Keyboard players: what do you use and why?

I use a Yamaha S03 mainly for the piano sounds - otherwise it's mainly a midi-in device.
 
I also have one of these:
 
One Of These
 
Rock & roll, man.
 

I use an Alesis QS82 as both my studio controller and live board.  In studio I could use just about any decent graded hammer action unit (although there is one particular piano sound in the Alesis I can't seem to do without).  But were I to start playing out live more I'd probably look for something newer and better.  I've always been a KORG guy live until I just about completely stopped playing out and just went with one board for both.  It would probably be a contest between one of the new Korg boards or a Yammie (the Motif's are killer).  But for me...gotta have the true piano action...can't play the little plastic thingys.

My primary device is a Yamaha MO8. What drew me to it was the keyboard mechanism, which is the same one used in the legendary P-90 digital piano (not the same one used in your MO6, sadly, nor is it used in the more popular Motif series).

I grew up playing piano and organ, both of which require specific types of mechanical action in order to feel "right". Just having great tone doesn't cut it, especially for playing live. That's why the other keyboard I take to play out is a Hammond XK-1, again for the authentic keyboard action.

When I record piano, I'll use the MO8's internal samples for monitoring but will record the performance as MIDI and then subsequently route that to a Kontakt-based library for the best of both worlds.

I've got a Nord Electro 2, a Nord Lead 3 and an Alesis Fusion 8HD.
For piano and organ I primarily use the Electro ... though I usually only use it for piano if I'm running it in a stereo setup. I love the acoustic piano in the Electro (I have one of the alternate Seiny D's loaded).....but it sounds like complete crap in mono. I'll use the Fusion in that case. The Electro's built in effects, particularly the phaser and chorus sound OK in stereo, but really kinda suck in mono. The Electro's keybed isn't exactly the best for piano either, but it's playable with enough velocity curve tweaking. I'll often control the Electro using the Fusion (I really like the it's action).
With the Fusion I'll usually use presets and tweak as needed. I like and use alot of the string patches. Best of all are the many Hollw Sun sound banks that were converted for use specifically in the Fusion......they've got some really good stuff. I don't do much patch programming with it, simply because it's too cumbsersome (compared to the Lead)
I use the Lead mainly for synth leads and patch programming. It's a blast to experiment/play with.
The Fusion never leaves the studio anymore....the thing wieghs like 300 lbs, hehehe. Gotta love the Nords' great portability

I play a yamaha P-90 and a Korg CX-3.
 
They are two of my favorite keyboards. I credit the p-90 for the quality of my rolls. The action on that thing is so heavy I roll like a madman on any other keyboard or even a real piano.
 
 

cool stuff guys!

does anyone use a rack synth?  why?  which one?

 Hi Beag,

 I primarily used My Roland Juno Stage before I started going to a place with a real piano. Pros- Light weight, adjustable analog style eq,Capability to play music files from a usb thumb drive,built in microphone input so you get an extra channel if you are short channels at the gig.76 keys covers most things.Fast sound changes between songs.
 Cons- The piano sounds were not as good to me as the sounds in the Motif. I played through a PA with 12" yamahas on sticks  into a Yamaha mixing board. For that application, all said and done,a higher quality sound was probably pointless especially when put into the mix with other players. There is provision to add a special piano sound card to that keyboard and I'm sure that would make the piano sounds better if needed.The keys are not weighted action but this never caused me too much grief as I can play either one once I know the "feel" I need.

 I still have a Motif rack module at home. I tried to sell it but I'm glad noone bought it because it has better sounds in it. Its crazy the hit you take if you buy a Motif rack new and try to sell it a few years later.
 The racks are a great idea but more to lug to the gig. I must be lazy but I would rather have it all in the keyboard.

 The MO 6 you have is a nice board with a lot of the Motif sounds in it. Yamaha has also come out with a few 88 key boards in that same price range.  Just curious,why are you looking to get away from the MO6? Are you looking for more keys? 88/76 instead of 61?

49 keys/USB seem to be all I need. I'm a guitar player, anyway. 
 
