Playing Every KEYBOARD and SYNTH I Own 

The technology has reached the stage that they all sound very good, it is more down to personal preference which you consider “best’.

Why is it that you can play a piece perfectly in rehearsal, but when it comes time to record I always make mistakes? One of life’s unfathomable mysteries.

Personally, I like the sound of the Modx6 the most. Warm and subtle. Gymnopédies is probably not the best to be playing on a Korg, because of its harsh, compressed pianos. On a side note, very courageous to still be wearing shorts in October ;) Lastly, a tip is to place a sticker on every power adaptor with the model no.

Great symbiosis of electronic instruments and unplugged classic pieces... Liked it a lot. Thanks!

One of your best vids Woody. Big thanks for this one.

Swap out the Triton for a Kronos 2. Doesn't really matter unless one is playing classical music in a quiet room. If one is at that level then they would be playing a real grand piano. For gigging musicians it comes down to a sound that can cut through the rest of the band. For example, I gig with a Korg 01-W/FD and use the default A01 and B01 piano patches because they cut through. I have a sampled grand piano on a card, but it's not loud enough when the band turns up. On the organ sounds, the Hammond (XK-2, XK-5) does make a difference, but most people in the crowd can't tell the difference. Organ sounds on a synth do sound electronic and the Leslie simulation is lacking, but there's pedals that can make up for that (Ventilator).

Your videos are always a treat and I really enjoyed this one and a very worthwhile comparison! Had my mug of latte too. So much better than television. 😁💜

Great, really enjoyed that. Thanks for posting.

This is such a relaxing video. Thank you Woody

Oooh a mega video from Woody, right as I'm about to go to sleep. Guess I'm staying up 🎹

So now all your family members know how many keyboards you have scattered around the house. You have been exposed 😁😁😁

Great piano work, Woody - Very Nice played. My favorit is Modx, but still Korg Kross 2.. You really get a lot for your money... Love that little synth 😊❤️

Nice one woody. Really enjoyed this one. Thanks..

I love this kind of vídeo! Greetings from Brazil!

Great playing! The MODX is a the best Synth I've ever owned, a wonderful instrument.

Thoroughly enjoyed this Woody. A very instructive video and I stand in awe of your playing and the technologies demonstrated. I am a, very, amateur player of a Genos, but your videos have inspired me to learn more about synths so I am currently struggling to get to grips with Dexed via Cakewalk with my Genos as the midi keyboard. Should be fun.👍😀

You've got me seriously tempted by the Pianoteq now. Surprised that only one comment gave it the nod - it was by far my favourite (particularly the Cinematic patch), followed by the MODX's CFX and Bosendorfer. Beautiful playing, Woody - especially as you were having to adjust your touch to suit all those different keybeds.

Beautiful performing Woody...I am my worst critic, you may yours too. We sometimes forget the beholder (listener) wants an emotional experience from music. While we can appreciate great skills, emotion is what we love, and come back for. Just like the last Beethoven piece you played last, favorites we come back to 100s of times to listen....why?.....soothing to the soul, and speaks a beautiful language to our hearts.

It's amazing how much piano samples have improved through time.

Pure Awesomeness💖💖💖

Your video on the électrices was among the first I saw, a couple years ago, and it made me buy one, I’ms still happy with it, so cheers to you, thanks again for your videos !!

The modx piano sound is one of the best.

My, that's a plethora of virtual pianos. Very nice playing Woody. Would you ever stack all those in racks so they're setup permanently? Or space an issue?

Lovely video! I bought Pianoteq Stage 6 + M-Audio Hammer 88 Midi controller and I love them! The MODX sounds outstanding and the both Korgs sounds like the EMU ESI-2000 piano sample from the 90s house music!

Your skills have improoved regardless of your mistakes

Thank-you so much for this. It's all progressed very far - from the plug-plug plug of that early yamaha to the pianotq's vector dimensionality. Love watching you play and your enjoyment of playing. Never apologize for those hands, arms or legs. A human interfacing with a human-positive instrument is so much more impactfull. I wish I could type as well as you play :)

Cool video Woody!!

oooh I liked all your musical picks

Very interesting to hear how far the modelling technology has come nowadays. It sounds like a high quality sample based piano, but with just a fraction of the size in terms of storage. Great video! Love the playing!

