suggestion for new player - live

[2wylde]

HI - I;m new here and I'm a guitar player. Our band's keyboard player is looking at getting her first synth and asked me to help her out - seeing as how I don;t know that much about synths I came over here and read the FAQ and searched old posts. We'd love your expert advice if you'll give it!!

She's new and looking for a synth to play live with. She won't be programming much - just working off the presets. Likewise she doesn;t need sequencing or anything like that - just a great board for live playing. She's considering the KME-61 and I read that a lot of you guys recommended the Roland XP-30. I know used for the same 500-600 you can pick up a Roland RS-50 or so... Any suggestions/recommendations???

Thanks!!

[Spacehog]

If you can find one, for that kind of money I'd recommend the E-MU PK-6 or one of its equivalents (XK-6, Halo, MK-6, Vintage Keys)... I have 3 of them and I think they're great, but they've been discontinued so are increasingly hard to find. The KME61 is a nice board, too, it has some nice sounds, but isn't terribly versatile. The Roland RS50 has a lovely feel to it, I've not heard the sounds of that particular board, but was quite impressed with the sounds of its predecessor, the RS5... the XP30 has a better soundset overall than it, if you can find one, though. I'd still pick an E-MU if you could find one though :)

Martin

[Shreddy]

Either of those 3 would be fine for a player that likes using presets.

With the Rolands I would opt for the XP vs the RS. The RS is not expandable. There are user installable expansion cards that you can put in the XP-30 to add all kinds of new presets.

Ed

[maJ estY]

I have an XP-30 and I can recommend it.
I don't know about any RS-50, only the RS-5. Be sure to buy the XP-30 when you get it for the same price as the RS-5, because they are actually the same. Differences: RS=silver, XP=black, RS=NOT expandable, XP=Expandable*.

*That means that you can buy so called Expansion boards. These are chips you install into the synth, each one offers about 8MB of sounds you can't get anywhere else. The XP-30 has already 3 expansion boards installed, which is another "+" to buy it. (Session, Techno and Orchestral)

[Shreddy]

Oh another thing to note is the ROM set of the XP30 has 3 expansion cards built into it.

I think its the Orchestra I, Session and Techno expansion sets.

Ed

[Haagi]

What about the sp88/76?? Not so many sounds included, but that may not be a problem...

[Atreus]

Let's go with the Xp-30! Very good synth for almost every kind of music, and it's becoming very chep. Surely better than the RS series.
Need presets? about 1400 in it!!
Not difficult to create your own split and layer.
Strongly raccomended for your friend.