Your keyboards throughout history

[Skipp]

I've seen this topic on my local forum so why not put it here...
Share with the rest of us which keyboards did you (or still) own.

I started with a tiny casio when I was 5 (I don't remember which one), but i
remember you couldn't play 2 notes at the same time . After
that i spent some time on a no-name keyboard which was a bit bigger
then the casio.

then my dad got me the Yamaha PSR185.



i went to some private music lessons and I realized that i need something better so i talked my mom this time into buying me Yamaha's PSR340...
That was a little bundle of joy... it had a sequencer, great styles and sounds etc etc...



Then I started playing in some sort of local "band" (the 3 of us ... some band that is) and I saw some guy playing on a Korg i3 so I gave him my
PSR340 and some cash for the i3



But since I was a kid, and as all korgs, you need to program a LOT to get
everything working, I got disappointed, and started working to get the money for my first big arranger - Yamaha PSR2000



I bought it for 2600$, and paid it of in 3 months (yup...that was a good summer )

Finally, i started my university and got in a real band (counting 7 people now) and arranger keyboard just couldn't do the job it supposed...

So I got a chance to trade it for KORG TR76. A good workstation
with extra 15 keys, but as once before, I got disappointed in Korg.



The keyboard has GREAT sounds and possibilities, but has a TERRIBLE piano sample. so once again... i started working extra hours to buy myself a Yamaha .

My first Idea was to get myself the MO6 (since i really had no money to buy myself the flagship workstation Motif), so I ordered the MO and
after a month of waiting, a guy from the store calls me and tells me they lost the whole shipment together with my keyboard...

And as they say, for every bad thing, there's a good thing as well... I had
a fair amount of money but i really didn't want to buy something used,
although i was forced to... But I ran into this guy who was selling a few months old motif ES6 for the same price i would've give for the MO, and i
got a gator case and a sustain pedal along



So I really don't see myself buying anything in the near future except maybe some sort of stage piano with 88 fully weighted keys... but... that's still to come...

P.S. I never wrote a longer post in my life

 

[Skot]

Haha good idea for a thread though, heres mine:

The first keyboard i played was a little casio that my dad bought when I was 3 or 4. I don't remember much abut it. The ac adapter port broke so we threw it away.

I started taking piano lessons when I was 7, and my parents bought a yamaha clavinova.

I have put so many hours on this thing and it still works and sounds awesome. Yamaha knows how to make pianos. I believe it is at least 12 years old now. I have played it extremely hard and moved it many times. This piano is why I bought a yamaha for my stage piano a few months ago.

Anyways, after playing for 8 or so years, I decided I wanted to get into keyboard stuff. I looked around and generally had no idea what i wanted. I messed around with a lot of keyboards at guitar center. I liked a lot of the sounds on the triton le and the price was pretty good. I also wanted a workstation. So I bought it and have been generally pretty happy with it.

However, the piano sounds suck. This didn't bother me until I moved out and could no longer play the clavinova.

Anyways, I started getting into synths and playing around with sounds. The triton pissed me off because practically all of the mods are internal. Now it is a lot easier for me to tweak because I understand synthesis better, and I know the layout of the triton's system. But I decided to get a low end synthesizer just to mess around with and turn knobs. The roland SH-201 came out at about that time, and I liked some of their lead sounds and pads. The layout was also easy to understand. So I bought it and have had a lot of fun messing around with it.

But after having no piano for over a year, I started really getting pissed off at the triton's lack of piano, and having no full 88 weighted keys. After debating with myself whether or not buying yet another keyboard would be worth it, I decided to just go for it. I considered a few different stage pianos, but decided to go with yamaha of course. I am very happy I made that decision.

So after gaining quite a collection of keyboards in the last few years, I have recently realized how much equipment this is. I am now playing in a band, and taking 3 keyboards, an amp, stands, and a million wires to practice is not very fun. It will be worse when we start playing shows. So I need to consolidate. I figured the best way to do this is to get an 88 key workstation and a non weighted key synth.

Future plans: Roland V-synth GT and Kurzweil K2600X

Yeah, I wish

 

[Skipp]

so it seems i'm not the only yamaha-piano-sound freak hehehe...

