Follow Up.. Tested some synths. Just made things HARDER to choose!!!!

[chrisola]

Thanks for all the replies to my last thread..

So

Went into local music shop, they had a Korg X5D and a Roland Juno-D.

After the salesman gave up trying to get me to play\buy the new Alesis Fusion HD thing (£800... very nice. cant justify the outlay though.. or id buy a Nord Lead 3 off ebay!!) i had a go on the two boards.

Now, the guy didnt know anything about either of them (even where the headphone sockets were!) so i was left to explore!

Roland Juno - D:

Good:
WOW. loved it and the sound on the whole. Strings and orchestral stuff was awesome, the synthy lead sounds were ok as preset, and it had a fair few organs and stuff.. not much pointless crap it seemed..
Patches organised in categories and the LCD display made it a breeze to mess with. The knobs bit made it easy to edit the sounds. Easy access buttons are there for all the major functions, and when you use one, the others light up\flash to show they relate to what you are doing. Keys felt nice.

Bad:
Pitch joystick thing was in a good spot and moved side to side for the bends, but didnt seem to do much.. more like an on/off than anything variable.
Cant program the arpeggiator.
Some sounds didnt sound quite 'there', like some of the synth leads and organs\harpsichords (but with tweaking i think they could be great?)
When you change patches the sound stops? (can this be turned off? the korg doesnt do it..)

Korg X5D

Good:
Nice keys and mod wheels
The 'lead saw' and 'church organ' patches were freaking amazing... like really, REALLY good. (2 out of how many hundred though?)

Bad:
Lots of utterly pointless sounds
Small LCD, everything is numbered and menu'd, would need the manual to do anything? Didnt fancy editing anything as it looked too complex!

SO

I'm guessing the difference in the two is that the Korg is a rompler? thats why the organs sounded better as preset?

I i think i want: a rompler which has a dedicated section to knobs and sliders for synth sound editing,has patches organised by category and assigned to buttons (which remember the last patch you had in the selection) and is easy to use and not all menu\manual reference driven :P

Any ideas?

Also, i love the XP50 and its programmable arppegiator\riff player.. but it looks all menu\number driven again... i get the feeling korgs are all hard to get into initially? Id like the programmable feature if possible..

Thanks again.

[Root_of_it_all]

speaking of that, its weird the korg doesnt stop when you change. i have a triton extreme, and i change patch, the sound stops. is it possible to make the sound continue?

[Grey Loki]

I believe it's unusual for a sound to carry on on a keyboard - it's related to how much power the keyboard has. Only the truly top-range keys do it, IIRC. It's not a 'switchable feature', so much as a hardware limitation.

[Enigma™]

speaking of that, its weird the korg doesnt stop when you change. i have a triton extreme, and i change patch, the sound stops. is it possible to make the sound continue?

Yes and no - The hardware in combi mode doesn't really allow it but there's a work-around using song mode. I don't know what it is off hand, but I DO remember that even the WK Casio series was able to do the "patch hold" feature... I do agree that it's a limitation, but not of the hardware so much as it is the operating system.

If they simply programmed in dynamic allocation of virtual midi tracks, then it'd be a breeze. The idea though is that they've been basically using the same stupid OS for years back from the Trinity, and just won't update it with that feature.

Not even the Oasys does it, and that's one synth that we *ALL* Know is more than capable of doing it.

Just my 2c there.

[chrisola]

well, i pressed a key and held it, then on the Roland as soon as i switched the patch the sound stopped dead.

with the korg, it seemed to linger while i changed patch until i pressed the key again.. maybe it was because the Roland had a 1 touch patch change, whereas the korg i had to cycle through and press 'yes' to select, which gave the sound enough time to fade out so it didnt go from loud to 'nothing' quickly (i was pretty slow on the old patch changes..)? I dont know hehe :P

I'm pretty sure (well.. i *think* read on a HC review.. have read SO many) that the Roland does have a work around to stop it being as noticable, i could be wrong though (and HC reviews can be pure BS most of the time lol)

Still doesnt solve my dilemma though :P

[T3E]

Hehe, my original model Alesis QS6 will hold sounds across patch changes, so I don't think it's just a matter of the "best, most powerful" doing it... :tongue:

[EloHiR ElEnDIl]

Kurzweils don't.. :P
...........yeah but In my roland that sucks too..I have a Rs-50 very alike the juno; but I think it has not much to do with the power thing because even my yamaha psr-350 can hold patches...

