STANDS AND ACCESSORIES

1. Axman 2-tier keyboard stand, lightweight aluminum, $39

2. Boss FV-50L, low impedance stereo volume pedal, sells for $79.99 in the stores but grab this mint one for just $55

3. Calzone Keyboard Case, for 61-note, 5-octave keyboards, very heavy duty flightcase with ATA specs, nicely padded interior, new cost is over $300 but this one’s in great shape including padding and just $99 – or $75 with purchase the T3 or any 61-note keyboard. 

4. EI Padded Gigbag, for 76-note keyboard, quality Canadian made, heavy canvas with very thick padding and leopard print furry interior, excellent protection for your valuable keyboard for just $45

5. Protec 88-key case, styro reinforced sides, $85

6. Rok Sak 4-space rack, nicely padded, never roaded and perfect condition, $39 or $10 off for each piece of rackmount gear—buy 3 pieces of gear and it’s free.

7. Ultimate Support AX48B Apex Stand, very cool design and everything fits inside of main shaft, very strong, very compact, and sets up in less than a minute.  Best stand made if you ask me. List $270, used $99

8. Yamaha YKA5600, X-style Keyboard stand, new in box, $25

KEYBOARDS, SOUND MODULE, AMPS

NOTE:   Free Rack - buy any 2 or 3 keyboard rack units below and I'll throw in a quality rack free of charge, value of $49 to $79.  

1. Arp Omni, price drop - see end of listing.  Ca. 1976, cool old analog synth famous for being on tons of 70’s disco songs but the phat tone holds up to a lot of the music out today.  String synthesizers with four separate voices (bass, cello, viola, violin, each independently switchable) and a bass/synthesizer section. The string section has its own variable speed LFO, and attack/release envelopes. The synthesizer section has a VCF and its own ADSR envelope. The bass/synthesizer split is set to the lower one and a half octaves. The Omni (model 2300) was ARP's best selling instrument.  Has multiple triggering so that every time a key is depressed the envelopes are triggered.   Description from VinrtageSynth:  preset Orchestral String sounds. It has polyphonic Violin and Viola waveforms as well as monophonic Bass and Cello waveforms. It is split into 3 sections: Strings, Synthesizer, and Bass synth - all simultaneously available. It has traditional and simple VCA, VCF, and LFO controls for contouring your sounds as well as a nice chorus that really thickens up the string sound. The Omni has two oscillators per voice as well, but there is no program memory.  The original Omni was only around for a year before the Omni 2, which had a few enhancements and seems to be much more common than the original model here.  Good shape, sounds great, and seems to work properly, $399. Note:  It had some sticky switches and sliders so we took it apart, lubricated the parts, and it stopped working.  Likely an easy fix but I'm not messing with a pro repair so price is dropped to $250 and you fix.  An experienced tech might get it going for a minimum $50 bench charge which will make this a nice deal.  

2. Alesis NanoPiano, fantastic little box that packs a lot of power into ½ rack, 256 instantly accessible patches organized into 16 categories, each with 16 different programs per category. Categories include: Acoustic Piano, Piano/Strings, Piano Layer (w/ clavs, organs, vibes, etc.), Piano FX, Electric Pianos, EP Layer, Chromatic (vibes, marimbas, etc.), Organs, Bass, Strings, Synth Pads, Lead Synths, Piano Splits, Effects, Piano/Pads, and Piano/Vox.  These sold for $299 new but this one’s in perfect shape and only $179

3. Alesis NanoPiano, super powerful little box, 1/3 rack size, 256 high quality sounds, very easy to get around on—just select a bank such as “Acoustic Piano” and select one of the 16 patches within the bank, if you can live without having the original box and packing, don’t pay $300 for a new one when you can have this barely used one for just $199

4. E-mu Proteus1 Rackmount Synth (click lower right of pic to expand).  (Now includes manual and docs) Slightly less powerful than the M3R but beautifully simple to use and the variety of cool patches is no less impressive, 191 different sounds in all with 2 Megs of ROM to work with.  Also features 32 note polyphony, 16 parts multi-timberal, 6 audio outputs, and quality 16 bit samples taken directly from the E-mu III factory disks.  The tones on this thing are phenomenal, at least to a hack keyboard player such as myself.  You already have keys and you just want some cool tones - here you go - just $150

5. Kawai Keyboard Case, semi-rigid with trolley wheels.  Made for the 88-note ES-1 but will fit others.  $50.

6. Korg TR61 Music Workstation WITH Sampler and TKL Soft Case, (pic2), (Analog Controls).   Update:  Sampling Board (new in box) has arrived and will be included with the TR61 plus gigbag - all for $750.   If you missed my Korg M3 and Korg X50 which both went quickly, here's something equally cool.  I'm not all that smart on keyboards but this one is a new model from Korg that does virtually everything and sounds fantastic.  It reminded me of the Triton I had last year and, I read, for good reason.  The TR61 has the same synthesis system (HI) that made the TRITON the new industry standard.  It also features a comprehensive 64 MB ROM which includes many new sounds, as well as all the old Korg classics, plus totally new features including USB MIDI capabilities and reliable, portable SD card data storage.  This is all packaged in a sleek black body housing Korg's classic 16-track sequencer, superb effects engine, and a clear and user-friendly interface.  For all the skinny on this new sensational board, click here for Korg's site specs.  As mentioned, this deal will include the Korg EXB-SMPL sampler board (specs here).  Also included are external power supply, manuals, and software - as well as a well-padded TKL carrying case (pic).  This unit sells new for $999 but this one is "as new", out of the box, and just $750  including TKL soft case, manuals and software, and Sampler Board.  

