Re: the smallest portable hardware keyboard synth

[Mark Hamburg <mark@grubmah.com>]

On May 19, 2011, at 11:20 PM, Johannes Korn wrote:

2011/5/19 Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>

I have and enjoy the microkorg, but it does NOT have quality strings, vintage pianos or organs in it......repeat  does NOT have those sounds.

Yes, I forgot to write that the same applies to the Korg R3.

And by the way, like the mikrokorg, the R3 relly comes to life when sending it through an effects unit. The internal effects are not bad, but I really like the sound when I mangle it with the Line6 M13. I like to use Distortion, Phasers, Tremolo, Wah, Ring Modulator etc. 

If looking at virtual analog, which of course won't get many of the requested sounds, the Akai Miniak (and it's forebear the Alesis Ion) are probably both worth looking at. The Ion engine was very well reviewed in its time. I would probably be drawn to the Minak myself if it had an aftertouch sensitive keyboard (the keyboard on the MPK49 controller is fairly nice) and if it didn't sacrifice having easy arpeggiation controls purely in favor of a "phrase arpeggiator" which I'm sure is very cool but harder to use. (I'm a guitarist looking for some extra sounds as opposed to a keyboard player.)

If you must have a broader range of sounds, then you probably want to be looking at some of the more workstation-ish keyboards but they tend to be 61 keys and up and hence not really tiny though presumably something named the Korg microStation is slimmed down in some way.

Mark