Zoom H4 a keeper, only wish the H2 was available when I purchased the 4. H4 has more than I need, but not a dud by any means.

The following were all keepers, but I just don't want keep this kind of inventory for someone who is a weekend warrior type musician.

PSR3000
Tyros2
G70

PA800 my current board and happy with it.

All keepers:
Logitech z5500
Barbetta 31c
and the most recent addition 2 Roland CM30 cube monitors. Used them in stereo the first time last night at a country club. Can't believe what comes out of them for their size.



[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 12-21-2007).]

Steve glad to hear your enjoying the Roland CM30's....definitly Best bang & sound for the buck in a small system....

good luck!

I'm sorry, maybe I'm getting a little confused here, but from the lists of barely two or three year old so called 'keepers' that many of you no longer have, perhaps my definition of a 'keeper' differs from many of you!

If you can't get five or more years out of a TOTL arranger (or more than one product cycle), you aren't 'keeping' it at all... You are simply trading as soon as something else comes out (or close to it). The idea that something is a 'keeper' if you don't immediately return it or sell it within a few months is absurd! If you haven't completely exhausted all the potential in a keyboard before you sell it (and I see very few here that claim THAT no matter HOW long they have an arranger for), it never was a 'keeper', IMO.

We have another thread going here about how familiar we get with our gear. How many of us have let things go LONG before we've even scratched the surface of what is under the hood? Given how incremental feature additions and sound improvement is at each roughly 3 year rollout of a new arranger model, for me, it makes no sense whatsoever, especially when you factor in the time it takes to learn a new OS, or reprogram all your registrations and songbooks, to buy a new arranger each year or so (or less, from many of our members!).

As many point out, all that time spent on practicing, playing and learning new tunes instead makes us FAR better musicians than any new piece of kit. Familiarity, and comfort with a well worn in keyboard makes for a far better environment to concentrate on just the MUSIC...

You know, like REAL musicians do... The more you learn how to play, the less you have to rely on your arranger to provide you with the excitement that playing live should be, and hence, the less important it is to alleviate your boredom by seeking out new arrangers (long before your current one ceases to impress your audience!).

Maybe this thread should ask.... Just how long have any of you kept these so-called 'keepers'??

Good Post, Diki !
Every board I ever bought I was still finding out more about the day I swapped it...after at least 4 years...
Same applies to other electronic devices..DVD Player/recorders,TV's,Digital Cameras....maybe I'm just slooooow.
cheers http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/016674.html ....just read this thread!

------------------
Eddie from Rotherham
Skype:eddiefromrotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info



[This message has been edited by eddiefromrotherham (edited 12-22-2007).]

Hi Diki and all
Another plus point of NOT needing to change your board to get the latest sounds and technology.
The Abacus is most definitely a Keeper.
Isn’t life wonderful?

Bill

Hey Diki, good points but it leaves out the human element....especially male humans. How come so many men cheat even though they've got a perfectly 'servicable' wife at home; how come we trade our cars every two or three years, even though the current one not only meets all our needs, but has never even been in the shop, except for routine maintainence; how come we change presidents even though the current one is doing just fine (NOT referring to George W.); how come.........

So, although your arguments sound logical, ALL of us are not Mr. Spock. Sometimes we like to enter into the world of our wives, where logic counts for very little (especially in an argument). There are also other considerations.

Financial - consumerism WILL go up when it imposes no financial hardship. This facillitates the "I just want it 'cause I want it" syndrome. Again, logic not required, just money.

Improving skills - skill level has improved to the point of now being able to justify better equipment. This sometimes goes along with "this new 'thing' will make me sound better, which will translate into more gigs, which will thus help me recuperate my investment".

Also, as loyal Americans, we have a duty to keep the economy healthy by spending as much as possible, especially that portion of the economy represented by the Japanese Keyboard industry .

Finally, YOUR "truth" doesn't have to be MY "truth". There are no absolutes when it comes to human behavior. My own personal philosophy; "if you got it, spend it". For a lot of us, many of the things that used to compete for our discretionary dollars have fallen by the wayside (golf, tennis, boating, airplanes, exotic vacations, mistresses, hard partying, etc.) freeing up lots more money for more serious things, like.....the latest keyboard. Let's face it, you can't take it with you (unless you're a Republican).

chas

gear is like stocks for a pro......invest...keep it a while &
hopefully make your money back with interest & sell before it drops too much.

