My new favourite keyboards

[Happy Jack]

The core of my stage rig for keyboards remains a Hammond SK61 with a Korg Kross above it. Between them, those two can deliver pretty much everything I need in both my 5-piece soul band and my 7-piece functions band ... in both of those I supply piano, organ, strings, brass and synth, plus occasional weird 5hit like banjo, accordion and mouth organ.

 

BUT that's "everything I need" rather than "everything I want". 

 

Solution? The Yamaha Reface series. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-reface-series

 

I suppose you could use these as your main stage keyboards but, assuming you already have a decent keyboard or two, there's really no need since you can control them remotely just to get access to the range of sounds.

 

I have no need of the YC seeing as I have a genuine Hammond right there but I've now ended up buying the CS, the DX and the CP. For live use the CS is of quite limited use unless you really like fiddling with knobs and sliders in front of an audience (and your impatient band mates) so I have one 'universal' setting which works where I need it and I just vary the octave in which I use it.

 

The DX is a whole nother thang. Essentially a much-easier-to-use version of the classic DX-7 this allows you to create / download / tweak / store up to 32 presets reachable at the tap of a button, and many of those presets are just breath-taking. It's a superb piece of kit and - unlike the other three - it has an on-board transpose function. The DX now forms the top tier of a 3-level keyboard rig.

 

In another way, the CP is equally gob-smacking. No presets needed, since a rotary knob gives you instant access to a Fender Rhodes Mk.I, a Fender Rhodes Mk.II, a Wurlitzer, and a CP80. You want Stevie Wonder, Supertramp, Michael MacDonald? It's all right there. Don't like the mini-keys or the 37-key restriction? No worries, just slave it to a larger keyboard like the Korg Kross.

 

All three of the Reface series that I now own are merely bolt-on goodies, but my, what goodies they are!

 

I can't leave this without also mentioning the stage stands I now use: https://www.staymusicstands.com/products/supports-for-keyboards/

 

I would happily recommend these to any keyboard player. Very clever and sleek design, very portable.

 

 

[Happy Jack]

Where do you get all these great sound downloads from (especially for the DX)?

 

https://soundmondo.yamahasynth.com/

[Skinnyman]

8 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

The core of my stage rig for keyboards remains a Hammond SK61 with a Korg Kross above it. Between them, those two can deliver pretty much everything I need in both my 5-piece soul band and my 7-piece functions band ... in both of those I supply piano, organ, strings, brass and synth, plus occasional weird 5hit like banjo, accordion and mouth organ.

 

BUT that's "everything I need" rather than "everything I want". 

 

Solution? The Yamaha Reface series. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-reface-series

 

I suppose you could use these as your main stage keyboards but, assuming you already have a decent keyboard or two, there's really no need since you can control them remotely just to get access to the range of sounds.

 

I have no need of the YC seeing as I have a genuine Hammond right there but I've now ended up buying the CS, the DX and the CP. For live use the CS is of quite limited use unless you really like fiddling with knobs and sliders in front of an audience (and your impatient band mates) so I have one 'universal' setting which works where I need it and I just vary the octave in which I use it.

 

The DX is a whole nother thang. Essentially a much-easier-to-use version of the classic DX-7 this allows you to create / download / tweak / store up to 32 presets reachable at the tap of a button, and many of those presets are just breath-taking. It's a superb piece of kit and - unlike the other three - it has an on-board transpose function. The DX now forms the top tier of a 3-level keyboard rig.

 

In another way, the CP is equally gob-smacking. No presets needed, since a rotary knob gives you instant access to a Fender Rhodes Mk.I, a Fender Rhodes Mk.II, a Wurlitzer, and a CP80. You want Stevie Wonder, Supertramp, Michael MacDonald? It's all right there. Don't like the mini-keys or the 37-key restriction? No worries, just slave it to a larger keyboard like the Korg Kross.

 

All three of the Reface series that I now own are merely bolt-on goodies, but my, what goodies they are!

 

I can't leave this without also mentioning the stage stands I now use: https://www.staymusicstands.com/products/supports-for-keyboards/

 

I would happily recommend these to any keyboard player. Very clever and sleek design, very portable.

 

 

Those little Yamahas are the business. I’m just about getting by with the sounds on my Krome but I’m just waiting for us to add the cover song to the set list that justifies me getting the YC.

 

I tried to buy a Stay stand earlier in the year but there weren’t any available. Fortunately, I managed to get a deal on a used Konig & Meyer Spider but those Stays look like superb value and really neat design. 

[Quatschmacher]

On 28/11/2022 at 09:30, Happy Jack said:

The core of my stage rig for keyboards remains a Hammond SK61 with a Korg Kross above it. Between them, those two can deliver pretty much everything I need in both my 5-piece soul band and my 7-piece functions band ... in both of those I supply piano, organ, strings, brass and synth, plus occasional weird 5hit like banjo, accordion and mouth organ.

