That does seem too good to be true, what type of seller is he? payment method? history? return policy?

Phil

Yes, this deal does sound suspicious.
I don't trust eBay. Especially when I see deals like this one.

You were correct again. If it were my money I'd get the S90 or the Motif)ES if possible) and may be the Phantom (although the Phantom would not be my number one choice). But the money is yours, and so is the decision.

If I were you I'd wait 'til I get a chance to actually play a few workstations and compare. You never know, you might like the Triton. Some people do.
You might hate it. I do.

SO really, 'til you've tryed there is no point in trying to decide.

TO answer your other question, a used S90 doesn't go for much less than the new one. They seem to hold their value.
You might find them for less on eBAY but unless you are prepaired to lose some money and time (I'm not saying that you will have to, but it's good to be prepaired.) don't shop there.

-ED-

I wouldn't trust it at all. I am not very trusting of a lot of the stuff on Ebay either.



I wouldn't say the synth sounds suck, but you're not going to get true and fat analog sounds out of it. I think that of any workstation btw, Korg, Yamaha, Roland.., although I think Triton gets closer.. but still it's a rompler.

You can add the AN150 analog modeling board to the Motif or Motif ES ( I think the S90 as well ). It's an analog emulator that has some excellent sounds on board, and it exchanges patches with the hardware Yamaha AN1x and AN200 synths. There are a ton of good ones available. The AN 150 is pretty much a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 emulator, ( great older classic analog ) and it stacks up well vs NI's Pro 53 emulation.

The AN150 does have a few downsides. In the Motif, you cannot access all of the editing parameters, although you can access the basics + . In order to do any serious editing, you need to use a software editor. Also, the presets don't always interact with the Motif's effect processors, so I had to edit and add effects and then save them as user vooices. Still, the thing sounds great inside the Motif.

I'm also a software fan. There are so many good virtual analogs out there now that it's hard to choose and my wallet is getting a little thin.. lol. I don't mind much though. I always wanted a Yamaha CS80. 25 years or so ago it cost around $7,000 USd.

Today I have it in my computer ( virtually of course ), along with so many other great Vsti's, and still, I spent nowhere near that kind of money for all of it, computer and controller included.

AJ


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-30-2005).]

@ED
Thanks for your agreements!

@Theme: weighted keyboards
Light or heavy weighted kb - that's the question (a little bit of W.Shakespear)...
I'm not a keyboard player at first. I'm a guitar player. Nevertheless I have to confirm with that what ED said - it's not easy to change between these two kinds of keyboards. After playing a longer time on a light weighted kb I couldn't get any correct tune out of a real piano (Steinway). I was laughing out loud but I really couldn't hear any tune...hahaha. I couldn't believe it but it seemed to me that my hands were to weak for playing...*lol*

@hauschild
You talked about your Kawai K3. Are you still playing with it? I know that the K1 had have some fine colours even a great orchester hit. Let us assume I'm allowed to give you a tip I'd advise you to keep your 'little' K3. You could use it as a second kb for controlling sounds like organ, strings, choirs and so on...
For piano and other hammer action sounds try to get your heavy weighted 88 keys with that weight you need to feel good. Check it out in a music dealer's shop! There's no better way to do it! Try it again and again until you're shure what you want/love!!! Don't let you making nervous by the dealer's finger tippings and lousy frozzlings...

It's only a humble opinion...
Good luck for your choice!


------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

Sherrif,

I really like my litle K3, but because it only has like 5 or 6 voices of polyphony, doesn't this limit me using it as a controller?

Don’t worry about K3’s internal voices and polyphony. It does not at all affect it’s performance as a MIDI controller.
Since Sheriff already made a suggestion, may I join him and also offer a suggestion of my own. You said that you will have quite a bit of time before actually being able to play with any workstation and make your decision. Meanwhile, do not put that time to waiste and familiarize yourself with some basics about MIDI and how it works. It will definitely help you when you will start getting into using workstations and software synths.

-ED-

ED,

You're right about me boning-up on my MIDI! I found a cool site, tweakheadz.com that is really gonna help me out with MIDI, etc.

I can't believe the polyphony doesn't affect anything with MIDI??? Damn, years ago(around 1997), when I first purchased the K3, I also got a copy of Cakewalk Pro, along with a MIDI cable to hook up between my computer and K3.

The problem I ran into was that I couldn't get more than 5 notes' worth of sound to record onto a track at once. I remember I was very disappointed so I phoned the K3 support staff and they told me the reason for this was the limited polyphony of the K3.

At that point, I didn't do any further research and basically never investigated the matter in any more detail. But, you guys are telling me I can simply load something like Ilio's Ivory - Grand Pianos on my computer and I'm golden with my little K3??? What else do I need besides the software, cable, computer and K3...if it's gonna take to much time to explain, don't worry about it...I'm just blown away that I can use my 200 dollar K3 as a controller???

Guys, I really appreciate your patience, so don't be afraid to let me have it if I'm getting irritating. You see, when I ask you guys questions, I try to imagine myself waiting in the line of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I want to ask the questions, but I don't wanna piss any of you off to the point where any time you'd see my name on a post, you'd run for the hills!

Thanks!

It seems to be an happy ending...
You've saved much money. Now you're able to invest in tons of sound abilities...


------------------
Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

hauschild,

First off, I'm happy to be able to share what I have been able to learn, and much of it is because of the internet. To put it another way, I've been playing for well over 35 years, but in the last 5 or so I've learned far more about keys and synths than I did the previous 30.

If you are going the software route, you'll need midi cables and something on the computer end that that will accept midi. If you have a soundblaster card with a joystick port, you simply need a cable with 2 midi plugs on one end and a qameport plug on the other. If not, you need a midi interface or a soundcard with midi ports.

Something like M Audio's Audiophile, which is a 24 bit 96 khz card can be had for around 100 USd or so.

You need host software. Cubase, Sonar, etc. If for now you don't want to invest that kind of money, there are a number of decent freeware host apps available. You can find some at http://www.kvraudio.com You could also use a standalone VST rack, such as Xlutop Chainer. There are also a few decent freeware standalone vst racks, such as TobyBear's Mini Host and VstHost

While your there, check out the freeware synths and modules too. There are over 400, and while many aren't top of the line, there are quite a few that are. Some are actually quite good... Crystal, Synth 1, Polyiblit, Superwave P8, And the "killer" series, to name a few.


There are also some good freeware effects. I recommend the kjaerhus series. These are a good way to "get your feet wet" and allow you to see how you like working with software. Also, you might be surprised at how a few effects can bring some of the freeware synths to life.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 03-30-2005).]

NE 1 smell a rat here, or do the pics pan????
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38091&item=7312092080&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW