Going back on the road

[SeanRhys]

Just signed into this forum. I'm a career muso with a lot of piano and synth time racked up. I was fortunate a while back to travel with major people out of Vegas and L.A. Got to the point where I was playing my own portable (Ha, 1200_lbs of gear) Synclavier on the gigs and recording sessions. I got out of that scene and bought a Rosewood Grand Chapman Stick and I've been tapping at that remarkable thing now for a while.
I miss the traveling and the challenge of new music so I'm now looking for a good road keyboard for the renewed adventure. Send me a note or reply to this post, if you have a few ideas for a solid, road instrument.

 

[Becky]

Hey there, welcome to the forums

 

[happyrat1]

Hi Sean...

Kurzweils have a good solid rep. Not feather light but all metal construction.

http://kurzweil.com/products/

Then again right now I'm curious to see what comes out of this week's NAMM show.

Anyway, welcome aboard.

Gary

 

[b3maniac]

Hi Sean, welcome to the forums.
There are more keyboard choices out there now that there has ever been before.
I checked your bio, and can see that you are an advanced player and you will likely have higher expectations from an instrument. Quality of the piano sounds are all over the place, and weighted key bed feel for piano playing varies a good bit as well.For most of us, cost is also the more significant factor is making a selection. Here are some key boards that I would research for road use in covering the meat and potatoes sounds: - Roland Fantom G series, or Jupiter 80 with the ability to play the "Supernatural technology" sounds
- Korg Kronos line, - Kurzeril PC3 series, - Yamaha S90XS (or CP series for pianos) - (Clavia) Nord stage series.
One point of frustration for me is the wide range of differences in the machine operating systems/interfaces. For live use, I want something that is easy to make changes/split/layer "on the fly", but so far I've managed that by using a midi patch manager and pre-programing standard splits/layers I can select. I would also offer that you should consider how you want to put together a stage rig for ease of transport/set-up/tear-down and how you will stage monitor and send sound to the FOH.
If you are on a budget (like most of us) , you could look at combining 2 used keys such as a Yamaha S80 (or better, and S90) for pianos , and maybe a Korg Triton LE for other sounds (but I think you'll be weak in organ sounds). Tell us more on what you think you want to cover as far as sounds. Don

 

[goz211]

Welcome to the forums. Synclavier eh? Anything is going to seem portable after that. Had a play on a Chapman stick - over 20 years ago - but I remember it very well and I liked it.

Post again and let the crew on here give you some suggestions - you some useful stuff already posted above I see.

 

[SeanRhys]

Sorry that I haven't been back on a daily routine. Things are busy here on my island. Thanks for the suggestions. To b3maniac - One of my keyboard routines was a stripped down A-100 with full pedalboard. I had a modular Moog system and duplicated the Moog controller board. I wired it to the two octave pedalboard. Then with an addition of a long control panel mounted just under the lower keyboard I had 4 octaves of bass and lots of control. I built a primitive computer to do the patching out of a wall full of Radio Shack parts. That was fun to play.