Which keyboard does NOT have a dummy wheel to pick sounds?

[Showkster]

Was sick when they did away with the keypad system for selecting voices or tones. Don't know what they were thinking ... they certainly weren't musicians playing gigs.
:-(

Also : Battery operated?
Also : built in speakers?
Also : headphone jack in FRONT

 

[Biggles]

Difficult to give one that does it all for you, built in speakers limits it to an Arranger or Digital Piano.

My Korg PA Arranger is menu driven via a touch screen or physical buttons has front jack but is not battery powered

But my Korg Kross 2 has the wheel but assignable pad buttons make for STS change of Instrument Voice or Voices, it is battery powered but alas headphone socket is at the rear but that is not a problem for me as I connect my headphones to my Mixer.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Yeah, the rear placement of the headphone jack on many keyboards can be frustrating, or at least awkward.

One possible way to get around having the headphones’ cord being draped across the keyboard would be to get a pair of wireless headphones. You’d still need to plug the transmitter into the back of the keyboard, of course, so it would still be a hassle to grope around back there blindly (assuming it’s set against a wall)— or else turn or flip the keyboard so you can see what you’re doing— in order to plug in or unplug the transmitter.

 

[happyrat1]

Juno DS -

1) Battery Operated

2) Can Assign Quick Select buttons for often used sounds.

3) Headphone Jack in the rear. Just run the cord underneath (duh) ....

4) No built in speakers. It's a professional grade instrument.

BTW, I don't see what the big problem is with a jog wheel to select. Most professional keyboards have a quick access bank where you can assign the most used voices to a single button press.

BTW, the Kurzweil PC3K also has quick access buttons and a full numeric keypad as well as a jog wheel. Kurzweil just came out with the PC4 so you may want to take a look at that one also.

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

3) Headphone Jack in the rear. Just run the cord underneath (duh) ....

Yes, that’s what I usually do if possible, although the cord on some headphones isn’t quite long enough to run under the keyboard and up to your head comfortably without having to buy an extender. And if cord is too long then it’s hanging down below the keyboard and can get tugged on accidentally by your legs or by a pet, possibly doing damage to the wiring if it’s tugged too forcefully. It’s still hanging down if it’s plugged into a jack on the front of the keyboard, but at least it’s hanging down to the side and is more out of the way.

Mostly, though, it’s the hassle of having to plug it in or unplug it at the rear of the keyboard— less of a hassle if you’re set up in a spacious room and the keyboard isn’t pushed back against a wall such that you can just walk around behind the keyboard, but more of a hassle if you can’t walk around behind the keyboard and must either pull it away from the wall or lift it up in the rear so you can see where the jack is.

That’s my situation— keyboard against the wall, no extra space to the left or right, not to mention very little space in front, making it awkward to pull one end away from the wall to see the jack, or pull both ends straight away. I always have to lift up the back of the keyboard to see the jack— and now that I have a 2-tier stand, that’s pretty much out of the question. I basically need to pull the keyboard off of the stand to access the headphones jack, which is complicated by the other cables which are connected in the back, including an audio cable that connects my top keyboard (which has no built-in speakers) to my bottom one (which does).

I used to just keep the headphones plugged in all the time, but I started worrying that that might not be a good idea for one reason or another.

In any case, choosing which keyboard to buy is often a matter of prioritizing just how desirable or necessary each “dream feature” is, since it’s often difficult if not impossible to find one that ticks off every single box on your list of demands, and you end up having to choose the one that at least ticks off the boxes with the highest priorities. For me, the placement of the headphones jack is one of the lowest priorities, but I can understand and sympathize with anyone for whom it’s more of a priority.

 

[happyrat1]

Some keyboards mark all the back connections along the back top edge so they're easy to find from the front.

When they're not and I have to constantly pug and unplug I make labels with my Brother Label Printer and stick them along the top edge.

It may not be the prettiest solution but it works.

Gary

 

[Biggles]

Short extension cable with the socket taped to the front of the keyboard stand and its job done, easily sorted

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Short extension cable with the socket taped to the front of the keyboard stand and its job done, easily sorted

As long as a plug is inserted into the jack, the sound to the speakers is cut off, so that doesn’t sort the problem of having to reach behind the keyboard to unplug the extension cable.

 

[Biggles]

As long as a plug is inserted into the jack, the sound to the speakers is cut off, so that doesn’t sort the problem of having to reach behind the keyboard to unplug the extension cable.

