Music Workstations – Portable Music Studio in One Keyboard Workstation

When you reach the stage wherein you are exploring various music workstations and considering buying one, you are no longer just a keyboard or a Piano player.

You have grown as a musician and you are becoming better at composing, arranging and music technology skills.

Now you need something which will help you to give shape to all the musical ideas in your head...and that is where the Keyboard Music workstation fits in.

A Music workstation is also known as a keyboard music workstation... or simply as a workstation.

Music Workstation Keyboards - Competition is Getting Hotter

Music Workstations is one area where all the major players (Roland, Korg, Yamaha) want to dominate, to show their supremacy in the digital keyboard instruments arena.

Yamaha, which did not have any presence in the Music Workstations market, entered with a bag few years back with the Motif ES. It just tore apart the competition at that time.

Korg and Roland had no choice but to innovate and come with better products. Korg came out with the Triton Extreme, which made it cheaper to own a Triton. Roland came with the super Fantom X series, which included audio recording as well.

These three continue to improve their flagship products and continue to offer more at reduced prices. Of course, as a consumer you can’t ask for more as the eventual beneficiary of this competition is going to be You!

Currently, the latest offerings from these include:

Yamaha MOTIF-XF6 / Yamaha MOTIF-XF8: 16 audio channels directly to the DAW

Korg M3 61-Key / Korg M3 88-Key: Aggressive on price, based on their flagship OASYS

Roland Fantom-G6 / Roland Fantom-G8: Better sequencing, editing, display and hardware quality

As of now, no new models in this category have been announced, so maybe it's time to get an established product.

Why A Music Workstation?

It can be described as a portable music studio!

The basic aim of having a workstation is simple, you do not want to leave your instrument when you get that brilliant idea in your head. You need all the tools at one place to turn that idea into a masterpiece.

Features

• Multi-track Sequencing – lets you record and edit your composition, including vocals
• Drum machine – record, edit and play rhythm tracks
• Synthesizer – lets you create, edit, store and play back the sounds
• Sampler – lets you record external sounds, manipulate and play back the sounds
• Effects device – apply effects like reverbs, delays etc. at both the global level as well as at channel specific levels
• Controllers - includes knobs, switches, faders, ribbon, etc. to let you change each and every parameter of sound

Popular Brands

Yamaha is also projecting its Tyros as an arranger workstation though it is more of an arranger keyboard and not as powerful as the Motif.

On stage

Once on the stage, you can apply effects or use the controllers to modulate the sounds on the fly without needing any external gear.

Accessories for Music Workstation

First of all get yourself a nice keyboard stand and if you are going to play more of the piano, a good padded keyboard bench.

For working on demos or creating music at home, you may wat to get yourself a nice pair of closed headphones that isolates sound well.

A good sustain piano style pedal will suit piano players and a volume plus expression pedal will come handy on stage.

High-quality audio cables are always required if you are a regular performer onstage. Keeping that in mind, instrument cables will benefit you on the stage or in the studio.

For getting the best sounds from your setup, you can go in for good powered monitors for studio use and for your onstage setup, get yourself a powerful PA system / keyboard amplifier

Related Posts

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Yamaha Motif Review - The Core of Your Studio / Stage Rig
Roland Fantom Review - Most Powerful Workstation from Roland
Korg M50 Workstation Review - For the Working Musician

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