Hello all. I have heard very nice things about the Casio Forums and it's members. Right now, I am looking forward to some advice. I am an experienced keyboardist. I have been playing for quite a while, and have gigged a lot and participated in many school competitions with my band. School ended last year and right now I'm almost halfway through university. I no longer need an ultra light, cheap keyboard I can toss around and gig with because I plan to play and make music at home when I'm free. Now, I have never owned an 88 key weighted, hammer action keyboard. Mostly because I quickly transitioned away from traditional piano playing to progressive metal/rock and electronic music. If I were to describe the kind of music I play I'd immediately refer to Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment (I am a big fan of Jordan Rudess). Thus I stuck to my 61 key synthesizers/arrangers which did work well for my purpose. I have a budget of up to $1000 and after months of research and testing at stores, I am as confused as I was the day I started out. As of now I have no master keyboard - only a powerful PC and some desk space. I also have a laptop if I ever need to take my keyboard out and jam with someone. I have zeroed in on the following possibilities (in no particular order): 1.) Korg Krome 61: This is a board I've had my eyes on since a friend of mine showed it to me during my senior year of high school. A lovely sounding workstation which has an amazing joystick controller. And though it's joystick, touchscreen and exterior build quality is superb, it's keybed/key action are equally terrible. Why Korg would do such a thing is beyond me, but I still consider this workstation today because of the vast amount of in built sounds it offers. And I can get all the aggressive progressive rock leads I want for it because the community has already come up with them. 2.) Yamaha MOXF6: Another quality product from Yamaha. This time they outdid themselves, because the MOXF6 is almost a full blown motif!!! The key action is also better than Korg's. However, I didn't enjoy it's interface, tiny screen and standard pitch/mod wheel combo which isn't great at modifying most lead sounds in real time. The sound quality was better than the Krome though, and I liked it's basic sampling capabilities. 3.) Arturia Keylab 88: This thing costs $200-300 less than the two above, and I get 88 keys! The keybed is the FATAR TP-100LR which is quite decent as well. I also get analog lab which contains a ton of synth power. Downside is that the pitch bend/mod wheels are almost unusable given their position and size, and the fact that I'll have to lug a laptop around wherever I want to use it because it's a controller. 4.) Casio Privia PX-5s: I put this one last so you could read the others first beforehand. This is the most balanced option out of the 4 I am considering. The keys are better than the Keylab, I already have a bunch of pre-loaded sounds to play with, and it has great synthesizing power. Sadly when I tried it out at the store I couldn't navigate through the interface even if my life depended on it. Extremely cumbersome and non intuitive...I didn't even play a sound after testing the piano because I had no idea how to!!! Because of this I have no idea what I can do with this keyboard. Can the Privia ever sound like this?:
Because these sounds are something I definitely need. And I can get them on the Krome for free, I can get them on the MOXF for $30 and I can synthesize them on analog lab with minimal effort but I have no idea whether the Privia can do so. I seek your help here. The lure of 88 weighted keys and great value for money has made me turn to the Privia. And this isn't the first time. Back when I was playing only the piano, I almost ended up with a PX-150. I ended up with another 61 key keyboard instead because I took a different musical route. I'm looking for some unbiased opinions! Thank you all!!!