Keyboards discussion - Pianos, organs, synthesizers, clavinets, accordions, spergery for all who enjoy tickling the ivories

[NevskyProspekt]

It's about time we had a thread for keyboards and keyboardists, the instrument of choice for those who were too nerdy to play drums or too annoyed by how painful guitar is for the left hand. Feel free to sperg about your favorite keyboardists and pianos, organs, synthesizers, hurdy-gurdys, etc.

I'll start by sharing a medley featuring one of my musical heroes, the great Tony Banks of Genesis.

 

[Pixy]

They should all come with 3.5mm headphone adapters.

 

[Internet Explorer]

Keyboardist weighing in. Favourites include the Korg Triton and the Roland Fantom 8, both of which are very fluid with piss simple interfaces. When you want to play music, you don't want to sit there for weeks, wracking your brain over the configuration settings. Which is exactly why I have nothing but contempt for the Yamaha DX7. It's notorious and for a damn good reason. There are Japanese VCR manuals that made more sense.

 

[NevskyProspekt]

Keyboardist weighing in. Favourites include the Korg Triton and the Roland Fantom 8, both of which are very fluid with piss simple interfaces. When you want to play music, you don't want to sit there for weeks, wracking your brain over the configuration settings. Which is exactly why I have nothing but contempt for the Yamaha DX7. It's notorious and for a damn good reason. There are Japanese VCR manuals that made more sense.

Heh, I've got a DX-7 in my rig but mostly use it as a MIDI controller for the Kurzweil K2000 rack. Programming it is a pain but it has one of the best damn keybeds of any synth I've owned. Every once in a while it does surprise me with some pretty impressive sounds, when I get in the mood to challenge myself with FM synthesis. Usually leave any leads to the DW-8000 - that synth is an absolute monster in mono mode with all 8 oscillators stacked. The Triton has some phenomenal leads though.

 

[Internet Explorer]

Heh, I've got a DX-7 in my rig but mostly use it as a MIDI controller for the Kurzweil K2000 rack. Programming it is a pain but it has one of the best damn keybeds of any synth I've owned. Every once in a while it does surprise me with some pretty impressive sounds, when I get in the mood to challenge myself with FM synthesis. Usually leave any leads to the DW-8000. That synth is an absolute monster in mono mode with all 8 oscillators stacked. The Triton has some phenomenal leads though.

Oh yeah, the DX7 has some of the most beautiful fucking sound on it. It's just a shame getting to them is like gutting the hull of a tank with a tin opener. I've got a few MIDI controllers lying around. My Triton is the mainstay, use that for literally everything (and yeah, the leads are fucking phenomenal). Though I recently picked up an Axiom Air 32 from a charity shop. Paid £5, and it works right out of the box in LMMS. At the same time, I picked up an Alesis i02 USB audio interface. No idea if it works yet, but since I only paid £10 for it, it's no loss if it turns out to be cack.

Btw, analog purists will tell me to fuck right off, but LMMS has some really nice plugins with plenty of stackable oscillators. Patch that shit in with JACK to use the Bristol plugin for vintage synth emulation (Juno, Prophecy etc.) and fuck me - the sounds you can get and control in real time are stunning.

 

[NevskyProspekt]

Only problem with the DW-8000 is the aftertouch seems to be crapping out. Like, in order to activate it you need an immense amount of pressure on the keybed. No idea how to fix it.

 

[NevskyProspekt]

Apologies for double posting, but playing octave runs without the fingers slipping/clipping against the other keys is a pain in the ass. I’ve practiced it slowly for ages (and been playing keys in general since childhood) but it keeps happening far too often for comfort. Anybody else have this issue?