The Right Keyboard
All I'm looking for is advice on which instrument would be best for what I need. If you have experience with many top of the line keyboards, and know what each is capable of, I would appreciate your opinion. I play keys for a metal band and, for the most part, know what I'm looking for in my setup. Mostly I look at all of my options from the aspect of what would be best for the band.
Considering my playing style, I've never really found arpeggiators useful. I've never found myself jamming along to preset drum tracks or bass lines. In fact, any time I'm playing through a keyboard's programs, if I happen upon one where arpeggiation starts upon keystroke, I immediately turn off that function. The only time I've ever found it useful is if it adds some atmospheric background element.
I guess, moving on to just what I do find important, the main factors I'm looking for are as follows: One: I feel that first, and foremost, my instrument must have high quality sound. It's extrememly important to me that it be possible for me to make my patches sound as realistic as possible. My most common patches would be the strings and piano. The quality of these is paramount. Also, I like to have other, odd sort of sound fx-like synths, and the ability to manipulate these sounds. Two: Sampling. I haven't delved too far into this area yet, but it is something I use. So far I only have two samples I use. One being an intro to a song, and the other being a low bass hit used to add massive power to beginnings of heavy song parts. It's similar to the 808 hit. My bandmates are asking that this be an area I become more fluent in as well, so it is one of great interest to me.
The instruments I've mainly been looking into so far would be the Yamaha Motif, Korg M3, and the Kurzweil PC3. I already own the Roland Fantom G8. I haven't explored much of the Motif at all. I've played the M3 and watched some videos for it. And for the PC3 I've only visited Kurzweil's site and watched videos. I intend to visit the nearest Guitar Center sometime soon and do some serious sitdown time with the Yamaha and Korg. Unfortunately they do not carry Kurzweil in-store. My Fantom is a wonderful instrument, but I just can't be sure that I'm 100% satisfied with it. After watching the videos, so far I feel that the PC3 has the best quality sounds out of the 4. Of course, it lacks the sampling. Which, to make up for, I would likely just get Korg's KP3 Kaoss Pad. If I were given the chance to sit down to all of these instruments, I'm sure I could come to a conclusion. The only way I could make this happen is visiting the Guitar Center in Buffalo like I've planned on doing, and then visiting the Sam Ash out in Cleveland. I believe they would have the PC3 in-store. But, in the mean time, if I could get some bit of advice from anyone here, I would greatly appreciate the help.
Sorry for this being such a long post
P.S. If you'd like to check my band out for an idea as to what we sound like, our myspace is http://www.myspace.com/discidium. But I must say, the album that our posted music is from was released in June of '07. The new stuff we're writing has gone in a more progressive direction. Our music is getting heavier as well as lighter, and we're finding that our songs are growing more and more intricate.
All I'm looking for is advice on which instrument would be best for what I need. If you have experience with many top of the line keyboards, and know what each is capable of, I would appreciate your opinion. I play keys for a metal band and, for the most part, know what I'm looking for in my setup. Mostly I look at all of my options from the aspect of what would be best for the band.
Considering my playing style, I've never really found arpeggiators useful. I've never found myself jamming along to preset drum tracks or bass lines. In fact, any time I'm playing through a keyboard's programs, if I happen upon one where arpeggiation starts upon keystroke, I immediately turn off that function. The only time I've ever found it useful is if it adds some atmospheric background element.
I guess, moving on to just what I do find important, the main factors I'm looking for are as follows: One: I feel that first, and foremost, my instrument must have high quality sound. It's extrememly important to me that it be possible for me to make my patches sound as realistic as possible. My most common patches would be the strings and piano. The quality of these is paramount. Also, I like to have other, odd sort of sound fx-like synths, and the ability to manipulate these sounds. Two: Sampling. I haven't delved too far into this area yet, but it is something I use. So far I only have two samples I use. One being an intro to a song, and the other being a low bass hit used to add massive power to beginnings of heavy song parts. It's similar to the 808 hit. My bandmates are asking that this be an area I become more fluent in as well, so it is one of great interest to me.
The instruments I've mainly been looking into so far would be the Yamaha Motif, Korg M3, and the Kurzweil PC3. I already own the Roland Fantom G8. I haven't explored much of the Motif at all. I've played the M3 and watched some videos for it. And for the PC3 I've only visited Kurzweil's site and watched videos. I intend to visit the nearest Guitar Center sometime soon and do some serious sitdown time with the Yamaha and Korg. Unfortunately they do not carry Kurzweil in-store. My Fantom is a wonderful instrument, but I just can't be sure that I'm 100% satisfied with it. After watching the videos, so far I feel that the PC3 has the best quality sounds out of the 4. Of course, it lacks the sampling. Which, to make up for, I would likely just get Korg's KP3 Kaoss Pad. If I were given the chance to sit down to all of these instruments, I'm sure I could come to a conclusion. The only way I could make this happen is visiting the Guitar Center in Buffalo like I've planned on doing, and then visiting the Sam Ash out in Cleveland. I believe they would have the PC3 in-store. But, in the mean time, if I could get some bit of advice from anyone here, I would greatly appreciate the help.
Sorry for this being such a long post
P.S. If you'd like to check my band out for an idea as to what we sound like, our myspace is http://www.myspace.com/discidium. But I must say, the album that our posted music is from was released in June of '07. The new stuff we're writing has gone in a more progressive direction. Our music is getting heavier as well as lighter, and we're finding that our songs are growing more and more intricate.
