Best Keyboard now?

[omnipotentrb]

In your opinion, what is the best keyboard now, speaking of the M3,XS and G? I've decided to be patient and wait before purchasing the M3. I was wondering if it would still be the best decision for me. By the way im a producer and produce mainly R&B,Pop and HipHop.

[Lorenzo]

I think that here the m3 is the best, on motifator.com they would swear that the xs is the best one and over some roland forum... well guess!
...
Regards, Lorenzo

[iixorbiusii]

In your opinion, what is the best keyboard now, speaking of the M3,XS and G? I've decided to be patient and wait before purchasing the M3. I was wondering if it would still be the best decision for me. By the way im a producer and produce mainly R&B,Pop and HipHop.

Hi,

I am a big pro-ponent of the M3, but given that you are more into R&B etc, you'd do well to check out the Motif XS.

The M3 does VERY well indeed if you like to produce dance/trance tracks etc. I'm not saying that the M3 can't do R&B as well - it's not 'my area' so I can't really judge it in that respect. However, the Motif XS has cleaner, more natural sounding acoustics like guitar for example IMHO.

The Fantom G still has a few 'issues' as far as I can tell from the owners forum.

Why not do what I did earlier this year - sign up to the forums for all three synths, and ask the question "How good is the M3/XS/G for R&B, Pop & Hip Hop". You should get a fair few answers, which you can then evaluate. Ask people to point you in the direction of any demo tunes they've produced, using only an M3, or XS or G.

Of course, try and spend as much time as possible with the actual keyboards you are considering!!

Good luck

Cheers.

iix.

[omnipotentrb]

thx, good looking out!

[omnipotentrb]

In your opinion, what is the best keyboard now, speaking of the M3,XS and G? I've decided to be patient and wait before purchasing the M3. I was wondering if it would still be the best decision for me. By the way im a producer and produce mainly R&B,Pop and HipHop.

Hi,

I am a big pro-ponent of the M3, but given that you are more into R&B etc, you'd do well to check out the Motif XS.

The M3 does VERY well indeed if you like to produce dance/trance tracks etc. I'm not saying that the M3 can't do R&B as well - it's not 'my area' so I can't really judge it in that respect. However, the Motif XS has cleaner, more natural sounding acoustics like guitar for example IMHO.

The Fantom G still has a few 'issues' as far as I can tell from the owners forum.

Why not do what I did earlier this year - sign up to the forums for all three synths, and ask the question "How good is the M3/XS/G for R&B, Pop & Hip Hop". You should get a fair few answers, which you can then evaluate. Ask people to point you in the direction of any demo tunes they've produced, using only an M3, or XS or G.

Of course, try and spend as much time as possible with the actual keyboards you are considering!!

Good luck

Cheers.

iix.

Even though I wanted the M3 since the begining (from the other keyboards), this video of ryan leslie made me want to get it even more now... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ix5dicdL7c

[kimu]

I've tried several time both XS and G, and i have to say that M3 seems to be a better workstation from overall point of view.

also a good Andromeda or Virus is a good choice

[Lee]

In your opinions...since I do mostly ballads, old standards, lots of orchetrial stuff too...mostly slower love song type music....and I am anal about true sound quality on acoustic instruments (meaning the quality of the samples )

Is it XS or M3??

I want to add a sound module on to my Korg PA2XPRO.
In the PA2XPRO there is a fair number of sounds with quality issues in the samples ( note-note= changed timbre, different sound, honk noise on Sax's, big vibrato differences etc). AND I DON"T WANT MORE OF THE SAME.

Thanks,
Lee

[kimu]

if you need mainly piano and strings session, in my opinion XS and M3 with expanded pack are equivalent. if you need other acoustic instrument as guitar, brass etc etc... maybe XS is a little bit better. but the best is to have a try with both of them.

M3 is more user friendly in setting up everything to record or to play with drums pattern and fx.

but the PA2PROX doesn't have the same engine of M3? if so you can have a look to a different brand so to have a wider sounde palette.

[omnipotentrb]

In your opinions...since I do mostly ballads, old standards, lots of orchetrial stuff too...mostly slower love song type music....and I am anal about true sound quality on acoustic instruments (meaning the quality of the samples )

Is it XS or M3??

I want to add a sound module on to my Korg PA2XPRO.
In the PA2XPRO there is a fair number of sounds with quality issues in the samples ( note-note= changed timbre, different sound, honk noise on Sax's, big vibrato differences etc). AND I DON"T WANT MORE OF THE SAME.

Thanks,
Lee

well this guy on youtube seems to do what you want to do meaning same type of music, check him out : http://www.youtube.com/user/sonoftheocean

[Lee]

I need tho be able to add on a sound module (not a soft synth) to the PA2XPRO to have a huge variety of SUPERB orchestrial and other band instruments (Sax, Guitars, and other intruments for solo play of ballads etc).

