I've just added the Juno Stage to my list of possibilities. 76 keys is OK with us. 88 is not a must. Now to see one live...probably at GC.

Keyboard shopping, how fun!

I wanted to mention that the M50 88 doesn't have aftertouch although it will respond to aftertouch when using MIDI IN/OUT from what I understand.

If 76 keys is acceptable to your church then that opens a wide range of other options for you as well Tim. Clavia makes the fully weighted 76 key Nord Stage but it is rather expensive at over $3,000. Also, Kurzweil has the PC3 76 key (fully weighted as well) which is more reasonably priced at about a $1,000 less than the Nord Stage 76. Both of those DO have an aftertouch feature by the way. As far as ease of use the Juno Stage is pretty straight forward but I haven't had the opportunity to play a Kurz PC3 yet. I have played the Nord Stage though and it seems pretty user friendly as well.

Half of the fun is just doing the shopping around eh?

All the best,
Mike


[This message has been edited by keybplayer (edited 06-13-2009).]

How about a nice used G70?

VERY easy navigation, VERY good basic soundset (awesome Hammond's, EP's, synths, brass, etc., everything you mentioned, in fact), a pretty self explanatory front panel. The piano is SO good, you might use it instead of the C7

Maybe not as 'cool' as the Motif arps (but how do you lock the live drummer to those?), but it can still sound pretty contemporary (the Cover Tools are a revelation), and do retro at the same time...

And then it will still do a pretty good solo worship lead for when the band can't make it...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Diki:
[B]How about a nice used G70?

Know where I can get one for around $1200?

Well, the Juno Stage is definitely out. The keys smaller than what we're used to, and it carries with it the same old worn out Roland sounds that have been around for years. I had those sounds on my old KR7 piano.

Checked the YPG635, too, and it has way too few synth and pad voices.

Unless I can be impressed with something else, I'm still leaning toward the MM8.

Have you considered a Motif Rack ES or even a Classic Rack? Hell you could get a used Classic Rack and a half decent controller for the cost of the MM8.

I've seen some nice ones about 2 grand, sorry. :-(

One thing is, you won't be bitching about the action Best non-piano action on anything, IMO

Basically, a bunch of FantomX sounds (including its' best grand piano), a bunch of older, SC880pro stuff, a VK organ and a V-Drum module. All wrapped in a bow

Coaster tim i dont get the reason your churcg wants to spend anymore money on a new keyboard when they already have more than they need in the Es. What would it cost to spend 1 hour with anyone that might be a member of your praise team to learn the basic functions of the keyboard ? I bet if you hired a demonstrator from a keyboard shop local to you foe even say 4 hours to give an on site tutorial it would cost you less than $300 and once that knowledge has been passed on you can do the same for any new potential band members as and when they join.

Unless there is another reason that you havent stated this seems like a real waste of money. You already have a great keyboard. You just need to look at the problem froma differnt angle. Surely the church doesnt suffer from gear lust too :-) ( That was a light hearted comment Coaster. I am a church worship leader too.)

Point well taken. We have discovered that the ES is more suited to production rather than live playing. Here are some practical examples: 1) While holding a chord and changing the voice, the ES doesn't smoothly transition without a hiccup. 2) There's no simple way to save favorites without going thru several pages in the onscreen menu.
3) Transposing on the fly is not possible. Once again you have to go through a couple pages of menus. 4) We like the fact that you get 88 hammer action keys on the MM8.

On the MM8, there is: 1)seamless transitions from one voice to the next 2) A simple way to quickly save and instantly recall 10 favorites 3) dedicated transpose buttons 4)2 real-time control knobs for tweaking on the go.

The MM8 is not a workstation, but more of a player's keyboard.

We can trade it in and spend just a few hundred dollars for the MM8.

It just seems like the MM8 will fit our needs better, even though technically speaking, the ES is much more keyboard, but it's production side will never be utilized by our players. In retrospect, it was not a good choice for our specific needs. If the MM8 had been available when we purchased the ES7, it would have been obvious which one fit for us.

Please let me know if I'm missing something here. I do want to do what is right.

Tim



[This message has been edited by CoasterTim (edited 06-14-2009).]

You will find few keyboards except Roland that do NOT cut the notes off when changing patches.

Another reason for the G70!

However, if there is ONE ES user at the church that is familiar with the Yamaha, perhaps he could write Setups into the ES that would accomplish what you need (except the patch change glitch). Then the non-technical player could simply call up the Setups that have been programmed for them? Give them easy to understand names, and place them in a Favorites section (has the ES got one of those?)...

Just a thought..