ProSoundWeb Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Keyboard recommendation  (Read 2471 times)

Steven Welwood

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 50
Keyboard recommendation
« on: September 02, 2014, 01:28:55 PM »

Hello All,

I'm hoping someone here can recommend a keyboard for me to rent. I don't know a lot about all the different models, what's popular, what's good, etc., but I'll be renting in a city where any well-known model should be available.

First, to give you a better picture, this will be for a church worship service. I am renting for a keyboard player who only has a cheap old keyboard herself, and doesn't know about different models any more than I do (probably less, actually). The music will call for piano about 40% of the time, and pads about 60% of the time.

So my requirements are:
- common model
- full-size 88 weighted keys
- easy to use
- a few good pads to choose from
- good piano sound
- preferably not 70 lbs (ie. CP-300), but it's only for one night, so if that's what we should get, we can deal with it!

Any suggestions from you guys would be great!
Logged

Thomas Le

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1139
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2014, 03:28:26 PM »

Looks like either a Roland RD or Yamaha CP / S90 fits the bill. Yamaha Motif is also a consideration but I would imagine that would be more expensive to rent.
Logged

TJ (Tom) Cornish

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4317
  • St. Paul, MN
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2014, 04:08:57 PM »

Hello All,

I'm hoping someone here can recommend a keyboard for me to rent. I don't know a lot about all the different models, what's popular, what's good, etc., but I'll be renting in a city where any well-known model should be available.

First, to give you a better picture, this will be for a church worship service. I am renting for a keyboard player who only has a cheap old keyboard herself, and doesn't know about different models any more than I do (probably less, actually). The music will call for piano about 40% of the time, and pads about 60% of the time.

So my requirements are:
- common model
- full-size 88 weighted keys
- easy to use
- a few good pads to choose from
- good piano sound
- preferably not 70 lbs (ie. CP-300), but it's only for one night, so if that's what we should get, we can deal with it!

Any suggestions from you guys would be great!
I don't think there is much of a cost difference between renting different models.  The local backline house charges between $150-$200/day for renting most boards.  Yamaha Motif-series boards are ubiquitous.  I play Korg and Kurzweil myself.

I would suggest posting your location, and/or trying to network with a church to borrow something for a day.
Logged

Steven Welwood

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 50
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2014, 04:10:15 PM »

I was considering the S-90ES only because I'm slightly familiar with it, but I thought there might be other options that were simpler for someone to step in and play. There will be a bit of time for her to familiarize herself with it, but not a lot.

The RD series looks like it might have a good option in it, as the control surfaces don't seem as complicated as the Yamaha surfaces are. It would be nice if Roland had a comparison chart on their site to help with the decision.
Logged

TJ (Tom) Cornish

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4317
  • St. Paul, MN
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2014, 04:18:50 PM »

I was considering the S-90ES only because I'm slightly familiar with it, but I thought there might be other options that were simpler for someone to step in and play. There will be a bit of time for her to familiarize herself with it, but not a lot.

The RD series looks like it might have a good option in it, as the control surfaces don't seem as complicated as the Yamaha surfaces are. It would be nice if Roland had a comparison chart on their site to help with the decision.
Keyboards are personal, like guitars.  A spec sheet will not likely be of much help.  What you seem to need - an acoustic piano sound and one or more pad sounds, can be handled by any modern keyboard since you will just be calling up a single sound.  How well - in other words do you like the particular sounds of that keyboard - are subjective.

My personal opinion as a long-time keys player (and I have owned a number of keyboards from all 4 big keyboard manufacturers over the years) is that the Korg Kronos has the best overall palette of sounds, and the Roland is my least favorite.  Yamaha is somewhere in the middle.  I'm sure you will find others who disagree.

Most keyboard families sound similar - Yamaha doesn't re-sample everything for every model of keyboard, they reuse sounds.  If you like the Yamaha palette, you will probably be happy with a number of models.

In order of importance, I would select a board on the following criteria:
1. What is available - call the backline houses, and/or network with other churches.  It doesn't do any good to pick out a model from a catalog, only to find that no one has one.
2. A brand family the player prefers - have the user go to Guitar Center and get an idea of what they like, both feel and sounds.
3. Everything else.  Weight, ergonomics, etc. are all distant lower priorities.
Logged

Steven Welwood

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 50
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2014, 04:34:45 PM »

In order of importance, I would select a board on the following criteria:
1. What is available - call the backline houses, and/or network with other churches.  It doesn't do any good to pick out a model from a catalog, only to find that no one has one.
2. A brand family the player prefers - have the user go to Guitar Center and get an idea of what they like, both feel and sounds.
3. Everything else.  Weight, ergonomics, etc. are all distant lower priorities.

Good advice. I will try to find out if she has any brand/product family preferences.

As far as sourcing goes, we need to rent almost the entire system from Long & McQuade anyway (I'm in Canada), so for simplicity's sake, we were told to just add the keyboard to the rental.
Logged

Ned Ward

  • SR Forums
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1490
  • Redondo Beach, CA
    • Our band's page on Facebook
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2014, 05:01:27 PM »

On whatever keyboard you get, I suggest getting strips of board tape to allow people to mark up commonly used patches. While you may be familiar with one keyboard, the last thing you want is someone starting a song with the wrong patch...
Logged

Stephen Gregory

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 28
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2014, 02:43:29 AM »

We use a Kawai MP5 for several reasons:

Good piano sounds (Kawai only make pianos, and they do it right).
Good solid responsive action (this is personal, but most agree this action is at least OK).
Portable (45 lbs)
It does not have 15000 pointless and unusable patches. It has a small set of good ones, immediately accessible by one button press. This is particularly good for folk not familiar with it.
It sits nicely in the mix (esp the Mono Piano and EPs).

I guess your rental supplier won't have one, but it's a shame because we tried the Rolands and Yamahas extensively before going with this one. Lots of churches and schools have them.

Of course if money is no problem you could go with the Nord Stage, but that one is a bit intimidating for those unfamiliar with it.

Logged

Steven Welwood

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 50
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2014, 03:54:01 AM »

Thanks for the suggestions.

The keyboard player has informed me that she likes Rolands, so I rented her the RD-700NX recommended by the store.

$40 for the weekend. One thing about L & M--you can't beat their rental prices!
Logged

TJ (Tom) Cornish

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4317
  • St. Paul, MN
Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2014, 06:07:40 AM »

Thanks for the suggestions.

The keyboard player has informed me that she likes Rolands, so I rented her the RD-700NX recommended by the store.

$40 for the weekend. One thing about L & M--you can't beat their rental prices!
That's a great price - she should be happy with that board if she likes Rolands.
Logged

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Keyboard recommendation
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2014, 06:07:40 AM »


Pages: [1]   Go Up
 



Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.02 seconds with 25 queries.