When I was young, there were more or less three utterly desirable and droolworthy synthesizer/samplers. Though you may not realize it, you have almost certainly heard all of these.1 They are:
The Kurzweil K250, clocking in at the low, low price of about ten thousand dollars. Legendarily created at the suggestion of Stevie Wonder, apparently the first sampler with a bunch of useful samples in ROM. It had a very impressive piano sound for 1984.
The Fairlight CMI, for $60,000-$80,0002 in the model current when I cared (shortly before they went out of business). The first commercial sampler, probably about a quarter of the sound of 80s music.3
The New England Digital Synclavier, which apparently cost $200,000 in a small configuration, was, I think, the first attempt at a commercial product for making music (from composition with to sound generation) with computers. They added sampling shortly after the CMI appeared, but then expanded the capability into a fully tapeless study, back when that was not only fresh and new (as opposed to "duh" like is today) but mind-blowing.4
I don't actually want any of these devices any more, because trying to get anything done with what passed for an embedded UI in the 80s would be unbelievably frustrating. There's a K250 on eBay at the moment for $650 (for pickup somewhere in California), and while it's seriously tempting (they were supposedly really well-built instruments) it's almost certainly not worth the hassle.5
It's also worth noting as context, that a cheap (and as pianos go, you do tend to get what you pay for) new upright piano goes for about $5000, with instruments more acceptable to the discriminating going for $10,000, $20,000, up to (reputedly) $100,000 or so for a Bösendorfer Imperial Grand (97 Keys! Eight Full Octaves! I want one! I really have nowhere to put it!).
Today, the "high end"6 dedicated instruments cost between $2000 and $5000 and mostly classed as "Sampler-Workstations". The 61-key version of Korg's M3 (which is on the cheaper end of such things) for instance, has a typical street price of $1900. This still struck me at the beginning of this process as overly expensive, given the difference in available computing power between the then above, and the now, when the phone in my pocket has several orders of magnitude more computing power than anything above.
However, after adding up some numbers, I think it's actually a pretty fair price. First of all, we need to abstract the price of the keyboard controller; I'm going to pick the Akai MPK61 which has a street price of $500. Add a MacBook7 for $1000, and a copy of Ableton Suite (which should have everything you need) for $850, giving us a naive total price of $2350. Admittedly, the computer does more, but I actually suspect that it would be a good idea if my musical instrument does not have a web browser.
In the end, I'm going withhave purchased the 88-key version of the M3, with the
RADIAS analog-modeling-synth add-in card as
my primary keyboard. I decided that I wanted the big-keyboard version
so I could at least practice for the piano (and you know, a little
pitch range never hurt anyone). I'm very likely going to add a
Blofeld
keyboard, because I kind of want a second manual, and because it
sounds so awesome (listen to the demo tracks). Oh, and go look at the
entry for the module version...
> In the end, I'm have purchased the 88-key version
> of the M3,
Yay! Congratulations.
If I ever have a Real House and a bit more cash than I know what to do with, I'm so totally getting a grand piano. Unlikely to be the Böesendorfer Imperial -- more likely a Steinway or something a little less exorbitant -- though I'd give good money to play an Imperial, just once. There's just nothing that can match a grand's sound, and <3 <3 <3. :-)
Was there a Fairlight making decks in the Sprawl books? The way Gibson and Sterling imaginged their hacking machines are put together always reminded me of synthesizers.
Kevin, I told myself that when I bought a house, I would buy a piano (figuring that buying a house meant I was committing to living in a permanent place, so I wouldn't have to lug a piano from apartment to apartment). So after several years in the workforce, I bought a house, and then a few years after that, I bought a piano. :) Not a Bosendorfer, though (let alone an Imperial). (Fandrich & Sons, 6'1".)
(According to my piano shopping notes, I really liked Bluthner ("Pretty sure you could easily fall in love with this piano"), even more so than the $100k+ 9' Steinway D (too no-nonsense, as far as I can reconstruct). I think this means that if I'm ever looking for another piano, I'll probably look at Bluthners first.)
(Piano shopping is totally the best excuse in the world to try out lots of gorgeous pianos that you can't afford.)
(Also, if you're ever around Kyoto-ish, take a day trip to Hamamatsu and visit the Yamaha piano factory; if you let them know you're coming, they'll give you an English-language factory tour, and the showroom had this gorgeous Yamaha 9' CFIIIS that I could never afford but which made me so happy to play and play and play.)
(One more thing - this pianoworld thread is unrelated, but was fascinating to me when I ran into it: http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/103453/1.html - done now.)
Part of the problem with Steinways is that they're such the Performance Standard that they don't really have any character... thus, Steinways are Boring.