Keyboard workstations?

djc

djc

Why so serious?
I'm thinking of buying a keyboard workstation for mainly sequencing/writing songs on. I'm thinking of spending about a thousand bucks. I was looking at the Korg Krome. Sounds great, but some guy on Youtube pointed out what lousy cheap keys it has. Which might not be a problem for me as I'm not really a very good keyboard player. Any recommendations?
 
I can understand what the youtuber means. Most of the keys on the Korgs I've played offer no "feel". It's more like typing than playing.
Roland keys on the other hand offer some weight and pushback. I think that this gives me a more realistic feel.
Look into some of their workstations new or used.
 
Also, a rather underrated total workstation that had a lot of problems at its release that more or less gave it kiss of death as far as marketing goes but they got it all correct in the end and know many folk whom have actually ditched their Korg Kronos for the Alesis Fusion. It comes in a 61 key semi weighted, after touch and velocity nice keybed and an 88 key with fully weighted keys however, both synth engines are the same and quite extensive cababilities, Has true sampling and mapping to keys, VA Synth Engine, Physical Modeling, FM with several operators, extensive sequencer that can be integrated to the also 8 physical inputs to the onboard mixer with a built-in 80 GB hard drive and ADAT Light Pipe or ADAT SPDIF. There's many free awesome sound sets made for it still on Alesis website made by none other than folks at Hollow Sun, commissioned by Alesis and Ron Papen also has free sound sets/sample banks for it as well. It's a true workstation and am learning it's quite a versatile synth that can be had for around $500 for 61 key version, which I have, and actually love the feel and responsiveness of the keys. Polyphony is out of this world, almost unlimited, has huge amount of oscillators, many extensive multi stage envelopes and pretty deep programming.
Just another option I thought I'd share as I admittedly am learning the recording end of things but am not new to synthesis.
 
I am sort of picky on keybeds for my workstations - I tend to favor the Fatar/Studiologic line. Would you be willing to consider a Studiologic controller and a module?
 
Don't get too close to my Krome 88! It's closer to a grand piano "feel" than any other keyboard I've found. And I did a pseudo-blind test next to a Yamaha 88....not even CLOSE!
 
djc said:
I'm thinking of buying a keyboard workstation for mainly sequencing/writing songs on. I'm thinking of spending about a thousand bucks. I was looking at the Korg Krome. Sounds great, but some guy on Youtube pointed out what lousy cheap keys it has.
Click to expand...
"Some guy" is full of it. This is a subjective thing and IMO the keys are fine. Not top end, but then you're not paying top-end prices either. Not cheap. You want cheap-feeling keys, try a Casio (IMO).

Korg's Krome or Kross as well as Roland's FA-06 are two in the $1000 range well worth considering (I am). :) So many things come into play - what can you afford, what do you want to do with it, what kind of key action do you prefer etc.
 
The FA0 series would be my preference. If the KROME had KARMA my choice would be different. I own both an M3m and three Roland's. Except for KARMA, I would not buy KORG. Roland IMO, is easier to use and has better build quality. Both brands sound good. But if the FA0 boards offer super-natural sounds, that's a + IMO.

Roland FTW
 
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