Bored out of my trolley.
My back is playing up so I am limited in what I can do.
I am most comfortable sat at my Computer playing with the latest version of Flight Simulator and realising that my 12 year old computer is being pushed to its limits to run the simulator.
Been looking at my Family Tree research and found that it only takes a few generations to go from a peaceful, hard working Brit to a Southern gun toting redneck who is a fervent supporter of the deposed Ex President, needless to say we are not following up in making contact with these distant Cousins, at least my Cousins in Oz and Canada are sort of normal.
Still I a digressing and rambling to much.
Keyboards, as a guitarist life was so easy, well it was to someone of my somewhat limited ability, one guitar, one pedal board, one amp and an infinite array of sounds. Does a keyboard player have that luxury, no, there are dozens of keyboards and synths to confuse the heck out of you,
Much as I enjoy the sound of my one and only DP keyboard its very limited palette of sounds has long been exhausted and it is tine for a change, but a change to what?
I do like having hammer action keys, far better than the wishy washy keys that were on my two 61 key Korgs. But what do I go for bearing in mind that it is more than likely that I will become bored with it in a year or two.
Rather than sell on the DP my first thought was to buy a cheap arranger to supplement the DP. So I watched all the get you started videos for a Casio CT X5000, and have to say I am sort of impressed with them, a lot of button pressing but once a Registration is set up access to them is pretty quick and easy.
I then looked at a Roland RD88 (still am looking), and then at a Kawai MP7SE but found to many reports of issues with that model. Then started looking at DP’s with arranger functions and in particular the Korg XE20 which does seem an OK keyboard but I cannot understand why Korg would include quite a lot of electric guitars and yet not include a pitch bend in the keyboard, one dealbreaker there. Yamaha DGX er no, to many issues, at least for me, so the best of the bunch looks like the Casio S3000, same action as the S1000 that I tried and whilst I found the Yamaha and Roland actions better the S3000 would be a smart looking keyboard, my only reservation is the lack of proper MIDI which is something I would prefer for future proofing if and when I get a better arranger.
Or do I just go with an 88 key workstation, which is either one of the old Roland FA or Juno DS models or a Korg Kross 2 88, the advantage of the Kross is I know my way around the OS and it does have considerably more drum patterns than a Juno plus my local music store is selling off an ex demo unit. Hmmn.
It is when you start to look for new kit and exclude a synth that you realise that whilst there are a fair few models out there, there is a considerable overlap and there is not a one size fits all nor is there a keyboard that fits the bill at a price that is manageable.
My back is playing up so I am limited in what I can do.
I am most comfortable sat at my Computer playing with the latest version of Flight Simulator and realising that my 12 year old computer is being pushed to its limits to run the simulator.
Been looking at my Family Tree research and found that it only takes a few generations to go from a peaceful, hard working Brit to a Southern gun toting redneck who is a fervent supporter of the deposed Ex President, needless to say we are not following up in making contact with these distant Cousins, at least my Cousins in Oz and Canada are sort of normal.
Still I a digressing and rambling to much.
Keyboards, as a guitarist life was so easy, well it was to someone of my somewhat limited ability, one guitar, one pedal board, one amp and an infinite array of sounds. Does a keyboard player have that luxury, no, there are dozens of keyboards and synths to confuse the heck out of you,
Much as I enjoy the sound of my one and only DP keyboard its very limited palette of sounds has long been exhausted and it is tine for a change, but a change to what?
I do like having hammer action keys, far better than the wishy washy keys that were on my two 61 key Korgs. But what do I go for bearing in mind that it is more than likely that I will become bored with it in a year or two.
Rather than sell on the DP my first thought was to buy a cheap arranger to supplement the DP. So I watched all the get you started videos for a Casio CT X5000, and have to say I am sort of impressed with them, a lot of button pressing but once a Registration is set up access to them is pretty quick and easy.
I then looked at a Roland RD88 (still am looking), and then at a Kawai MP7SE but found to many reports of issues with that model. Then started looking at DP’s with arranger functions and in particular the Korg XE20 which does seem an OK keyboard but I cannot understand why Korg would include quite a lot of electric guitars and yet not include a pitch bend in the keyboard, one dealbreaker there. Yamaha DGX er no, to many issues, at least for me, so the best of the bunch looks like the Casio S3000, same action as the S1000 that I tried and whilst I found the Yamaha and Roland actions better the S3000 would be a smart looking keyboard, my only reservation is the lack of proper MIDI which is something I would prefer for future proofing if and when I get a better arranger.
Or do I just go with an 88 key workstation, which is either one of the old Roland FA or Juno DS models or a Korg Kross 2 88, the advantage of the Kross is I know my way around the OS and it does have considerably more drum patterns than a Juno plus my local music store is selling off an ex demo unit. Hmmn.
It is when you start to look for new kit and exclude a synth that you realise that whilst there are a fair few models out there, there is a considerable overlap and there is not a one size fits all nor is there a keyboard that fits the bill at a price that is manageable.