Really enjoyed your piano playing in this one. This video must have been a lot of work. The pianos all sounded great in their own way.

lovely stuff, wish I could play one of those lovely pieces. would even look at dots if it helped!

I’m quite impressed with piano sound on the Korg Kross. It has some nice nuances to it.

That modx sounded fantastic

Hi from the other side of the planet, Newcastle Australia. Nice comparison and playing, Woody! I would not have expected the Korg Triton to sound as good as it does. The piano sound is very usable, not bad for 20+ year old tech! I think music tech is now chasing increasingly diminishing returns. I have to say I enjoy your playing, wish I could play as well! I know classical snobs can be very picky, which is boring! Music should be enjoyed by everyone!

Bare foot over slippers any day :~) You really put a LOT of work into this, Woody 👍👍👍

Woodie - highly recommend getting a PTouch style label maker, and marking up your power adapters! Saves a lot of time when digging around in the adapter storage bin :)

Interesting test, with results I pretty much expected. I'll throw in my thoughts on some gear that wasn't shown; all piano patches have a purpose and a proper place, even if they're not the most realistic. I love going back to my Kurzweil K2500R and PC2R, as well as the Yamaha Motif Classic Power Grand. As far as Roland goes, I typically never use their pianos (I have a good selection from the Fantom XR/XV-5050 back to the JD line). The Korg Triton Extreme has good pianos that aren't in the VST version. But I've got a PSR-S670 coming in the mail, because from what I've heard, it beats out all others in sheer playability.

Impressive collection! I miss seeing all of the old synths, but I understand why you got rid of them :). I've always loved Yamaha's pianos personally. Nice and warm sounding, perfect for every situation (imo). Even though the Triton piano sounded a bit dated, I really enjoyed that one! Very charming.

What is your opinion about the piano sounds on the Yamaha Modx ? Will they cut through the mix ?

Your window is haunted! @00:16

I just realized we kept similar keyboards and pianos. I have a Kross 1, a PSR-S775, a P-125, and Addictive Keys from years ago as my VST of choice. I don't have a Modx or Triton equivalent since I'm not much of a synth guy 😅

My favorite was the MODX, followed by PianoTeq.

aaand at 23:45, Woody yanks me back to my childhood and the old NPR (national public radio) program "Adventures in Good Music," with Karl Haas. (The program used this piece as its theme.)

BWV 846 and 847 always bring tears to my eyes.

Hi Woody. Love your style of mentoring/teaching us on your synths. Okay its not classical concert mastering but yiou can play reasonably good classical tunes. I even can use it to learn it myself since you show quite good your handsettings on the video. Pity to hear you 'lend' the Korg Triton. Although, with the Korg Kross you have found yourself nearby the master ;-). I have an option on a secondhand buy of a Triton for 450 euros, I think its a feastprice! My history: in the eighties I owned 2 Roland Juno 106s and a friend of mine had the Roland D50. All sold and he went over to the Roland D70 and I bought the Korg M1. Both again extreme fine synthesizers. Because of moneyproblems I had to sell the M1 and his D70 went into the shag collecting dust: we went over to sofware synths.. Computerwise we both evoluated from the Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum to the Atari ST 1040 using Steinberg Pro 24 or Cubase and lateron PCs and lapops with midi, and I see you also like me are using Reaper :-). Im still learning that, my main DAW was long Magix Music Studio 15. Easypeasy . Concerning the softsynths, I bought by incident as a start the legendary 2: Hartman Neuron vst (fantastic) and the Native Instrument Absynth 4 ( even better). The rest is all copying from others or using utorrent ;-) . But my taste is still going more to physical synths. I was on the point of buying the Arturia Microfreak, or a decent drumcomputer, but I happend to stumble on that secondhand Korg Triton, so fingers crossed if he still have one :-) . Nice to hear your youtube movies every time. Cheers from Amsterdam, Frank Nederstigt, fneder@gmail.com . Hope to keep warm contact with you. You liook like a nice guy. Which country do you live?

I like that Bosendorfer sample. It alone would sell me on the synthesizer.

If the stand collapsed and you went face first into the floor the video would be viral. I love the second playing. This is absolutely right, free time playing with emotion sounds the best. Manufactures now plan for wrong power supplies to some extent. They put a blocking diode in case you reverse the polarity of the supply. Lower voltage won't damage keyboards but higher voltage can if the keyboard isn't designed with it's own voltage limiter (regulator).

