Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

OK, complete Newb here.
In my defense I have been reading this site for 3 days now and at least I have some limited ability to answer some of the questions at this point.

Family fun
My son (trumpet), and I (alto sax), have been playing music together this past year and having a great time. He has gotten quite good for a 12 year old, and is now playing in the All County Band, symphonic band, and jazz band. He really loves playing and performing and intends to continue with music. He has Protools LE hooked up to his IMAC and has been recording our practice sessions.

I would really like to get us some sort of keyboard based synth (workstation?)that we can use for a variety of purposes; for backing tracks and to fill in all the missing instruments, as well as having some built in workstation capability for me to work on composing and arranging when he and his imac are off to his other parents home (every other week).
Also, my teenage daughter may take an interest and join in on the family fun, although she fancies herself a guitar player ---she's not. She is definitely into all kinds of music genre's that are beyond my description; maybe metal,death metal, electronica, techno, all from a variety of country's like Japan etc.
Anyway you get where I am going---she would not much care about natural instrument sounds other than guitars, drums, and bass but would definitely care about the more esoteric sounds.

1. What is your budget?

Up to $1500.

2. What are you into? (music, sounds, etc)

The sounds I am into are what's being using in jazz, blues, big band standards,soft rock etc. I would like very realistic orchestral/acoustic instruments; although my daughter, hopefully the other user of the keyboard, is definitely into techno and electronic music from all over the world, so I guess a fairly wide variety.

I would use all kinds of piano and EP sounds, and a good feeling keyboard with weighted or semi weighted keys (anywhere from 61-88 is fine by me, I have the room)is really important to me.
I'll want realistic strings, piano, organ, brass, woodwinds, your classic guitar sounds, (studio, classical, rock), and realistic drum and bass sounds would be great, since we will be pretty dependent on those.


3. Live, studio, or personal home use?

Personal home use, having fun with the family making music and recording ourselves, just for the sheer joy of it.

4. Level of synth expertise? (beginner, intermediate, etc)

Beginner, although i did play piano as a younger person.

5. List what gear you already have.
None, other than a pc laptop and my sons imac where we run Protools LE, oh yeah and actual instruments, trumpet and sax.

Any suggestions you can provide would be great. So far I have been offered a Fantom X6 for $975 but was very unsure if this is the right place to start.
thanks in advance.

Although the Fantom X seriers has now been replaced by the Fantom G series, the X is still VERY POWERFUL with access to hundreds of sounds from all music genres. X6's generally sell for right around a grand, so that price is fair.

It may be a bit overwhelming at first, but there is an excellent tutorial video that can be purchased for around $40 that demonstrates many of its basic features. I think it was procduced before the audio expansion update (most X's should have this installed, if not, you can DL it for free @ http://www.rolandus.com), which also adds an 8 track digital audio recorder.

The Fantom X comes stock with an excellent grand piano and all other instruments you are looking for plus hundreds others. The X6 & X7 have 61 & 73 note semi weighted keys and the X8 has full 88 weighted keys. I have always enjoyed the fell of Roland's keyboards. I have 2 X6's, one @ home and one in my office @ work (I own my own furniture shop and tinker around from time to time). They can also be expanded with up to 4 SRX cards, which will provide additional sounds. I recommend the Ultimate Keys (e pianos, clavs, vintage synths) & Complete Orchestra expansion cards when you're hungry for more sounds. You can demo selections from all 13 or so SRX expansion cards @ www.rolandus.com.

Best of luck!

I can also recommend the Fantom X series. They're amazing workstations, with sampling, a 16-track sequencer, audio recording and a great palette of patches ranging from great organs and pianos to surprisingly effective pads and leads and very convincing irchestral sounds. You can certainly find one on closeout or used for $1,500 or less. You might also consider the Roland Juno-G, which features the Fantom sound engine, a 16-track sequencer and 4-track audio. The Juno-G gives you 256 fewer patches, a little less memory and storage [which is expandable], a smaller memory capacity in the sequencer, a monocromke, rather than colour, display... and the keyboard isn't quite as nice. [I really like the Fantom's keyboard.] Aside from that, it's definitely worth considering if your offer falls through, especially, since it usually costs about half as much as the Fantom, and you're going to need to get a stand, and amp or monitors... and that inevitable second synth.