 

BUT that's "everything I need" rather than "everything I want". 

 

Solution? The Yamaha Reface series. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-reface-series

 

I suppose you could use these as your main stage keyboards but, assuming you already have a decent keyboard or two, there's really no need since you can control them remotely just to get access to the range of sounds.

 

I have no need of the YC seeing as I have a genuine Hammond right there but I've now ended up buying the CS, the DX and the CP. For live use the CS is of quite limited use unless you really like fiddling with knobs and sliders in front of an audience (and your impatient band mates) so I have one 'universal' setting which works where I need it and I just vary the octave in which I use it.

 

The DX is a whole nother thang. Essentially a much-easier-to-use version of the classic DX-7 this allows you to create / download / tweak / store up to 32 presets reachable at the tap of a button, and many of those presets are just breath-taking. It's a superb piece of kit and - unlike the other three - it has an on-board transpose function. The DX now forms the top tier of a 3-level keyboard rig.

 

In another way, the CP is equally gob-smacking. No presets needed, since a rotary knob gives you instant access to a Fender Rhodes Mk.I, a Fender Rhodes Mk.II, a Wurlitzer, and a CP80. You want Stevie Wonder, Supertramp, Michael MacDonald? It's all right there. Don't like the mini-keys or the 37-key restriction? No worries, just slave it to a larger keyboard like the Korg Kross.

 

All three of the Reface series that I now own are merely bolt-on goodies, but my, what goodies they are!

 

I can't leave this without also mentioning the stage stands I now use: https://www.staymusicstands.com/products/supports-for-keyboards/

 

I would happily recommend these to any keyboard player. Very clever and sleek design, very portable.

 

 

You can hook up a mobile device over the USB port and have instantly recallable presets on all the reface series if you don’t want to have to fiddle about on stage. 

[dave_bass5]

I had a Reface DX, the first keyboard i brought in about 25 years. I got it during the first lockdown. That got me started on the road to the dark side, i soon got a MODX after that (2 weeks IIR).

I’ll be honest, i found the DX to be pants. I owned a DX7 back in the day, and also a DX27. Maybe my memory was clouded, but when i got the Reface DX i was at first over the moon to get some of those sounds back, but quickly remembered why i moved the DX’s on.

I wanted something to write and work out songs on, and the DX was just not the right one. Had I wanted silly noises………😎

 

A year or so ago i swapped it for a Reface CP. That was the best move i made. Although i never really use it, i love its sounds. Ive spent hours noodling on that. I don’t really use it much now that i have a 2 keyboard rig set up in the living room, but its not something id get rid of as its so convenient. 

 

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

I’ll be honest, i found the DX to be pants. I owned a DX7 back in the day, and also a DX27. Maybe my memory was clouded, but when i got the Reface DX i was at first over the moon to get some of those sounds back, but quickly remembered why i moved the DX’s on.

I wanted something to write and work out songs on, and the DX was just not the right one. Had I wanted silly noises………😎

 

My synth band in the 80s had one of first DX7s in the country. The person who actually owned it got very good at programming, but I found it impenetrable mostly due to the terrible user interface and partly down to the fact that it was nothing like an analogue synth. However silly noises was about the last thing it we'd get out of it. If you wanted tuneful sounds with a percussive attack then it was great (so long as you didn't mind having similar sounds to the ones everyone else with a DX7 had most of the time), but weird synth noises? - forget it.

[dave_bass5]

I gigged for  about 3 years with my DX7, and i could tweak the sounds to how i wanted them, but i didnt have the skill to do it from scratch. This was early 90’s when the DX had started to fall from grace. 

Before i had it i had been using the cheaper DX’s for originals, and then a JP8 when i joined a covers band. I ended up swapping the JP8 for the DX7, which was used, because i started playing covers and felt the DX was more of an all round keyboard, and i was starting got need more piano type sounds. 

Then i got an M1, and that was light years ahead for covers IIR.

I guess what I should have said was not silly noises, but useless ones (for me). I didnt need basses, bells, thin weedy strings/brass etc. Part of the reason i got it was as a controller, but also i guess i had fond memories of the DX7. I just didn’t find the DX usable for any of this. 

When i got the MODX a few weeks later, as i must admit the bug to play key’s had bitten me, i was knocked out how good/warm/full sounding FM-X was. All those DX7 sounds but on steroids. Even the FM-X versions of the CS80 type sounds were really good, plus all the built in FX etc. I just found never see me switching the DX on again. 

The CP on the other hand, has a vibe ive not been able to get no my MODX or Fantom. I also get inspired when i turn it on. It’s just that i don’t these days. 