Had a M-Audio Keystation for 6 or 7 years. Survived a lot of abuse - among other things, dropped a few glasses of wine, beer and scrapes of food on/in it throughout the year (I used to live in my home studio). Mod wheel died first and the whole keyboard finally gave up on me when we arrived here in May.


Replaced it with an Alesis Q49. Would have stuck w/ M-Audio, but needed something as light and compact as possible, as it'll have to fit into my luggage when we take off for Spain and Russia. The Alesis was much better in that respect. Feels a bit cheaper, has a few noisy keys, but it works. 

I have 2 keyboards. 

A radio shack something or other with touch sensitive keys that lives in my attic space.... it was given to me.

And a Yamaha DX-27S that stays in the studio. I bought it from the female singer/keyboard player in the last band when she quit the band and music. 

Why do I use it? It's midi and it's small, and it hasn't quit working yet. 

I don't record the audio from it, I simply use it to trigger synths and samples. 

I continue to say to myself that one of these days I will try to actually learn how to play it well. 

Beagle


I would like to have a good organ or organ module, tho.  the organ sounds are not great on the MO6.  I thought about buying some organ sounds from keyfax.com for the MO6, but don't know if I would be satisfied with those either.

I wouldn't waste money on the Keyfax libs - I have some of the stuff for my Motif from a long time back and to put it mildly - there's better stuff out there. Trust me - you won't be satisfied if you want to record with them. They're okay for just mucking about but nothing else.

You want an organ sound there's a couple:
Voce V5+ $995 from Sweetwater this is a 'tabletop' module that can sit in an empty space on top of your keyboard. You sometimes see these in concert rigs. Been around a long time; has drawbars.

Hammond XM2 rack mount module $995 also from Sweetwater; has that authentic Hammond sound because it is a real Hammond piece. Essentially it's the electronics that are inside there current crop of portable non-B3 keyboards. No drawbars because it's a rack-mount chassis.

As you can see they're not cheap. These are the ones I'm familiar with. I actually like the Voce unit because it HAS the drawbars.

What's supposed to be interesting is/are the Hammond emulations in the newest version of NI Komplete.

yeah, but I don't have $1k for an organ right now.  i've seen those you're talking about and I've also been interested in the Roland VK-8M.  new they go for $1.3k but you can find used ones for about $600 +/-.  still a little high for me right now, tho.  I need to pay off my credit cards.

I am surprised you dont like the PX3 Privia. It generates a lot of love over on keyboard central, and I own and have giggged with one myself.I like the AC sounds, the EPs are up in the air, every other sound is OK Meh. However, presently, I have a Nord Stage 2 73 that has replaced two boards and some rack modules. It is lightweight, splits/layers 3 ways, and has a downloadable library of sounds...

 
I wouldn't dream of unveiling my organ in church
 
 

Beagle


I had a MOTIF XS6 but sold it before I started playing live because I didn't use 90% of it.  I felt like it was too much for what I needed.  I wish I had kept it now, tho.

how could you sell it? This is the best complete keyboard I had so far. Sounds are stunning,
so I use RD700GX to control motif X6 quite often until now when I got pianoteq.
Roland makes the best hammer action on the market so those two boards are more then enough.
I'm getting now though third one a controller novation impulse 49 for traveling with.

 I forgot to mention the other stuff I have buried in the studio. Somewhere under a pile of chord charts is my Oxygen 8 v2 I have plans to turn it into a controller for Sonar. Theres an M-audio prokeys 88 in my closet. a slim 88 key board with good basic onboard sounds. Nice for gigging or midi control.I also have a Korg X5 someone gave me and it works. I posted a pic of it over in Gear. I recently loaded the Korg legacy digital collection so its kinda redundant but it might come in handy as a permenant fixture in my church. I have a Casio CTK-900 that I got used from Guitar center. It actually sounds very nice and I only paid $20 for it. They thought it had a problem because it takes awhile to boot up.

 I sold a CME UF-8 controller. It had the same keybed as the Yamaha Motif but was Soooo heavy.I loved the midi control capabilities it had including a breath control port and a tempo knob.I once had a drum machine and some arpeggios running from my Motif rack and it was cool to control those with the temp knob!I'm sure it was over 60lbs with the case.
 I sold a bunch of other stuff. The korg controllers I had seemed very cheaply made.