[Omega Monkey]

Honestly I wouldnt buy either of those.

You'll get a lot more for your money getting something a few years old on ebay.

[-=AnatomiC=-]

You know what, maybe you should buy a MIDI controller and software for your computer.
It would cost less than 600 $, and even if you buy the best synth, you will still have to use your PC (unless you use Oasys) :biggrin:

[chrisola]

tempting

but it wont be portable enough for me...

[Omega Monkey]

I never use my computer for music. Then again I have 17 years worth of equipment. But still, if I just had my EX5 I could do most things that I would need to for basic stuff (but damn it sure is nice having a real Rhodes and real FM, plus LA, and some old hybrids like the JX3P and EX800).

I definitely wouldnt recommend a controller, especially for someone planning to use it live. Not only do you then have to carry around racks and/or a laptop or whatever to even be able to USE the thing (if Im playing somewhere with a PA, all I really need to be bring aside from my EX is 2 cables, a sustain pedal, and a stand, plus maybe some sort of stool/bench/chair, not that I couldnt add other equipment to that, but I dont NEED anything else for basic stuff). But you also lose all of that "hardwired" control that is built into a dedicated synth keyboard. With a controller you might have some basic/common function available with default settings, but you will have to program the rest from scratch, which especially for a beginner, is kind of a PITA. Anyway, you can always use a synth as a controller for your computer if you want to do some software stuff too.

If you just want very basic/general sounds for cheap, I would suggest maybe an older Ensoniq (SQ1+ or newer), or an older Korg (O1W or T*) or Roland. Or something like a Yamaha CS6X. In fact, you should look for one of those. Kinda like a pared down EX5, but it takes the Yamaha PLG cards, so you could add a VA card or a an FM card or whatever (I think up to 2 or maybe 3). Its basically a rompler with a phrase sampler and also an arpeggiator. And it can play back sequences but not record them. One sold on ebay recently with a VA and VL card installed in really nice condition for $470 (the cards go for about 125-175 or so each usually). Its kind of a "forgotten" synth in Yamaha's history, but when they came out they were fairly popular.

[Everlasting_Rain]

Sorry if this has been answered, I couldn't read all the replies. My Korg N364 does stop when changing the sound in combi mode. It just doesn't in program mode. You should check that in the X5.

[-=AnatomiC=-]

I just won't be able to afford a huge studio.
For me - a good stage piano to performe on stage with my band :cool: and at home, my PC or laptop and some software. Much easier, cheaper and I still could have my room :tongue:
Maybe later, when I'm PRO, I would have more....

[ChrisMcCoy]

If you are still test driving keyboards,
The best advice I can offer you is don't try to decide in one trip to the music store.
Go several times and try the same boards over and over again until you are spent.
Then go home and reflect for a while.
Take a month if you have to or more.
Then decide when you're sure you've exhausted every option in your selection criteria and eliminated what you clearly do not want.
C.

[chrisola]

:)

I picked a Korg i30 HD.

Great synth sounds (loving the mono lead patch), can arrange whole songs on it, and load midi songs to play back off the 1GB hd, PC interface, great 'real' instruments and an ace touch screen.

Theres probably more features than i'll ever use, just working out how to combine patches at the moment and messing around with the thing.

i LOVE how you can split the keys up into 3 sections, each with a different sound (can even set the octaves s)..

I think it was a good choice for my 1st board, a bit more too it than the Juno-D i was tempted with, and better strings\piano sounds imo... and the touchscreen is brilliant.

Just gotta learn to read music and get around to looking through the manual now lol :D