Keeping Up with Keyboard Workstations

"It’s a Swiss Army knife for keyboard guys.” Ed Diaz, a member of Roland Corporation’s keyboard product team, cuts straight to the chase when describing the keyboard workstation. While it may not be the most fashionable of instruments in 2014, it is arguably one of the most utilitarian and efficient ways to write and produce music on the market today, a workhorse whose appeal lies not in gimmickry or trendiness, but in power, reliability, and functionality.

As at home in the studio or the writing room as it is on stage, the keyboard workstation is not as fawned over as it was during its ‘90s peak, but that doesn’t mean it’s going away anytime soon. With enhanced features and increased compatibility, 2014’s crop of workstations – from the Roland FA series to Korg’s Kross and Yamaha’s MOTIF series and beyond – make a strong case for their continued relevance in the marketplace.

 “I see it as a transitional instrument,” says Karl Myers of Brooklyn’s Main Drag Music, a retailer serving the bustling Williamsburg music community. “When it would have been most relevant would be the late ‘90s or early 2000’s before everybody had Pro Tools on their iPhone.”

 iPhone and tablet music production may be the toast of the tech blogs and a great topic for a viral video, but it is not a replacement for high quality production- and performance-ready equipment.

The Dawn of the Workstation

 Richard Formidoni, product training manager at Korg USA, notes that the keyboard workstation’s place in the studio has evolved over the years, from star pupil to team player. “Workstations were formerly seen as alternatives to using another recording method, but now they blend in seamlessly with whatever method you’re using (like a DAW).

“From a recording and songwriting perspective, workstations also allow a player to create music quickly, with one single interface,” says Formidoni. “In the DAW landscape, you’re often juggling multiple software interfaces and spending your time trying to make different technologies work together instead of being creative. If you spend too much time trying to make tab A fit into slot B, you might lose the creative spark that brought you into your studio in the first place. Workstations solve that problem. The ‘one-stop shop’ workflow is a catalyst for fast production, and that resonates for thousands of musicians.”

John Grabowski, senior director of merchandising for national retail powerhouse Sweetwater Sound Inc., points out that contemporary workstations are light years ahead of their predecessors, featuring more sounds and features than ever before.

“Even the ‘entry-level’ workstations available today would be envied by most of the workstations that were being sold 10 years ago,” says Grabowski. “The fact that workstations also offer an all-in-one solution for both playing and sequencing/recording still appeals to many keyboardists – even those who also use a computer-based DAW.”

“Historically, people were conceivably working entirely on a workstation from beginning to end,” says Duane McDonald, another member of the Roland Team. “But it’s now much more common that people will start an idea on a workstation and eventually bring it to a computer.”

Workstation Power Users

 So we’ve established that, yes, the keyboard workstation is relevant, but who still uses them? Who are the people buying workstations when there are so many flashier options available? The answer is simple: experienced professionals and longtime workstation users.

“There are guys, especially in the film world and higher end television world who still use [workstations], guys that learned on these thing 25, 30 years ago,” says Main Drag Music’s Karl Myers. “There’s a generation of people that grew up in production – a certain level of sound design and production – that are still using these things and are just used to them.”

Diaz echoes that sentiment: “Ultimately, we would like everyone to buy them, but I think that our audience are anywhere between 35 to 50 years old… There are a lot of us from that early generation, about the mid ‘90s – in ‘95 we had our XP-50 out – that still sequence or arrange or compose music in that way.”

But the keyboard workstation is not just confined to the studio. There are many musicians that embrace the keyboard workstation as a live performance instrument. The workstation offers a veritable cornucopia of sonic possibilities that can fit a multitude of styles and situations. As Formidoni says: “We find that many players are gravitating toward workstations because they contain the best sounds that we have to offer. This includes live players as well as studio or home musicians. Quite simply, if you want the most detailed, flexible sounds from a keyboard, you’ll find them in a workstation.”

Sweetwater’s Grabowski confirms that message, elaborating on the workstations’ unique advantages: “Many gigging keyboardists also utilize workstations since they are a stable, reliable, self-contained instrument that doesn’t require a separate computer and whatever complications or risks may come from that in a live setting. A keyboard workstation is also very useful for a single keyboardist who is required to duplicate the many different keyboard parts found in most popular music.”

Nate Tscetter, manager for Yamaha’s Music Production Marketing Pro Audio and Combo Division, tells MMR: “There’s always need for an instrument centered between standalone and system.”

Breaking Through to Younger
Consumers

Though workstations may seem like the ultimate easy-sell thanks to their simplicity of use and seemingly infinite functionality, there are still some challenges to moving these units in a crowded marketplace.

“Sometimes the younger generation doesn’t know the history of workstations or understand how to use them,” says Diaz. “It’s about teaching the new generation the value of something like that and how to use it, because they are so computer centered and iPad-centric that they don’t even know that [the workstation] is a viable option.”

