It’s been nearly two decades since I’ve bought a new keyboard. Seriously. I think I got my Yamaha S90 in Dallas back in the early 2000s, and I think I remember lugging that bad boy around to Bella La Blue gigs.
That Yamaha is the best performance keyboard I’ve ever had. The action on the keys is better than many pianos, and the sound, too. However, over the years, I’ve worn out the keys.
It’s time for a new musical play-thing, although I’m not going to trash the Yamaha!
I called around tonight, and I’ve found several people and businesses that can help me get the Yamaha S90 into tip-top shape again. It has a handful of keys in the lower register that stick. It’s still a terrific player piano, and it would make an awesome MIDI keyboard into my laptop using FL Studio or Logic Pro X.
Here are the recommendations I got for repairs in the Oklahoma City area:
- Honest Ron
- Protronics
- Gear Exchange
But I’m in the market for a new keyboard, and I’m focused on a workstation. The three top-end workstations are the Yamaha Motif, the Roland Juno and the Korg Kronos. I’ve done some research on each, and I’m leaning strongly toward the Kronos. It’s not only because the 88-key model has weighted keys. It’s not only because it has digital out and the ability to import backing tracks.
It’s because I’ve been a life-long Korg user. I’ve owned an M1, an M3, a Trinity and a Triton — and when I say life-long, I mean since 1990. I’ve recorded dozens of songs on Korgs, and I got to where my production skills were quite good on the Korg, which has a workstation built in.
Back in the day, you just popped a hard disk into the board and saved your sequences there. I’m not sure how you do it now.
From a music production perspective, as a workstation, Korg has the reputation of having the absolute best sounds and the most studio-ready production combinations and patterns. It’s the Mac of keyboards.
It’s also $3,700.
If I weren’t confident that I’d be able to do some serious musical damage on that bad boy, I’d never consider getting it. Here are some of the tracks I did on my Triton, all posted to my YouTube channel:
“Anaheim Blonde”
“Cool Like Kelsey”
“Groovehappy People”
“Caribe”
I’m still going to get that Yamaha S90 fixed, but I’m pretty sure a new Korg Kronos is in my future.
