Moog Music Forum

Hi I just wanted to know from people more experienced what they think is better, a set Roland PK-5 or the new or old Taurus bass pedals.

Well i've ordered the new Taurus so i voted for the new Taurus. Difficult to actually say something that doesn't exist is better than things that do, but on paper, yup it's better. Does the PK-5 have an analogue bass engine that can kill a goat at 100 yards? Thought not. Does the original Taurus have MIDI and an arpeggiator and CV/Gates? Thought not.

Aye, good point Mr Arkadin! I agree with you 100%!

At the moment I own the original Taurus as well as the Roland PK5, but I don't own the T3 yet. Once I get the T3 I'll give a verdict.

At the moment, however, there are a couple of things I could do to/add to my current pedals to make me as happy with them as possible:

1) get the Taurus 1 serviced so it's working perfectly again.

2) [possibly] get MIDI installed on the Taurus 1 so I can control it with the PK5 (or with the T3...think of the sheer power of triggering the Taurus 1 and Taurus 3 at the same time!).

3) get a Little Phatty...not only does it sound great in its own right, but recently I discovered that its "Taurus" and "Taurus Bass" presets sound almost identical to the original Taurus. So I could trigger the Little Phatty with my PK5, and get the Taurus sound without my Taurus having to leave the house.

4) get an Oberheim SEM unit (with MIDI added). It would be a sweet thing to trigger with any set of MIDI pedals. Especially to have that bright Oberheim sound sitting on top of solid Taurus bass.

Well, I hope you found this at least somewhat relevant to the original question, and if not...sorry for the self-indulgence!

I forgot to add one thing: An all-new contact board (one of the high-quality retrofit units offered at synthfool.com) for the T1 pedals would really take the reliability and durability of my T1 to a much higher level. But I guess this would qualify as part of item #1 on the list I just posted, right?

I'm putting a lot of faith in the T-3s that they will be the best pedal unit to have. I've owned T-1s and T-2s, and I currently use a set of PK-5s midi'd to a Roland JP-8000 as my bass pedals. The T-1s were a far better machine (for me) than the T-2s - better sound, everything controlled by feet, no silly "brain on a stand" blocking your bass from the audience's view, etc. The PK-5s don't sound as good as either of the original Taurus (actually they make no sound of their own at all), but you do have access to just about ANY sound via midi, and you never have to deal with warm up, faulty contacts, 150-pound road cases, lack of spare parts, calibrations, or trying to find someone who can actually work on the darned things - I've played mine regularly for over 10 years now without a single glitch. All I can say is, the T-3s better frigging rock, because there are some good eBay Taurus I deals I'm passing on because I'm already committed to the Taurus IIIs! Come on, Moog, make us all proud...

superd2112 wrote:I'm putting a lot of faith in the T-3s that they will be the best pedal unit to have. I've owned T-1s and T-2s, and I currently use a set of PK-5s midi'd to a Roland JP-8000 as my bass pedals. The T-1s were a far better machine (for me) than the T-2s - better sound, everything controlled by feet, no silly "brain on a stand" blocking your bass from the audience's view, etc. The PK-5s don't sound as good as either of the original Taurus (actually they make no sound of their own at all), but you do have access to just about ANY sound via midi, and you never have to deal with warm up, faulty contacts, 150-pound road cases, lack of spare parts, calibrations, or trying to find someone who can actually work on the darned things - I've played mine regularly for over 10 years now without a single glitch. All I can say is, the T-3s better frigging rock, because there are some good eBay Taurus I deals I'm passing on because I'm already committed to the Taurus IIIs! Come on, Moog, make us all proud...

What do you mean the PK-5's don't make their own sound? (I'm new to all the MIDI controllers and such.)

I guess he's saying they are just Midi Controllers only. No sound engine.

EricK wrote:I guess he's saying they are just Midi Controllers only. No sound engine.

Correct - the PK-5 is a controller only, no internal sound engine.

superd2112 wrote:

EricK wrote:I guess he's saying they are just Midi Controllers only. No sound engine.

Correct - the PK-5 is a controller only, no internal sound engine.

Ok so that means you have to plug them into an amp to hear the presets? (Bass, Poly, Drums, and SF)

Also I've never had a set of Taurus pedals, do they make thier own sound without an amp?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_controller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_module

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer

sports_rule_101 wrote:

superd2112 wrote:

EricK wrote:I guess he's saying they are just Midi Controllers only. No sound engine.

Correct - the PK-5 is a controller only, no internal sound engine.

Ok so that means you have to plug them into an amp to hear the presets? (Bass, Poly, Drums, and SF)

Also I've never had a set of Taurus pedals, do they make their own sound without an amp?

There is no audio out jack on a PK-5 - the bass, drums & poly buttons are for accessing sound groups on Roland synthesizers. The PK-5 makes no sounds on its own. The Taurus 1s, 2s and 3s DO produce their own sounds, but you will need a PA system or amplifier to hear them.

sports_rule_101 wrote:

superd2112 wrote:

EricK wrote:I guess he's saying they are just Midi Controllers only. No sound engine.

Correct - the PK-5 is a controller only, no internal sound engine.

Ok so that means you have to plug them into an amp to hear the presets? (Bass, Poly, Drums, and SF)

Also I've never had a set of Taurus pedals, do they make thier own sound without an amp?

All synths require an amp unless they have built-in speakers, and even then I recommend an external amp for improved sound quality. MIDI controllers like the PK-5's, M-Audio keyboards and the like, do not have any sounds built into them. They control soft synths or hardware synths, which provide the sounds. Taurus pedals require an amp, my Little Phatty requires an amp, the Voyager requires an amp, etc. But these things all have their own sounds, therefore do not require external audio signals in order to work. I can't make it any clearer than that.

Im going to be a pain in the butt here...

Analogue Oscillators are always making a sound, even if not connected to an external speaker. When you turn the power on they are vibrating at whatever frequency they were last told to vibrate at.

WHen you depress a key, a gate signal is sent to the VCA that tells it to open and it is at the opening of the VCA that you hear the Oscillator.

So yes, the Synths make sounds without external speakers...but you need speakers to hear them lol.

EricK, don't confuse the N00B.