Which one to buy?

X

Xplora

New member
Assume price isn't that much of an issue here.

I need a keyboard that will allow me to manipulate sounds... I want to create Devin Townsend style synth pad sounds to reinforce metal guitar sounds. If you haven't heard Devin, please check him out. Very cool musician.

Anyways, a keyboard that allows me to manipulate the sounds in it is the important factor here.. I dont' need 88 keys or a learner device on it (even though I could use a lesson or 4 ;) ). A suggestion from a friend of mine who does DJ work was the Yamaha CSX1 (model number right? its' out of production)... he said any decent polysynth will do the trick. I don't even really know what a polysynth is, I just know I want it to create a background of sound with which to layer with my guitars and drums.

Thanks for reading everyone

LWH
 
A polysynth is a polyphonic synthesizer. Polyphony is the number of voices you can play at a time. Most keyboards on the market have 24, 64, some even have 128.

It's hard to recommend a synth without knowing how much you can spend.

The Korg synths have great interfaces and it's easy to program, layer, and manipulate the sounds. The Triton is fantastic if you can afford it, around $2,400. Trinity is great too, about $1,700.

The Yamaha S30 is impressive for a $1,000 synth. I don't own one but I've been playing synthesizers for 22 years so I'm pretty picky about synths, and it has some of the most musical presets I've come across. The Yamaha S80 is similar but has an 88-note weighted keyboard. It's about $1,600.
 
Wide Awake, you just BLEW MY MIND. If my eyes bulge when I see a price, I know its a bit much ;) The prices you are talking about, well I'd be buying a nice PRS or something!

I think the maximum I'd be CONSIDERING spending would be about 650 US buxx. that converts to roughly 2000 AUS buxx, for brand new keyboards. I simply can't afford (EVER) much more for a non essential part of my sound at this stage.

I think that I could really accept a used keyboard, as long as it was programmable and usable. what kind of effect does the number of voices have on the sound? SHould I be aiming for minimum 64 or 128? (To have really good sound)

The S30 sounds like a good idea... I will check it out... But I'm really only looking at mid to low end keybaords... I play guitar, not keyboard ;)

Thanks WA

LWH
 
Just for your information, average wage in Australia is about 30 K a year... I earnt 8500 buxx last couple years (i'm a student, with a great holiday job)... as you can see, 2000 bucks is a HUGE investment for me...

LWH
 
I understand about finances, especially if you're a student. I play guitar, bass, keyboards, and drum machine so I know how expensive a hobby this can be.

Buying used keyboards is a good idea as long as you don't buy a defective one. Don't buy it online. I'd go to a music store or buy it from someone you trust.

The number of voices a synth has doesn't affect the sound quality. More voices allows you to layer sounds and still be able to play big chords without running out of notes. It also determines how many voices a sequencer can play back at one time. I would look for a minimum of 24.

You should probably look at used synths made by Roland, Korg, Yamaha, and Alesis. At http://www.harmony-central.com you can read users reviews and get an idea of what is available.

There is one synth you might want to look at, the Alesis QS6.1 It's about $700 US. It's got good sounds, 64 voices, semi-weighted keys.

Go to the music store and ask questions and play a few things. Find one that sounds good to you.
 
Thanks again Wide Awake. I have a major keyboard place near me (miracle really)... will go have a bash at a few things :)

LWH
 
WideAwake sais the right thing!

And you asked about the cs1x. I played with it a lot, and liked it. It has a good price, and if you like analog-type synths (which I do) I think you wont do badly with it.

(But I went for a Nord modular, which is the ultimate in analog modelling, but which are out of your price range).
 
The Korg MS2000 is my favorite virtual analog synth but I haven't played everything. It only has 4 voices and I want more. I imagine they will come out with another version eventually. It really sounds analog to me and the lead sounds are really expressive. The bass sounds are fat and deep. I play bass guitar so I don't use synth bass much but sometimes my songs cry out for a synth bass part.

The first synth I ever bought was a Korg Poly 6, back in 1983. It was a piece of junk compared to the analog modeled stuff today.

regebro- I've read that the Nord modular is amazing as an effects processor. Do you run anything through it ?
 
Hey, a Poly6 was the first synth I had too! 84 I think!
I liked it, it has very fat and nice pads.

Yup, the Modular is a great effects processor to. If you heard it here, I probably was the one that said it! :) I use it mainly as a mastering processor. There's a nice 3-band compressor patch on Clavias web. And since I don't have any good filters I use the Modular for that too. Then it's just fun to play around with, you can do a lot of great stuff (in fact everything I can think of except delay and reverbs), but I haven't actually *used* it for anything else than multi-band compression and filters yet.
 
Xplora said:
Assume price isn't that much of an issue here.

I need a keyboard that will allow me to manipulate sounds... I want to create Devin Townsend style synth pad sounds to reinforce metal guitar sounds. If you haven't heard Devin, please check him out. Very cool musician.

hey, good to see another devy fan here. most of the stuff devin does with layering is with guitars, and vocals, try writing out some atmospheric parts on a keyboard (put it onto the recording medium, and layer a bunch of shit lots of harmonies) when you are than leave a bit of keyboard, go over some of the tracks with your own voice, and maybe try out some guitar stuff as well. I've gotten some pretty good ocean machine esque parts going with that method.

and load on the reverb, to give it that good drone effect.
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