Small-format board

[BluMunk]

I'm working on fine-tuning my live rig, and am looking to get a small keyboard to add to it. Basically, I'm looking for something that I can:

• Carry easily under one arm
• Place on top of a Rhodes, piano, table, amp, or any other relatively small, flat surface
• Is polyphonic, and can provide its own internal synth sounds (I do not need it to be a ROMpler, though I'm not against that)
• Has at least 3 octaves
• Can serve as my only synth on those occasions when I play gigs with a house piano (and covering the synth part in "Just What I needed" won't cut it on piano), and
• can serve as a second board for songs where I run out of board real-estate on my M3-61

I'm toying with the idea of finding a used Micron, but also am looking at the Ultranova. Are there any other suggestions out there that might fit the bill? I am pretty sure that I am not interested in the extra-short keys of the MicroKorg or MiniNova.

[Rick N Boogie]

Waldorf Blofeld, or Virus TI Polar. These would both be extremely powerful and versatile "little" synths. I like both, but the Blofeld is 1/3 the price.

[Stab Frenzy]

Ultranova would be my choice, I gig with mine a lot and it's a great gigging board. It's very light but even though it's plastic it feels quite sturdy. The synth engine is very deep and programming it is a lot of fun. The keybed feels really nice as well, it's a step above other synths in the price range.

[BluMunk]

Cool, thanks for the feedback. Rick N Boogie, I'd totally go for the Blofeld, but it's a little out of my budget for what I'm looking for (not to mention the Virus).

Ultranova it is . . . but first I'll wait and see what happens at Christmas . . . and then NAMM is just around the corner so maybe I should hold off until after that. But then it's only a few months until Musikmesse . . .



It's interesting to me that there aren't many boards in that $400-$600 dollar range; I would think that that would be a killer price point. Maybe the market just isn't big enough to sell enough cheaper boards to make it worth it. *shrug*

[Fatbenelton]

If you are looking at the micron there is also ther Akai MiniAK which is basically the same synth but with a slightly improved interface (In my opinion anyway - a few more controls better pitch/mod wheels etc)

You can still get them new in some places although I think it was discontinued recently.

[winnebago]

Ultranova would be my choice, I gig with mine a lot and it's a great gigging board. It's very light but even though it's plastic it feels quite sturdy. The synth engine is very deep and programming it is a lot of fun. The keybed feels really nice as well, it's a step above other synths in the price range.

I havnt ever gigged with mine but agree with all this, really awesome synth for its price.