Laptop Vs. Keyboard Workstation

In the Beginning, there was a DX7.
For years I used keyboard workstations because that was the only choice available to the keyboard geeks in the 80's. In the early 90's I tried using MIDI with a Yamaha PSR keyboard and my computer, all using software bundled with a Voyetra sound card. This was very cool! Then I found Cakewalk (can't remember if that was the software bundled with my sound card). This was also very cool! Later a college roommate and music major introduced me to Band In A Box and that was fun because I could create a groove and jam with it in almost no time.

But that was all for fun and hobby at home. When it came time to gig, I used workstations and arranger keyboards such as the aforementioned Yamaha PSR 500, a Korg O1/W, an Ensoniq ASR-10, and an Alesis QS8.1 and even the old Yamaha DX7 (love it or hate it - I love it!).

I loved playing on these machines, but hated lugging them around along with my keyboard amp. Good thing I was young and just out of college. Now I'm married with 4 kids and pushing 40 and the idea of lugging a mammoth keyboard or two plus amp does not appeal to me. And having worked in the Information Technology field for over a decade, I felt it was time to investigate using a computer instead of a keyboard. I totally skipped over the era of using rackmount sound modules and samplers! (If keyboard workstation interfaces were not user friendly enough, how in the world could a small rackmount interface be OK?)

Back to Cakewalk for me.
I re-entered the PC based music world again using Home Studio and playing with demo versions of Sonar. I was impressed with Sonar, big time!! I was hooked and ready to make music on my computer. That computer monitor is so much easier to work on than my old workstation's limited LED interfaces (I preferred Korg's O1/W the best interface of all those older keyboards).

Armed with a powerful laptop, a Kurzweil master MIDI keyboard, an M-Audio Ozonic and an amp, I can now gig with a lot less weight and a lot more options / power.

However, for live gigging, Sonar and most other DAWs are not up to the challenge. But Reason, Live and Project5 are up to the challenge. I chose Cakewalk's Project5 because I'm kind of loyal to Cakewalk for being there for me all these years, plus when I purchased P5 it came bundled with many synths which made it the best band for the buck.

However, two years into using this and I'm finding that the keyboard workstations are calling my name again.
Why? I work so much on computers throughout the day and even at home in the evenings (checking email, my RSS reader, posting comments to blogs or writing to blogs) that I'm getting sick of using my computer all the time! I think it would be refreshing for me to take a small 61-key workstation (e.g., Roland Fantom G6) and go off to some other room and sit down and compose on it. Of course, then I'd be limited to the samples on the workstation as well as the effects; I'd be limited by the hard drive or storage media of the workstation and the RAM on the workstation too. All of these limitations are bound to be inferior to the same limitations on a laptop or PC workstation. But for some reason I keep checking the Internet for information about the latest keyboard workstations.

I don't know what's up! I love working with Project5! It is the easiest, most intuitive DAW I've used. It reminds me of how I used to work with patterns on the old Korg, only it is so much easier to do it now. I have so much more power at my fingertips now. But the old ways are calling to me anyway. Perhaps I'm just waxing nostalgic and it's a passing phase.

If it is I need it to pass quickly before I fork over several thousand bucks on a new keyboard workstation!