Just wondering what keyboard, regardless if it's a synth or arranger, has the best plug in and go sounds for jazz. This would include stings, sax, horns and percussion. Don't mind some tweaking with effects and eq but really need something that doesn't take an engineer to run. Would be used for recording and live.

[This message has been edited by Gibson1 (edited 08-23-2006).]

From the world of hardware synths, I prefer the Motif line all the way. But I'm sure you'll get lots of differing opinions. I think a used classic Motif rack is about the best bet for sounds and pocket.

Bob
<><

Hello Gibson1
Remember the old saying “One mans meat is another mans poison”, the same applies to keyboards, so listen to demos and if at all possible (The recommended option) spend some time with the boards for yourself.
You also have to make a decision between Hardware Arrangers/Synths, Software Arrangers/Synths using a computer or an instrument that uses a combination of the two. (And don’t forget to take your budget into account)
Sorry I cannot be of more help, but do a search on the synth zone forum, and you will find all types of opinions, demos and links that relate to what you are looking for.

Bill

Thank's all for the replys. I know it's a really general and open ended question subject to everyone's personal tastes. I'm just not too good at programing and tweaking sounds. I have a old Boss DR-5 rythym maching that I can't get to first base with. I heard some of the demos from the inexpensive Yamaha PSR series that sound pretty good but then I have heard demos for the Alesis Fusion and I say WOW but then realize the time and programing ability to get those sounds.

Gibson

Take a hard look at the Kurzweil PC2 series, they sound very very good and can be tweaked pretty decently. Not a full blown synth but could probably do the trick for your needs.

Jerry

I'm going to have to send you in the direction of the Yamaha Tyros2.

It's got a nice smooth alto sax sound, not to mention a good rotary organ.

Again, thanks for the replys and suggestions. I'll read the manuals for both of these units and try and get a live demo. I hope both of these can provide a complete backing track with minimal button pushing.LOL

http://www.ke-musik.dk/Upload/HtmlArticles/Article1284/index.htm

Scroll down to "..demoer mp3.."

Thanks you for posting the link to the Roland. There's alot of great presets on the demo. Does it require alot of editing to get those sounds. If not, then this board sounds like it 's meant for me!

As far as I know,those sounds are "out of the box".
However,the new Roland E-Series is looming large over the horizon and they're bragging about "incredible sound" so I'd pound on the E-50(the bargain of the group)and see where it goes from there.

For the most part my favorite sounds come from software modules and samples, but for Jazz sounds in particular, flutes, horns, saxes, etc I've heard very little that sounds better to me than my Motif ES 6 with the acoustic modeled VL Plug in board inside of it.

The VL technology is over ten years old now, but I'd say it's still very good compared to today's best sampled sounds even the ones that come from top flight and very large sample sets .

AJ

Go a get a used motif rack es or a motif es6
with the $300 instant rebate on motif es keyboard you can get it really cheap on ebay.
Do not make the same mistake I did. I bought a roland xv-2020 with srx-09 and srx-10 expansion cards, I returned after 3 weeks. Some sounds are good some others just lack sound quality.
I got a motif rack es for almost the same money I spent on the roland rack. Do yourself a favor and try the motif rack es or motif es 6,7,8(best sounds out of the box) before to get into any roland product. In my opinion it's like night and day a fair comparison between a xv-2020 fully loaded w/2 srx cards and a yamaha motif rack es. You need to tweak sounds on roland products to make them sound good. That's my personal experience after 3 weeks of headaches.

I know I already said good things about the MOtif ES but I just have to ad that I so totally agree with you. ES series win hands down over any XV and even Phantom synths.

Even though I'm not a workstation buff I find that I use the ROm sounds of the ES quite often. It's a very well designed instrument with excellent sound set and features. Don't really want to bag Roland but their expansion boards are a big disappointment. Couple of nice sounds here and there but *none* work together in the mix and sound dead terrible when compared to the sounds on the MOtif ES workstations. Plug-in boards is another winner. Roland sort of tapped into this relm with their V-synth Vari OS cards but the V-Synth is a totally different beast. We're talking workstations here and to sum it up one more time I prefer the MOtif ES series - period.

cheers,

-ED-

this old thread grabbed me as i am a jazz guy too and am
getting burned out on arrangers since all I use for most part is bass and drum, sometimes add a little gtr strum, sometimes some horn backing for swing stuff. Never use sequencer. I find lately I like neither using the arranger bass lines or my own lh bass lines--but doing both at the same time...don't ask why, but it just makes everything move so much better, and i can get off my lines when i want to do 2-hand stuff and get a little nutty w/my bass lines too since the bass rhythm is going on behind it. ideally a 76 if available would be better for me doing this, and a kb that could have the bass (and maybe gtr strum too) follow my lh to some degree, have good jazz/latin/brazilian/funk/blues drum patterns, and have
these sounds top quality: piano, rhodes, jazz gtrs, flamenco gtr, B3, vibes, strings, synthbrass, muted tpt,
flute/piccolo, and vocalese. don't use kb sax cuz i play sax. my technics kn2600 has a sound called "female doo-wah" that just kills, so weak vocalese will not satisfy me. I see a lot of recommendations for Motif Es, what about the MO6 compared to the Motif? Or any others?


------------------
Miami Mo