Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Let's take a vote.

Nord? Korg? Roland? or Yamaha?

Which do you prefer and what do you play? What kind of music do you play and what do you like about your particular instrument? If cost were not a problem, would you upgrade to a different brand?

I'm not really a keyboard player, but I have an Alesis Micron. It has 8 voices, each with 3 oscillators, 2 multimode filters, 3 envelope generators, 2 LFOs, sample and hold, a programmable step sequencer and arpeggiator, a programmable rhythm sequencer for drum kits and a 40-band vocoder. It has a 37-key synth-action keyboard with velocity sensitivity, and they're full-sized keys. It's easy to modify presets and save them to a favorites area. All the funtions are done by rotary controls, inclusing the presets, whichsome people don't like. But the sound is amazing and the price is right: $400. A friend has the comparable Korg and the keys are very tiny.

i need a stage piano and am torn between nord 88 and roland rd700. can any1 advise please?

If you just want the piano part of it, go with the Roland. Hands down.

The feel vastly outshines the Nord alone. While the Nord feels a little more like a synthesizer, the Roland has a very nicely weighted touch that actually feels about as close to a real piano as you can get these days. It also has a much better piano sound than the Nord with plenty of more tweaking options.

Here are the kickers that could swing you either way:

Roland:
AMAZING, and I mean, AMAZING piano sound and customizability.
On board EQ.
Natural feel.
Decent effects and decent other sounds, including various organs and electric piano samples.
Over 200 sounds.

Nord:
Much higher quality effects over the Roland
Only about 10 sounds, but very high quality sounds.
The piano isn't as well done as the Roland and the keys aren't well weighted.
The Wurlitzer, Hammond, etc. etc. sounds blow the Roland's organ/E. Piano sounds out of the water. If you plan on using these often, you may want to consider the Nord regardless of feel issues on pure tone alone.

I should also add that the Nord is about $1,000 more expensive at $3,500, and it doesn't come with a stand or full setup like the Roland does for $2,500.

If you have any more questions the get into specifics about the pianos feel free to leave a post here. Hope this helped as a start!

I have been using Casio instruments since 1981 - to put that in perspective, their first keyboard, the CT-201 was introduced in 1980 and I bought its successor, the CT-202, directly from Casio UK the following year!

Before that, my only keyboard was a Hohner Pianet T, an electromechanical piano along the lines of a Wurlitzer or Fender Rhodes but much more portable (and not quite as good).

Since then, I have owned a Casio CZ-101 synth, a CPS-101 electronic piano, a CZ-1 synth and most recently a WK-3000 which I use for organ sounds in my current band, The Skanx along with a vintage Wurlitzer 200 electric piano and a Stylophone(!).

Non-Casio keyboard gear I have owned includes a Yamaha EMT-10 sampled piano/strings/choir module, an Alesis NanoPiano module and a Studiologic SL-880 MIDI controller keyboard.

Recent Casios, including my WK-3000 have very good piano sounds, as well as vintage electric piano and organ sounds - I call the 3000 "the poor man's Nord Electro". I have compared the 3000's Wurlitzer sound with the real thing and it's pretty damn close for a £300 keyboard.

I've only played on a triton a few times, and through the whole thing I thought that the sounds always seemed very pop-oriented no matter I used. Even the electric piano and organ sounds weren't crisp enough for a jazz tone, which is what I usually play. I was still impressed by just how many features and knobs and dials and whistles and all were on the thing in the first place though. The sky really is the limit with those things. The Korg Oasis is even a step above that...I remember watching Jordan Rudess work magic on there and just being astounded at how much he could do with it.

You must choose between Nord or Yamaha ?
Choose Roland ;-)

I've never really cared for Roland. I think they're probably got the worst piano sounds out of the bunch in the stage piano category, especially at the prices the Roland is selling for. Even the new Supernatural piano sounds just weren't...that great. They just sounded like re-EQ'd V-Piano sounds.

But the thing that really turns me off of Roland is the action on their stage pianos. It just doesn't feel anything like a piano. And Nord and Korg both have that covered in spades for sure.

Maybe I can be turned around though...why are you so big on Roland?

Im not a keyboard player but Roland makes some sick synths.

True...but their M/O is largely that. And workstations like the Triton or synths like the GAIA are very much representative of that. Their stage pianos, on the other hand, like the RD-700 (more what I'm interested in), aren't so hot. Roland makes keyboards more for synthesis, editing, and tweaking, which isn't what I'm really going for right now.

However, if I get into a progressive metal band...I'll be all over the Korg Oasis, the Roland Triton, etc. etc. Trust me.

I hear you man, and speaking of progressive metal band, I was just reading your interview with Jordan Rudess. Very cool. I don't know if he still lives in Nyack but I've seen him a couple of times here in one of the village stores. The second time I saw him I went to say hi and I was like: " Hey man, you are the keyboard player for Dream Theater aren't you?" and he was like "Yeah, so you know Dream Theater?" like they were some unknown band... cool dude...

Yeah, man. It was a great time talking to him, and there's plenty that we talked about that didn't make it onto the interview. He's always up for discussing anything and everything. You can tell immediately how much he pushes himself musically and intellectually to do what he does. Really fun time.

And of course seeing them live right after the interview was pretty much fantastic.