CEB Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 The Roland D-50 blew me away in 87. 2 Quote "It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne "A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!! So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrokeys Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 My 1959 C3, when it got hooked up to my 251 lesiie proved to be magical. That was 1973 and I knew I could sell everything else but not that. Never have., That being said, the Vox Jaguar I had in highchool was about the coolest thing I ever saw. Stil sort of wish I had it around to look at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outkaster Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Korg M1/T3 Kurzwiel PC88 Yamaha S-80/S90 Hammond XK3c Yamaha PC99 They are all special due to the fact they served what I was doing in certain parts of my life. I can't even say a single one really stood out. They are all vehicles to help me put my best foot forward. 3 Quote "Danny, ci manchi a tutti. La E-Street Band non e' la stessa senza di te. Riposa in pace, fratello" noblevibes.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ Cornish Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 The first instrument that was transformative for me was the Korg OASYS. Best in class sounds at the time, enough resources to do lots of layering/splitting, easy to do a band click track off a sample pad, and best control surface. I loved that thing to death - literally - it took a bump in its road case and the CPU heatsink fell off and shorted something out. It cured my GAS for 9 years, though. The Kronos went forward in a lot of ways, but some of the panache was gone. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adan Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Easy to think of analog keyboards with SS. A Rhodes Mark I suitcase and Hammond chop I had circa 2000 come to mind. Amongst today's digital keyboards, I think the Vox Continental has something special about it. Quote Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro Home: Vintage Vibe 64 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnderGroundGr Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Kurzweil K2661 Kawai K5000S and the only "real" keyboard instrument i had ever own, Hohner Pianet T... Quote Kurzweil K2661 + full options,iMac 27",Mac book white,Apogee Element 24 + Duet,Genelec 8030A,Strymon Lex + Flint,Hohner Pianet T,Radial Key-Largo,Kawai K5000W,Moog Minitaur,Yamaha Reface YC + CP, iPad 9th Gen, Arturia Beatstep + V Collection 9 https://antonisadelfidis.bandcamp.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 magical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Another example I remember is the Korg M1. When it was first coming out, I believe prior to release, there was a well-advertised 1-800 number that you could dial and hear several minutes of info about the M1, along with some sound demos. It wasn't high fidelity audio by any means, though that's what we had at the time. I remember wearing out the 1-800 dialing on the rotary phone and listening to this demo countless times. I seem to recall a few other products that had this and it was a great way to build some hype in the pre-internet era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tucktronix Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 For me, it was both the Wavestation EX and the Yamaha S80.. The Wavestation was my first "pro-level" synth. Bought this open box.. with ROM card for $800 in 1994.. a steal! It was primarily used for creating sequences until I found a nice-sounding Hammond patch(at the time) "Rotary Organ". I would then bring it out on blues gigs as my "organ". Had it for around 10 yrs until it started having issues.. after which I sold it. I bought my S80 around 2001 as a well-needed replacement for my distressed Alesis QS8.1, which was having issues with clanking noises in the first 2 octaves. The pianos and the keybed got me sold on it. Played many a gig with it and has been with me on gigs from St Louis to Rockland, ME. This was my "money" board for 10 yrs before I eventually sold it to get something a bit "lighter"(a MOX8) which was a huge mistake. Quote Kronos 88 Platinum, Yamaha YC88, Subsequent 37, Korg CX3, Hydrasynth 49-key, Nord Electro 5D 73, QSC K8.2, Lester K Me & The Boyz Chris Beard Band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxcvbnm098 Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 I second the D50, and add the Korg M1 (the acoustic piano sound!), and have to mention the Wurlitzer 200 series electric pianos. The D50 was the first new keyboard I purchased, and with the built-in effects (and as mentioned earlier great action) the thing sounded amazing out of the box. My next keyboard was the M1, also with built-in effects and what seemed to me then to my ears an amazing acoustic piano sample! Love both a ton... And of course, the Wurlie still is maybe my favorite keyboard of all time......still awesome.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpn_user7629 Posted January 11 Share Posted January 11 In an entirely subjective opinion, I'll say the Yamaha PSS-480/680. A simple 2-Op FM toy keyboard that can be edited via software. Sounds much better than it should, imo, with a very high fun factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyPie Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 The Roland W-30 Workstation (the world's 1st "workstation" !) rocked and completely changed my world. Primarily a trumpet and guitar player, I had endless hours of fun learning not only piano, but synthesis, sampling, music theory, harmony, arranging, sequencing / recording.....I could go on for hours. I still have it! Quote "You're either WITH me, or you're AGIN' Me!" (Yosemite Sam) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Woodward Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 13 minutes ago, TyPie said: The Roland W-30 Workstation (the world's 1st "workstation" !) rocked and completely changed my world. Primarily a trumpet and guitar player, I had endless hours of fun learning not only piano, but synthesis, sampling, music theory, harmony, arranging, sequencing / recording.....I could go on for hours. I still have it! Was also my first workstation and probably the reason I make any original music today. Was brilliant when it was released, effectively a convergence of several key products of the time (S50, MC500). Not sure it offers anything desirable nowadays (other than some 12 bit sampling for fun), but was pretty cool at the time…and Prodigy used them for years. Quote Korg Grandstage 73, Keystage 61, Mac Mini M1, Logic Pro X (Pigments, Korg Legacy Collection, Wavestate LE, Sylenth), iPad Pro 12.9 M2 (6th gen), iPad 9th gen, Scarlett 2i2, Presonus Eris E3.