1 (edited by Sorcerio 2010-06-02 22:56:08)

Topic: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

So all of my synthesizers have some keys that don't work anymore. I guess it's dirty contacts or something. But it really hurt to find out that my Prophet 600 has about 15 non-working keys. What's more, it's my only midi synth. So I need to know about something that has a really good feeling and movement. Also want it to sound pretty good. And be not too expensive. big_smile

A couple I thought about are the Roland JX10 & Yamaha AN1X. I hear the keys on the An1x feel really good to play, and the JX10 just looks like the keys would feel really good.
What do people think about these? Any other ideas?
Has to be at least 61 keys, but not 88.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

I'm not much of a keyboard player myself, but you could try the DX7. In the end it'll come down to personal preference, but many appreciate its keyboard and the sound isn't bad either. And they're cheap too.

3 (edited by unicity 2010-06-02 23:21:04)

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

I used the AN1x as a controller for a while and it does have nice feeling keys IMO. 

My current controller is the ESQ-1, and I really like the feel of those keys.   I prefer the keys on the ESQ-1 over the AN1x (and the sound!), though there's no aftertouch on the ESQ-1.

4 (edited by Sorcerio 2010-06-02 23:45:43)

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

Those are two (DX7 & ESQ-1) I haven't considered.

DX7's are so common and cheap, and weren't they used on Star Trek Next Gen for the sound effects? I've always been kind of scared of FM synthesis. Just new and different to me. But there's really no reason not to have this synth. There are 3 for sale on craigslist near me right now.

ESQ-1 looks interesting. How are the envelopes on it? It has VFD's and Giallo buttons! smile

The sad thing is that none of the music stores around here have used gear worth looking at. And the pawn shop selections have really gone south, offering only jewelry, tools, and broken VCR's it seems. Can't really get my hands on anything at the moment.

Oh... velocity and aftertouch are non issues to me. I would probably just disable them anyway.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

The envelopes on the ESQ-1 are the multistage time/level type that you often find on synths from that era.  There's 4 stages - the first 3 stages allow you to set time and level, with the 3rd-stage level being your sustain, and the last stage is just time as it's always the release stage.  You can set the levels to negative values which can be fun, and the envelopes will respond to velocity if you want (offsets the peak value of the levels and/or changes the attack time).  Programming them is not hard thanks to the ESQ-1's rather intuitive interface.   

I wouldn't say they're the snappiest envelopes in the world, but I've never really found myself cursing them or anything like that.  To be honest I usually just use them like a traditional ADSR.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

+1 for the esq-1 as a nice controller with decent sounds.  the presets are thourougly underwhelming, but there are a number of demos on youtube that give a sense of its potential with the same type of curtis filter chips used by the sequential prophet V. 

I've never played and AN1, but most of the newer virtual analog synthesizers tend to have a nice bright sound with clearer and punchier output than you'll tend to find on other digital or hybrid synthezisers made before 2000.

esq 1 is eight part multi timbral with an eight track sequencer. i've done most of my sequencing with computers or rm1x/rs7000s, so never put in the work to see what esq-1s onboard sequencer would do, I have heard, that the an1x has an arpeggiator, which the esq1 doesn't have.

if you can find either or an novation x station or something for less than 200$, would be a very good deal.

there are some diehard fans of the yamaha dx series synthesizers on this forum as well..

yeah boyeee

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

Talking only about the keys action, I am personally used to have a real piano action under my fingers, I have a Korg SP-300
stage piano that really fits my playing style. Regarding "normal" keyboards action, I dislike my Clavia G2x (not much for
the keys themselves, but it seems that the frame is not so tight so I get a lot of vibrations), but I like both the JX-3P and
the Matrix 6... And the Jupiter 4 has a special mention for keys "clickiness" like the old IBM PS/2 keyboards big_smile

a.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

Checking some demos of the ESQ-1 on the net, and it sounds pretty decent; or at least about what I would hope for. 8 part multi-timbral is cool. So I guess I'm leaning that way.

I think I'm partial to the "semi-weighted" class of key-feel. Piano weight is too heavy for me.
The Jx-3P, I wish I could trust as a controller, but I have heard it suffers from flakey midi and some hardware issues. But the sound has a lot of character for sure!