I guess playing just about EVERY night, and sometimes another time in the day, I feel like I need to change for the sake of change sometimes.
I try to buy my arranger at a great price, then sell it before I take much of a loss, if any.
Almost every change I've made has been an improvement in some way, with a couple of sidesteps along the way.
I could easily be using a PSR2000, which I DID use for several years. The public couldn't tell any difference if I did, but I could. The S900 has improved storage, improved navigation, ability to store text files, color screen, bigger screen, better speakers, better buttons, corrected vocal harmony settings, a great WAV (forget MP3s!) recorder--I could go on and on. It sounds pretty much the same as every Yamaha from the PSR8000 to now though. The S900 allows me to leave the laptop and the external recorder at home if I choose.
Another thing, I tend to be very gentle with my keyboards, but moving them as often as I do, and playing them as much as I do, they won't last forever. I want to move on BEFORE I have problems. Most of the time, around tax time, I start being able to justify another purchase, IF there's something that appeals to me.
Right now, the only thing I can think of is Ketron Audya, and that will be a while getting here. Maybe NAMM will bring some surprises--who knows.
Worst purchase? I suppose I bought the Korg PA800 too soon, before it was ready for the public, but I don't plan to revisit that because there is no place without 200 miles to see and hear a new one. I spent weeks trying to get it to sound good, but I couldn't.
Right now, the PSR S900 has more bang for the buck than anything I've seen in a long time, maybe since Technics KN2000.
A KEEPER? For sure! I could use it for years, but I'm sure I won't, because I don't choose to!
But I'm happy. For now.
If only the G70 didn't weigh so much . . .

DonM

The best musical purchase that I have ever made (and also the most expensive one) was Tyros 2. In fact, I will go as far to say that it is the best thing I have EVER bought in terms of hobby-related purchases!

If you asked my wife.... she'd agree! The reason is that T2 is the ONLY thing that is able to put to sleep our 7 month old baby. I play it every night and it works like magic! The only thing is I am not sure whether the baby falls asleep because the music is so beautiful and soothing or because I suck so badly that he'd rather fall asleep than listen to me ;-)

Funny thing is, you don't see horn players changing horns every year (at least, not the good ones!), or guitarists and bassists (once they get a TOTL one or two)... Drummers rarely ever go 'there's a new version of my kit with a couple of upgraded features, I GOT to trade up again!', and singers will use the same mike until it rusts!

Why is it that we keyboard players (especially arranger users) seem locked into this eternal incremental upgrade path? Take our respective magazines, for instance... Most guitar magazines are full of TAB transcriptions and exercises, and artist interviews. Keyboard magazines are primarily equipment and software reviews, with little (comparatively) in the way of instruction.

Perhaps we have all become just a little TOO impressed by the keyboard's abilities, and hence less concerned with our own. I think the 'Spock' references get it totally backwards. Those of us that eschew constant upgrading in favor of stability and the opportunity to concentrate on the MUSIC, not the arranger's technology, are the ones that are more 'human'...

Put a Strat and a Twin Reverb in the hands of any good guitarist, and he's probably content for decades. I don't think it's a 'guy thing'. Sorry for the hard line here, but I think it's a 'laziness thing'. Rather than work hard to improve OURSELVES, we purchase a newer, slightly better-sounding (or probably, more just a different sounding) arranger, and try to persuade ourselves that it is US who got better.

Same licks, different sound.... Not what I would call 'improvement'.

Sure, every ten years or so, technology moves along to the point where sonically and expressively (and those are the main things to be a musical instrument, not OS things, in general) keyboards are just SO better that upgrading is a good thing. But once a year... twice a year (you know who you are!), even once every couple of years (or each product cycle), and you are quite possibly using the novelty to fool yourself that it's YOU who got better.

Stay on the same arranger for eight, ten years or so, and you will KNOW it's you who improved (if it happens!).