[BigRedX]

I occasionally have nostalgia for the synths I used in the 80s and find myself searching for plug-in versions of them until I remember that none of them were bought out of choice, but instead because they were (relatively) affordable whilst what I really wanted (Roland Jupiter 8, Roland System 700, Oberheim Xpander, OSC OSCar) were all way beyond my reach financially. It wasn't until I bought a Nord Lead along with a second-hand Roland JP6 and Ensoniq ESQ1 and  in the mid 90s that I had synths that I actually wanted. 

 

These days I'm perfectly happy with a controller keyboard and the plug-ins that come free with Logic.

[dave_bass5]

Yeah, i was the same. Only had what i could afford, and never the big league stuff until they fell out of favour. I got the JP8 for £450 used, and then swapped it for the DX7. Both from a shop so that would include markups. 

I loved what i had at the time, SH-09/101, DX27/11, Casio CZ1000 etc, but these were all originals bands.when i started doing covers and we started getting lots of decent gigs i knew i had to step things up, So got the JP8, but felt it was really only good for those 80’s synth songs, so traded it for the DX7. Then i got a Korg M1ex. That pretty much got me through until i stopped playing and went to bass. 

Now im back on keys ive realised a lot of what i liked back then is not really working for me, although my Fantom has all the JP8/Juno stuff covered which i do love playing around with. 

Before i got the Fantom as my top keyboard  i was using a controller and my ipad, and had various synths, inc Juno/OBX/M1/Hammond etc. i felt i finally had all the sounds id missed out on in the past, but i found using a controller and all those synths a bit hectic at gigs. 

Im now trying to convince myself to sell the MODX, get a larger controller and use MainStage for the more acoustic sounds. I also have a Roland cloud account and love playing around with the D-50. 

[BigRedX]

20 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Only had what i could afford, and never the big league stuff until they fell out of favour. I got the JP8 for £450 used, and then swapped it for the DX7.

 

In that case you don't want to know what a working JP8 sells for these days...

 

My JP6 cost £400 plus train fare to Birmingham The person I bought it off had a bedroom that looked like Roland section of the mid-80s music shop (and was selling it all at bargain prices). I could have had a JP8 for about £100 more but I wanted MIDI...

[dave_bass5]

Yeah, I know what the JP8 goes for, and i do regret getting rid of it now, but it was 25+ years ago so i wont worry too much. 

I had a flight case for the JP8 that took 2 people to carry it, as the handles were on either end, and the case weighed more than the keyboard. It just wasnt practice to keep it. Plus the XLR outs had a hiss that was audible when going through the PA. 

 

I still think the JP4/6/8 and Juno’s sound a bit bland and are limited compared to what even free VST’s can do these days, but they do have a few classic sounds that instantly transport me back to the 80’s 

[BigRedX]

32 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I still think the JP4/6/8 and Juno’s sound a bit bland and are limited compared to what even free VST’s can do these days, but they do have a few classic sounds that instantly transport me back to the 80’s 

 

Strange that you lump the Junos in with the Jupiters because IMO they were completely different synths. Back in the early 80s absolutely no-one I knew bought a Juno out of choice, they bought one because it was the cheapest polysynth available. Unfortunately it's cost cutting single oscillator and EG per voice showed, and if hadn't been for the built-in chorus it would have been close to impossible to get any usable sounds from it. To a certain extent the JP4 suffered from the same problem with only a single VCO and not even a sub oscillator to fatten the sounds up which was certainly needed with only 4-voice polyphony.

 

The JP8 was a huge leap forward in design, features and sound and IMO up there with the other classic polysynths of the era from Sequential and Oberheim - they were all about equal on features so you picked what you wanted for overall sound.

[Happy Jack]

On 16/12/2022 at 21:32, dave_bass5 said:

I guess what I should have said was not silly noises, but useless ones (for me). I didnt need basses, bells, thin weedy strings/brass etc. Part of the reason i got it was as a controller, but also i guess i had fond memories of the DX7. I just didn’t find the DX usable for any of this. 

 

I'm guessing you never discovered https://soundmondo.yamahasynth.com/ then?

 

Most of the 32 presets / favourites that the Reface DX comes with are, I agree, complete pants. But then you crowd-source (through Soundmondo) what others have tweaked or programmed, and things move along really quite fast.

 

At least half the sounds on my DX came (free) from Tom Ansink.

 

 

 

[Happy Jack]

Given that my two main keyboards are a Hammond and a Korg Kross, the DX is there to 'fill the gaps' in the range of voices supplied by the main two. With 32 carefully-chosed presets, I can do the full Rick Wakeman if I need to.

 

Now all I need to do is learn to play keyboards. 🙄

[dave_bass5]

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

I'm guessing you never discovered https://soundmondo.yamahasynth.com/ then?

 

Most of the 32 presets / favourites that the Reface DX comes with are, I agree, complete pants. But then you crowd-source (through Soundmondo) what others have tweaked or programmed, and things move along really quite fast.

