Some synth advice when I was a bit younger, and more disposable cash would have been useful..
It all started when See You by Depeche Mode was in the charts in 1982, the first single I bought.
I liked the synth sound so my Mum bought me a brand new Yamaha PSS-570 in 1988, seemingly a feeble two-operator FM synth with a few sliders for editing, it was great when I was 15!
Then came the dismal Casio HZ-600, a Casio CZ-1000, an SH-101, a Yamaha CS-40M, a Roland W-30, a Korg Poly 800, a Roland D-50, a Roland Jupiter 4, a Korg X3, a Roland JX-3P, a JEN string machine, a Roland D10, 3x Roland Juno 1, another 2 Roland SH-101s, a Quasimidi Sirius, a Yamaha QS-300, 2 Yamaha P50M piano modules and finally a Yamaha DX7S. Numerous drum machines also came and went.
I liked the synth sound so my Mum bought me a brand new Yamaha PSS-570 in 1988, seemingly a feeble two-operator FM synth with a few sliders for editing, it was great when I was 15!
Then came the dismal Casio HZ-600, a Casio CZ-1000, an SH-101, a Yamaha CS-40M, a Roland W-30, a Korg Poly 800, a Roland D-50, a Roland Jupiter 4, a Korg X3, a Roland JX-3P, a JEN string machine, a Roland D10, 3x Roland Juno 1, another 2 Roland SH-101s, a Quasimidi Sirius, a Yamaha QS-300, 2 Yamaha P50M piano modules and finally a Yamaha DX7S. Numerous drum machines also came and went.
I would like to offer my advice to budding keyboard players. I spent 20 years buying machines in an attempt to make me sound better, what I should have done was to get one or two good performance keyboards and learned to play proper music, instead of doing analog techno. Put a techno head in front of a piano and not much normally happens! The QS-300 and DX7 are probably the cheapest and most useful keyboards I've bought, most of the others are gone now. I've found it much more satisfying to play well on just one keyboard, without the gadgetry, effects and trigger pulses everywhere.
I've noticed that many a keyboard player does not use a sustain pedal, if you play either electric or acoustic piano sounds, it's essential. The sustain pedal used with instinct will greatly improve your performance.
Feebay provides a wonderful opportunity to bring a world of items to your front door, but look what happened to the prices, people ask rediculous prices for boot-sale junk and electronica. The 10% cost of selling has also bumped up prices. Everyone is trying to capitalise with their massively overpriced buy it now sensations. I hope that I'm one of many that only uses ebay for otherwise unobtainable items. I am pleased that I realised that the unpopular 90s romplers sound great if they're played well.
After a couple of years of that jangly DX7 e-piano, it cheesed me off, so I bought some sound modules, The Kurzweil ME-1 is good for acoustic piano and electric piano, but the acoustic piano is a bit dull and lacking in any brightness. The Roland XV-2020 is not as good as I'd hoped for. I think the acoustic piano is cheesey and a short sample, more like a dance music piano, but the electric pianos sound full and mix well with the ME-1. The Yamaha P-50m is great for bright acoustic pianos if you remove the 500Hz notch with a graphic equaliser, out of the four modules, the P50m wins with the most expressive and realistic acoustic piano. The P50m EPs are a bit naff and feeble. The E-mu Proformance 1+ from 1990 is poor at acoustic piano but has one DX7-ish E piano which mixes well with the other EPs and gives a nice EP jangle. The Proformance 1+ manual says that the module gives you the sound of an $18000 grand piano, it's not true. It has a dodgy bunch of samples from 1990. The pianos sound like crap.
All modules are MIDI interconnected to produce a super sized electric piano, or just used as an acoustic piano using only the P-50m or ME-1, I've found that mixing different acoustic pianos together does not improve the sound, due to minor tuning nuances in the sample, leaving you with a mild honky-tonk effect. The Yamaha QS-300 synth makes a fabulous controller keyboard. At the moment I'm quite happy with this set up, although I may be tracking down a Yamaha MOX6 in the future, if the piano sound is great.
It's a tolerable set-up, I would like to find the ultimate unweighted electronic piano before I die.
Forget unweighted.. Weighted is vastly preferable when playing piano music. I have found that if you don't want weighted, the DX7 has a twangier feeling keyboard, much better than a standard synth keybed, also found in the SY77 / SY99.
It's a tolerable set-up, I would like to find the ultimate unweighted electronic piano before I die.
Forget unweighted.. Weighted is vastly preferable when playing piano music. I have found that if you don't want weighted, the DX7 has a twangier feeling keyboard, much better than a standard synth keybed, also found in the SY77 / SY99.
This is the sheet music book that inspired me and progressed my abilities..
It massively improved my chord playing and my improvisation ability. It's shockingly rare, I was lucky enough to nab it for £15 from Feebay. They used to play tracks from The Nightfly on a local radio station called The Coast, which no longer exists. It's a jazz chord paradise, and excellent for left hand improvisation, whilst keeping the tune in the right hand. This music made me realise that a good piano sound is all I need now. Many thanks to Donald Fagen for giving me inspiration and challenging music that I actually enjoy playing.