Can y'all recommend a workstation that is fairly easy to understand for a non-professional hobbyist with no training or experience? I love playing around with synth sounds and beats, and would like to be able to record some of my experimentation too. Quick, easy, spontaneous, drop-of-a-hat creativity is the point. Just want to make it easy as possible. Nice orchestral, organ, and piano sounds would be a bonus.

Multilayered, deep menus on tiny monochrome screens filled with abbreviations and technical terms should be avoided. Documentation with good explanations in plain language would also be preferable.

I have been reading about the Kurzweil PC3LE series which sounds like it has tons of creative features, but ease of use is very hard to get a feel for since the reviewers and authors are always synth experts. Perhaps Korg or Yamaha make some very user friendly models? Music stores around me are pretty useless in this regard.

Willing to spend 2-3k. Please advise.

I have a Yamaha MOX8, its not the simplest. But for me the awesome motifator.com forum support combined with the DVD Tutorial has made the learning curve much less steep.

The new Krome looks like a pretty easy system with its touch screen. voxpops could elaborate more on that.

In addition, CASIO is about to release something this month at NAMM. There are a lot of indications its a workstation based on its XW-P1/G1 synths and their Privia AIR technology. I have an XW-P1 and it is really simple to get great sounds on it. So there could be some good news coming soon.

I think the about the hardest to learn is the Kurzweil and their VAST technology. Though they sound phenomenal and are extremely powerful.

The Krome is very easy to navigate using the touch screen, but there are so many parameters that, for a technophobe like me, it's daunting. However, if you're used to dealing with a thousand elements of a sound and its effects, then I doubt there's much that's simpler. Apparently the PC editor makes life a lot easier, but I haven't tried it yet.

The Krome is filled with excellent sounds, including top-notch pianos, lots of orchestral sounds, and highly regarded drum kits (not that I ever use those). Kurzweil's are great, but I couldn't even begin to get my head around VAST when I had one.

Honestly, I don't think what you want exists. I certainly can't recommend anything I've used that would meet your requirements. Maybe something interesting will be announced at NAMM later this month. Roland looks like they may be ready for an update. Otherwise, yeah, probably Krome. Kurz has the small screen, and Yamahas are infamously difficult to get into, with poor manuals and a good deal of jargon you need to learn.