Thank you. This is great. Here is a little more info.

I work for a pro video/audio company so I have access to pretty much any amps,monitors, peripheral gear etc. that I want. Right now I have a pair of Genelec 1029A's hooked up to his computer for playback.

What about comparisons of the Fantom X6 and the Yamaha Motif's or MO8 and I don't know anything about Trinity/Triton? I was told by the guy that is selling the Fantom that he owned previously and thinks the Triton would be a simple and cheap answer and do everything we would want?

I have gone to the local Sam Ash and put my hands on a lot of the new models but don't know about anything a little older--like the previous version of Motif (ES series) or the Trinity and Tritons? or any others you may recommend.
I did really love the feel of the weighted keyboards and pianos. I could only find that on the 88 key models except the Fantom G6 felt good. Another one that felt good was a TR-88 (I think that was the model) and all the Yamaha CP's felt great to the hand, but did not have the workstation features.

thanks again I'm listening.

Go check out the Korg M50. It's sort of between the Triton and the M3 and has an apparently nice (88-key) weighted keyboard. The 61-key version is (from what I've read) not as nice.

Soundwise each brand has its strong points and weak points. With the Tritons, this used to be the piano. With the Motifs, the way they work is a bit particular, so you'll have to learn Yamaha's way of thinking (and the display on the ES isn't that big). Roland's a neat allrounded, but YMMV.

Like Yoozer said...

From my own shopping experience two years ago, I had the feeling that the main brands' workstations are roughly equivalent in terms of sound and features, with each having slightly different strengths. To a considerable extent, Fantom=Triton=Motif. At the end of the day, it will come down to interface and your preferences.

For example, I really like the Fantom interface. The big colour screen is great, and I find the interface fairly intuitive. Still, the Yamahas have some nice front-panel controls. Some of the Tritons and the M50 have a really nice touch screen. They all sound quite good -- though I prefer the Roland organs. All things being equal, if the price is right, I don't think you'd be disappointed with any of the Yamakorgland workstations.

wyldelee wrote:What about comparisons of the Fantom X6 and the Yamaha Motif's or MO8 and I don't know anything about Trinity/Triton?

as a sound/engine comparisons, I have the Karma (Triton Engine), RS7k/S900 (some Motif goodies) and the MC-909 (sort of Fantom engine). For those type of sounds such as real acoustic, orchestral, eps, I'd definitely go to the Roland side. Also the Fantom X interface/features would be the most fun to work with the whole family band..the drum pad, the d-beam, big screen, usb, sampling size, expansion boards, audio track, etc. I like the Karma for it's big combi sound (some orchestral and synth layer) which imho not as realistic as the fantom sound.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I have spoken with the guy that is selling the X6 and he also has some modules he would like to sell with the keyboard. He said they are Emu Mo Phatt, Planet Phatt, Extreme Lead, and Korg M1R and he would like $400 for them?
I don't know anything about them so any advice would be great.

Also, there is an XP-80 for $500 and there are a few Korg Triton's available for around $500, but I wasn't sure if they were worth going to look at?

thanks

All those modules for $400? Good deal! Who is this guy?

The XP-80 and the Tritons are all great boards. If you're coming to this as a relative novice, you'll probably find the Fantom's sequencer and interface a bit easier to use, but I think the best thing would be for you to try out the boards and see which ones sing to you.

wyldelee wrote:Emu Mo Phatt, Planet Phatt, Extreme Lead, and Korg M1R and he would like $400 for them

What a great deal! The samples in the Phatt modules are going to add more fun, mainly the E-mu's hip-hop drum which I like. Also the Z plane filter in the mo Phatt/XL-1. The M1R would also add some classy rompler sound. With those modules plus some cheap controllers, the whole fam could play together But depend on your needs since for the money, it would also buy 2 or even sometime 3 SRX's boards, such as the Orchestral, EP/Keys, Supreme Dance/Platinum Trax which would give more realistic sound and specific samples to optimize the Fantom engine further. with the X on hands, I'd skip the XP/Triton deal and focusing on it for a while.