organ sounds, piano sounds, ?????

[tree montgomery]

hey friends
I am looking for affordable keyboards that have good organ, piano, vibe sounds.
without dishing out for the nord electro are there any alternatives that you all know of.
small, big, etc. does'nt matter the amount of keys just good sounds.
thanks.

tree

[sloanfiske]

the roland jv series with the expansion cards should cover it.

usally found pretty cheap (certainly cheaper than an electro)...and get a controller.

[tree montgomery]

thanks doud
any advice on which one might be the cheapest in the series but work with the expansion cards?
treee

[gcorbett]

I know that it isnt the cheapest roland that used the cards, but you should be able to find a 1080 pretty cheap. It has 4 card slots, and 1080 internal sounds. most of the cards have 255 sounds, and you should still be able to find most of them. There is a vintage synths card thats pretty good, and I think there was a card that covered pianos and elec pianos, and a couple of pop, techno, and hip hop cards. The "world" card is alot of fun, and has some great drum and ethinic percussion stuff. I still have a loaded 1080 in my rack, and it still comes in handy, like a midi swiss army knife.

[JSVice]

Originally Posted by tree montgomery

thanks doud
any advice on which one might be the cheapest in the series but work with the expansion cards?
treee

Probably the 1010. It will only do one JV series card. I had one, and sold it for a 1080.

[uncle duncan]

The 60's - 70's expansion card for the JV-1010 has some really nice wurlies and rhodes, about 100 organs, and some mellotrons. The stock JV sounds are also nice. I use the session piano all the time, and I've got better piano modules, but the JV piano seems to sit in the mix just right.

[vs.Gotham]

I've been really happy with the Triton Le. It's not a powerhouse with expansion slots, but for when you're on a budget (as I am) it doesn't seem to matter as much. I use a lot of virtual instruments these days but for a piano or organ sound, I haven't found any I like anywhere near as the Triton. The piano is nice and natural (the 16mb piano sample set was a big selling point), and the organs have a nice variety (my favorite is the Tremolo Whirly, personally).

Your best bet is really to go into a shop and try out a couple (the standards being the Triton and Fantom these days probably) and then see which one sounds best to your ears. To *my* ears it was the Triton, but this was a few years ago so who knows what's out there now. I try not to look because it just hurts.

[uncle duncan]

Originally Posted by vs.Gotham

Your best bet is really to go into a shop and try out a couple

The trick is seeing how the sounds work in a mix, which is hard to do in a music store, playing solo. Perhaps bring a CD with some of your tracks - minus keyboards - and play along. And if the salesperson can't figure out how to route a CD and a keyboard through a mixer for you to listen to while you play, you're in the wrong store.

[donsolo]

Honestly, What about the option of Softsynth?
B4 and Acoustik piano (or whatever they call it) plus a cheap M-audio keyboard...
You're probably looking at about 1k in that route.

Or you could get one of those Kurzweil PX1000 racks that have a nice piano sound...The hardest part with organ sounds (now that I've got B4) is that samples are so uncontrollable. You can't change drawbars...and good rotary speaker emulation...forget it.

Softsynths or a rack soundmodule plus cheap board is probably a better route...

[popmann]

Kurzweil Pc2 series. Has the KB3 modeling...more than decent pianos...orchestral board is stock now...I get compliments on the EP sounds all the time.

...that's if you want a single, simple hardware solution. If you want to go controller, DON'T buy a cheap one...they SUCK. If somebody called me to a session with one of the Maudio pieces of shit, I'd tell them to give me the tracks and I'd do it at my place. Those things blow. Sticky feeling...yuck. That said, you can get a cheap "used to be top of the line" MIDI keyboard or controller used for about the same price--plus have whatever sounds come in it, for what they're worth. On the absolute cheap, get the controller, an old JV1010 (which has the "Roland Session Piano" in it) and the B4 plug in.

Pc2. OR...Old but good MIDI keyboard and plugs.

[uncle duncan]

Originally Posted by popmann

Kurzweil Pc2 series. Has the KB3 modeling...more than decent pianos...orchestral board is stock now...I get compliments on the EP sounds all the time.

The Kurzweil ME-1 looks like a scaled down half-rack version of the Pc2 for under $400. Anybody know how it stacks up, or what it lacks?

[Herman Munster]

FYI, Yamaha is releasing the Motif XS series next month. You'll likely be able to get a used ES6 or 7 very inexpensively. I've compared their organs, Rhodes, Wurlys, and pianos to Nords and they're close. My ES will always have a place in my studio. For what it's worth, I don't find the Triton LE pianos very organic sounding. I cannot speak to the JV series. I will say that a Roland board with the SRX11 expansion does provide a very dynamic, expressive acoustic piano sound. Best wishes on your search... By the way, if you listen to the demos on my myspace site you'll hear some Motif ES organs, EP's, and pianos live. Try to disregard the mix.... By the way, I dislike Kurzweil's acoustic piano samples. They're "woody" sounding. Their organs are decent and EP's are excellent IMO...

[donsolo]

a lot of REAL pianos are "woody" sounding
cheers

[popmann]

The Kurzweil ME-1 looks like a scaled down half-rack version of the Pc2 for under $400. Anybody know how it stacks up, or what it lacks?

It's not comparable. It's more comparable to the last generation of synths...PC88 era. No organ modeling. Old, smaller samples. No orchestral board.

[kclisby]

Have you considered IVORY?? There are no keyboards keepin up with the quality of those samples in my opinion right now.... Is this for tracking, or live playing?? If tracking you should look into software synths.... Ivory is my number 1 recommendation for different tones of pianos....

Dr. Clisby