Korg X2/X3 v. Yamaha W5/W7 buying and price advice?
Herbert Han-pu Wang
I'm in the final stages of making a decision on which workstation I
should buy for my first synth ever. I'm leaning heavily toward the X3
because of its cool sounds and low-ish price.
I've tried the Roland XP-50, and while I admit it's got lots of cool
features the Yamaha and the Korg don't have, I just didn't like the
sound of it. Not lush enough, or something...
a few questions:
1) Does anyone have any real arguments as to why the Yamaha would be a
superior choice to the Korg? (people don't mention the Yamaha much on
these newsgroups, I've noticed)
2) As I haven't had a chance to hear the extra piano sound the X2 has,
can anyone tell me if it's really worth the extra bucks?
3) The lowest price I've seen for the X3 is $1300. Has anyone seen
better?
thanks in advance.
Adam Levin
: Hi all.
Greets.
: a few questions:
: 1) Does anyone have any real arguments as to why the Yamaha would be a
: superior choice to the Korg? (people don't mention the Yamaha much on
: these newsgroups, I've noticed)
I've never heard/played the Yamaha. I own an X2.
: 2) As I haven't had a chance to hear the extra piano sound the X2 has,
: can anyone tell me if it's really worth the extra bucks?
Well, I bought the X2 over the X3 for two reasons:
1) the extra keys
2) the piano
That sound is one of the best I've ever heard, and it's the only piano
sound of the five or six on the X2 that I like. Since I've got a
Fatar 900 weighted hammer action controller, the piano sounds
extremely good.
: 3) The lowest price I've seen for the X3 is $1300. Has anyone seen
: better?
Hmm...I believe you can get it lower. I bought the X2 a year and a
half ago for $1650, which was a little high then. You should be able
to get the X2 for $1500 nowadays, maybe less. I checked the new gear
price list, and it says X2 - $1469, X3 - $1229. Generally, stores
will at least match competitors.
HTH,
-Adam
--
Adam Levin -- ale...@stevens-tech.edu -- http://www.stevens-tech.edu/~alevin
O- La vi'a del tren es peligrosa. Si el tren se para entre las estaciones,
quedese adentro. No salga afuera. Siga las instrucciones de los
operadores del tren o la polici'a.
Jake Mandell
the M1. I have never played the X2's piano sound, but yamaha has a current
promotion where you get their 4 meg piano sound (X2 is only 2 meg, but
that doesn't really mean much) for free. I paid $1297 for my W7, at
American Pro Audio in MN (check back of keyboard for #, they advertise in
classifieds).
I think that the W7 is superior in every way to the korg X5DR, which I
believe is pretty close to the rest of the korg X series.
on the W7, you get
-a better screen
-much easier to use
-more ROM (12 meg w/piano card vs. 8 meg for X2 including piano)
-less dated sound
-MUCH better effects (6 effects processors)
-better sequencer, with graphic diplay of notes
-better built.
I am very happy with the yamaha and would recommend that you give it a
serious looking over before getting the korg.
--jake
Paul Liu
>that doesn't really mean much) for free. I paid $1297 for my W7, at
>American Pro Audio in MN (check back of keyboard for #, they advertise in
>classifieds).
It looks like finally the market drives the price down. W5/W7 are overly
priced for quite some time in my opinion. With the arrival of Roland XP
series, finally people price W5/W7 in the right trend (down.)
I used to have good impression on Yamaha pro gear, but not any more.
I am really surprised Yamaha still turn their deaf ears to the market and
keep W5/W7 (top-of-their-line) polyphony at 32. In NAMM, Yamaha said they
"are taking a bold step by upgrading a product with development of
software rather than another piece of hardware.", and "extends to W Series a
unique set of functions and capabilities previously available only in
sophisticated software sequencers."
I said, "sorry, so what?" With only 32 voices, that means a sorry owner has
to buy other modules for complicated sequence. Korg Trinity has 32 sorry voices
as well, but at least it has hard drive recording. What good is it for the
sequencer software upgrade on a lean engine anyway? Plus software upgrade is
anything but "a bold step". Others like Alesis and Korg are doing that already.
For $1,400 or so, you can get a Roland XP-50 with 64 voices. XP-50 keys
are not that great, but W7 and Korg X3 keys are bad as well. They are all
spongy. They all offer similar features otherwise. On the other hand,
if you are into better keys, W5 is good, but why not take a look at XP-80
(for $1800.)
Roland apparently tears a page from Yamaha's notebook. When I first looked
at XP-80 LCD screen, I said: "Oh, man, this is almost a copy from W5/W7."
So LCD friendliness wise, W has no edge over XP either.
Take a look at XP before you go with W or X. After all, XP has DOUBLE number
of polyphony. That is really a BIG plus.
--
Paul Liu
pl...@cadence.com
Jake Mandell
> are not that great, but W7 and Korg X3 keys are bad as well. They are all
> spongy. They all offer similar features otherwise. On the other hand,
> if you are into better keys, W5 is good, but why not take a look at XP-80
> (for $1800.)
I owned an XP-50 for six months before "trading up" for the W-7. I bought
the XP-50 without a careful audition. I was lured by the good reviews,
64-voices, 40 megs total ram options. However, it is not features that
make a synth. For me, what's more important is how fast I can start making
music on it--not how easy it is to learn, but even though I got to know
the XP-50 fairly well I found it a pain to get around. Many of the sounds
were also very poor in my opinion--i had the orchestral expansion and the
loops were terrible. The yamaha W synth engineers did not give you 1,400
sounds as the roland can have. Instead, you get a modest number of well
thought out, high quality sounds.
For me, that was the deciding factor. I don't have the time to scroll
through on the the order of a thousand sounds to find a particular one.
Anyway, I also looked at the quadrasynth, but with no keypad and a hard to
read screen I was driven away.
--jake