Arranger level recommendations?

[rgranville]

I'm looking to replace a 20+ year old Casio C34 that's starting to give up the ghost. One key won't sound unless you hit it hard, and I suspect it's only a matter of time before more follow suit.

My needs are definitely for an Arranger (as defined in Skipp's article). My instrument is the sax, and I use the keyboard for serious music theory study, as I'm getting into formal training in harmony, counterpoint, and ear training.

Walking into my local Guitar Center, I saw a Yamaha PSR E423 on display for $229. That's about the right price - I could go to about $300 if features merit it. I'm NOT looking for something I can gig with or use in the studio.

I looked online at reviews of the PSR E423, and saw some problems. It doesn't have MIDI ports - it does everything through a USB. And someone else posted on the forum that he's having serious problems getting the MIDI to work at all with his PSR E423.

So here's what I do and don't need. I don't need weighted action. I don't need a full 88 key keyboard. I don't need gig quality sounds.

I'd like a large bank of sounds, styles, accompaniments, and such just because they're fun to play with. I'd like real MIDI ports, and I'd like something that's easy to control from a computer via MIDI. I'm not so interested in capturing what I play on the keyboard, but rather play MIDI files I've created on the computer. And the keyboard should have a reasonable number of channels (16? 32?) controllable via MIDI.

And while I'm on the subject (and you've read this far), does anyone have recommendations for MIDI software? Again, I'm looking for something that makes creating MIDI files on the computer easy and have them play on the connected keyboard easy.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Robert

 

[A.Dawson]

No need to limit yourself to keyboards that are not USB-MIDI. You can get inexpensive USB MIDI adapter cables for about $4-$5 on ebay with the standard (non-USB) MIDI plug ends on them (In and Out). Just put USB MIDI into ebay's search, with the "lowest price first" sort-order, and they show up within the first few items. Using freeware like "MIDI Connection Center" you can reroute any MIDI port to anywhere you want. You won't be able to go direct from keyboard to non-PC devices if the keyboard is USB-MIDI only. But keyboard to PC, then PC to any MIDI compatible device is doable. Using the PC as your MIDI interface between all devices, standard MIDI as well as USB-MIDI-only

If "feature rich" is what you want, I'd strongly suggest looking at the new Casio CTK-6000 for only $200. Download their manual and read it. I've read comments from one person that the sax voices in Casio boards aren't the best (I don't have enough experience to determine that myself), if that's the thing that would be a deal-breaker. But other tones have been reported to be much better than anything in Yamahas. Some have said that the action on the keys is reported to be much nicer too. The nicest thing is that it has a full tone-editor built-in (as well as a full song-editor). So you can tweak all of its hundreds of tones to your liking or create new tones from scratch, storing them in the 10 User Tone slots. Or saving and loading as many as you want to/from an SD memory card.

As for MIDI-editing software, I'm partial to Cakewalk, but many others are good. There's also a very capable freeware editor called Anvil Studio.

You'll also need a MIDI-editor that supports an "Instrument Definition" file written for your particular keyboard if sending songs from PC-editor to keyboard. So you can select all the individual tones that are built into the keyboard, otherwise they default to their GM (General MIDI) voices. If you get the CTK-6000, then you're in luck, because I already created an INS file for that particular model. Posted in the Casio sub-forum here. (See the CTK-5000 thread on that.)

 

[A.Dawson]

P.S. If a bunch of extra styles and accompaniments are interesting to you, check out this other thread of mine https://www.keyboardforums.com/163-free-extra-rhythms-casio-ctk-5000-a-t22540.html They should work just fine in the CTK-6000 as well. (Though I've never tested this personally.)

Ignore that 163, the number topped out at around 508 extra free accompaniment patterns to play with on Casio keyboards.

 

[rgranville]

Thanks so much for the input! I will definitely check out the CTK-6000. Skimming the manual, it looks like it's what I want. I'm not overly concerned about the quality of the sax voice. If I want a good sax sound, I play my sax. ;-)

My old C34 has a tuning knob on the back, which I don't see in the manual for the CTK-6000 (or the Yamaha, for that matter). I suppose tuning isn't an issue?

 

[A.Dawson]

There's actually quite a few ways to change the tuning of these keyboards. You can use the octave-shift feature, where you can apply a -2 to +2 full octave-shift to either the whole keyboard or split areas individually. For example, you can set the split point in the middle of the keyboard, then raise the octave of the left-hand portion by 1 octave and the right-hand portion down 2 octaves so both halves of the keyboard are playing the same notes (fun for duet-play or teaching), and if desired, in two different instruments, three if you use layering. Or you can use the "transpose" feature, to adjust the keyboard in +/- 12 semitones (this also works along with the octave-shift, but is applied to both split sections equally). Or you can design a completely new tuning for ethnic instruments, in +/- 1 to 99 cent increments (1/100th of a semitone) for each individual note. See pages E-18 and E-21 in the manual. Then of course you also have the pitch-bend wheel for quick and temporary tone-shifts, which can also be set in the options for any desired range of bend from 1 to 12 semitones.

Is this an improvement on a "tuning knob in the back"?

In a way, these keyboards are a "music theorist's dream machine". You can experiment with any notes available to the range of human hearing and even design your own scales. I suspect even lower and higher than the range of human hearing, because when I've tested the output of my CTK-5000 (has the same number of tones and rhythms as the CTK-6000 so it's very similar) by putting tunings at all extremes, the speakers fail to create output for those notes. Sometimes just a slightly audible "thump" when engaging a low note or a little "tick" sometimes when engaging a high one. (Tone choice dependent on whether this slight thump or tick was even audible.) The notes these can create don't seem to just end at the end of the keyboard. Either the built-in speakers just can't play notes that high and low, or I just can't hear them. Sorry, I don't have a dog handy to test this on.

 

[sloppydave]

Yamaha's PSR-300 series have MIDI ports instead of USB. They have the same patch set as the 400 series (480-plus - at least three variations on each instrument) and they're even cheaper.
I have an e303 and I use Noteworthy Composer for sequencing - It's a pretty basic program (it's actually aimed at music students, if I'm not mistaken), but the GUI is standard notation, it's pretty comfortable to use and you can operate it using just the keyboard. Plus it's cheap.