keyboard for rock/pop covers band

[grannydrums]

Hi, Can someone recommend a keyboard for us please.

We are an amateur pub covers band, oasis, blondie, kooks, greenday, kings of leon etc. The singer plays rythm guitar and we are getting on fine, but occasionally we have to reject a song because it realy needs a keyboard.

The singer can play piano and is willing to give it a go. There is a 15 year old yamaha at the studio so we can get some idea of wether it will work or not, but when we gig we need something better.

I think a lot of keyboards will be able to do more than we need. the sound is realy important to us, hopefully it can go through our pa, which is a reasonable quality and has a big bass bin.

Dont want it to be too big, its hard enough finding room in some pubs as it is.

so we want,

good sound
a sensible size
able to reproduce sounds in songs from the past 20 years

we know nothing at all about it--can someone help?

Also if we buy second hand, what tends to go wrong with them, what should we be testing?

 

[theoriginalfuzz]

I play in a cover band, and I use three keyboards - A Korg Triton Extreme, a Korg TritonPro, and a Yamaha MO6.

Korg keyboards, in my view, give you the best bang for your buck, and they are very user-friendly, in my view. The Triton series is no longer in production, but Korg has a newer M-50 that does the same stuff as the Triton (it basically was one of the models that ended up replacing the Triton).

I recommend one of two keyboards:

1. Korg M-50
2. Yamaha MO 6

Both are relatively affordable (comparatively speaking) and offer killer sounds. The Yamaha sounds are often a bit more organic, and they are terrific! However, the Yamaha is not as user-friendly, in my view, as Korg. The Korg sounds are also outstanding, just a little different than Yamaha.

Both are excellent choices. Pro gear, in my opinion (in terms of sound quality). Both are priced at around $1100-$1200 for the 61-key versions (which would be the ideal size for what you're talking about).

 

[theoriginalfuzz]

oh - and as for buying second hand (in which case, you may be able to find an older Korg Triton), you mainly want to make sure the screens work... that you can get around all functions on the screens and select what you need. Make sure there are no broken keys or buttons. Make sure the unit is new enough to have USB capability. Any used keyboard you get can be restored to factory state ( in terms of the sounds being restored to exactly the way it was when it came out of the factory, because the person who owned it edited and changed all the sounds).

The USB port will allow you to restore the units to factory condition in most cases.

With the Korg keyboards, make sure that if you buy one that has a touch screen (the TRitons and M-50 I recommended above do), that the touch screen works and that you can select all the things you need to select on it easily. In other words, make sure that the touch screen isn't all shot up so that when you put your fingers on it to select something, it doesn't select or there is a delay in selecting or you have to press it multiple times to get it to select a function. You don't want that. So make sure the touch screen works well.

 

[grannydrums]

hi, thanks to both of you for that advice, had a quick look on ebay and there are second hand models available within my price range so as soon as the singer has decided wether or not he will be able to play well enough live i will look again--and thanks for the tips on buying second hand, will now have more idea what to check