Im looking for a good Synth / pad Keyboard

[Corley20]

I need a Keyboard that will go with my Nord stage 3 .. I have around 600 dollars to spend and that's it .. I really thought about a Moog or a prophet. But I think the prophet is out of my range and the moog is is just a bass in my eyes. I need help I have a mx 49 Yamaha and a Juno stage but still like i said idk

[Duplobaustein]

You could get a used FA06 or a new DS61. Great synths and a lot of other nice stuff and features. Not particular a fan of the Yamaha rompler synths honestly.

[stiiiiiiive]

Not sure about the prices in North America, but if you like the Prophet, you may want to try the Mopho X4. And if you're willing to use the external part of your NS3 to control it, try the Tetra...

[JayDee]

There was a Roland FA 06 on my local craigslist for $600 recently. Had one of those and that would seem to fit the bill. Key bed mediocre synth action but usable and a good synth for the dough IMO ton of patches of all sorts. There was a Korg MS 50 on CL for $400 just a couple days ago, and another for $600 B/O today They would also work (good pads). Key bed slightly better IMO. Both of those are light around 15 lbs or less and small and better part of 800 patches or more each. With all due respects, Yamahas do have their strengths (flutes for one beat the Roland and my Electro) and a Motif series like a MOX 6 or even MOXF 6 possibly could be had near that price range and should be considered.

[marvintheandroid]

I used an FA08 with my Electro before I got my Stage 3. It was a nice machine but more of a workstation than a live instrument although some of the liv3 features were good. I also used a Jupiter 50 which is more of a live instrument. Toland have stopped making them but you may pick a bargain on eBay.

[anotherscott]

I need a Keyboard that will go with my Nord stage 3 .. I have around 600 dollars to spend and that's it .. I really thought about a Moog or a prophet. But I think the prophet is out of my range and the moog is is just a bass in my eyes. I need help I have a mx 49 Yamaha and a Juno stage but still like i said idk

If the MX49 and Juno Stage aren't doing it for you, and you have things like Moog and Prophet on your mind, it sounds like you need something with more synth functions and less of a rompler. Moogs are good for a lot more than bass, but pricey, and mostly monophonic making them useless for pads. Under $600, I tink my first choice would be Casio XW-P1. If you don't care about few and/or mini-keys (since you do have the option of driving them from the NS3 as well if necessary), there's also the Roland JD-XI, and with less polyphony, maybe the Korg Minilogue, MicroKorgs or Roland System 1. Going a bit beyond the $600 budget, you'd have the Behringer Deep Mind 6 and Studiologic Sledge.

Casio XW-P1 has a monophonic "solo synth", and polyphonic "hex layers." See these two videos...





ETA: he Casio also has 9 sliders that send MIDI. They might be able to function as drawbars if you wanted it to double as a second manual for the Nord organ.

[Corley20]

All Really Good Awnser I checked the David Smith Keyboard out and im still trying to see if i like that .. Im looking up a couple of the Roland Keyboards you guys mentioned and i think someone mentioned the micro Korg .. i use to have a m50 but i sold it to get the stage 3 lol

[anotherscott]

i think someone mentioned the micro Korg .. i use to have a m50 but i sold it to get the stage 3 lol

Keep in mind that the M50 and MicroKorg have little in common except for both being made by Korg. The M50 plays sampled sounds, the MicroKorg is a virtual analog synthesizer.

BTW, one more thing about the Casio XW-P1 is that, unlike the others I talked about, it is not only a synthesizer, it also has the rompler (sample playback) functions, so besides all the synthy stuff in those videos, it can still do a lot of the strings, brass, etc. like the M50, MX49, and Juno Stage do. It's not as good at those things as those boards are, but those boards aren't as good as the Casio for the synthy things. The other boards I mentioned basically don't do those things at all.

[Corley20]

thanks guys ! I can Always Get Answers From Nord Forums !

[Duplobaustein]

If Minikeys are acceptable, then check out the JD Xi. It beats the Mikrokorg in any possible way.