Not necessarily, it depends upon the keyboard.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

True, but I'm talking about my keyboards.

As I said, the placement of the headphones jack is of minor importance to me.

But I can understand why it's on the OP's list, because I'm familiar with the annoyance it creates if it's on the rear of the keyboard.

 

[Showkster]

Yeah, the rear placement of the headphone jack on many keyboards can be frustrating, or at least awkward. One possible way to get around having the headphones’ cord being draped across the keyboard would be to get a pair of wireless headphones.

At a gig plugging ANYTHING into the phones jack kills all sound. So, even a phone extension taped to the bottom doesn't work! (I tried it) At gigs, between songs, or during breaks, I often plug in phones to play privately, or check sounds, etc. without being audible to audience.

 

[Showkster]

BTW, I don't see what the big problem is with a jog wheel to select. Most professional keyboards have a quick access bank where you can assign the most used voices to a single button press.Gary

Yes, I know. And that's what I've been using. But with eight banks of five buttons each, clicking through to those becomes worse than a dummy wheel. And, at least with the 7500, jumping from one bank to the other doesn't always clear all the criteria of the previous bank ... besides, you always have to go through the numbers to get back. So if you're in bank six, button four, in order to get to bank three, you have to click seven, eight, one, two, three, then the number . . . which I've inquired about in this forum some time ago. So the "quick access" banks aren't as effective as simply keying in three digits.

 

[Showkster]

4) No built in speakers. It's a professional grade instrument.

Speakers are not mandatory, but make life easier. here in the tropics there are lots of street corner and tiki bar jams and gigs where a) there could be one, two or zero outlets, b) you have to walk a ways to get there, or you just don't want to lug an amp, when in an acoustical setting. Besides, I'm not a professional. We get paid less today for gigs than we did in the mid 1960s, so can hardly be considered a professional. It's the only career where the wages haven't increased for a half of a century! :-D

 

[Biggles]

Actually I lug my speaker less Korg Kross 2 plus Amp around, together they weight only 10 lbs where my Arranger keyboard weights in at 22 lbs and is dimensionally 1 1/4 x the size of the Kross 2.

For jamming I have a very small Boss Katana Mini amp which is 6W and more than loud enough for the venue we use.

 

[anotherscott]

Battery powered and speakers is an uncommon combination, because speakers draw so much power. There are some, but they tend to be pretty low-end, further limiting your choices. For AC-free performance, you may have to resign yourself to carrying at least two things... i.e. a battery-powered keyboard and a battery powered amp (Bose S1 Pro, JBL Eon One Pro, Roland BA330 or Street Cube EX, would be some possibilities); or maybe a non-battery powered keyboard with built-in speakers and some kind of external battery pack to power it.

But with eight banks of five buttons each, clicking through to those becomes worse than a dummy wheel.

That's not a knock on quick access buttons, but on a particular implementation. Which board are you talking about?

On Gary's suggested Juno DS, it's 10 banks of 10, so you can get to any of 100 favorite sounds with essentially two button presses; plus with a single button press, the same 10 buttons actually do become numeric keypad entry buttons. The numeric implementation is designed to let you access sounds only in the current bank, so it's not the same as being able to access any sound that way, but you can also put sounds from different banks into the User bank to facilitate numeric switching between them if needed.

I agree that scroll wheel is a poor patch selection device for live performance. One way around it could be to send your patch changes over MIDI via your smartphone, most boards will support that.

Other than the things you listed, what else are you looking for? Specifically, do you have weight and/or budget limitations? What are the minimum and ideal number of keys? Are there certain kinds of sounds that are a priority? Do you do splits or just one sound across the board at a time?

 

[kmkkeys]

I like my dummy wheel. Seriously though i, nowadays, you have to spend big bucks to get what you’re asking for. I like the physical keypads on (Keyboards) also. They are much friendlier and quicker to access for sounds. I kind a wish they would’ve never gotten away from this type of board I truly don’t mind touchscreen, although they are not as accurate as they appear to be.

 

[hammarlund]

New K2700 has all of them.
1) Dummy wheel
2) Category buttons ("Piano", "EP," etc) and Increment buttons
3) "keypad mode," which toggles the category buttons into numeric keys so you can just type the sound you want and press "enter"
4) Quick access mode: when enabled, shows 10 user-selected sounds that are selected by pressing the keypad #1-10