You can never have too many synths. 😄

Bravo for the huge effort in setting up and playing throug all those synths!! Great work!! The Yamahas all sound relative good, to my year. The Korgs are terrible as standalone instruments, but they might work in a mix situation. What you really need is a NORD, of some kind... Electro, Stage, Grand... same engine all around. To me (but i am biased by owning one myself), they sound better... The problem is always the HEAFTY pricetag, but couldn't you send your kids over to the CEO and ask for a borrow? "Hejsan, min pappa MÅSTE FÅ LÅNA et instrument til sin You-tube kanal! Han vågar inte själv fråga!" ;-) ;-) ;-) Best greetings from Denmark

I'm probably a total heathen but the Yamaha SY85 piano is still my favourite despite it's simplicity with the Yamaha EX5 one in second place. The Bosendorfer one on the MODX sounds really good and I think I'll (finally) give it a spin today. The Kross was pretty impressive.

I have Yamaha p 115,the predecessor of p125/121. I could immediately identify the CFlll sample because I have the experience of playing it for last 5 years .This Cf3 sample has an unparalleled realism,an overall endearing hammer action and touch level.The piano sample has a bit granular amazing texture which is lacking in all other piano samples from other keyboards demonstrated in this video by Mr Woody. None of the other piano sounds(despite being regarded as superior cfx compared to cf3)from modx or hi end psr can come even an inch closer to the cf3 sample from digital p 121.The rumbling bass and lush thick,juicy mid and treble timbre of p121(or p115 in my case) is far too superior. The psr sounded sounded like an hollow sounding short sample with some effects . The Bosendorfer sample played on modx has some quality,while the main preset is thin sounding without any delicate character. The korg triton is antiquated and completely useless at present moment,as far as sonic nuances of piano sampling is considered. The korg kross is good and really shines ,considering its price point and sonic texture. The vst samples are pretty much worthless,although the vsts are duped as being taken from yamaha...but these vsts are far from being authentic in any sense whatsoever.Cold ,cheap and not lacking organic feel would be my description for the vst. In a nutshell, the p 121 digital piano is the epitome of execellence. Next in sequence would be korg kross followed by yamaha modx bosendorfer in 3rd position.Rest of everything else are out of the league ; korg triton, psr sx900,vsts are pretty good expnsive toys must I say I want to appreciate Mr Woody for his great labourious effort of going to such great extent of demonstrating all these heavy keyboards.However bringing in the Rolands would have been a further enrichment to this already amazing experience of auditioning of these great keyboards.

Thank you

Those MODX piano sounds are astonishingly good! I love my Kross but I cannot pretend that the sounds compare.

One criticism is I would have loved to have an acoustic piano in this comparison, just to have as a baseline sound to compare off of. Thanks for the excellent video Woody!

Interesting that you mentioned the velocity issue on your Novation keyboard. I have a Launchkey 49MkII and no matter how I fiddle with its velocity settings, it always feels off when compared to my Keystep.

I liked all of them but in terms of authenticity I liked the P121 the best, closely followed by the MODX. I’m amazed you did all that without stubbing your toe even once!

Im surprised with the korg kross piano sound. It's very awesome

Thanks for the video. Lovely playing, as always! If you could only have one keyboard to be used as a controller for your synths and pianos on the PC, which one would be?

For me the Modx6, sounds most realistic and satisfying. Frankly when I got my Triton 88, I was somewhat disappointed by the nasally character of the piano sample but after some time teaking and layering I've come to some peace. In bands, my M1 and O1W piano always cut through the mix but these days I'm much happier with softer, throatier tones with more dynamic range . These classical pieces you're playing compare that nicely.

Gymnopédies....Wiki says: The work's unusual title comes from the French form of gymnopaedia, the ancient Greek word for an annual festival where young men danced naked - or perhaps simply unarmed.........oh er! Great playing. I really enjoy my MODX piano sounds.