7. Korg EX-800 polyphonic synth module, classic Poly 800 tones in a module, one button cap missing but works great, $99

8. Korg M3R Rackmount Synth (click lower right of pic to expand).  (Now includes manual, quick cards, etc.) The M3R was, roughly, the rack version of the M-1, albeit with a few less frills - but it still has that unmistakable TONE of with Korg's famed AI synthesis.  Bright and airy patches not found in a lot of digital units.  M3R has 3 megs of Multisound waveform data which is 1 meg less than the original M1 but a lot of power nonetheless.  Plus there are tons of Korg and 3rd party sounds available via sound cards that plug in the front of the unit.   Personally, I use these for the presets and I can guarantee that you won't need any help pressing the up and down button to scroll through all the patches.  Like the M-1, it has 4 outputs, great for multi-track recording or sub-mixes.  Very nice condition and a cool and powerful addition to any keyboard setup for $150.  

9. Korg M-1 Music Workstation, the one that started the revolution in performance and studio keyboards.  I bought one of these brand new back when they came out (at $1950…ouch!) and used it for years in the legendary “Jaded Heart”.   Continues to be one of the most popular and widely used digital synthesizers and music workstations. Features built-in AI Synthesis for full digital generation and processing using 4MB of PCM sampled and synthesized waveforms which can be shaped using analog-style editing.  Capable of creating acoustic instruments with clarity, nice digital sounds and good buzzy techno sounds.  The M1 is sort of like a workstation-version the Roland D-50.  In addition to its acclaimed sound, it has a somewhat sophisticated 8-track sequencer and holds 10 songs and 100 patterns and up to 7,700 notes, and offers full quantizing and editing.  Full MIDI implementation suits the M1 ideally for studio production and MIDI system use. Up to 8 parts of multitimbrality with the 8 track sequencer makes for a powerful machine. Add to that a host of digital multi-effects and you've got one of the most widely and professionally used Korg synthesizers around.  You can have this wonderful board for $450 (which is $1500 LESS than I paid back in the day!).  $200 flight case available for $79 or nice gigbag for $39.

10. Roland CM-32P, like a U-220, uses standard U-series sound cards, with power supply, $150 

11. Roland XP-50 Music Workstation (click lower right to expand), (pic2).  A better workstation than the D-70 above, with more than twice the power, load more patches, and more refined programmability.   Released in 1995, the XP-50 is not just another synthesizer workstation, it's basically a JV-1080 with a built-in keyboard and a 16-track sequencer.  It is a digital synthesizer using sampled ROM waveforms. Superb sound quality capable of emulating most any instrument imaginable plus totally fat analog synth type sounds and loads of percussion.  It has 64 voices of polyphony and is 16-part multitimbral.   8MB of sounds and it also offers a lot of expandability with 4 expansion slots and 2 data card memory slots. You can get up to 42MB of sounds by adding any of the popular SR-JV80 expansion cards suited for Techno, World Instruments, Orchestral or Synthesizers. There's also plenty of multi-effects, reverbs, choruses and filters for creative flexibility, motion control and extensive MIDI implementation.  Some of the features the XP-50 brings (to the JV-1080) are a standard 61-note keyboard with velocity and aftertouch. The MRC-PRO 16-track sequencer which features 60,000 note capacity and can hold 100 patterns and 1 song. Several recording features (loop, step, realtime), quantization and editing features are available too. A built-in 3.5 inch disk drive facilitates storage of your sequences and MIDI data and a nice 40 X 2 LCD display makes it easy to see where you're at. With a 'bang for your buck' value the XP-50 still makes a great keyboard alternative to the JV-1080. That means you get some of Roland's best sounds in a performance workstation that is as affordable as 'pro-quality' can get.  It has been used by countless professional artists, The Cure among them.  Highly rated (4.3 out of 5) at VintageSynth.  As I recall, list price on this board was over $2K back in '95 so it would have sold new at $1600 or so.  I can easily recommend this unit for your first studio Music Workstation - or the sounds and versatility are certainly good enough for any pro to add to their stage setup.  Another bang for the buck winner at $375(HOLD-Lewis R 10/31).  Note:  Roland has finally made most of their synth manuals available free to the public and should be able to download at the RolandUS site.  

12. Roland D-110 keyboard module, great for synth guitar setup, If you already have a keyboard, here's a nice unit to midi up and expand your tonal options for just $135

13. Roland D-110 rackmount synth (rackmount version of the D-10 keyboard), original list was $800, rack version of the D-10 with improvements such as 6 individual audio outputs, clean shape with original manual.  If you already have a keyboard, here's a nice unit to midi up and expand your tonal options for just $150

14. Roland MT-32 multi-timbral sound module w/drums, w/manual and power supply.  If you already have a keyboard, here's a nice unit to midi up and expand your tonal options for just $75.

15. Roland U-110, rackmount sound module, original list was $1100, contains internal sounds plus has four sound card slots for external patches, $99

16. Roland U-220 Sound Module, $160