Favorite Keyboards/Sounds

As a classically trained pianist, I just love the sound of an 18' Steinway with the lid open.

As someone listening to keyboards and other electronic instruments I don't know the names of, let alone model numbers, I like;

Firth of Fifth - all superb keyboard sounds and playing.

Robbery, Assault and Battery - that solo just "does IT".

Hawkwinds "wibbly" sounds - especially on "Lighthouse" (Live 79 version).

The piano sound on "Drive My Car" by the Beatles is also one of my all-time favourite keyboard sounds - it's really dirty!

I am the proud owner of a Casio thing that has a full-sized touch-sensitive keyboard and sustain pedal. It has GM In, Out and Thru, so I use it to drive whatever sample bank I'm running through ACID or SONAR. Since both use *.wav format, I can make it sound like pretty much anything.

Of course, it'll never be as good as the real thing (acoustic or analog electronic instruments), but it's all I've got space for in my little house.

Still, I can whack it up and pretend I'm Rick Wakeman - although normally I content myself with Debussy, Beethoven or even my own compositions (if no-one else is in ).

I have no Hammond and have only seen the Crummar in picture.

What I do have Is :

 A CAT (no not the one that meows !!!)  Its is an old american copy of the VCS used by Pink Floyd ...i'm not 100% sure, but it has cool analog soundsproduced by 2 Oscillators

I also have an Ensonic EPS (A sampler) , Kursweil 1200 (88 Notes) and Yamaha DX7(A classic)

How about you guys what type of keyboards do you own ???

well i just got a crumar multiman s off ebay for £21!! 5 keys didnt work and all the sliders were crackly as anything but a quick clean and half a can of WD40 and everything working fine! haha. the piano and clavichord sound is terrible (as all reviews of it said they would be!) but the strings oh! think echoes by pink floyd and youre there. all ive got to do now is get my mates korg dw8000 off him and im almost satisfied (never!) off to fiddle with a silver cape and wizards hat now (shut the curtains!!)

cheers

As a bassist I know jack about the tech.spec. of the above mentioned keyboards I'm going to tailor the question thus; Favourite Keyboard sound on a prog tune?

On the opening to "Impact", track 1 of "I" by Patrick Moraz, there's a sound like a hundred monks saying "DOH!" Play this as loud as possible and your solar plexus disintigrates! On the inner sleeve (vinyl!) there is mention of a "Supersonic Vocaltron". I suspect some one got a tape of a hundred monks saying "DOH!" and stuck it in some poor unsuspecting Mellotron. I'll leave it to you ivory tinklers to enlighten me further.

I won't go on about Hammonds, IMO second only to the electric guitar in terms of importance to popular music.

Most gratuitous overuse of a Mellotron? Druid, "Toward the Sun".

Mellotron are very hard to come by.Here in montreal one of the keyboardist from Musical box (Don't know his name)had quite a few mellotrons he just went crazy and bought all he could get his hands on, over 10 units maybe 21  I don't remember I don't recall.

I myself have been trying to get an old minimoog at a descent price  for the past 20 years and haven't succeeded . I almost had my dream minimoog: a musician friend of mine who worked at a music store said this looser walks in says he has a minimoog for sale. My friend keeps his calm and says sure bring it in .The guy doesn't come back for a long while.my friends tells me he finally found one for me I'm doing back flips ,dreaming about it .I was waiting and agonizing .My freind meets the guys a few months later and asks him so you still want to sell your minimoog ? And he says... oh I sold it already to a guy for $50  ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I still have nightmares about it ! 

Jim Garten wrote: Bozzy - welcome to the forum! Nice to know you've got an L100 (lemme guess.... Ebay, right??) - all you need now is a Leslie 145 & you'll get that baby screamin'. I've only been learning since July of last year (1971 L122 & Leslie 145), but didn't have the advantage of already being a musician. The keyboard I use for analogue sounds is a Yamaha DJX1 - it looks naff, but there are some serious saw-tooth wave form sounds there, good piano samples, a huge church organ sound & stacks more; all with full midi compatibility, pitch bend, sampling capability, 2 levels of arpeggiator & even a dinky little ribbon controller - all for only £45 from Ebay.... result! All I need now is that elusive Mellotron......

 Geez, Jim! Stop going on about your organ, and just leave it alone for a while, why don't you?

 Looks like I'll have to add bozzy to the Forum Supergroup.

ha, glad to see others messin with the keys,if you want cheap hammonds, check your local free ad papers, lots are more or less givin them away on the stipulation that you collect! my mate plays bass you wanna hear the first 5 mins of pictures at an exhibition  that  weve got worked out, and some stuff by the nice.true what you say about the leslie tho, aint seen one of those or the sharman? leslie copies ggoin cheap yet

take care

chris

well ive caved in and bought a hammond L100 for 40 quid and a yamaha CS1X, can get some good analogue sounds from it and it doesnt drift out of tune like a jen sx1000 i had when i was 13!! ive been playing about 3 months now and not wanting to brag im gettin pretty darn good, ive really surprised myself( ive been playing guitar for over 20 yrs so its alot easier than starting from scratch!)the guitar is gatherin dust and every day im fiddling about with a synth atop a hammond! i love it, if you havent started  you really should take the leap and start playing, youll surprise yourself

all the best

chris

Jim Garten wrote: Aztech wrote:  HI Jim,     I know the C3 : an electronic version of the B3 by korg I believe. This is sooooooooooo sad...... sorry Aztech, but I had to come back at you, the C3 is a Hammond, not a Korg (essentially a Hammond B3 but in what they called a 'Church Style' console) - Korg make (I believe) the CX3 & BX3, which are their Hammond clones, and very good in their way (certainly more portable!!!!), but not the real deal

Whats so sad  ????  nice of you to come back at me with the info but I did say "I believe" meaning I'm not sure... heck its been 20 years !!!  but your right of course Korg made the B3 copy and yes its defenitely more portable.