(music) Keyboards! :D

[Togakure]

This topic will probably be as popular as a butt pimple, but here goes anyway:

How many of you own or have owned keyboards? Have any favorites? Well, hell then: do tell!

My favorite will always be a beautifully polished black Bosendorfer concert grand. There is no finer piece of musical furniture on the planet.

As far as keyboards go, my first (aside from our Baldwin Acrosonic spinet piano) was a Farfisa Mini-Compact organ. My first synth was a Korg MS-20, complete with slanted patch bay and chords. My first polyphonic synth was the first programmable polyphonic (40 patches!!!!), a rev2 Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (which I still have in storage; it needs some repairs). I've also owned a Crumar T-1 organ, Moog Source, Yamaha DX-7 and TX-7, Yamaha SK-30 Organ/String Machine, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Six Trak, and Drum Traks, Korg Polysix, Roland Juno-60 and 106, Ensoniq ESQ-1, Emu-e64 sampler, Roland MC-505 beatbox, and a Generalmusic S1 Turbo sampling workstation.

I've had the pleasure of using: a Korg Mono/Poly, Poly 800, M-1 and Trident; Mini- and Memory Moogs; Oberheim Matrix 6 and OB-8 synths; ARP 2600; PPG Wave; Rhodes Chroma; Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Yamaha electric pianos; Hammond M3 and B3 organs: and Roland Jupiter 6 and 8 synths, and Roland TB-303 and TR-606 bass and drum boxes (remember these?!). I only used it for two gigs, but I thoroughly loved the Clavia Nord Lead synth (the original though; this picture is of the Nord Lead 2, which was similar).

[Adrian II]

My favorite will always be a beautifully polished black Bosendorfer concert grand. There is no finer piece of musical furniture on the planet.

Do you or did you own that? :drool: :drool:

My experience goes no further than a decent Petrov piano (home) and a Yamaha concert grand (which I was allowed to play at my former university in Leyden). Most of the others you mention do not even sound familiar (pun intended) so I couldn't comment at all. Though I daresay you haven't really played piano if you never played on a concert grand, lid up, well-tempered sound filling an entire hall. Ahhhh... Jezus why do you have to make me nostalgic, TogakureOjonin?

[Drisos]

I don't know much about keyboards, and only have a small, simple one. I used to try to play songs I heard somewhere on it, or played along with the radio or some CD.

By now I play the Trumpet and drums, and S:TW keeps me from spending much time with music lately...

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
You had a Moog?

As for concert pianos go, Bösendorfers are not good at everything; they are like the key and the lock with the Steinways in that regard.

Keyboards... Sounds weird but I haven't had any yet. Will go for a medium price Roland or Yamaha in the midterm though.
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[Beirut]

TogakureOjonin,

You had a MonoPoly too? That was a fat sounding great keyboard. Tons of fun! It was my intro to synth boards.

I've gone through a bunch of Korgs. I love them. I had the MonoPoly, a Juno somethingorother, a CX-3 and BX-3 (I cry when I think that I sold them. ) I also had an M1 and a T3 which were very nice keyboards. I remember reading about the Prophet series way back when. Always wanted one. Played with Moogs but never owned one.

I had an Ensoniq, one or two crappy old Rolands and various electronic pianos. My buddy had a honking B3 with a great Leslie and a foot pedal preamp and speed control. That thing put out sounds that would raise the dead. Pure Purple! Hope to have one some day.

For the last few years, though, it's just me and my T2.



Favorite memories are being 17 or 18 and sitting in my room all night playing the keyboards. I had a two level L-shapped desk, a PolySix and a Fostex 4-track on my left hand and the MonoPoly and a CX-3 on my right. had a few multi-coloured lights overhead and played through headphones. Truly a world of my own making.

[LeftEyeNine]

I still have a Yamaha.. Some average one though.. However it's good enough to figure out the notes of Anathema - Feel or HIM - Gone With The Sin in the middle of the night (Yes, sleepless times are what musicians inspire of..Though I'm not one..And I'd really like to be..)

[Geoffrey S]

Excellent range TogakureOjonin; I'm mightily impressed.

Been through a couple of Rolands. Right now mostly an Emusic Keystation 49e, purely for hooking up to my laptop and playing with the band, it's all relatively easy to move around.

Also play on a nice Bechstein very frequently at school. It's rather nice.

[Togakure]

Do you or did you own that? :drool: :drool:

I wish! :drool: :drool: :drool: The local university where I grew up has a couple, and we were fortunate to play on them for our annual performance exams and regional recitals there.

... Ahhhh... Jezus why do you have to make me nostalgic, TogakureOjonin?

Because I love self-indulgent commiseration . It is enjoyable from time to time, isn't it?