Keep those posts coming

 

[Skot]

Yeah, I'm actually considering buying a yamaha Motif XS8 for my next workstation, because I could use it for my piano and workstation. Either that or a korg m3 88. The only reason I would get a korg is because I already know the layout very well.

Someone else post! This is interesting.

 

[keyplayer]

I too started playing the piano when i was 7 yrs old....My dad had just died and i think my mom thought i needed something to do. That was in 1963! So, i started out on the old spinet piano at our house....didnt get into synths until the late 70's....here my first one



Its a sequential circuits max....these guys if you dont know ended up being the prophet synth people

Then next i bought a korg dw 8000


This came with 768 programmable sounds....all analog. They had just started making synths with programmable wave forms...somewhere in the 1980's

Next came the korg DS 8


This was an FM synth. This was korgs answer to the yamaha DX7

Then believe it or not, i went on the road for the next 10 years or so and got away from buying stuff for awhile..Played accoustic piano most of that time.

Which brings us to what I have now....here they are all in a row


The Kurzweil sp88 is my stage piano i use when i play live


I use an old Roland RS9 for a controller in my studio


The RS9 drives my Yamaha ES rack and Kurzweil pc2r rack as well as the Roland Juno G.....

sorry, but i dont seem to know how to get these pics any bigger....they are bigger if you click on em tho.....plus i couldnt load the pics of the current stuff cause i had the 5 max pics before

So i guess the story goes that i've been messin with this stuff on and off for over 30 years.....scary

peace ya'all

Keyplayer

 

[Skipp]

don't worry about the pics... it's not a problem to click a couple of times
And you have a really wide range of keyboards... Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Kurzweil...
I never even played on Kurzweil hehe...

 

[RotorOnTop]

Sorry no pictures guys...
I'm self taught and have only owned a few keyboards over the years
the first one I bought was a Mini-Moog in 75' mostly as a side instrument being a bass player (Pink Floyd material)
Whirlitzer 200A
then a Korg, can't remember model of this one
Rhodes Stage piano (200 lb'er)
Yamaha DX7
Casio ( it melted in car)
Roland w20 (I think?) still have all the cards for this one
Ensoniq ZR76
Hammond XK1
Kohler & Campbell 88 Spinet I've owned since 1971

I'm hoping for a MO8 or XS Motif in the near future

 

[letsel]

You guys have alot of history.

I started in 2005(I was 18 at that point) with keyboards as part of my music course I did and since I couldn't practice my keyboard parts at the conservatorium the whole time since it was too far out just to go for practice, I convinced my mom to buy me a keyboard a friend of mine was selling since he was upgrading to a piano. Enter the cheap casio . Can't remember the model name, it's still at a friends house if you guys really wan't to know.

Anyway, I stopped playing around mid 2006 since the casio was just horrible to play on(I really disliked the fact that it wasn't velocity sensitive, and the sounds were horrible).

Fast forward to mid 2007 where my friend asked me to rejoin his band since he desperately wanted a keyboardist, and I have been having the urge to get involved in music again after the longish haitus so I agreed. Since I knew I wasn't going to play on the casio I went a bit overboard and bought myself a Yamaha S90 ES(Finally paid off the thing a few days ago!). I'm very happy.

Well, that is the history, a whole smackbang 2 years worth . I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon, all I need is some pedals.

 

[Skipp]

Well, that is the history, a whole smackbang 2 years worth . I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon, all I need is some pedals.

Buy it soon! Once you get the hang of it you'll ask yourself:
"How in the world did I play without it?!?"

 

[Skot]

I like how everyone started out with a cheap casio. Haha, it makes me lol.

I bet the S90es was totally worth it though, huh?

 

[letsel]

Buy it soon! Once you get the hang of it you'll ask yourself:
"How in the world did I play without it?!?"

I know that pedals are a big part of playing keyboards/piano, but I want to get my hands on the FC3 controller that gives the half-damper effect with the S90 ES, just having trouble finding it. Also, funds are low with upcoming holiday events. Think I'll settle for a normal pedal for now though, this waiting is driving me nuts.

I bet the S90es was totally worth it though, huh?

Very.

 

[EJFan]

Sorry no pictures guys...
I'm self taught and have only owned a few keyboards over the years

Makes two of us... and my list is about the same size...

