| Ed,
I have seen such "Buyer's Guides" in local music stores and advertised
in Keyboard, but I agree with .1. It is better to get the mfg literature,
visit the stores for demos, read reviews in KB and EM etc.
The most familiar current products are:
Roland
D-Series LA Synths D10,D110,D20,D50,D550
S-Series Samplers S10,S50,S330,S550
P-Series Pianos P330 (replaced MKS20)
Kurzweil
K1000 Piano,synth sample player
PX1000 Piano,synth rackmount version
MIDI board master controller
K250 very high end pro gear
Yamaha
DX7 FM synth, very popular, various models
TXxxx FM synths, lots of rack mount variations
Ensoniq
ESQ-1 wave table synth
SQ-80 wave table synth
Mirage sampler
EPS new high end sampler
Korg
DSM-1 Digital sampling module
DRM-1 Digital rhythm module
DSS-1
707 FM synth
DS-8 FM synth
C2500,C3500,C5000 Concert series digital pianos
SGX-1, SGX-1D digital pianos
M1 wavetable synth
Casio
FZ-1 sampler
VZ-1 phase distortion and FM
HZ-600 bi-timbral synth
Akai
S900 sampler
This is only a small list of the currently advertised products. There are
hundreds of models and variations, with different options, price ranges,
portability, rackmount vs. keyboard, etc. The common theme is "MIDI compatible".
If you gain a familiarity with the instruments on this list, you should have
a good start towards understanding your options. I think most of the info in
this list is accurate.
happy shopping,
dave
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Thanks, Dave, for taking the time to enter the long list of items.
This will certainly help me to get a good overview of the
market.
If someone publishes a GOOD UP-TO-DATE "Buyer's Guide" I
would think this would be rather helpful to lots of people.
For those people who are interested in buying used equipment
the technical data may not (guessing) be available anymore
from the company if they don't manufacture the product.
Also for people interested in the historial growth of the
products. ie. Gee, in 1984 keyboards had 3 widgets but now
look they have 6 widgets but the price is one-half the 1984
model. And then of course for my case where people are new to
the market they would get an overview of the products available.
I just got a copy of "The Macintosh Buyer's Guide" at the
MACworld Expo and found the book to be extremely helpful
already. Maybe the same is needed for the electronic world.
Thanks,
Ed Swartz
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