Good All Around Rack Synth

valverec

valverec

Member
What are people buying now for a good all around rack module with lots of conventional sounds (and hopefully more). I really haven't been paying attention to keyboards over the last four or five years, so I'm at a loss. I know you can pick up Kurzweil K2500's and the like for dirt cheap now, but are any companies making better modules in the price range with better sounds? Also the easier it is to use, the better.

It seems from looking around the Motif is maybe the new thing everyone is using these days as a general purpose synth. Please let me know the opinions of the synth gurus around here.

Thanks
 
To be clear

I think the guy is asking about synth (tone) modules, am I correct?

He specified "rack".

I've been looking for older tone modules on Ebay the past week, simply because I need a decent piano patch on my K2500XS, in addition to the KB3 program that sucks up all the voices. Even after editing the KB3 to use less voices, there are not enough left over for the piano patches.

Anyway... regarding racks (if that is what the OP is seeking), it depends on what you want the rack to do.

Almost all the modern keyboards have rack versions for a few hundred dollars less, which generally means they are not cheap.

And then, do you want analog rack (Dave Smith instruments, Nord), or digital DSP (Kurzweil, Korgs, Roland, etc.)

How much do you have to spend, too?
 
I think the Roland XV-5080 is still one of the best rack modules around. It has 128 voice polyphony, 8 expansion slots (4 SR-JV, 4 SRX), can be filled with 128 megs RAM to load samples, 32 channel MIDI, plus a nice big LCD to edit on.

Because of the expansion slots you can really customize it to whatever you need. I still find a lot of use for it.
 
I have a Roland XV-3080 and love it. I use it for gigs and I have it loaded with the Orchestral and Keys of the 60's & 70's expansion. Get's some use in the studio as well. The 5080 is rockin' too and had more to offer, but the 3080 has worked well for my needs. I picked up the 3080 for about $300 of eBay last year.
 
Um, I believe both my K2500R and K25600R qualify as rack units. And they certainly offer you whatever type of sound you want.

That said, I also have the Roland XV 5080 and XV 3080. They are excellent units as well, but I still find myself time and time again turning to my trusty Kurzs.

Granted, my XV 3080 lives in my live rack and doesn't get programmed much if at all these days.


Toddskins said:
I think the guy is asking about synth (tone) modules, am I correct?

He specified "rack".

I've been looking for older tone modules on Ebay the past week, simply because I need a decent piano patch on my K2500XS, in addition to the KB3 program that sucks up all the voices. Even after editing the KB3 to use less voices, there are not enough left over for the piano patches.

Anyway... regarding racks (if that is what the OP is seeking), it depends on what you want the rack to do.

Almost all the modern keyboards have rack versions for a few hundred dollars less, which generally means they are not cheap.

And then, do you want analog rack (Dave Smith instruments, Nord), or digital DSP (Kurzweil, Korgs, Roland, etc.)

How much do you have to spend, too?
Click to expand...
 
fraserhutch said:
Um, I believe both my K2500R and K25600R qualify as rack units. And they certainly offer you whatever type of sound you want.

That said, I also have the Roland XV 5080 and XV 3080. They are excellent units as well, but I still find myself time and time again turning to my trusty Kurzs.

Granted, my XV 3080 lives in my live rack and doesn't get programmed much if at all these days.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all of the suggestions guys. It seems the 5080 is the most recommended here. I'd like to spend around $500. I know I can get a K2500RS for about that. So Fraserhutch, would you recommend the 5080 over the K2500RS? I'm looking for good sounds all around, a general purpose type synth with high quality sounds. So I'd like something that does good strings, keys, pianos, and it would be nice if it had some decent analog type sounds, but that's secondary to good strings, piano, etc...
 
Personally, I would still go with the Kurz. I'm probably in the minority on that, I'm sure.

however, you can't go wrong either way.

valverec said:
Thanks for all of the suggestions guys. It seems the 5080 is the most recommended here. I'd like to spend around $500. I know I can get a K2500RS for about that. So Fraserhutch, would you recommend the 5080 over the K2500RS? I'm looking for good sounds all around, a general purpose type synth with high quality sounds. So I'd like something that does good strings, keys, pianos, and it would be nice if it had some decent analog type sounds, but that's secondary to good strings, piano, etc...
Click to expand...
 
Alright guys, thanks for the opinion. I'll post here when I make up my mind and test whatever I buy out.

Thanks! :)
 
The jd900 is very nice as well, I have 2 of them each with a different card as well as the K2500r. As much as I like the jd's I have to give the edge to the K2500R.
 
Out of the box, the Kurz piano is better than the 5080 piano. However, the 5080 is much more expandable, and with some SRX sound boards will give you much better strings and keys than the Kurz. Just my opinion, I've used both quite a bit, and both are nice boxes. The Kurz can be expandeed as well, but just not as much as the 5080.
 
Just whatever compelled this moron to post that same nonsensical comment in 6 different threads just puzzles the heck outta me.

Anyways, Albert, what SRX boards do you really like for the 5080?

SonicAlbert said:
Out of the box, the Kurz piano is better than the 5080 piano. However, the 5080 is much more expandable, and with some SRX sound boards will give you much better strings and keys than the Kurz. Just my opinion, I've used both quite a bit, and both are nice boxes. The Kurz can be expandeed as well, but just not as much as the 5080.
Click to expand...
 
OK. I got to chime in here. Been a while since I posted anything.

I agree with what everyone else said, but I have to ad this.

It should come down to a few things.

1. Being Price.
2. Being how good do you want the patches to sound.

Take a roland d-550/d-50 pianos. They suck if you want a real grand sound. Take a Fantom. Not a great piano, but in comparing the quality of a piano as far as sample/bitrate goes a famtom xr is much better. This is like comparing a dx-7 piano to a motif es piano, or a korg m1 piano to a triton piano. I think you dig what I'm getting at.

I personally have always been a roland supporter ever since I first heard a Babyface track in the late 80's / early 90's. But I have a Triton rack, MOTIF ES rack and a Fantom XR rack. 3 modern up to date sounding modules, plus virus ti rack all the way back to a m1r.

The 5080 is awesome, hands down. However, Iv you don't care about the sampler section of it, I say your best value-dollar ratio is a XV-5050. It is a 5080 with no sampler, and more patches.

Or pick up a used motif es raxk, triton, or fantom xr

Just my $.02

Cheers :D:D:D
 
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