Emu PK-6 for $399? What y'all Think?
- Thread starter bbZ
- Start date
I was thinking about the yamaha s-03 but this definitely caught my eye.
MikeyAceStudios
New member
Im selling my Emu PK-6 for 399 with the techno expansion rom. If you are interested. Let me know?
Mikey Ace
Mikey Ace
virgoanmethod
New member
I have one. got it for christmas. cool board
Great rhodes, wurlitzers and hammonds. those are definately the specialties. some very good pads too. synthy stuff is a little lacking, but i don't use a whole lot of that.
the brass presets are unusable without some tweaking. there's a couple patches i still can't fix, but there's one I'm in love with, called Expando. but the trumpets and saxes (saxes especially) are extremely fake sounding. maybe okay for electronica, but I do jazz and pop.
the great thing about this board is that you can edit every single parameter you could ever think of. and the interface is pretty easy after a couple days of fooling around with it. very powerful synth engine I hear, does great for me.
i use a 76key yamaha as a midi slave controller for this so I am not limited to 61 keys.
Great rhodes, wurlitzers and hammonds. those are definately the specialties. some very good pads too. synthy stuff is a little lacking, but i don't use a whole lot of that.
the brass presets are unusable without some tweaking. there's a couple patches i still can't fix, but there's one I'm in love with, called Expando. but the trumpets and saxes (saxes especially) are extremely fake sounding. maybe okay for electronica, but I do jazz and pop.
the great thing about this board is that you can edit every single parameter you could ever think of. and the interface is pretty easy after a couple days of fooling around with it. very powerful synth engine I hear, does great for me.
i use a 76key yamaha as a midi slave controller for this so I am not limited to 61 keys.
misscc803
Tech Support Specialist
I have that keyboard and I got mines for 285 used but looked new ass hell. But anyways its a great keyboard to get to know and use. I sequence its sounds in my Akai MPC2000. Trust me when u get your hands on it you will be like for this to be 61 keys it has the feel of almost an weighted keyboard. But hope u enjoy yours cause i sure am enjoyin mines.
ablethevoice
New member
Hey all...
I've posted a tech question about the PK6 (actually what I have is an Ensoniq Halo but it's the same beast) in other threads. This post isn't another request for tech help. I just wanted to add my comments about the PK6 in general. I had been using only an Ensoniq ESQ 1 for about a year before I got the Halo and was starting to burn out on the ESQ's early-80's vintage sounds and especially the lack of good drum sounds- especially snare sounds, but when I saw this Halo in a pawn shop here in Pensacola I lost control of my salivary glands and checkbook.
A small aside... go look for boards and equipment in pawn shops. There is always some poor fool who sells some cherry piece of gear at a pawn shop and ends up getting pennies on the dollar just to make a quick sale. The pawnshop will then crank the piss out of the sticker price and most folks will pay it, not knowing that the sticker price is a mere suggestion. A case in point: The Halo I'm discussing had a 275 dollar price tag on it. I also saw a couple of other items I decided I wanted to take home, so I went up to the counter and said in a loud voice, "Who do I talk to about making a deal?" Well, I almost got knocked down by several attendants who all wanted to make a sale. The total price for all 3 items was in excess of 500 bux (sticker). I offered a preposterously low figure which we then haggled briefly on, once with me starting towards the door saying "Well, I guess you aren't interested in selling anything today!" I ended up walking out of the store with the Halo, a set of Roto-Toms (6", 8" and 10" WITH stand), and a 26 inch television set... for 325 bucks!
Anyway, back to the PK6. I love the Hammond sounds! I love the fact that it has so many drum sets. I love the huge full orchestral string section sounds. As others have mentioned, the synth sounds are a little weak, but I work in music with more of an acoustic feel rather than pure electronica so the synth sounds are rarely used. If I layer the PK6 brass sounds with the ESQ 1 brass and throw a little chorus and reverb on it with CEP in its own track, there is a lot of power in the final product...well worth the effort to tinker with. The keyboard itself feels great- not quite authentic as a real acoustic piano, but a lot less "flabby" than the poor old ESQ's synthy keyboard. I like the fact that the Halo has aftertouch. The Halo is so versitile that even after a year, I still havn't mastered all the capabilities yet!
All in all, a solid and great sounding board especially if you are looking for a wide range of acoustic piano, Hammond organ, percussion and drum sets or string section sounds.
One of the best 100 dollar musical investments I ever made.
I've posted a tech question about the PK6 (actually what I have is an Ensoniq Halo but it's the same beast) in other threads. This post isn't another request for tech help. I just wanted to add my comments about the PK6 in general. I had been using only an Ensoniq ESQ 1 for about a year before I got the Halo and was starting to burn out on the ESQ's early-80's vintage sounds and especially the lack of good drum sounds- especially snare sounds, but when I saw this Halo in a pawn shop here in Pensacola I lost control of my salivary glands and checkbook.
A small aside... go look for boards and equipment in pawn shops. There is always some poor fool who sells some cherry piece of gear at a pawn shop and ends up getting pennies on the dollar just to make a quick sale. The pawnshop will then crank the piss out of the sticker price and most folks will pay it, not knowing that the sticker price is a mere suggestion. A case in point: The Halo I'm discussing had a 275 dollar price tag on it. I also saw a couple of other items I decided I wanted to take home, so I went up to the counter and said in a loud voice, "Who do I talk to about making a deal?" Well, I almost got knocked down by several attendants who all wanted to make a sale. The total price for all 3 items was in excess of 500 bux (sticker). I offered a preposterously low figure which we then haggled briefly on, once with me starting towards the door saying "Well, I guess you aren't interested in selling anything today!" I ended up walking out of the store with the Halo, a set of Roto-Toms (6", 8" and 10" WITH stand), and a 26 inch television set... for 325 bucks!
Anyway, back to the PK6. I love the Hammond sounds! I love the fact that it has so many drum sets. I love the huge full orchestral string section sounds. As others have mentioned, the synth sounds are a little weak, but I work in music with more of an acoustic feel rather than pure electronica so the synth sounds are rarely used. If I layer the PK6 brass sounds with the ESQ 1 brass and throw a little chorus and reverb on it with CEP in its own track, there is a lot of power in the final product...well worth the effort to tinker with. The keyboard itself feels great- not quite authentic as a real acoustic piano, but a lot less "flabby" than the poor old ESQ's synthy keyboard. I like the fact that the Halo has aftertouch. The Halo is so versitile that even after a year, I still havn't mastered all the capabilities yet!
All in all, a solid and great sounding board especially if you are looking for a wide range of acoustic piano, Hammond organ, percussion and drum sets or string section sounds.
One of the best 100 dollar musical investments I ever made.