I am breaking my vow to never read this board because I need your advice.
About a month ago, my Roland RS-50 was stolen along with my car. The car has been returned, but the synthesizer is gone.
So last night I went to Guitar Center to price replacement keyboards. Either Roland no longer makes the RS-50 or Guitar Center no longer stocks it, but I have to get something new. That's fine. Now I'd like something in the same price range (under $1000) and capable of doing most of the same things that the RS-50 did (since my band is starting to tour in support of an album where most of my parts were recorded with the RS-50) -- and I've settled on three options:
ihttp://www.homestudio.fr/images_magasin/2024_image_med_rolnd-Juno-D.jpg
Roland Juno-D. To be perfectly honest, when I tried out this keyboard, I couldn't find a single difference between this and the RS-50, except a few of the patches were different. It's priced cheaper than the RS-50 was when I bought it a year and a half ago -- but I'm not sure whether that means it's inferior or whether the value for keyboards of this type has gone down. $645.99 on sale (usually $699.99)
http://www.riverproaudio.co.uk/riveracatalog/alesis_qs6a.jpg
Alesis QS6.2. Don't know much about it. Seems user-friendly, has good sound, large tone bank. $599.99 on sale (usually $799.99?)
http://www.casalibertella.com.ar/korg_x5d_gde.jpg
Korg X5D. Also don't know much about it. Similar to the Alesis. $599.99 on sale (usually $999.99)
I'm tempted to go with the Roland because I already know how to operate it, and I was more or less pleased by the similar model I had, but the fact that the list prices for the Alesis and Korg synths are much higher makes me wonder if they're considered better-quality synths. (And the fact that their sale prices are lower than the Roland seems like it might be a good opportunity to jump on them.)
Basically, I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about any of these keyboards and would recommend one over the other. I'm not really interested in pursuing other possibilities, since I don't want to pay over $1000, and I just need a good solid keyboard that I can use to play shows with, and that has lots of different built-in tones I can use.
― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 18:16 (nineteen years ago)
The RS-50 has been discontinued. The Juno D is the replacement for it so if you are looking for a straight treplacement that's your best bet. I would actually recommend going used as you can get far better keyboards for the price. I've seen Triton Le's (61 keys)on ebay go for a little more than the $650-700 you would pay for the Juno-D. If you want to stay with roland.You can get an XP-60 for even less than the Juno D new and that has far more features. I would keep looking actually.
― AMD (AMD), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:39 (nineteen years ago)
How much do non "ES" model Yamaha Motifs go for? They're really good rompler keyboards.
IIRC the Alesis QS synths do not have filter resonance, which may be an issue (I might be wrong about this, so check)
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:50 (nineteen years ago)
The Alesis Q6.2 is on sale for $499 at Musician Friend (US) and I was thinking of getting one myself. I played on in the store and the interface was easy, good piano sounds and strings.
― dewey, Wednesday, 9 November 2005 16:37 (nineteen years ago)
three years pass...
One of my bandmates wants a new keyboard - she's got a Roland EXR-3 at the moment which isn't really up to being a gigging instrument, it's kind of flimsy and seems to need the pitch correcting half the time, which is a bit odd but there we go. We do sort of Stereolab-style stuff so really I think we want decent organ and electric piano and vibraphone-y sounds. I don't think we can afford a Nord Electro, alas, and we don't want softsynths.
Anyone know of any suitable options?
― chord simple (j.o.n.a), Wednesday, 18 March 2009 16:33 (sixteen years ago)
two years pass...
nord or roland, maybe try secondhand. if you're not sniffy about softsynths there are some great ones out there that sound lovely through guitar amps. this one is amazing: http://www.martinic.com/combof/
― ballarat organ quartet (electricsound), Monday, 10 October 2011 23:29 (thirteen years ago)