I've been doing an awful lot of thinking about my next keyboard & even though I''m awash in a sea of deciding factors,I've come to a few conclusions to narrow things down more.
First thing would be this; one of the unfortunate things about Kurzweil being bought out by a Korean company,is that Kurzweil's products & the corporate end of the company,are behaving in very much the same fashion as alot of other companies,in terms of serious compromises with regard to reliablity issues & scrambling to be the first on the market with a new product.
This sort of haphazard behaviour is shocking-coming from a company like Kurzweil,but it is in fact true and all the threads & postings on SonikMatter.com will attest to this.
Just to name a few,there are existing tech issues with memory cards,software,display screen,key-bed problems,missing OS features & the list goes on & on & on....
Also,Kurzweil has no plans for a 61 note keyboard & I simply cannot spare enough room in my studio for anything larger than a 61(I absolutely know this,because I've done all of the measuring & as it is,my room is opitmized in configuration,which only allows an extra 40 inches of space and the 61 M50 is 40.43 inches in length).
Perhaps one day,when Kurzweil's R&D has all of the issues ironed out,I may look into a Kurzweil product some day....but in the interim,I'll have to stick with Korg,as Korg has always served me very well and has been my best musician friend for over 20 years.
I'll be the first one in a SamAsh or GuitarCenter to physically demo a Korg M50 for myself to confirm that this will be my next board,but so far,I am confident that the M50 will be ideal,because it seems very clear that this new synth will open up a entirely new world of possiblities-certainly so,if I decide to step into the computer world of synthesizers.
The Korg M50 is actually tempting & luring me towards computer based recording,because this amazing & inexpensive synth provides an easy & very enticing gateway into this world & it's certainly a vast & limitless world at that.
I'll have to admit that I am already baited & hooked by this wonderful synth!
Thom