When I auditioned the original M3 at Sweetwater I found a lot of the same sound quality issues on the M3's the PA2XPRO.

I know there is now a big V2 M3 upgrade...I wander if the new sounds are better than those original voices with problems? Or is it more of the same?

The problems were:
NOTE - NOTE up/down the keyboard
1) Varying timbe (even sounded enough different to screw up your performance)
2) Honking sounds with some of the Sax's only on a range of notes (Not just a normal variation you hear with Sax..it was terrible and ruined the song) covered 5 notes.
3) A large difference in vibtrato (sometimes close to twice the speed)Since unfortunely the vibrato is in the samples...can't be fixed.

If you play only fast music and never hold a note for long you may not care...but, try to play some nice ballads, slw love songs etc...

Big problems! And on the PA2XPRO all the samples AND multi-samples are in ROM. No way for me or Korg to fix them.

I am still scratching my head as to how this got through QC at Korg? Samples to be written to ROM need to be near perfect as you can't fix them later.

Since I like a lot about the features of the PA2XPRO...I think if I add a sound module to it with voices that are superb...I will be happy?

Also, I just found out..unfortunatlyagain, th M3 samples can not load into a PA2XPRO even though they have the same EDS sound engine. Why?

Lee

[Rob Sherratt]

Hi Lee,

It is the Saxes and wind instruments in the Expanded upgrade 01 and 02 that impressed me and which I thought you would be most interested in. 256 Mbytes of those samples! It's a shame that Sweetwater had not configured their M3 with the most up to date OS.

Best regards,
Rob

[Lee]

Rob,
Oh, sorry to have mislead you..this was a long time ago I auditioned the M3...maybe 6 monthes ago.

That's why I was asking here if things had changed in the sound quality area with the V2 upgrade.

Oh, also don't get me wrong here...like the PA2 there were a LOT of superb sounds on the M3.

But there are some big dissappointments to. And mostly ones I would use as a solo voice.

One thing I do believe is that the normal user of these intruments especially M3 play modern Hip/hop etc fast music, and mostly with a live band. (Maybe I'm wrong?)

Me...I play the opposite...if I'm playing one of Andrew LLoyde Webbers songs, like All I Ask of You...I can't handle the sounds being screwed up in the ways I have explained...for me it ruins the performance...

I just don't understand the sound design/programmer letting this get by. Mostly it is just a bad sample somewhere in the Multisample.

I'm still looking for an answer.

Lee

[silverdragonsound]

Its definitely between the XS and M3. The fantom G is almost a step backwards in some ways when compared to the previous version of the fantom, the Fantom X. I have own/owned both the XS and M3 so I can speak from experience with both. First off both are great keyboards. Someone who puts the time and effort into learning the ins and outs of either can really get great sounds out of either unit to cover almost every type of sound. What it really comes down to is your own ear, the user interface and the support for both with other things being relevant to some people but not others. Again both excel in the basics IMO and I could honestly say I would be happy with either and do the same type of things with both of them. Its hard to to say one is better than the other, its more appropriate to say there are different from each other.

I honestly believe you need to try and play both and see which one speaks to you. I think one of the two will give you that gut feeling if you play both. I now own a M3 and the reason is I used to have an Oasys which crapped out on me and I purchased a XS as a replacement. I really like the XS but got a smoking offer on a M3 so I sold my XS and bought the M3 and made a profit. I also really missed the Korg sound and found myself going through lull in my music. The change to the M3 got me out of the lull. Please understand this was probably a mental thing and nothing to do with the quality of the XS.

I will only warn you of this; if you play the Fantom G, you may like it. Just remember there are some issues with it and its priced way too high for what you get. There have been more people buy and return Fantom G's than any other other workstation since the Alesis Fusion. One of the people I trust in the industry told me a very large music retailer has voiced concerns to Roland over the sheer number of returns they've received. Its rumored to be something like 1 out of every 3 or 4.

[mrkorg]

but the PA2PROX doesn't have the same engine of M3? if so you can have a look to a different brand so to have a wider sounde palette.

They both have the same engine.

Big problems! And on the PA2XPRO all the samples AND multi-samples are in ROM. No way for me or Korg to fix them

Isn't it the same with the M3 or are they in Ram. Is it likely that Korg will rewrite these samples in Rom again?

I personaly think these two keyboards complement each other because of what they do have in common, but they differ in respect to what each is used/designed for. Some samples on the pa2x are much much better than the M3.

[Synthoid]

There have been more people buy and return Fantom G's than any other other workstation since the Alesis Fusion.

Wow.....it's that bad?