth fingers needed more conditioning to gig the hammer action every week. Went back to the Fantom X7.

 

Have had several other boards cycling in and out of the rig, but none really provided the wonder of a great instrument like the previous ones did for any length of time…even the great utilitarian MODX7…

 

Until my first Moog a few months ago: a Subsequent 37. A very niche thingy, but WOW! What a wonderful tactile experience on a “real” instrument. I am smitten with this one right now.
 

 

 

[MrVegas]

My very first keyboard back in 1969/70.  I was a junior in high school and my Dad sent me this from Japan (he was stationed over there in the Air Force).  I fell in love with all the rock bands using B3/Leslie.  I wanted a Hammond but got a Farfisa instead.  It kind of sucked but it was better than a Vox to my ears.

 

[danskeys]

On 12/28/2023 at 1:57 PM, CyberGene said:

The Yamaha P90 stage piano. It just had the mojo I couldn’t find in the other stage pianos I’ve owned since. 

I asked my wife to marry me playing a song I wrote her, on my P90, in 2004!  (In the basement of Noa, a bar in the East Village, NYC, in case anyone remembers it.)

 

That said, my P80 before it was the OG, in my mind. First lightweight 88-note, good feeling, true piano-sounding digital piano I ever owned.

 

Mentioned above, I also owned a K1000 which was remarkable in the day. Solid piano sounds (especially as I was coming from a Juno 106 and a Phrophet 2000), good organs, great strings and others. Pretty groundbreaking it was. Ahhhh, the old days….

 

But if we’re talking “special sauce”, nothing beats the feeling I got playing my Nord Stage 3, and now Stage 4. The white grand gives me goosebumps!  Those keyboards truly inspire me.

[kelp]

First time I heard a string patch on a Juno-60 with that chorus! (circa '82)

Bought a second-hand Virus KB. Fantastic build and great keybed. Sounded great.

Yamaha CP-4. That sound. That action!

Bought a used Hammond SK-1. Oh, man. Finally a great organ sound! 

 

All are sold. Why? WHY?!? LOL

[Paul Woodward]

2 hours ago, kelp said:

First time I heard a string patch on a Juno-60 with that chorus! (circa '82)

Bought a second-hand Virus KB. Fantastic build and great keybed. Sounded great.

Yamaha CP-4. That sound. That action!

Bought a used Hammond SK-1. Oh, man. Finally a great organ sound! 

 

All are sold. Why? WHY?!? LOL

Same reason I sold my SH101, Mono/poly and many more…we thought something better was available, and they were for a while. I also had the CP4 and was convinced the CP88 was the way to go. Sold my CP4 to move overseas but I tried the CP a few months ago and really didn’t like it. I think it was also a turning point in Yamaha build quality with many issues reported in their newer boards (YC, CP etc.) CP4 was probably my favourite stage piano yet, although I do like my Grandstage. I’m hanging onto that for the same reason I should have kept the CP4, it’s a quality instrument and newer isn’t always better…

[mpn_user7629]

Never had tons of keyboards but I absolutely adored using the Kurzweil K2000.