@Beirut:
One of my best friends had a Mono/Poly and we jammed together often, switching around on the boards a lot. Ah ... four oscillators, and good old-fashioned true analog ones at that! Though Korg wouldn't be my first choice for a "fat" synth-bass, the Mono/Poly excelled because it had four oscillators as opposed to the typical two. Hence, I used it primarily for bass. It's lack of programmability was a serious shortcoming though, given it's place in the chronology of keyboard technology. It did keep my "dial on the spot while still playing" skills honed though. This ability set me far ahead of the one-button push keyboardists who emerged as a result of the MIDI revolution, mid-way through my musical career.

You owned CX-3 and BX-3?? I'm jealous! While not Hammonds, for the time, they put out a very nice simulation, particularly if you used a real Leslie. I opted for the Crumar T-1 because it was much cheaper, had a full range of organ bars, sounded pretty damn good when using just a stereo chorus to simulate rotating speaker effect, and--while lacking the fullness and body of its Korg and Hammond counterparts, it had a brightness that tended to cut through the mix better when performing live. Also, I was/am a bigtime Kansas fan, and Steve Walsh used a Crumar on top of his B-3 (which was cool because you can hear him use both, and can easily distinguish them if you listen closely. The opening of "Paradox" from "Point of Know Return" is classic Crumar, whereas the opening of "Closet Chronicles" from the same album is classic B3).

@Mouzaferre:
Yes, I was fortunate to own a Moog Source (which wasn't the fattest of the Moogs, but definitely fat enough). I used it for synth bass, solos ala Jan Hammer and Keith Emerson, and a few sound effects.

Agreed on the comment regarding Bosies and Steinies. My teacher had a custom Steinway grand and a Baldwin grand in her home. We had our lessons on the Baldwin, and played on the Steinway for her personal recitals. As with most Steinways I've played, the action was very stiff--it was more difficult for me to bring a full range of dynamics out of it than other pianos--Yamahas, Baldwins, Kawais, and my fave--Bosies. As Chopin, Beethoven, and Liszt were my favorite composers, I played many of their works during my study--delivering a broad dynamic range is especially important when performing works by them.

@Geoffrey S:
Why thank you . Music is the love and passion of my life. I've not touched a piano in over seven years, nor a keyboard in at least three. What does that tell you?

[Beirut]

@Beirut:
One of my best friends had a Mono/Poly and we jammed together often, switching around on the boards a lot. Ah ... four oscillators, and good old-fashioned true analog ones at that!

I loved my MonoPoly. The sheer delight on turning knobs and building sounds from the ground up was Heaven.

You owned CX-3 and BX-3?? I'm jealous! While not Hammonds, for the time, they put out a very nice simulation, particularly if you used a real Leslie. I opted for the Crumar T-1 because it was much cheaper, had a full range of organ bars, sounded pretty damn good when using just a stereo chorus to simulate rotating speaker effect...

You know, now that you mention it, either myself or my old partner had a Crumar. He and I opened the world's smallest music store about 20 years ago in the small town I live in. It was called Freak Musique. When we opened we had three guitars, all used, one of those horrible house organs with all the presets and beats, and a couple of sets of strings and drumsticks. We never made a dime. But we had one hell of a lot of fun. It was through buying and selling at the store that I came across the BX-3. What a gorgeous machine. Great sound. LOVE the double keyboard!

You're bringing back great memories.

[Adrian II]

I wish! :drool: :drool: :drool: The local university where I grew up has a couple, and we were fortunate to play on them for our annual performance exams and regional recitals there.

Remember those first nights at the beginning of the music season when autumn was setting in, darkness fell around five o'clock, street lights rose up amid banks of fog, and you were on your way to play your three pieces, two of which you really mastered, whereas the third, well... Liszt really requires an eleventh finger to top the other ten, doesn't he? It seems the old master himself compensated for it by playing the occasional note with the stub of the habitual cigar he held clenched between his teeth.

[Togakure]

Remember those first nights at the beginning of the music season when autumn was setting in, darkness fell around five o'clock, street lights rose up amid banks of fog, and you were on your way to play your three pieces, two of which you really mastered, whereas the third, well... Liszt really requires an eleventh finger to top the other ten, doesn't he? It seems the old master himself compensated for it by playing the occasional note with the stub of the habitual cigar he held clenched between his teeth.

{sighs} Touche . Yes, I remember well. And it's Fall in New England, the colors are in full transition, and I spent yesterday afternoon at the park writing poetry about it, and about the goings on around me. It was very refreshing.

Liszt: such a grandiose composer. So passionate, so ... Hungarian, at least in spirit, by my perception. His rhapsodies delight me to know end. Chopin was arguably a "superior" composer, but just as I can appreciate a "streetsmart" person as well as an "educated intellect," I love Liszt and Chopin both, for different reasons. Ah, the Romantic period--a gift from God for hopeless romantics!