Guess we are gonna turn this into a keyboard player forum!!
Dx11,..(wow, I haven't heard that since high school). The yamaha's have been and remain very solid axes. I was never a fan of the M1 patches (though I know a lot of people still have them so,... they must be a solid board)
This is how it worked for me:
My first synth was a Korg Poly800, which I thought was cool because you could strap it on like a guitar!!
. It also had a joystick like an Atari Game Controller (again a good selling point for a kid in a candy store). It actually was a pretty neat synth for the price. It also took batteries so there was less to no chords attached to ya when you were cheesing up the stage with 80's synth poses.
Used it live for about 2 years and then it was stolen at a gig. In those days,.. piano sounds were still brutal to achieve accurately with a synth so my bottom tier was a cheap Casio 61 key piano (which for the life of me I can't remember the model). At the time,.. for the price,.. it pulled off a pretty decent piano sound. I always have and still gig with bottom tier piano and top tier synth. Sold the piano to a music store at some point (can't remember).
I used to rent Yamaha DX7's on long term rentals (after the poly was stolen). This is a classic but could never afford to buy one.
Then Kawai introduced the K4 and the price was right so this became my top tier synth for about 2 years. It was a great board but fell in love with the Roland D50 early on in the game and when the price was right I traded the K4 in for the D50. Had the D50 for hmm a lot of years actually,.. solid board,.. great patches and expandable. The keybed failed occationally but I was getting pretty good at ripping it apart and getting the keypad sensors working again (in between sets).
I finally could afford a decent piano and purchased the Roland RD500. This thing rocked and was one of the first simulated hammer action piano/keyboards out there but it was heavy (especially in the homemade wood roadcase I built for it). I also was a pretty aggresive player at the time so it was not unusual for me to bust the hammers during a set,.. rip the board apart on break,.. crazy glue the hammers back together again,..and screw it all back together just in time for the next set. (I was on the road with GERK at the time and I know he remembers this ritual well)
The RD500 and the D50 was a great live combo. The only thing that was missing was a solid B3 sound. At the time Hammond had introduced the XB2 and XB3 (which were pretty good sounding) but pretty expensive.
After I felt like I couldn't possibly add more glue to the hammers of my RD500 I decided to sell it off. Kicked the shit out of it and still got $850.00 for it.
All in one synth/pianos where starting to come out and what I felt (for the price) was the best one of them all was the Alesis QS series. This thing has great piano, synth, string and organ sounds. It also came out in 61/76/88 key and module versions. I purchased the Alesis QS7 (76 key model).
All I needed was my dream B3 patches. Roland had been in the B3 simulation game for a few years now (I.E. VK7) and had just released its newest model the VK8. I figured the best option for me would be the module (as I already had a cheap controller I could use). I have attached a picture of the QS7 and VK8m rig (with a cheap top tier Yamaha controller) Don't mind the wife beater,.. it was hot outside man!!
I later purchased a Korg TR76 for my lower Tier and moved the QS to the top tier. There wasn't much I couldn't do with that rig.
I don't gig live much anymore so sold the TR76 and purchased a Yamaha NP30 Piano for practice and small live gigs. The NP is super cheap, 76 key semiweighted and in my opinion has a killer Piano sound for the price. Any of my most recent posts have been using the NP and I have had great comments about the sound.
Sorry Bill.
