Roland A90EX vs Oberheim MC3000

  • Thread starter Thread starter kordz
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kordz

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Hi,
Im looking to buy an 88 weighted key midi controller to work with my Roland JV 1080 for when I play out on my gigs. I love my 1080 to bits I have patches in there that I have created, edited and downloaded from various sites. I have recently bought the pop expansion card. Im looking to fill the other 3 slots with the session, 60s and 70s, and orchestral 2 card. In the future I would like to buy the motif rack and maybe be extra and buy the fantom xr rack aswell. This is why I need a midi controller so I can control the racks and set up sounds from the different modules or keyboards for performances.

From my research these two seem to be the best options. Unfortunately they dont make the Roland A90 any more but I have found about 5 of them going second hand. The Oberheim can be brought from www.turnkey.co.uk factory direct. So I wanted to ask you guys which one you think is the better one to go for. If any of you own them let me know of your experiences with them.

Thank you for your time.

Kordz
 
I have looked at those before and I didnt like them they are good for studio especially the M Audio one. I dont like fatar I dont like the feel of the keys or maybe its just me being picky.
 
Yeah, the M-Audio and basically all of the USB based controllers are pretty much studio only type keyboards. They lack many of the features needed to play a show live. Essential things like patch select buttons, 128 memory slots to store patches.

Oddly enough for live oriented keyboards, the Fatar and Studi Logic controllers are short of patch select buttons, and don't even have a keypad. How do they expect people to select sounds when they play live?

The Roland A90 is a great keyboard, nice action, solidly built. I'd say go for that, but be sure that the one you buy is in good condition and doesn't have any problems. Roland also had an A80 before the A90, and I believe the A80 is a very good controller as well.

Other controllers to consider (and are still available new) would be the various Kurzweil offerings.

The Oberheim actually looks really good as far as features, I'd certainly consider it. I've not used one myself, so I can't make a recommendation based on that.
 
yeh I have spotted a few second hand Roland A90ex in good conditions and since I have a JV1080 they would compliment each other very well but if I cant get hold off an A90 then I will probably just go for the Oberheim instead.
 
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