Introducing my setup - need advice

[Zorgan]

My setup at the moment is as follows.

Roland Juno Di - nice clean bread and butter sounds, best piano I currently have, the synth sounds are not too bad too especially the TB-303 style ones, the filters are not too bad either but obviously better on the virus.

Korg 01/W - Great lush soundscapes, pads, church organ (famous on JMJ chronologie is nice, 12 bit I believe has that warm sound) good with some pads/synth clav style basses too.

Korg Microkorg XL - Radias engine, have loads of presets for this, really nice synth sounds and the effects on here too are great.

Korg padKontrol - Nice for triggering off samples, one off hits etc.

Access Virus C - don't think I could part with this, probably my fav piece of gear. great personality and superb sounding. great filters and effects.

I was thinking I need a change, I was at the music shop today playing aroudn with a Korg M3 - to buy it though I would probably have to sell some of my existing gear, the 01/w would probably be the first to go, then the Microkorg XL.

would like to ask if there are any other synths out there I should be looking at? I could part with everything but my virus and buy something more decent, but not really sure what to to at the moment.

• Microkorg XL
• Korg 01/w
• Roland Juno Di
• Korg padKontrol

I also have a fairly powerful PC i7 - SSD - list of VSTi's etc so Im not short on sequencer etc so this would not worry me, it's more the sounds i'm after.

So If i sell all these, maybe buy an M3? then later on I could invest in a radias board?

not sure what to do at the moment, not even sure if I would get much for the 4 pieces of equipment i'm thinking of selling, I'd like to ask the forum members......what other options do you recommend I look at? or selling the above 4 and getting an M50 or M3 would be a better choice?

 

[RonE]

Your kit appears somewhat similar to mine. I have a Korg M1 (which mostly gets used to drive a module), a Korg SP250 stage piano, a Korg TR Rack with ~1000 patches which did NOT come from Korg (and I love them), a Yamaha Motif Rack (with all the usual brilliant pianos and other keyboard sounds and some pretty good synths), and an old Roland Sound Canvas SC50 with some decent 'plain jane' voices in it. I also have a Korg Kontrol 49 I use to drive the TR Rack. Most of my stuff is composed in a MIDI editor/sequencer on my PC, then I create audio files (24 bit WAV) from each MIDI track and combine them in a multi-track editor to add 'live' sounds and do the mixing.

So... To your question. I would recommend that you find a nice Motif Rack (there are tons of 'em used on eBay), choose the model that suits your tastes, and if you must get rid of something, maybe swap the padKontrol for a Kontrol 49.

FWIW, I paid less than $200 each for my TR Rack and Motif Rack, and about $100 for the Kontrol 49, all in excellent working condition.

Got any music we might sample? Might help with the choices. You have the Roland side and Korg side covered. A nice Yamaha rack would balance things nicely.

 

[Zorgan]

I've updated my signature RonE - with some of my music

but now that I think about it, totally useless as most of it was made using VSTi

 

[RonE]

Thanks! Quite a range of styles between the two pages, and some very nicely done piano.

 

[Zorgan]

Since originally posting this I think I have made a choice at the next purchase, I was again at the music shop today.

I seen this for just over £300 - played around on it for a while and rather liked the action on it for the price.

 

[RonE]

Um... okay... 88 keys... what is it?

 

[Zorgan]

casio privia px-120

 

[happyrat1]

Casio does make some nice digital pianos but a PX-120 is a far cry from a Korg M3-88. If you only plan to use it for pianos and as a controller it may be OK but you should check to see exactly how MIDI capable it is. Does it have real MIDI ports and is the USB port class compliant?

Things you should know before you buy. Caveat emptor.

Gary