From den121961@yahoo.com Fri Nov 12 20:02:04 2010
Subject:Re: Korg CX-3 vs. Roland VK-8

Grant,
I have a CX3, but played the VK8 quite a bit. I also have a friend who toured with the VK8 overseas. One question I'd have is how heavy is your touch? I have a real heavy touch, and thought I was gonna destroy the VK8 when I played it. It just didn't seem as solid as the Korg CX3 to me. My friend who toured with the VK8 had a ton of problems with that holding up also.
I thought the VK8 sounded a little more "listenable" than the CX3. THere's an upper mid peak the korg has that gets a bit annoying. THe VK8, although sounding a bit more "synthy" than the CX to my ear didn't have this. Much less ear fatigue. I also thought the VK had a better overdrive. But for feel, the CX is hands down the winner for me. That was actually the dealbreaker for me. I'm running my CX3 through a leslie right now, and am pretty happy with the sound, although even with a leslie I have to back off of the 5 and 1/3 and 8' drawbars to try and lose some of that harshness.
One thing I did find was that the roland seemed to be very deep purple sounding to my ear. I thought the CX was very MMWish, which kind of makes sense since he's used both the old analog CX and the new one. However, for heep I think the roland might be better. The overdrive is pretty bad on the Korg. And I do sympathize with your thoughts about the XK2. I sit in with a friends band from time to time. Their keys player has an XK2, the leslie sim is pretty useless on that. I end up getting yanked up for "Gimme Some Lovin" and it's a little painful.
Den