Hi-
 
I keep going back to my Motif 6 (Classic) for just being able to get some really nice sounds going in a hurry. I keep thinking I'll replace them with softsynths somewhere down the line, but it's just so nice not having to worry about--anything, really. They just sound good. I have what amounts to an expensive and far better than your typical TTS-1 or GM module at my disposal, plus lots of other sounds.
 
Hardware synths seem to be kind of passé these days, or maybe not. What do you think? I don't think I'd give up my Motif for many hundreds of dollars' worth of synths.
 
-Susan

I agree it would be nice to be able to play without loading a VI and playing MIDI through it. And no, hardware synths are anything but dead (just check out the latest issue of Keyboard). I would love to have an 88-key stage keyboard like a Yamaha CP4, but they list over $3k, so I "make do".

I still use my Korg 05/RW becauseI know it better than anything else. And besides, I'm still getting my $1,400 worth out of it! 
It remains as my favourite tone genorator for those big fat wide synths.. Even the drums were not bad if you tweeked them with some reverb. I wish I had bought the keyboard version what ever that was at the time. 

I must admit that not being tethered to a computer can be rather liberating. I have walked off with a guitar in hand to be free of the "computer distraction" more times than I can count. Unfortunately I only have MIDI controllers these days, so I am very much tethered using one (and my patience threshold for MIDI issues is fairly low these days).

Cactus Music
And besides, I'm still getting my $1,400 worth out of it! 

I've not turned my 05R/W on for quite a few years.
 
And $1,400? Did you really pay that much?
 
Are we even talking about the same thing?
 

 
I think I paid about £400 for mine.
 
Are you perhaps talking about the 01R/W?
 

The Motif sounds less dated than the Triton and Trinity series of sounds from the same era. I still have all of those keyboards and rack mount sound modules... I haven't turned them on in years, but I know someday I'm probably going to use them again. 

Nope it's the 05/rw.. and it was 1980's GAS.  I bought one of the first on the market to replace my MT 32 ( better known as the EMPTY 32) 
I bought it in Spokane Washington. I think the US price was $1,250. but then I would have paid exchange and duty at the border. 
400 UK would have only been a little over $800 CAN back then. 
Prices always fall way down after a year on the market and especially hi tech stuff. Back then every year made huge improvments in synth technology. The transition from analog to weird types of sound sources like FM resulted in some terrible stuff. 

My 12-year-old Yamaha MO8 gets used regularly here. If you've heard any of my tunes you'll know I'm a fan of the saxophone as a lead instrument. That's not some fancy Kontakt library you hear in there, it's one of three factory MO8/Motif patches that I routinely turn to for sax. 
 
Here's why I prefer the hardware ROMpler over sample libraries: the complete lack of latency allows for more expressive playing. The believability of a sampled instrument is 90% expression and 10% sample quality.

Hi-
 
Thanks for all the feedback! I have several piano VSTis, for example, and I keep going back to the Motif's piano sounds. Likewise, for a basic soft electronic keyboard sound, I like "Sweetness," etc., etc. And Dave, I completely agree with you about the lack of latency being key.
 
I had a DX7 before the Motif, and of course that's been referenced and emulated many, many times. I guess what got me thinking about this was passing on the Rapture Pro deal and then realizing that I pretty much have more than I need already with what I've already got!
 
Thanks again-
 
-Susan

Does anyone know what the latency is between hardware midi devices? I tried to google this and it's page after page of computer interface midi latency. All the info is about DAW latency and no matter how I word the question I get the same pages. 
But I do remember there is a tiny bit like .5 ms and it grows if you use midi thru. 
So I'm wondering if a set up like mine where the controllers midi goes thru the audio interface input / output ports then goes to the Korg is as low in latency as directly plugging the controller into the Korg? I certainly can't tell the differance but I'm not a keyboard player.. 
It seems to trigger the Korg the same as it triggers any given soft synth. So this also seems to depend on how you've set Sonar. I only have a obvious issue if I have the LP 64 multi band going.