My next gear purchase

[TheMagician]

Hey guys

Here's my current gear setup:

Roland RS-70 Synth
Single X stand
Small sub+tweeters for sound + decent headphones.

I've recently found myself a band and we've started jamming, and the other guys are now writing some awesome material which we're going to start working on. The material is influenced by bands like Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Porcupine Tree and aspects of a lot of other stuff. Prog metal basically. The keys elements will involve piano/synth leads plus strings and atmospheric background stuff as well.

Anyway - I'm trying to plan the expansion of my setup and I'm not really sure how to approach it. I don't have a lot of money but I will find the money to do the best I can to have a decent rig.

There are so many options for going beyond one board, and a lot of other things to think about as well. Heres some of the things I'm thinking:

The RS-70 is a strange board - it seems to be pretty decent at everything but not amazing at anything - so I'm not really trying to cover specific weaknesses so much as expand my capacity.
I would like a board with weighted keys (the RS-70 is synth action)
I'm not sure if I should get a 2nd stand alone board or a midi controller and a module/rack unit, or just rely on clever programming? Is it better to build a midi chain or have separate boards?
I also need to consider getting a performance quality amp at some stage.
Another thing to consider is computer hardware/software for recording/softsynth stuff. I currently have an old 500MHz computer.
Basically - I'm not quite sure what the next logical step is and would like to explore your experience in the past with developing your rigs and setups :) We are planning on gigging in the future but thats not an immediate priority.

I'm not too concerned about brands/models of units at this stage - I can figure out the appropriate units for the sounds I need later on.

Any advice or thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Cheers
Ian

[Scrap]

What's your budget look like, Ian?

[TheMagician]

Not sure at this stage - probably an absolute maximum of say $1500 US (would prefer to spend less but I'm open minded at this stage). Also remember I am in NZ so transport costs are a real issue whether either importing or buying locally (prices in NZ are pretty high for this sort of thing and there's not a lot of local second hands gear).

[Scrap]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38089&item=7330341015&rd=1#ebayphotohosting

The Triton Pro really is a great, stable board that fits into pretty much any situation it can be put in. They've dropped down in price recently, so you'd probably be able to afford some extra PCM expansion cards to supplement the onboard sample ROM. The 76 isn't weighted, but it has a really nice firm semi-weighted action, and most importantly, it's portable. They usually go for anywhere between $900 and $1500 USD, and you can probably find one of them locally, I'd imagine.

Combined with the EXB-MOSS board that offers rudimentary virtual analog and physical modeling, it's a pretty killer all-in-one board.

But that's just how I would handle it. I've always been a "one board" sorta guy, and I find that I can focus more on the music that way, rather than technology.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Part of the setup depends on what sounds you mainly need. A great deal of players use a stage piano or workstation for PCM sounds and weighted action, a synth action RA/VA, and a waterfall key organ clone for maximum flexibility. Since your budget is lower, you'll have to consolidate some of those. With some programming, one board can do it all, as JR has proven over and over again. For me, I don't like the hassle of creating splits and layers, and am very much into stage vibe, so I'm in the Rick Wakeman school of multiple live boards. With $1,500, you could easily get a decent 2nd MIDI controller, several different used racks, and still have money left over.

[Scrap]

Oh, absolutely. There's nothing wrong with getting specialized boards to get the job done. My good friend Alberto Rizzo Schettino uses a Nord Electro and Lead 3 exclusively for live use, and it gets the job done. I guess it's all about personal preference and how far you want to take the complexity of your rig. When it comes to prog music in general, however, you're gonna end up doing a fair bit of pre-production, whether it be sound programming or splits/layers, as opposed to more traditional "top 40" or jazz gigs (the Nord gear excels at this), which require basically just electromechanical keyboard sounds with some light synth pads here and there. So genre has a bit to do with it as well.

[Deceit]

We could start with...errr...which presets are more frequent when you play with your band? Do you ever find one and say "this could be definitely better"? Personally, I was never very much into Roland organ patches, Korg hammonds are better IMHO. As you're playing PoS stuff, you don't really need crazy heavy multi-layered super-duper synth pads. You'd need a damn good piano sample.
Roland Fantom X series is quite good at it, but that would make your RS a bit pointless.
If you want pads and leads, well, I think a Triton Rack will do, and maybe you could buy a good controller later on.
In fact it depends on which sounds you feel you need to improve. Maybe you just want a weighted board, and I'd personally wait for the Alesis Fusion, which looks like it would be an all-in-one beast. Consider selling your RS if necessary, if it doesn't satisfy you anymore. It's some good money still.
Deceit.

[ChrisMcCoy]

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