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfD Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 The Roland W-30 was a very cool machine. It was eclipsed by the Ensoniq EPS and ASR samplers.😎 Quote PD "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franz Schiller Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 The Kurzweil K2000. I love the damn thing. I first saw one used around 2001 or 2002 I think. I had such LUST for it. I didn't have the money, though. Finally in 2004, I joined eBay just so I could hunt one down, and got a basic unit. I loved it so much, I sold it to buy a K2661, thinking it would be better. Nope. Mistake. Just didn't connect with it. Got another in 2020. It broke in 2021, and I got a K2vx. I love it so much. I'm probably just a weirdo, but something about it's limitations I find magical. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpn_user7629 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 I'm of the same opinion... First had a K2000S then a 1st gen model that was used for a Cirque du Soleil tour. It had dozens of 100mb zip disks full of samples but I thought it didn't sound as good as my K2000S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dglcomp Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 10 hours ago, ProfD said: The Roland W-30 was a very cool machine. It was eclipsed by the Ensoniq EPS and ASR samplers.😎 Arguably it was eclipsed by it's predecessor rack units that had the monitor output, love using my S330 with a monitor and mouse, plus as they'll output a SCART compatible output with a passive adaptor lead the colour output can easily be fed into a modern screen/TV. I use a cheap 22" LED LCD TV I got ages ago from the local supermarket or an RGB SCART to HDMI adaptor. The GEM S2 is my secret sauce instrument, the amazing keybed and good sound engine plus it's an excellent MIDI controller. 1 Quote Stuff: Roland:SH-201/U-110/S-330/TR-626/M-48 Akai: miniAK/S6000 Yamaha:DX9/HS8/xs7 Korg:05R/W/AX10G Alesis: Vortex MK1 CME: UF70 classic V2/WIDI Behringer: DSP2024Px2/UMC204HD/101/340/D/03/8 ESI:1010e Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Verelst Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 A main instrument for me was the big black grand piano from my high school (around 1980), when used in the proper space, the whole of the reverb sauce with the (expensive) instrument appealed to my senses. Without sounding like a rooster's behind, a special sauce for instruments could be a leslie for a keyboard organ, like I had a casio keyboard about that time, and designed a built a special BDD based Leslie for it, which was exciting. In the course of the 80's I started using a DX7 (later a Tx802) with REV-7 digital reverberator/effects unit to make the sound warmer and create more presence in my small early student room. Skipping more than a few other keyboards some of which important (HP3000s, DW8000, S90, for example), and my major and minor studio "sauce making" experiments, both my current PC3 and CP4 appear to have actual "matching" special effects in them that "fix" the sound of them, which is the biggest special sauce thus far! T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cayine Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 On 12/27/2023 at 10:36 PM, Moonglow said: 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 fixing logitech keyboard issues? 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. 🙁 Hey, Today I got super clumpy and spilled soy sauce on my keyboard. Not only I tried cleaning it, it still smells like soy sauce and the "E", "R", "S" , "4", "5", "f5" and "f6" keys all have an orange glow due to the pigment of the soy sauce. The lit-up keyboard is usually lit up with a white color but the keys listed are orange color. Does anyone know what to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Emm Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I stay away from my rig when I'm feeling super clumpy. I hesitate to casually recommend alcohol, especially denatured, as it can attack some plastics. Dawn Powerwash can clean a lot of odd stains easily and its not caustic. If you carefully apply a small bit of that with a cotton swab, it might deal with the discoloration. Don't use enough to create a drip. Its a finicky process that will probably take several passes, but it seems likely to work without damaging anything. Try a small test spot and see what happens. Even if it doesn't help, its low-wattage, so the risk is minimal. Quote Absurdity, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. ~ "The Devil's Dictionary," Ambrose Bierce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJoB3 Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 On 12/28/2023 at 8:58 AM, Delaware Dave said: i have a '57 and a 122 in my living room. anything played after that is noticeably worse. Same. '57 C3 and tasty 122. And when the PR-40 is added even sweeter. The Hammond lords over any and all I suppose, only to be matched by a grand piano in the finest of shape and tune. Although....there is an ARP Soloist that may put up a serious fight (not Pro Soloist, the orig white/early model employing a few of the 2600 modules. Incredible). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 On 1/6/2024 at 8:39 PM, mpn_user7629 said: Never had tons of keyboards but I absolutely adored using the Kurzweil K2000. You and me both. VAST is such a cool engine. dB Quote ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Professional Affiliations: Royer Labs • Music Player Network Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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