“More customers than ever before are comfortable sequencing and recording on a computer or even an iOS device, and they may feel as though workstation functions are unnecessary,” says Grabowski. “But if a salesperson takes some time to demonstrate what a workstation can do and how it can add to the flexibility of a computer-based music rig, there’s really very little challenge.”

The advantages to recording and performing with a keyboard workstation aren’t the trendiest – workstations are built for function rathedr than form, and won’t match your flat-billed ball cap or impress the kids at the club with its flashing lights – but for musicians that are serious about their art, the workstation can provide an incomparable user experience.

“You can get started immediately – immediately – with recording tracks,” says Diaz. “Where as with a computer you are going to need the computer, some kind of software DAW, and an audio interface. But with our keyboard and no computer, you can start creating sounds, layering sounds, recording sounds, and actually recording samples into the keyboard and doing everything within the box.

“A workstation takes a long time to die and a long time to grow outdated. A computer, no matter how powerful or if you’re talking Mac or PC, will see its OS change very quickly, usually every two years. Sometimes, unfortunately, if you have a software DAW or an awesome sample package – like a Native Instruments sort of thing – when that OS changes, maybe they don’t support the old OS and you have to re-buy that software rather than get a new license.

“Ease of use is big – every time we change to a new OS or there is a DAW with a new version, there’s a learning curve,” continues Diaz. “Our keyboards tend to last 15 or 20 years before they die. That is a great value.”

McDonald explains that workstations have a “wider audience than just a keyboard with sounds in it, which you’re talking about primarily keyboard players. A workstation opens up to songwriters or other musicians that play just enough keyboard and need help getting their ideas together. Workstations appeal to that market as well.”

A Stage Workhorse

“Let’s think about it from a live performance perspective,” says Formidoni. “[Workstations] take some of the most important elements of studio production, and turn them into a single performance instrument. This means you can have backing tracks, pre-recorded vocal accompaniment, song backups for emergencies, all on demand. Plus, unlike having a computer on stage, it’s a dedicated solution. You don’t have to worry about an email notification sound, or an unexpected auto-update, or any other interference. It just works.”

Anybody that has ever had the dubious honor of witnessing – or partaking in – an onstage laptop meltdown understands that this is the sort of incident that will not just ruin a song but can ruin an entire show. Stability and durability shouldn’t be just be on a customers wish list of functions – they should be at the top of that list. In a crowded field where audiences are more fickle and less attentive than ever, having a stable rig is essential. When you can combine stability with the latest in sound and sequencing at a competitive price you have a must-own instrument for serious musicians.

As Grabowski puts it: “Keyboard workstations aren’t really that much more expensive than many other synthesizers and stage pianos, so the additional functionality offered by a workstation can be a great customer benefit and a great way to close a sale.”

“In the eyes of the customer, carrying and stocking workstations places retailers in an upper echelon of keyboard dealers,” says Formidoni. “Keyboard players tend to see workstation dealers as more savvy and successful than those who offer only a limited selection, and that respect creates loyalty.”

A Framework for the Future

Loyalty and respect are the cornerstones of any lasting relationship and the manufacturers of keyboard workstations are in it for the long haul – by not only fulfilling their customers’ current needs, but anticipating their future needs too. Main Drag’s Karl Meyer sees potential in the hybridization of workstations and tablets, for instance.

“Arturia have an interesting take on it: they’ve got a new line of controllers coming out that combine a regular keyboard platform with an iPad dock, so that your iPad becomes the brain of this thing and it has all the control features that people have gotten used to. It’s kind of a blending which I think is smart because then [the workstation] is infinitely variable.”

“For a long time, the downside of older keyboards was that you got locked into a set of sounds,” says MacDonald. “Now with the FAs we take the approach of integrating with the computer, making that a virtual experience so that people can download these virtual sound sets to give new life to their keyboard.”

Diaz adds: “Before, our sounds were built off of PCM samples. A lot of keyboards still use that, but the technology is well over 30 years old now. We have a whole new type of sound architecture in our keyboards…You’ll see us evolve with the computer but you’ll also see the sounds evolve so customers don’t have to download so many samples and they can actually create within our boards.”

For Grabowski, the future lies in better integration and ease of transfers from apps and DAWs to and from the workstation. “Former limitations like polyphony and track count are negligible at this point,” he says. “The real opportunity lies in making workstations easily integrate with computer-based setups and portable computing devices so that keyboard workstations really can offer musicians the best of both worlds.”

“Moore’s law [that computer processing speed will double every two years] is quite apt for these instruments, so there will likely be more content, more powerful synthesis technologies, and improved UI,” Yamaha’s Nate Tschetter notes.  “With more content, how users interact with finding what they want becomes key.”

 And so it seems that, contrary to popular belief, the keyboard workstation is very much alive and very much kicking. That the instrument, a pioneer in the world of digital music creation, still has so much life in it is not just good for musicians and manufacturers but also retailers. With increasing connectivity and exponentially growing possibilities for both production and performance, the workstation looks like it will be around for years to come. As Formidoni told us: “The future is looking bright!”