The triton is a bit deceptive (really muffled) but that a really old sample, the Triton extreme have a dedicated rom bank for piano sound and it sounds better, but clearly sounds dated too. I’m more and more attracted to modelling instead of sampling with latest computer/hardware power they made a huge jump in the last decade, and sounds really good, better than sampling some times. It miss some Roland hardware, would have loved to hear a comparison with the fantom modeled piano ;) Ive been super impressed by the RD piano sound from the Jupiter XM, either connect to my monitors but even with the embedded speakers, they sounds rreally good. My own piano test for modern stuff is playing the extreme and compare (lowest possible notes and highest and see how they behave and sounds, that’s were most samples base struggle and differ) And an Interesting take on Fur Elise! For the rest of hardware, it really more about preferences they all sounds good!

I like to evaluate old synths as external (MIDI) synths, - having chosen the nicest one and used it as MASTER...

A ghost lowered the blinds at :15 ? You should get a Korg Kronos 2, you'd love it!

Oh Woody I have been gone for a while I got sick and I removed my videos from youtube ,,, woody your one my favorite fellas on youtube ,,,

i'd ask you more about the haunting of your blinds !!

Personally, I think the action is as important as the actual sound when playing classical piano. The MODX sounds great, but foremost it’s an achievement to play so good on the synth action, in terms of velocity levels etc. Might get Pianoteq with a weighted controller someday too.

Call me perverse... but I really liked the Korg Kross 2. Must admit that when I just want to chill to some lovely piano sounds, I use a vst sampled Steinway off my ancient Yamaha PSR-530 - did I mention that I love midi...?

Troy-meh-rye and Bur-zen-dorfer. ;)

Cool video! Nice to have options. If you had to only keep just one hypothetically, which would stay?

Hi Woody, so if I understand correctly, you don't have a "home studio room" where all your keyboard could be always ready to play on stands? You have to put them out of their bag each time you need to play them? By the way, would be interesting to know your feedback regarding the "keybeds" feeling on these synths. Are the PSR one crappy? I know the Modx is crappy because I have tested it in shops. My MOXF6 is better and this is not a top notch keybed. My PA4x is far better but still not exceptionnal. I miss the keybed from my EX7 :(

Bug Yamaha about getting a YC61 to demo, please. Of course it’s an organ, but I would really like to see how it “synths”, too. If I ever get to spending that kind of money on an instrument (vs 300 to 700 USD range), the “stage” layout looks far more enjoyable than the MODX (Montage) panel, after already spending 40 hours a week programming computers.

The MODx sounded really nice, very rich. Also the Pianoteq was a surprise. Would love to see you playing a Kronos, which is what I have. Anyway, given the states of current models (Kross, Modx, even the most affordable Casios)... the state of affairs is that any board on sale will be more than enough. As with a good photo camera, it's the hands of the player what matters.

I sort of forgot the comparisons and lost myself to the lovely classical pieces. Need to rewatch this when i'm in a more analytic mode I guess ☺️

Kross sound pretty fine!

They all sound pretty good, what was your FAV keybed to play on Woody?

Just when you thought you had hidden that latest acquisition :). I think that Yamaha hit the mark for cost and quality for most musicians with the MODX. I still think a good 88 key bed keyboard for someone like you who actually plays piano piece goes a LONG way :). Even with my limited piano experience I immediately get a better piano when I have to work for my sound LOL.

The biggest change would have been if you had put in the M1 and compared it to the Triton. Even the Triton have a very decent Piano sound for being 20 years old. Its definetly still usabIe today for most musicians if you just need 1 board to cover your needs. I swear, I can almost hear that the Kross have either a horrible default velocity curve/worse keybed or no different velocity samples. It sounded a bit better than the Triton, but every note sound kinda like they are played at max velocity. In my book the Yamaha CFX samples are one of the best Piano samples I have ever heard, and I would really like to see a detailed comparison between the Montage/Modx/Genos for just that sound and hear a pianists opinion if there is a hearable difference between how it sounds on the 3 instruments.

5:03 i am just listening to the video while brooming so not a problem for me :D

I had the Kross for 3 weeks and was so disappointed about the sounds and the very complex and illogical screens, that I decided to send it back to the music shop. Now I ordered a MODX6. Much better !

Woody- You could work on playing Zez Confrey's "Kitten on the Keys" (rag) or Bolcoms "Graceful Ghost" (rag). Just teasing. I can't play these two pieces. Nice job on the piano playing. You played some of my favorite pieces. Gary

Get yourself a label maker, helps with with the power supply identification

What is the brand and model of yr keyboard stand shown in the beginning?

Have you updated the Firmware for the MODX? (2.51) Some cool new features...