 

At least half the sounds on my DX came (free) from Tom Ansink.

 

 

 

I use a MODX, so yeah, I’ve used Soundmondo a lot. Loads of duplicate sounds on there though. 
I first tried it with the DX, but never really found much I could use. Mostly tweaks of the presets which I had no use for. 

Like I said, it’s not the synth itself, it’s the type of Sound’s available and the use I needed them for. 
Then again, when I compare the MODX FM to the DX, there is just no comparison, so again, no need to keep the DX. 

Edited December 18, 2022 by dave_bass5

[Woodinblack]

Still like my DX - don't have room for bigger and find it pretty flexible. Always wanted the organ one too, but after I got mine they started getting more expensive and I got an argon (mistake as it is too big outside, too small inside)

[dave_bass5]

17 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Strange that you lump the Junos in with the Jupiters because IMO they were completely different synths. Back in the early 80s absolutely no-one I knew bought a Juno out of choice, they bought one because it was the cheapest polysynth available. Unfortunately it's cost cutting single oscillator and EG per voice showed, and if hadn't been for the built-in chorus it would have been close to impossible to get any usable sounds from it. To a certain extent the JP4 suffered from the same problem with only a single VCO and not even a sub oscillator to fatten the sounds up which was certainly needed with only 4-voice polyphony.

 

The JP8 was a huge leap forward in design, features and sound and IMO up there with the other classic polysynths of the era from Sequential and Oberheim - they were all about equal on features so you picked what you wanted for overall sound.

Having recently got the Roland Cloud, ive been messing around with the various Roland synths, and while the JP8 is of course much more versatile, i keep going back to the Juno60. It’s simple, can sound fat (as you say, due to the chorus) and has loads of those classic 80’s sounds, but in reality not many different sounds. It just gets the 80’s vibe. 

 

I guess what i meant above was that they all have classic 80’s sounds, all with a common core sound (at least to my ears), certainly the Roland filters have a character you can hear in all of them,  but compared to the software versions the hardware synths lack a lot. With the Cloud version of the JP8 i can now have the Juno chorus, or any other FX, which elevates it above the original IMO. 

Ive always looked on Oberheims as more a rock band synth. Other than the obvious Van Halen and Rush, it just seems the Americans used them more than the bands from the UK. When i was using AUM i found i  used OBX way more than the Roland stuff. 

Edited December 18, 2022 by dave_bass5

[BigRedX]

If you want an Oberheim being used "back in the day" in a non-rock setting have a listen to "Heaven Is Waiting" by The Danse Society from 1983. Some great atmospheric synth sounds and nearly all generated by the Oberheim OBXa

[dave_bass5]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

If you want an Oberheim being used "back in the day" in a non-rock setting have a listen to "Heaven Is Waiting" by The Danse Society from 1983. Some great atmospheric synth sounds and nearly all generated by the Oberheim OBXa

Cheers. I’ll have a listen while im at the gym. 

[Owen]

I totally get the Reface thang. If only they put them all in one 5 octave keyboard I could have a 5 octave with all the sounds I might need but cannot play in any meaningful way.

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, Owen said:

I totally get the Reface thang. If only they put them all in one 5 octave keyboard I could have a 5 octave with all the sounds I might need but cannot play in any meaningful way.

 

Just slave it to a 76/88-key unit with the (supplied) midi break-out cable. That's what I do with my Reface CP.

 

I hate midi and don't even begin to understand it (AFAIK those are 5-pin DIN plugs) but even I could manage that much. 🙄

[Owen]

That is an option, but all 4 Reface models in one keybord would be fun.

[Huge Hands]

I love Hammond organ but don't have the room or cash justification to buy one (especially as I can't really play one).

 

I have fancied the organ one (YC?) since they were released a few years ago just to mess around and learn on but have never managed to pull the trigger.

 

I would also like the Rhodes one....and now I have seen @Happy Jack's video, I would like the DX7 one.....

 

When I was at college doing Music Tech in the 90's we did a whole term on FM synthesis and the DX7 as they had a couple.  I don't remember anyone getting anything decent out of them and nothing like the sounds in that video! 

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, Huge Hands said:

I don't remember anyone getting anything decent out of them and nothing like the sounds in that video! 

 

Different world now, with crowd-sourcing and loads of freebies on that there Internet thingy.

 

If soundmondo didn't exist then the Reface DX would be an awkward beast supplied with a wide range of fairly useless sounds as standard. A couple of hours on soundmondo and I have every sound I am ever likely to need (playing in general covers bands and a specialist soul band) and all with no need at all to learn how to 'tweak' any parameters, still less actually program anything.

 

[Woodinblack]

I used to have a DX21 back in the day and loved the thing. Once you get used to the idea it isn't that bad to program, and the DX is easier as you now have different waveforms, which saves you an oscillator or two (which is handy as it has 4).