Can I rely on R3 when gigging?

[blinkofanI]

Hi Progg,
I've had the R3 for some months now and can say without a doubt it would be a great synth for prog rock. My prog rock years are behind me now(Dagmahr and Red Sand) but i so wish i had that synth then. I think the tone of it is closer to analog than the other synths you're considering and the sound possibilities are incredible. I wouldn't worry about the synth and gigging. The only thing missing to make it the perfect performance synth is aftertouch. And with its bi-timbrality, you could patch a MIDI bass pedal to it while playing a solo on the synth. As an idea for a travel case, i used to have a Korg Prophecy back then and found that a tenor sax case was perfect for the size(3 octaves synth also). Just remove the molding inside and you have very sturdy and lightweight hard case...

Blink

[victordamr]

No problem gigging with my R3... I´m concern about the front XLR in (it looks fragile) the tempo drift is not a problem to me...

[tschubiza]

Hello,

I've played few gigs (rock) with R3. Had no problems at all. With good, solid stand you're in no trouble. It is plastic and maybe little bit sensitive on the knobs but if you are not an animal then everything is fine. R3 is my first and only hardware synth so it's okay to me, then I've tried Roland SH-201 last week and could see the diffrences. Roland build it to resamble old analog synths, the knobs and sliders are much heavier than R3's which gives more comfortable feel.
I just want to point out that R3 can be taken to gigs with no trouble (tempo issue can be worked around or fixed), and that it can give you cheap, plastic feel if you had experience with other more metal like synths.
But if you like the sound then that's it.

[progg]

Thanks everybody! Hey Blink - it's sad your prog times are gone...hope you'll be back someday..As for R3 - i'm about to change my mind - you could say it's stupid or something. Well, i have a VA - Yamaha An1x - don't tell me it's not good. Getting my nord Electro 2, i had to sell my Korg Tr. And i lost these beautiful HI pads and synths. So in need of highly portable synth with these sounds - the only choice is microX. I know it has very little in common with the R3..whatever. Thanks for all the answers!

[borisvladislav]

I find that the R3 is great for gigging except for two things.

1. The tempo drift which i understand can now be fixed
and
2. The power cable falls out easily and it isn't fun to be playing a song and losing power. I have to like wrap my cable under my synth so it doesn't move around during performances.

Except for these two problems its a great synth. i've had it for a bit over a year and love it.

[musikmachine]

I had a microX and it's a great synth but it's a lot more fragile than the r3. Just something i thought worth mentioning. I don't know what the build quality of the X50 is like but it's not much more and has more controls which might make it easier to get around with all the menus. Anyway the R3 is a great synth, the MMT technology makes for one powerful sound design tool and the effects are icing on the cake. So you can create fairly unique sounds. Like the microkorg it takes a while to get used to the page menu but once you do it's quite intuitive. In fact i like it! Anyway just my 2c. It would be worth demoing one if you can imo, it's a really versatile synth.

[venusianPollution]

I've played a few shows with my R3, and haven't had any major issues. The only thing that gave me pause was a low volume output, but since I use my own PA head as part of my setup it wasn't a gamebreaker.