ok I have been mulling choices of what to but when I recieve some money off my bank in the next 4 weeks but everytime I think I get it sussed a new choice pops out and I am back to asking daft questions. This might turn out to be a long post so please be patient.

A Little Background
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I have been playing for 20ish years I started out playing arrangers and moved up to a kn2000 and a korg x5d when they were new and really enjoyed myself. But I was young and it didnt seem to be pushing me so I quit for a while and went on to piano lessons for a couple of years and got to a lowly grade 6 ABRSM in modern piano after a few months and not long after that I met my wife and I then quit playing for 6 years.

But 6 months ago I picked up a fatar 88 note masterboard and a cheap module and found myself loving the piano again but I miss having two boards so I am getting some money together not much though £500uk to get a second board but what.

My wish list and options
------------------------

I have looked around at workstations and arrangers but I had always put a decent top line technics out of reach until I saw the prices of the kn6000 on ebay here in the uk so now I am stumped for choice again.

My playing style is modern pop and rock with lots of jazz thrown in so I would say I need some really good ambient sounds guitars sax's etc with a very good to excellent piano sound as I had to sell my piano module a while ago to feed the family. ok time for some questions.

1)how do the styles on the kn6000 stack up against todays arrangers and are they as editable.

2)how is the sequencer on the 6000 ie does it have a step input similar to the kn2000 of old.

3)how are the voices of the keyboard against say a triton, roland xp80 or motif. I know they will not be as good but how far behind are they.

4)can you import styles into the kn6000 if so how is it floppys or usb

5)can the kn6000 scan the whole keyboard for chords ie if I play all piano on a piece can it see the chords I am playing and put a backing behind it or is it just left hand only (this would be a deal breaker)

6)what should I be looking for weakness wise on a used 6000

7) ok somebody sell the kn6000 to me I thought that a workstation might be the way to go but if I can get a kn6000 what would I be missing of a motif. triton of fantom and what would I be gaining.

I know that I will have further questions as I look further into this so please be patient with me.

Many thanks for reading this far

Tristian

ok sorry I knew I would forget something. as my fatar has no sounds of its own could I use the technics piano sound via midi to use on the fatar keys whilst having different voices on the kn6000.

also is the upgrade to kn6500 worth finding out and what else does that give me options wise on the keyboard

thanks

tristian

ok after downloading amd reading the manual I can see that the kn6000 has a pianist mode which I take to mean that if I played say a piece of mozart bach etc with full left and right hand that the keyboard would scan what both my hands are doing and put a backing behind it for me. But would I be able to say use the master board to run the piano sound from the kn and still use the painoist mode?

I think that after much reading that the only way of getting new rythms etc onto the kn is via floppy or sysex dump from the pc. so it looks like I will need to invest in a usb floppy drive and some floppys.

tristian

last question for now are there any other decent arrangers around the £500 uk ebay prices that I should be looking at. I see that the Korg pa50 is in reach but how does that compare to the kn6000 in styles, sounds and features.

I know that the psr 9000 falls into my price range just so how does that stack up against the kn6000. I know if I was lucky it could be a psr 3000 but I dont like it from all the demos I have listned to.

many thanks again

tristian

[This message has been edited by born2die (edited 05-04-2007).]

[This message has been edited by born2die (edited 05-04-2007).]

Hi Tristian,

i use to own a Kn 6500 for a few years and now a yamaha Tyros 2, I am answering these questions based on my personal experience and opinion.

1)how do the styles on the kn6000 stack up against todays arrangers and are they as editable.

The styles are completely editable just the same as the latest arrangers on the market. (I personally preferred the Technics sequencer over the yamaha). the styles compare well and are very usable. the KN excels in the jazz department. For Rock and pop I would personally say the onboard styles are not quite as modern as the yamaha's (not sure about roland / korg)

2)how is the sequencer on the 6000 ie does it have a step input similar to the kn2000 of old.

I never owned or touch ed KN2000 but i can tell you the sequencer on the Kn6 has the step input using the grid layout. (VERY USEFUL I WISH YAMAHA HAD THIS!!)

3)how are the voices of the keyboard against say a triton, roland xp80 or motif. I know they will not be as good but how far behind are they.
the technics voices are great for its time. i HIGHLY recommend getting the KN6500 upgrade kit as this gives you better voices in every category. you cant go past the Concert Grand piano and the new acoustic guitars and the soloist brass / woodwind sounds...

some of the woodwind and brass sounds are extremely close to the Tyros 2 quality. (some might not tell the difference)

I feel the biggest weakness is the drum kits.

4)can you import styles into the kn6000 if so how is it floppys or usb.

you can import styles and midi files only wit h a floppy disk. the annoying thing is, whenever u want to import a style u need to load it up to the 20 custom styles first which takes a bit of time before you can hear it.

with yamaha you can insert a usb key and play them instantly without having to pre load the styles into the sample memory onboard... i think the KN 7000 SD card feature was a big improvement over the floppy disks on the KN6.

5)can the kn6000 scan the whole keyboard for chords ie if I play all piano on a piece can it see the chords I am playing and put a backing behind it or is it just left hand only (this would be a deal breaker)
The KN 6 has full piano mode so YES you can do what you are asking.

6)what should I be looking for weakness wise on a used 6000.

not really much, just make sure that the paint on some of the commonly used buttons has not been scratched off.

7) ok somebody sell the kn6000 to me I thought that a workstation might be the way to go but if I can get a kn6000 what would I be missing of a motif. triton of fantom and what would I be gaining.

the KN 6 IS a workstation. BUT its NOT a synth like the motif, triton or fantom. completely different things. other people on this forum can explain this better than i can. but u cannot compare a Kn6 to a Motif/fantom/triton as they are different instruments for different purpose...

hope this helps

Nick