The reason i purchased an arranger keyboard as opposed to a dedicated workstation is that i wanted an instrument that was adaptable to any situation as i am not specifically a OMB musician. A workstation can be a great studio instrument but very restricted as a live instrument if other liv musicians are thin on the ground. But an aranger is adaptable to both studio and live work and therefore has a very obvious advantage over a workstation. Thats why a sampler included in an arranger was truly an inspired development because for those occasions where i want to play piano to accompany a soloist in church for example , i want the best piano i can find. I dont play in arranger style for those occasions and so the piano tone is very important. Just because i own an arranger keyboard, it does not mean that i will exclusively play arranger style.

I don't know... your title is so vague. I just can't stand it... terrible title.

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

Although I haven't been in a lot of churches, all the ones I HAVE been in had acoustic pianos. Why not use that?

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Bill (Semi-live), I'll try to simplify the title in my next post. Sorry it caused you so much emotional upset.

chas

Haha, sorry, it's just a pet peeve of mine when people don't write anything as to what the thread is about. Drives me nuts. People say "Look at this" or "check this out" or "wow, this is something." Well, WHAT? Nothing personal, carry on.

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Bill
Yamaha PSR2000

When you perform on a keyboard I believe the first sound the audience expects is either a piano (acoustic or electric) or an organ. Those are just the most natural tones for a keyboard to make. And unless you rely 100% on organ sounds, sooner or later you will probably be expected to play a piano piece so your piano sound should be at least as good in quality as the other sounds in the keyboard.

The acoustic piano is one of the most difficult sounds to emulate digitally and so it has become a benchmark, and not just by users but by manufacturers who tout their keyboard's piano sounds. This is true for pretty much all rompler workstations, not just arrangers.

I am a pianist and if I own a 61 or 76 note keyboard then I also have an 88-note graded hammer action MIDI controller to go with it. It would be a strike against any keyboard to have pianos that don't sound good, so the other sounds or features would have to be exceptional for me to buy it since I would still need a good piano emulation to go with it. There was a time when I used a Roland EM-2000 arranger with a Kurzweil PC88 as a piano and controller - the EM-2000's piano were not good enough for my ear but the other sounds and MIDI playback/accompaniment features were exactly what I needed.

Jim the EM2000[same as G1000 sounds] piano was decent but not the best that even Roland had.. I have a great playable piano by combining E11 and A11 pianos, velocity switching with dynamics..I actually like it a lot..I think the patch plays better than the other piano sounds from Yamaha and Korg..also Ketron...

I know you are high on the Akai..do you still feel the same about it?

PS: for EM2000 and G1000 players try my piano example and tell me what you think..Don't forget to set the velocity switching to please your own touch..

Sorry - you may have me confused with another "Jim". I've never owned an Akai instrument.

Kawai

"Although I haven't been in a lot of churches, all the ones I HAVE been in had acoustic pianos. Why not use that?"

1. I am not a piano player and actually dont like the piano action
2. The degree of tuning varies from piano to piano and the sound will vary from room to room, or hall to hall.

Next time you go to a church, stay a while and play an acoustic piano. I gaurantee that there will be several keys out of tune or broken. Churches dont spend a lot of money on maintaining their musical equipment. When i bring my keyboard, there are no nasty surprises for me when i get to the venue. Its always best to perform on the day on the instrument you rehearsed on.

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Bill (Semi-live), I'll try to simplify the title in my next post. Sorry it caused you so much emotional upset.

chas

Ohhh... that Akai! Ha... sorry. Thanks for asking - my Kawai ES4 is holding up nicely and managing not to bore me. I've grown fonder of it's Rhodes and mallet sounds and the acoustic piano is still one of the best, maybe second only to the larger/heavier MP8 which I also love and am still tempted to add to my studio. But I enjoy my Kawai ES4.

The ES4 has a passable organ sound with leslie sim that I've used sparingly, but it really made me want something a little more true-organ sounding for some upcoming sideman gigs, so I just snagged a Roland VK-8m organ module from eBay like new to go with my piano. Happy me.