Anyone have or play with one of these?? Looks way cool. Seems like easy to multitrack and sample on. Might have to just get one today to check out.

Its a souped up fantom X ..... has the best of the best of SRX boards installed. 24 tracks of audio.
Great works station.. but pretty much sounds like repackaged FANTOM sounds. Its purdy expensive too. And very heavy for gigging to lug around. See if they come up with Fantom G rackmount then get the fold-in-half controller keyboard from INFINITE RESPONSE the Vax77... then with the L1 system you have a TRULY compact show.
Just my two centavos

It's cool but not worth it as the Yammy XS sounds are better (for me anyway)

In my humble opinion theres no BETTER anything out there. All synths have thier own charactaristics or people wouldnt buy several. For instance... you could say YAMAHA 'sounds' better... but a sound may not 'fit' in a mix properly, I found that with the S90es... yes amazing sounds.. but I have Korg too... now sometimes Korg sounds dont initially sound realistic.. but in a mix.. they are very musical sounding.... sometimes MUSICABILITY wins over 'real' oddly enough. The magic comes when you use different synths with different ENGINES... then they make a nice contrast. But to agree with you... ive heard great things about the XS, and its expensive too.

Good point. I noticed my Yamaha XS8 sucks, unless I record with it. Then it sounds much better. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the monitors. Maybe you just need good equipment to get the sound out of it. I don't think it sounds like a real piano, but when I recorded some vocal exercises on it, it sounded fine in the car. But a $3000 bose or my $8,000 PA doesn't really do it justice. But I am the player, so it makes a BIG difference to me. Maybe not the crowd. Maybe I am too picky about my sound, and should be more picky about my playing

I hear what y'all are sayin' and I agree. From my own personal experience thus far, I've never owned an amplifier that has had such a clear (transparent, non-colored) sound as my Bose PAS.
Any piano sound (Yamaha S90, P90, Motif ES6, NP-30; Kurzweil SP2; Casio WK3500) that I've run through it have all sounded incredibly good. I expect no less out of my Roland RD-300 GX (once it arrives). The PAS is so crystal clear.
By the way, I installed and checked out a T1 Module with my Model I PAS last night and fooled around with the various effects.. Aye Curumba!! :-)

quote:

Originally posted by PJ Previte:
...(Yamaha S90, P90, Motif ES6, NP-30; Kurzweil SP2; Casio WK3500) ... Roland RD-300 GX ...

My goodness, you have tried out the keyboard 'toys'!

You owe it to yourself to try a GEM RP/X (and/or a PRO2, if you can find a used one) -- I like the sound of the RP/X; Cliff Henrickson (Cliff-at-Bose) likes the responsiveness of the PRO2 (even better than the PROMEGA).

If you want to add computer- (or Muse Receptor-) based software to your list of things to try, Alan Steinberger recommends Pianoteq -- I haven't gotten around to trying it (yet ).

I have about 12 keyboards and 7 sound modules and I still use the GEM pRP7 ( have a spare one too) for my solo piano when I play out as it just seems to work with the Bose very well (T1 set on the Taylor T5) into original L1 and one Bass ... plus it is small for an 88...
Also note I said the XS sounds are better for ME anyway.

I tried pianoteq..... its not 'there' yet. It is modelling.... and its 'pretty' good. but NOT there. IM sure they'll improve. Go listen to AUTHORIZED STEINWAY PIANO by Garritan..... ooh la la