DO NOT make the mistake of purchasing a keyboard off of demos on a website. Many of them are doctored to make the keyboard sound better. Don't let a salesperson push their own agenda on you either. I'm very familiar with the workstations out there. Sound is subjective to each person. I personally found the sound on the Roland Fantom X very flat and thin and I could really tell in recordings. Most of my clients seem to like the Yamaha sound for acoustic instruments, the Korg sound for pads and the Kurzweil and Yamaha sounds for orchestration. IMO right now you have to break down what your looking for in terms sounds. Do you want acoustic sounds, dance sounds, orchestra sounds, strings and pad sound ect. Different manufacturers are going to do a better job with certain sounds. Right now you should listen to the Yamaha Motif XS. Its a real powerhouse and sounds awesome. In terms of sound, its one of the most complete workstations I've heard. The other thing you may want to look at are softsynths. There are some amazing sounding softsynths but this is going in a whole different direction. I use a combination of both and that works great for me.

Are you sure you really need a workstation/arranger? That's a lot of money to spend if you're not a keyboard player. Why not just a good MIDI controller + soft synths + SONAR? You could do everything you want to do, and not have to deal with transferring files from the workstation to your computer.

A nice MIDI controller will cost you less than $500. A good soft synth or sampler will cost about the same. Now you're in it for about a grand, a fraction of the price of a Fantom or a Motif.

A nice MIDI controller will cost you less than $500. A good soft synth or sampler will cost about the same. Now you're in it for about a grand, a fraction of the price of a Fantom or a Motif.

And with a laptop, you can write practically anywhere.

I know this has been debated to death before, but why would anyone buy a WS nowadays?

Get a midi keyboard/controller, Sonar 7, a bread and butter softsynth (Kontakt, Sampletank, etc.), a dual core laptop with lots of RAM, a basic (2 i/o) usb or firewire midi/audio interface..... and you'll have much more music-power than any current WS can give you, at a fraction of the cost of a WS.

And I will not even think of going back to the days of sequencing on something like the Roland MC50MKII, or even with the new WSs that have touch view LCDs.

I'm really surprised that Roland, Yamaha, and Korg still insist on making refurbished workstations when the trend now is going towards DAWs and software music applications.

When the Korg Oasys first came out last year, the 88-key model was priced at around USD8K. Now I know Jordan Rudess, and Herbie Hancock are using these instruments, but I'm sure they got some substantial discounts from Korg to use and "advertise" the Oasys. (Maybe these instruments were given to them). It would be interesting to know just how many of these beasts Korg was able to sell.

Open Labs Miko.

ORIGINAL: dstrenz

They don't lose all of their resale value so it's not like you're throwing all that money out the window. After spending $2000 on one, you might be able to sell it for about $1500 next year.

Having bought and sold a good deal of hardware over the years I would have to disagree with this estimate. Figure more practically around 50% of what you paid for it - not what it retails or MAPs for. In other words the Fantom-G 61 MAPs for around $2600, but let's say you talk them into $2400. Then that's what you paid for it. Expect to get $1200 when you sell it. Many people claim to do better, but that's been my experience. Used equipment buyers are by and large a very savvy bunch and will lead you right up to the drool of thinking you have the piece sold only to lowball you a couple of hundred (or more). Had it happen many times. Always took the deal! Of course if you turn around and sell right away, while the piece is still hot - like within the first year, maybe figure more like 33% less than what you paid for it. But why would you want to do that? In either case, selling a piece of hardware is a losing proposition. Make sure you buy the right thing at the right price from the get go.

Now, the other sentiment in this thread is how superior in both features and value is software to hardware. That's understandable. This is a software-based forum. Cakewalk makes software, not hardware workstations. Go over to the MPC forums www.mpc-forums.com and you'll hear a completely different sentiment. Same with the Motif, Korg, and Fantom forums

www.motifator.com/forums

www.korgforums.com

www.fantomized.info

Most people who use both agree - they each have their strengths and weaknesses, and given the appropriate budget, many productive people use a combination of both. That's why Akai, Roland, Yamaha, and Korg are still in business. There is still a significant market and demand for the reliability and ease-of-use that hardware offers.

ORIGINAL: vicsant

And I will not even think of going back to the days of sequencing on something like the Roland MC50MKII, or even with the new WSs that have touch view LCDs.

I'm really surprised that Roland, Yamaha, and Korg still insist on making refurbished workstations when the trend now is going towards DAWs and software music applications.

When the Korg Oasys first came out last year, the 88-key model was priced at around USD8K. Now I know Jordan Rudess, and Herbie Hancock are using these instruments, but I'm sure they got some substantial discounts from Korg to use and "advertise" the Oasys. (Maybe these instruments were given to them). It would be interesting to know just how many of these beasts Korg was able to sell.

Me too. I believe this is why Roland is so interested in Cakewalk.

ORIGINAL: micv

I'm looking for a keyboard or workstation that can be used to compose and work out idea and then able to export midi to Sonar for processing. I havn't looked at keyboard for years so I'm clueless. I'm not a keyboard player, just use Sonar for recording, and I'm collaborating w/ a pianist and we need to be able to pass file back since we don't live in the same area.
thanks for any advise.

I use a Korg Triton, Yamaha PSR500, Ensoniq ASR10, Band-in-a-Box.

I've found if you arrange Multi-Tracks in midi and try to dump Midi info from the keyboard to Sonar Via Midi cable, I've not had much success.
If you have a floppy drive, save the midi file to disk and import the Midi file to Sonar and Sonar will make the tracks for you. You'll just have to load the sounds (synth's) into the tracks.

I love my Triton but if I do 16 tracks of Midi, I have to save the midi file to disk in order to get all the tracks to Sonar.
If there is a way to do this via Midi cable, I sure would like to know how. It would make my job easier.

Guy

ORIGINAL: bitflipper

Are you sure you really need a workstation/arranger? That's a lot of money to spend if you're not a keyboard player. Why not just a good MIDI controller + soft synths + SONAR? You could do everything you want to do, and not have to deal with transferring files from the workstation to your computer.

A nice MIDI controller will cost you less than $500. A good soft synth or sampler will cost about the same. Now you're in it for about a grand, a fraction of the price of a Fantom or a Motif.

Exactly right. I bought a Yamaha S90 a few years ago. It has great sounds right from the Motif series. I rarely use it with my DAW, except for Piano parts. But even then, I don't use it for the sound, I use it for the action. The main reason I bought it was so my kids could have access to a somewhat "real" piano. And the action on it is superb, so it fills that bill quite nicely. I NEVER use the workstation features on it though. Save yourself some money and take bitflipper's advice.


Edit -->> The only exception I could see to this is if you do a lot of Live Performing. In that case, a workstation might make your life easier.

For a long time, I just used a Yamaha PSR640 to knock out ideas. It's just a GM/XG 61 key, but it had built in speakers, and a decent sequencer. I could take it anywhere and work without needing much else, so for me it was a great scratch pad I could write tracks on to transfer to my DAW. And as for the resale value of keyboards and such, it's all speculation. Supply and demand.