• Fender Rhodes Mark I Stage piano (73 keys)
• Yamaha CS-50 Synth
• Two home Clavinovas at different times
• Yamaha CP200 Stage Piano
• Casio SK5 "sampling synth" - really a toy but I actually gigged with this for a while, I'd bought it for $12 at a flea market!
• Yamaha SO8 synth
• Alesis QS7.1 synth
• Roland RD700SX Stage Piano

Of them all, I'm still gigging with the Roland and the Alesis, and I still have one of the home Clavinovas.

 

[davesch]

Started with Hammond two manual and pedal organ
Sold that and got Elka Crescendo 303 organ
Sold that and got Yamaha HS6 organ, still got
Korg X5D, about to sell
Took Delivery of Yamaha MO6 today ! First impressions great.

I seem to have bypassed the Casio stage.

 

[Skipp]

I seem to have bypassed the Casio stage.

Good for you
Gratz on the MO. I ordered MO but it got lost somewhere between USA and Croatia hehe... But i'm quite well of this way

 

[Marvito]

Whats the best keyboard for creating disney music Like in the parks etc.

 

[Laura]

Musical history

Ok Keyboard freaks, you think you're hot stuff 'cause you played a million keyboards?

I'm on my very FIRST keyboard, but let's see if I can post all the OTHER musical instruments in my history.

I don't know how you posted yours in sequential order, but I'll just list the history. I started with a $15 f-hole style guitar in 1965 back in the Folkie days. This beater guitar is a representative of that. Then I played a bluegrass banjo in the 70s. It was a sweeeet Ibanez; this is a pic of my son's banjo. Well I played a blue Ibanez bass with a Grateful Dead band; I also sold my banjo for a white Fender squier (my son dismantled that.) This same son gave me his old red Washburn guitar when he bought a new Ibanez. I Also bought a Yamaha acoustic guitar to play on the porch when it was nice out.

Stay tuned for the rest in my next post. They only let me upload 5 attachments.

 

[Laura]

Musical history, cont'd

Here is the rest of my musical history. Pictured first is a "Cumbus" or 12-string fretless Turkish banjo. I was very into Middle Eastern music when I attended the SCA Pennsic wars. Then last november I bought my first keyboard... a Yamaha MM6. Well doncha know one musical instrument attracts another, and the guy in my jam band said "I have this old synth nobody plays, would you like to borrow it?" and I go home from my jam with a gigantic heavy old Roland D-20 on LOAN. Still figuring out how to work it.

Last but not least is the Alesis Micron I'm hoping to add to my collection soon. ( I didn't include the drums, tamborines, shakers etc.)

Play on!

 

[Skipp]

I bought myself this little thingy last week. M-Audio Keystation88

 

[RotorOnTop]

Sorry no pictures guys...
I'm self taught and have only owned a few keyboards over the years
the first one I bought was a Mini-Moog in 75' mostly as a side instrument being a bass player (Pink Floyd material)
Whirlitzer 200A
then a Korg, can't remember model of this one
Rhodes Stage piano (200 lb'er)
M100 Hammond Organ (edit) 1978
Yamaha DX7
Casio ( it melted in car)
Roland w20 (I think?) still have all the cards for this one
Ensoniq ZR76 - still own
Hammond XK1 - still own
Kohler & Campbell 88 Spinet I've owned since 1971
Alesis QS 8.2
Roland KC550 keyboard amp
Motion Sound Pro 3X (rotor on top)

The "ship" didn't come in...so, I recently got an Alesis QS 8.2...nice giggin' keyboard for the money.

 

[letsel]

Sorry no pictures guys...
I'm self taught and have only owned a few keyboards over the years
the first one I bought was a Mini-Moog in 75' mostly as a side instrument being a bass player (Pink Floyd material)
Whirlitzer 200A
then a Korg, can't remember model of this one
Rhodes Stage piano (200 lb'er)
M100 Hammond Organ (edit) 1978
Yamaha DX7
Casio ( it melted in car)
Roland w20 (I think?) still have all the cards for this one
Ensoniq ZR76 - still own
Hammond XK1 - still own
Kohler & Campbell 88 Spinet I've owned since 1971
Alesis QS 8.2
Roland KC550 keyboard amp
Motion Sound Pro 3X (rotor on top)

The "ship" didn't come in...so, I recently got an Alesis QS 8.2...nice giggin' keyboard for the money.

A few keyboards? I count 14 of them