Need help finding keyboard

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I am a guitarist with limited keyboard abilities, have an Ensoniq MR-76 with a sequencer, and a Yamaha that teaches you to play. They are both nice, but looking for something to enhance my sound for writing.

I want to start using arpeggiation, but don't want to sound like everyone else using arpeggiation. With a sequencer, I can sound like a virtuoso. Therefore a sequencer is also paramount. My guitar writing takes me into heavy distortion mostly, so I guess I also need a synthesizer (or want I guess).

I'm in the $2,000 to $4000 range. So far I have looked at a Roland Fantom and a Korg M3. I know you can write your own arpeggio's with the Fantom, and I'm not really sure what Karma and the Combi offer with the M3. As far as Yamaha goes, I have no Idea what that price range has to offer a single finger player (well maybe a little better than that).

Please help me before my Muse leaves forever.
 
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From what I was looking at on the Roland site, the G-70 arranger looks as though it's more for an accomplished keyboardist looking to accompany himself. I didn't see a way to really personalize it to my style for more than a couple of songs. Though very nice, and never even thought of it.

The Yamaha XS didn't seem to show that the player could be much less of a player either. I haven't checked it out live, but plan to now. The arpeggiator wasn't featured much in any video I could find.

For either of them, I didn't see any synth sounds.

The Korg M3 has a synth sound card avail with some Radias sounds (I think), and can have the Radias attached in tandem with the 73 key version. The music store I have access to, doesn't really help with figuring things out, so this is my lack of knowledge for Karma 2 and the arpeggiation it does. And they don't have a Radias to experiment with.

The Roland Fantom allows you to write your own arpeggios, but not sure how good that feature is. Plus, it seems like it might have a replacement coming soon, so I'm not sure about starting that venture. Have same difficulty in the same store with this keyboard also.

So I guess so far, I'm down to Roland Fantom, Korg M3, or Yamaha Motif. I was only thinking of 2 before, so I might be going the wrong direction if I'm trying to narrow it down. This is really helping though, I'd rather find out about other things now than after the purchase has been made and regret it.
 
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I understand what your sayin .....i was only bringing those models up because of the fact that you said you werent an accomplished player yet...i was just thinkin you could load a style with what ever groove you wanted and then play a melody with your right hand...if for instance you were trying to write....then, it will still act like a regular keyboard when you want it to...but for "synth" sounds....as in "todays" kind of music, you are right, the fantom is prolly a better choice......i just bought a roland juno g a week ago just so i could have the built in sequencer....it has the fantom x sound engine in it and has some killer synth type sounds....but thats not really my thing so there not that important to me.....the juno g has an appegio function but i havent played around with it much yet.....i first bought a roland gw 7, but took it back for the juno g.....i think its just a better board than the gw7 was......just my opinion tho.....
 
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Dude,

With regard to the Roland Fantom series-I've spent a good hour in my local GuitarCenter tinkering with this board,as I really liked the fact the this workstation has a 4 track audio recorder in it,but in my opinion,this board is all hype & flash,as I was not impressed buy a single sound program in the thing.

In fact,I was horrified by the very thin,cheesy sounds that came out of this train wreck.

Technically,it's a good recording tool,but the Fantom has the most un-inspirational sounds I have ever heard in this price range.

Some people swear by Roland products & I do like some of thier performance synths,but thier sounds in thier workstations are really weak & I was very disappointed in this board.

In the past,I've never been a fan of Yamaha,but when the Motif XS series hit the market,I was very pleasantly surprised by this magnificent workstation.

It comes with an enormous amount of sample rom(program presets) and all the functions & controls are laid out quite well.

I think it's designed beautifully & it's a great value.

As far as the Korg M3 goes,I am under the impression that this particular board has more sound creation possibilities than the Yamaha,because of the medley of different sounds sources-since it's infused with the Karma & Radias sounds.

I have the Korg Triton Extreme & I love it to death-& considering it's enormous amount of sounds,functions & sonic quality-the 61 key version is still available to by new and it goes for $1699.00

This is a fantastic value which will probably suit your wants and you cannot buy a more versatile,better sounding workstation in this price range.

However though,it sounds to me like you really need to devote quite a bit more time immersing yourself in more research and whatever you do,I strongly reccomend that you demo every workstation you can get your hands on in person,before you make a move,because workstation audio demos online can be very decieving!!

Good luck in your quest,

Thom
 
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Think I'm going with the Korg M3 for ease of use and ability to create without being able to really play.
 
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Just my humble thoughts. I am a stage guy and in the course of a performance I bounce from various guitars, to mandolin, to banjo, to saxophone, to keyboards. My point is that very complicated keys do not fit for me. I am not a techy! Keyboards for me have to be easy to dial in sound quickly on the fly! When I first started looking I told myself that in the store if I couldn't figure out how it operated with in 5 minutes, I wouldn't be able to use it on stage and I didn't want to go back to college just to learn to use a keyboard! I currently use a Nord and a Roland. Both are fast and simple to switch around on stage to various sounds. I just bought a Yamaha MODX which is a bit more painful but honestly the piano is the best I've heard and the strings and horns are perfect! A lot of players use Korg, and Korg has many song sounds reprogrammed! So figure out your needs first and then just like a guitar pick the one that feels good. All the top manufactures make different models for players vs studio.
 

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