I had a gig on Saturday night that I booked by boasting to them about my new PA3x. I spent the whole of last week learning the functions, programming songs, setting up the instrument cominations, etc etc. I finished it all by Friday and when I went to review all my settings I found many of them had "vanished" and I was left with a PA3x almost in default mode. – By Mark

Mark, I can understand your frustration and disappointment. I agree with most of the statements that have been made, especially what about what the audience wants these days. But when you look at the amount of time Gary and others have spent on one keyboard and compare that to your statement above your chances of success on the job was not very good. One week???

Values:
1-Voice – the better you sing the more they like it. There was a time many years ago that I played one vocal to every 10 instrumentals, that’s gone.
2-Connecting with the audience: Always a winner., people just love to talk to the man performing.
3-Playing the right songs for the crowd that present.
4-Knowing your instrument well; being able to make a move without much thought – instinctively

My last thought; the keyboards today offer so much, but that creates a learning curve. The performer who spends the time understanding/learning his keyboard will have a far better sound and feel for our audience and ourselves. I am not against staying with older keyboards is not good but to say that they do the same job is not real.

A few years ago I used my Kn7000 on the job instead of my S900; same audience – same room – they noticed and complimented my instrument – but I know that keyboard very well- second nature I think they call it. I am now working on my Pa 800
All the major keyboards will do a great job if we spend the time – Diki made some very good points.

So our decision is not which keyboard; it’s what do I want? And what and how much am I willing to do? If singing so important, then how many of us have taken voice lessons?
B
ut it’s all really great fun, John C.