Hmm, food for thought.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

One common issue to watch for in the ESQ-1 is a dead or dying memory battery.  If it hasn't been replaced, it WILL be dead or about to die.  The replacement battery is cheap and readily available though.

Here is a link to the manual if you wanted to have a deeper look at what it has to offer:

http://www.synthmania.com/Ensoniq%20ESQ … manual.pdf

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

At the moment I am using my friends Kawai K1, it's an ok keyboard, was using DX7 but the velocity response is not wide as with other instruments (only goes to 100 if I am correct?).

I heard very good things about Sequential Circuits Multitrak keyboard as well as it's sound, but never had the chance to find out myself.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

mekonin wrote:

I heard very good things about Sequential Circuits Multitrak keyboard as well as it's sound, but never had the chance to find out myself.

I have a multitrak and I must admit I've never thought it had a good playing action... as for the sound it is an interesting synth for sure but it requires patience (like the sixtrak). Anyway just for reference I think that despite its clunky feeling the dw8000 is more pleasant to play than a multitrak.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

Quasimidi Raven Max is an awesome master controler.
Sounds kinda suck but the key's, arps and sequencer are great.

i don't need the gear, the gear needs me 
http://www.mono-poly.nl/

13

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

i use a JX-10 as my master keyboard and it is great!
it sounds good. expecially for those wooly analog pads & strings.

cons: it is surprisingly big. aftertouch needs alot of force.
also that combined roland pitch/mod stick is not that good for modulation, but it's ok.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

I ended up getting a Kurzweil K2VX. I like the key-feel quite a bit, and has all the midi features I could hope for. Free from a friend!  smile

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

You want a real feel keyboard i reckon. My experience is limited but the Kawai MP9500 is the best feeling and sounding electronic piano i've heard. I'm not sure but I think it has splittable zones too. I use the JP8000 as a controller and I like the fact it's splittable needs a lot more than 4 octaves though.

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

Yamaha DX7 line up keyboards only have velocity 0-100 scale instead of 0-127

I found the polyevolver keyboard to have very good aftertouch expression and playability
Supernova keyboard plays good too
EMU *K6 series (MK, VK, Halo, XL etc)


What I didnt like:

Clavia Nordlead3

The Akai MPK61 I got nowadays plays pretty ok too ( and I love the arpeggiator inside, that mofo is tight in timing as hell)
(also the cheapsest option)

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

i use a kawai k3, which has fairly good velocity but the best thing about it is the pressure sensitivity, which i haven't seen on any other cheap midi synths.  the weighting of the keys is really strange though, kind of mushy (probably the pressure sensitivity somehow) and tiresome to play after a while.  the action isn't quick enough sometimes, so when i want to get something in that doesn't feel tight enough on the k3 i use an akai x7000.  both of them were around $100, the k3 isn't splittable but i think the x7000 is.

the sound of the k3 is phenomenal for the price, though, i can't recommend it highly enough as an alternative to the similar roland analog line (Alpha Juno, JX-3P).  all the options you'd want out of a basic 6-voice polysynth with a sound that, thanks to the digital waveforms combined with the excellent filters, can do just about anything.  massive digital sine bass or warm strings and big mono portamento leads.  beats every similar digital-analog model for my money, i'd get rid of my mks-50 before losing that thing.  the x7000 is one of the real early akai samplers, 12 bits and really fucking weird to work with, plus it uses those quickdisks so i wouldnt recommend getting it unless you found one with the same battery back-up mod mine has.  it'll work without a bootdisk though, so if you find someone giving one away and you need a controller it's worth taking home.  non-resonant filter, with the ability to store either 6 or 16 samples in memory.  really bright samples for some reason, probably because it uses a seriously fucked up method of data compression, some kind of inverse ratio of sample length versus frequency range.  the longer the sample, the worse it sounds, up to 8 seconds at 1khz or something like that.  keyboard action's nice though, feels like my polysix used to but with a bit more spring

Re: What midi synth has excellent key-playing action and decent sound

haha, this demo really made me want to get the K3.
helicopters, bears, explosions and a blinking MIDI sign!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVBDmBSHvzo[/youtube]