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Looking at what you posted elsewhere about wanting to do a split with Rhodes on bottom and layered flute/violin on top, keeping in mind everything else you said here (the other sounds of interest, weighted keys, nothing too complicated), I think Kawai James nailed your two top contenders: Kawai MP7SE and Roland RD2000. You should download their manuals and take a look. I don't know much about the RD2000, but I suspect the Kawai will be simpler.

The manuals are incomplete. I’m on their community forums.

Kawai James writes the Kawai manuals, so if you found something not covered in the MP7 manual, he's the man to ask! He'll probably even tell you which page actually did have the answer. ;-)

Really. Well I’ll reply exactly to his comment, above. I’m just an idiot in this stuff. Everythkng like this I outsource. I have a Sibelius notation guy, and a music transcription guy. Manuals and me just make the worst partners. I always seem to end up in a dead end. But I’ve lived on the street a long time and find resources like all of you - without which I’d be doomed.

So Mr Kawai, heres a very specific question: can any kawaii portable create distinct sounds when 2 diff synth sounds are played on the same note? As opposed to merging those sounds into a muddled effect. How can you isolate the 2 sounds. I’m using synth sounds to substitute for wind and string musicians to save money.

I also should have again mentioned the Kurzweil SP6 as a remaining contender as well.

One new one I'll add to the mix is a Casio PX560. It's easy to split that with one or two sounds above the split point and one or two sounds below. I think that, for the sounds you've mentioned, Kurzweil, Roland, and Kawai will generally be better (certainly organ, where the others actually give you drawbar level control), but some of that is subjective, and if you find the PX560 good enough sounding, you may find it easier to do what you want on that than on some of the others.

I looked at Spacestation. Seems revolutionary. Could be a powerful assett on stage. Thanx. I wonder if it can also be used for a home stereo system instead of traditional speakers.

I'm curious, what have been your experiences where layering two sounds created a merged muddled effect? While separating sounds can make them more distinct, it shouldn't sound bad in mono. (Similar to listening to a recording in stereo vs. mono.)

Anyway, if you do want to create a combination of sounds that have different stereo placement, the MP7 does have a "panpot" feature (the word for that control on a mixing console comes from PANoramic POTentiometer.... panoramic referring to placing things along a left to right landscape, potentiometer referring to a knob).

Getting back to recording your demo, the best thing to do is lay down your wind and your string line separately, in two different takes. It will sound more natural, as no two players in real life ever play everything in absolute perfect unison, so triggering the sounds simultaneously will make them sound less realistic. Side benefit: You don't have to worry about stereo placement, or even getting the relative volumes perfect... the sound engineer will place each sound where he wants and at the level he wants in the final mix.

Live, you'll have to layer the sounds. Stereo can be nice, but things should not sound "muddled" in mono. Many of us play our gigs in mono all the time. But sure, you can get more "spaciousness" out of your sound by using a Spacestation...

My experience playing layered is... not surprising, zero. Lol

Now that you bring this up... I just played Benson’s “Breezin”, on a single wireless spkr. No problem. I can distinctly hear the flute and violin. Maybe I let this dialog spiral unjustifyably.

Actually on Breezin the flute and violins alternate. Not playing simultaneously. But... no harm in trying to hit the ideal. And the Spacestation will help. If you think about differentiating your band, this stuff will help.. even if only a portion of your audience can tell.

On the MP7 is the pan of one sound to the detriment of another sound? Like balancing in a car stero where increasing vol on the left turns down vol on the right. Or is it independent?

Scot, the Yamaha site is not cooperating so I can not respond there.

That's the principle of stereo positioning, whether MP7 or anything else. To make a sound appear to come from a different point in space, you increase its volume on one side and decrease it on the other, and your brain interprets that as a sound being closer to one side or the other, therefore making it appear to come from a different location. The spacestation does something a bit different on plaback, trading off specific localization to create a sense of spaciousness that's more independent of where the listeners are relative to the speakers. This has nothing to do with what instrument you're playing through it (MP7 or anything else), all that matters is that the instrument is sending it a stereo (rather than mono) signal.

The Yamaha site is not cooperating. So I cant respond there.

You are correct.. Jason is wrong. The synth is the two extra sounds, plus rhodes = 3 total.

But the MP7 allows a flute to be balanced, then a violin to be balanced, independently? The flute isnt compromised by how you set the violin.

Yes, the MP7 lets you play up to 4 zones at once. Each zone is assigned a sound (i.e. violin, flute, whatever), and each zone has its own full set of parameters you can change (volume, pan, key range, octave shift, and many others). You can save all your settings for all four zones as a Setup, and you can save up to 256 Setups.