Hello there! I just joined to ask for some advice regarding my latest/next keyboard purchase...
To start off, I'm looking for a gigging keyboard -- something lightweight that's easy to program, with good piano/organ/synth sounds, a nice touch response, and maybe a few arpeggiators. I don't really care about any fancy capabilities beyond that. My budget is flexible...I'd suppose be willing to go up to $2,000 for something truly amazing but prefer to keep it in the $1,000 - $1,500 range.
As a pianist, I bought an Alesis QS8 several years ago to have the full 88 weighted keys to be able to practice traditional piano repertoire (in addition to playing in a band). I've since bought an actual piano, and there's no need for me to haul around 60 lbs of keyboard just to play cover tunes, so I've been looking to make a switch. People seemed to have good things to say about the Korg m50, so I went ahead and bought it (and am still well within the 30 day return window).
So far I'm liking the sounds and appreciate how easy it is to use, but I'm not all that impressed with the keybed/touch response. Striking keys farther up requires much more force to produce the same level of volume, which makes playing anything in a key with many sharps or flats quite awkward. On the one hand, this probably won't come into play much with rock/pop music, but it's still less than ideal...
Does anybody have any suggestions for similar keyboards that might have a better keybed? Or am I just hoping for too much to be able to find a reasonably priced, lightweight keyboard with good sounds and good touch response? FYI I played a Yamaha 9000 Pro for a while and liked the touch response on that, so it's not just that I'm used to fully weighted keys, I've also had a positive experience with semi-weighted keys...but I realize that's a more expensive instrument (and sadly it was borrowed...not actually mine).
Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!!!
To start off, I'm looking for a gigging keyboard -- something lightweight that's easy to program, with good piano/organ/synth sounds, a nice touch response, and maybe a few arpeggiators. I don't really care about any fancy capabilities beyond that. My budget is flexible...I'd suppose be willing to go up to $2,000 for something truly amazing but prefer to keep it in the $1,000 - $1,500 range.
As a pianist, I bought an Alesis QS8 several years ago to have the full 88 weighted keys to be able to practice traditional piano repertoire (in addition to playing in a band). I've since bought an actual piano, and there's no need for me to haul around 60 lbs of keyboard just to play cover tunes, so I've been looking to make a switch. People seemed to have good things to say about the Korg m50, so I went ahead and bought it (and am still well within the 30 day return window).
So far I'm liking the sounds and appreciate how easy it is to use, but I'm not all that impressed with the keybed/touch response. Striking keys farther up requires much more force to produce the same level of volume, which makes playing anything in a key with many sharps or flats quite awkward. On the one hand, this probably won't come into play much with rock/pop music, but it's still less than ideal...
Does anybody have any suggestions for similar keyboards that might have a better keybed? Or am I just hoping for too much to be able to find a reasonably priced, lightweight keyboard with good sounds and good touch response? FYI I played a Yamaha 9000 Pro for a while and liked the touch response on that, so it's not just that I'm used to fully weighted keys, I've also had a positive experience with semi-weighted keys...but I realize that's a more expensive instrument (and sadly it was borrowed...not actually mine).
Any advice is much appreciated! Thanks!!!
