From jeff@sepeta.com Tue Jun 12 21:54:35 2001
Subject:piano modules (meandering)

hi guys! i've been reading with interest your discussion of piano
clones and thought i'd dip into the fray.

i come from a classical piano background (high school, college) but
i've always loved the organ. picked up an original CX-3 in '89,
perhaps a year before my first piano module: the Roland P-330. The
acoustics weren't very natural, but they sounded way better than any
synth of that era (think M1/DX7/D50). by itself, the samples weren't
that good, but in a rock & roll mix, it really cut through. The best
thing about the P-330 was the Tight EP -- kind of a compressed Rhodes
that wasn't very "tiney". We used to do a ton of Doors & Grateful
Dead songs, and with my small setup (2 synths + CX-3 + P-330) we
actually sounded pretty "lifelike".

in '94 or so I upgraded to a Kurzweil PC88MX. It's got a good action -
- comparable to the Roland RD series -- and a couple of decent
pianos. I'd have to say that the Wurlies & Rhodes weren't really my
bag of tricks, but the rest is a mixed bag -- great strings & voices,
sad saxophones, a ton of patches but no organization whatsoever.

this spring I realized it was time to "clean house" and put my home
studio back in order. i finally dumped my P-330 on Ebay for about
$100, and am selling my old synths to make way for a new JV-2080. I
still like the PC88MX, but it is a little weak compared to the new
PC2X. However, it's still a lot better than a lot of the other fake
pianos, so I think I'll be hanging on to it for a while.

the Kurzweil PC2X. Wow. It's the best thing out there that I've heard
so far -- great acoustic & electric patches, much better organs (but
perhaps the most unrealistic leslie effect I've heard in years), even
some bread & butter synths (sawtooth, sinewave, etc). I've also tried
the samples on the S80 (a little too bright), the QS 8.1 (good to the
midpoint of the sound, but very unnatural releases), the SRX-02
roland board in an XV-88 (sounded like a wet towel was put over the
speaker. my left hand flinched in terror), and for yuks an old Korg
SG1 or some such (no lasting impression).

I can't go back to playing a mini rackmount through a springy plastic
keyboard. the Kurzweil SP76 & SP88 come to mind as particularly
insidious -- at first glance, from the shape of the keys you'd expect
them to be weighted, wooden, and to have some pushback, but you would
be mistaken. frankly I'd rather use my cheesy, lifeless N5EX to
trigger piano sounds -- at least it doesn't trick the senses because
you know from the looks that it's a budget synth.

js