From jake92028@yahoo.com Tue Feb 17 04:11:39 2004
Subject:CX3 ears vs VK8 - 2nd pass

I dropped into Guitar Center in San Marcos, Cali to return a 3-tier
keyboard stand that turned out to be too big and heavy for my gear.
After that was taken care of, I did my usual pass through their newly
redesigned store's main keyboard room. Amongst the humongous gear-
freak's paradise of keyboards - everything connected to its own pair
of small vertical racked powered monitors - was a new VK8 powered up
with a few drawbars out. Shouldn't have touched the dawgone thing!
I originally A/B'd a CX3 and VK8 about a year ago and didn't really
do a full 'review,' due to quickly discovering how wretched the VK8
Leslie simulation was vs the CX3 which sounded great even in mono
while the VK8 sim sounded worse = I bought the CX3. Being the very
happy owner of the new Motion Sound Pro-145 leslie, thus having no
rotary sim bias ..the VK8 sounded terrific. This time I tried most
of the various settings, different drawbar registrations, and extra
bells and whistles the CX3 doesn't have. I'm aware of how easy it is
to be fooled into "sow's ear = silk purse" by a hi-fi audio setup
you're not used to, with the little paired monitors just what GC's
keyboards needed. But the drawbar settings had that nice extra
brightness at very top of the keyboard and the 1' was loud and clear
in mid-keyboard at 888000008 with CV combinations seemingly right
on. The added instruments seemed not to be up to Roland standards.
IMO Roland 'instrument' samples have, for the most part, been going
downhill since the SC-55, with only an occasional great patch, a
couple of pianos, fx etc - sort of like they're trying too hard to
be "too cool." The VK8's piano sounded OK and more so in the lower
register, an alright combination with drawbars too. Anyway, the
organ section being what's important, I like it!

Walter j

BTW, if anyone needs a monster keyboard stand, big round tubes on the
bottom and top, heavy rectangle irons for the double X and use-em-or-
not HD angled 2nd & 3rd tiers @ $129: GC stand I took back was an On-
Stage Extreme 430 which seemed just right to hold a chop. I wanted a
3rd tier stand to try, thought smaller demo was the same build.