Sir can you give a good quality of piano tone for Sx900?

Woody... I think that keybed like Montage are much better than any midi controller. I am not a pianist, I grew up with synths, so I don't like hammer keys, but Montage is the perfect compromise. Half weighted but with dynamics. Do you agree with me?

i always use a piece of 1.75" wide masking tape and a sharpie and label every power supply... even the obvious ones still get labeled 👍 organization 🤷‍♂️😂

I'm no kind of pianist, but I like the Yamaha Grand in Logic X.

Korg Kross 2 is most realistic unprocessed upright piano sound! And fantastic processed last two VST . Why is that? Because it sounds perfect at all high, mid and low frequency. Most of digital piano sounds at lowes more like Bass.

Nice video Woody, thought the Modx6 sounded good, but you need to look at a Roland piano, thought the plug ins were really lacking

i'm surprised more people don't search out the Kurzweil's (Forte, PC3K88 etc.)

Did you sell your Nord electro 4?

Use a label printer to mark up the PSUs, saves a lot of time and hassle!

I liked them all except for the Triton which sounded awful (unpleasant ringing and I was even wondering if there were strings enabled alongside the piano sample). I enjoyed the music and your performances, though, so I might not have been the most critical listener :-) Played the Satie piece for my first two recitals (I started playing piano as an adult) incidentally on a Yamaha grand. A while back I ran across a recording of the same piece of music plays on various grand pianos and I was surprised that I liked the mellow tonal quality of the Yamaha more than the usual suspects (Bösendorfer, Fazioli, Steinway etc). Let me preface by saying that I am no good by any means, but I found that the longer (as in years) I play the piano the more importance, pleasure and inspiration I find in a responsive action. It lead me to upgrade from a Yamaha S90 to Kawai MP11SE. Did a quick comparison of my Kawai against Pianoteq and I thought there was more of a difference than what you demonstrated in Pianoteq's favor. That said, when I sit down to practice every day, there is a lot of value to press the power button and you are playing a few seconds later.

Next step for you, Woody: the Keyscape VSTi from Spectrasonics, playing your favourite Howard Jones tracks like Greg Phillinganes? 😄 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-svX6WRWBP8o.html

The Triton's stock acoustic piano sounds are IMHO truly terrible unless you go for the EXB01 or EXB08 expansion board. I've owned and sold Korg T3EX, DW8000, Trinity Plus, Triton Classic fully expended with sample ram, MOSS board and exb01 and exb02 expansion boards, IX300, PA2X Pro, Z1EX, Wavestation AD, Wavestation SR, Roland U220, 3 x JV1080 and XV3080 fully expended with expansion boards, TB303, E56, MDC1 dance module, Yamaha DX9, Alesis S4 Plus, Ensoniq TS12, General Music PRP800 plus a stack of fx and dynamics rack units and Yamaha 03D digital mixer. I do regret selling the DW8000, Wavestation AD, Z1EX and MDC1. I now have everything in the box so to say using a Mac Mini M1 16gb 1TB SSD controlled by an Arturia Keylab 61 MK11. For gigs, I use a Roland RD88 and Korg Kross 2 because they're both lightweight and complement each other very nicely. Great video Woody. Keep up the great work buddy.

Never did like Triton's Piano's (and I own 2), they just don't sparkle at the top end like Yamaha's do. Great playing Woody.

You no longer have the Nord Electro 4?

All the Nord keyboards replaced with these?

You know who else performs barefoot? The great Steven Wilson!

Most modern Keyboards offer a huge amount of functions and are too complicated for a good workflow ! Displays went big , but this advantage is lost with too many given details at one look. The best company for me was Ensoniq , with really big displays , showing big letters , as it was with the SQ-80 , the VFX , the SD-1 and the TS-10. The 6 MB Wave-Rom of the TS-10 was far better than from the Korg M1 as an example. The warm sounds of the Ensoniq TS-10 are still unbeatable ! All sounds have a wide dynamic range , so they can be played with a great expression. I still have my old Ensoniq TS-10 and I would NEVER sell it. With the great variety of sounds you can play anything at a high quality level , - Pop , any kind of Folklore and even Classic music. If you do not believe , listen to my Classic-music compose for a ballet dance : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Fc9KH8OGOH8.html or this classic-music in a Greek-style : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zOzbng3FmtY.html