best keyboard for synth instruments?

[booinec]

What keyboard has the most realistic instrument sounds, either built in or as add ons.
I suspect some will shine in one area, and others a different area, but in general, what would you recommend please?
Boo

[ladewd]

The higher end Yamaha's and Korgs provide the best realistic instruments (IMO). I use a Yamaha S90 and love the piano, rhodes and organ. Horns and strings are good, but the guitar presets suck. I also have a Korg Triton LE. The Korg is not quite as nice as the Yamaha on the acoustic piano, but all the other instruments sound pretty realistic including the guitars.

CA

[Bhennies]

for rhodes and wurlitzer's, the roland stuff is hot- but still not quite authentic. I have a triton, which all in all is a very versatile keyboard, but if you really want vintage keys to shine- buy the original...I bought a '75 rhodes mark I and have never heard ANYTHING that even comes close to reproducing that sound- the action and overtones are crazy on those things- no synth can replicate it with todays technology. I used to think that the triton had good wurly's, but once I played my friend's wurlitzer piano- once again, I was shocked by how much better the real thing sounds. For daily duty, however, the triton is my pick cause it's very versatile and has great sounds (not just vintage keys), although a lot of people swear by the yamaha motif and roland fantom and I must say that my friend's roland xp-88 is nice too.

IN case you're interested, there's a guy in Pennsylvania that will convert a rhodes to a MIDI controller. Buy one of those, get a triton rack, and you'd have the most amazing setup.

[Slim Shady]

I love the Yamaha Motif stuff, I've had a Motif Rack and now have the ES7 and would recommend them over the Korg stuff, which comes off kinda plastic-y for me (which works great for some genres). The motif's are great for almost any sounds - traditional keys (rhodes/wurlis), great guitars, good strings and orchestral stuff and really nice drums/perc. It's not the best at analog emulation, but there's lots of soft synths that do that now, and the Hammond sounds aren't the best but are usable, other than that the motif rocks.

If you're really into vintage keys, the new Nord Electro 3 has AMAZING B3 emulation, and does a fantastic job with Wurli and Rhodes emulation too - the only drawback is that you can only have one sound at a time, so it's more of a performance board than a studio stool.

[booinec]

Thank you so much for the replies thus far. I will look into your recommendations. I have the guitar aspect covered as that is my main instrument. I really nned some help with percussion, and the traditional orchestral instruments. Are the keyboards sufficient to the percussion task, or should I be looking at drum machimnes?

[pk_hat]

If you have Reason, get the Electromechanical Refill (free from the Props website for registered Reason users). Perhaps the best virtual Rodes and Wurlys I've ever heard. Pair that up with a nice 88 weighted key controller and you're off to the races.

[booinec]

Midi is thus far being unkind to me. I have a note sustain problem that I have posted on the midi part of the DUC. (notes in various patches do not turn off, and I've worked with the Sampletank 2XL folks for a few weeks without success.) I find myself leaning toward audio tracks exclusivly, thus my desire to have a keyboard handle everything except the guitar aspects.

[Bhennies]

for percussion- even though SO MANY people use the triton for drums- I personally use battery with a mix of live hi hats and snare. I know you said MIDI gives you trouble, and I feel the same way, but battery is an extremely useful tool and battery 2 is about to come out soon which looks even better. By the way, battery will accept just about any file you can throw at it (AKAI, etc.)