swissfrank

A real Hammond will last 80 years but need annual maintenance. The XK-5 won't last that long but won't need work until it dies... and is easy to gig with. This digital simulation sounds as good and plays as well as the real thing. My main problem with it is that I wish they had the multi-contact keyboard in an SK-X-type package. I'd probably prefer that, since I don't use the preset keys (reverse color keys) and they just make the thing 20% bulkier for no up-side. Due to a bunch of horse-trading, I got the lower manual, stand, bench, and full-size pedal board free, and got my XK-5 for the price I sold my XK-3c+XLK-3 for.

Only does one thing but does it so well. I bought mine needing all the hammers and strings to be replaced. It's simple work though and was a good intro into keyboard teching.

Far less power than the Mono/Poly. The Mono/Poly filter also sounds better for glistening-type leads. I typically like the Minimoog a bit more for bass, and the Mono/Poly for everything else. I play the Minimoog and Mono/Poly via a Kenton Pro4, which I have map velocity to a filter CV, making both synths velocity-sensitive as well.

Far more power than the other classic monosynths. I typically like the Minimoog a bit more for bass, and the Mono/Poly for everything else. I play the Minimoog and Mono/Poly via a Kenton Pro4, which I have map velocity to a filter CV, making both synths velocity-sensitive as well.

FM is mostly pointless and modern software or keyboards runs circles around these old things

I played one in college, and bought another a few months ago for $112. I got it because it's so fast to dial in bread-and-butter analog polysynth sounds and more. I think 95% of the time people won't be able to tell it apart from a Jupiter-8 that costs 150x more. The DW-8000 does have pretty bad aliasing in the top octave or two, due to the waveforms 1) not being oversampled and 2) not being interpolated. But if you're not playing super-high-pitch notes, or have a fat enough sound, the aliasing won't be noticed by most owners. Matt Johnson, Jamariquai kbds, says in one of his vids: "people comment I'm only making bread and butter sounds in my videos... well most of the time, what a song needs are bread and butter sounds..." I spent a half-hour looking for some basic sawtooth synth pad on the Kronos 2 and realized that on the DW-8000 I'd have been able to program the entire patch in 90 seconds.

It's not old enough to sound cool from having analog filters, yet not new enough for digital to give you much power. So it's kind of a low period for synths. That said this was the most successful keyboards for several years and on all albums in all genres it seems. I picked it up because I found a rack (takes little space) expanded version (double the sounds) in mint condition. I actually haven't recorded anything with it and don't goof around with it much but I feel it's nice to have on hand just in case.

This does some weird and unusual synthy things that most newer synths and software synths never tried to copy, as far as I know. It's super synthy: not the instrument to use if you want just a piano or electric piano, etc. Touch screen and lots of knobs make it pretty easy to use. It doesn't have sequencer, massive polyphonicity etc., which keep it simpler than a workstation.

All you really need to know is that it's been the most powerful line of workstations for like 12 years straight. The bad news I'd say is: 1) physically speaking feels pretty weak and cheap compared to my old Roland Fantom G7 2) it is FAR more confusing to use than the Fantom G7 3) In this age of multiple splits I want more than 61 keys but 88 is overkill. I liked the Fantom G7's 76 keys, and its light weight with the unweighted keyboard. The Kronos 2's 73-key weighted keyboard makes it way too heavy to comfortably gig, and frankly I don't have the chops for a piano-style keyboard any more.