I'm considering to buy a keyboard, my first "real" one. First I interested in Casio WK-3000 because of its good user comments and reasonable price (Over 400 euros in Finland though). I looked for used ones and had an offer for Roland D-70 in good condition. There's not much info on D-70 on the internet. The sound quality (especially strings and organs and quite everything actually) is quite important to me. I would use it to play at home alone and maybe with my band. Would it be a good deal to get a D-70 for 300€? Korg N364 could also be an option, what about its sounds and other features?
Any other models, used or new, you would recommend for around 400 euros (520$)?

BTW, Hello everybody there, this is my first post (registered finally!)

[This message has been edited by Hasko (edited 07-03-2005).]

Hi and welcome to this Forum.
I don't know about the Casio, but I had a D 70 many years ago; it was the model that followed the D 50, but was very different from it, in that had a soundset derived in part from the U220.
I remember a really good piano and strings patch that cut very well in a mix, but the other sounds somehow lacked personality and Roland was unable to replicate the success of the D 50. I remember that I really liked the 76 notes keybed.
Since I am rather picky about the sound, I remember that I decided to sell it after listening to the individual waveforms through headphones and noticing that they were sampled with a lot of noise (hiss).
However, like I said, the keyfell was really good and I know that some people still use the D 70 as a master keyboard.
Hope this helps.

korg n 364 would be the best choice among those options.
it has
16 tk seq
prog and combi mode
64 poly,GM
great for live playing(with the band)

down side- seq has only 32,000 note mem(ie-4-5 SMFs)
no direct disk play (you gotta load songs)
OK ac piano(like most Korgs)

other than that(overall sounds wise) it's hard to beat.

[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 07-05-2005).]

As jamman stated the Korg may be your better choice. Again this falls to personal taste as well. The N364 is pretty dated now. Be careful if you do get one though. Korg has sold a crap load of N364's and N264's over the years. These boards were used for gigging and worked well for it. I've seen so many for sale on the web that have their battle scars from years of road use.

Another thing is if you find one, ask about how much use it really has been put through. The N series have a backlit screen, but there are problems with the backlights getting dimmer over the years.

As far as specs, you'll get 16 tracks for recording, decent voice editing, a joystick for pitch and modulation control, floppy disk, good key action, and solid construction. The sounds are subjective. The Casio may have an edge on some of the acoustic sounds, but the Korg will take the cake in the synth department. As far as the acoustic piano is concerned on the N series, all I have to say is it sounds like a Korg. Some people like Korgs pianos and some don't.

Also the navigation may throw you off a bit in the beginning. The N series has a small screen, and you'll scroll through multiple pages for some functions.


Squeak

Korg seems to have most support among those synths. Does D-70 have mostly same sounds that U-20 has? I've played U-20 in my school and its sounds didn't convince me at all. They were all (well, almost all) quite dry and cold. They didn't get even close to the warmth and richness that N364 has in all the sound samples and songs i've heard.
If I can't get the N364 (though I found one) and D-70 is my only option, how expandable is it? How good sound cards is there for D-70 and what sound modules (or whatever is their official name) can be attached? I'm quite a beginner in this accessory stuff.
And as I said I found one good-conditioned and only at home used N364 for sale. How much is it worth these days? How much is reasonable price to pay for that?

.

I hope you will take a look at the Yamaha DGX305 and DGX505. These are the best in the price range you are talking about, in my opinion.

Douglas Wolfe.

I had a D70 years ago and loved it. It was similar to the D50 but used the U20 waveforms. There are two card slots on the back and you can expand the D70 with U20 sample cards. There were even custom cards available with samples and programs if I remember correctly.

The samples weren't the best ever but the D70 has lovely filters and you can set the start and loop points of the samples giving you quite a bit of flexibility on the programming front. I was able to coax some great sounds from mine. As stated, the piano and string patches were very good.

What I particularly liked about the D70 is it had real character. It didn't feel like you were playing a bunch of electronics. It was quirky - in a nice way, a bit like a real instrument.

I used my D70 as a master keyboard for years and when it finally died I tried every keyboard in the music shop looking for a replacement. In the end I couldn't find any board from the usual suspects, Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Emu that had the same feel. Their sounds were better (it was about six or seven years on from the release of the D70 by then) but they seemed lifeless in comparison. I ended up buying a Kurzweil (at huge extra cost!) to feel I was buying an improvement.

There are many better keyboards on the market now of course, but you could do worse than buy a D70 if you're looking at second-hand boards.

Hi Hasko,

What are you looking to do with the keyboard? Are you looking to create songs? Are you looking to just play around and have fun at home? If this is what you want, I think you should stick with an arranger type board as opposed to an older performance synth. The D70 as I understand it is not GM compatible. I'm not sure how many parts it can play at one time either. If you are wanting to play synthy sounds in a band live, then maybe the D 70 would be your choice. The casio wk3000 is a decent home keyboard for puts'in around and perhaps to some a degree even for writing. It's certainly fun to play. I had one. Plus I think the samples (sounds) in the wk300 are going to be more realistic then the D70. I don't think the wk300 has a line out for an amp though. So playing with others in a band may not work . The wk3500 has a line out I think.

For someone new to MIDI and keyboards in general the Casio and Yamaha lower end products tend to be very fun. I think the D70 has a more restricted, specific purpose.

Best wishes
Bob
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I still believe korg n series blows yam dgx and all casios(which are made for home use).and it will still have value when you want to sell it.

[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 07-06-2005).]

I have to agree with Jamman. Granted there may be a few acoustic instruments that one would like better on the DGX, or Casio WK, but the Korg N-364 is a good synth. It has much more in depth editing than you'd find on a Casio WK, or Yamaha DGX. Plus you get a full 16 track sequencer that allows you to loop and overdub, plus assemble a pattern track, Neither the DGX or the Casio WK will compare to the sonic quality of the synth sounds found on the N-364. Plus the N-364 is built for road use as well. It has a much more solid construction compared to the other models mentioned. Also keep in mind that the N-364 shares one thing in common with the WK-3000. Only one (1) insert effect can be used per performance and song.

Squeak