Touring equipment dilemma

[paulnajar]

Hello folks,

 

Longtime lurker first time poster here.

 

I'm based in Sydney Australia and my usual live setup is an Akai MPK88 to control MainStage.

 

It's a great rig except as some will know the MPK88 is a heavy beast at 31kg and then put that in a flight case it will run maybe around 45-50kg.

 

I have a national tour coming up in October where we are flying to all capital cities except Darwin and Hobart and the MPK88 is too heavy to put on a jet. About the heaviest thing allowed is 32kg.

 

Other members need back line hire but about the only 88 note keyboard these backing companies have is the Yamaha motif 8. This has enough knobs and sliders for me to get by but the hire cost is $150 per night approx.

 

Normally this cost would be manageable for my bosses but these shows are supports so budget is tight and the motif is a lot more keyboard than I need since I would not even be pluging in its audio outputs.

 

So I'm looking for suggestions as to how I manage this. I'm ok with hiring in Sydney and flying with it as long as the keyboard + case does not weight more than 32kg.

 

I could get by with a 76 note unweighted controller but no shorter.

 

The controller needs to have 8 midi faders and knobs.

 

I think the ideal solution is if an Akai MPK88 was available in all cities delivered/ picked up for around $80 - $100 a night. Am I dreaming at this sort of money and would the akai be available in all/ any cities?

 

The shows are in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth mostly on weekends.

 

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

 

Kind regards

 

Paul Najar,

Jaminajar Music Production

[J. Dan]

What about a CME UF70? I have no experience with one myself, but a little over 11kg, 76-key semi-weighted, 9 sliders, 8 knobs.

[gino]

Hi Paul. I'd go with JustDan's suggestion. Not sure you will be able to hire it but you could probably buy this from Turramurra music for between $750-$799. It might be still be cost effective if it does the job instead of paying hire of $150 per night,especially if you're doing more than 5 interstate gigs.

 

[paulnajar]

Thanks for the replies JustDan & gino,

 

I actually own a UF8 which has let me down so many times it's totally turned me off CME and I replaced it in the past 6 months with MPK88 after much deliberation.

 

I was hoping for a hire solution for this particular tour as it's not me that would be paying the hire fees. I'm just the session guy on this job.

 

In the medium term I may be interested in a purchase solution for a 76 note controller but there aren't that many 76's on the market.

 

There are only 6 shows in this run BTW and yes 6 X $150 is enough for another purchase but that's why I'm hoping someone might have a hire solution in the $100 a night range.

 

PN

[stoken6]

Could you do it in two boxes? Get an old secondhand 76 keyboard (Roland XP80 for example), and a separate 8-fader/8-knob control box? Sell them on after the tour.

 

Or even (if you want weighted 88) a Casio PX150 and a fader box?

 

Cheers, Mike

[JeffLearman]

The Privia PX-5S has 6 sliders and 4 knobs. It's US$1K, which means it wouldn't be a wash, but you'd still have it after the tour, ready for the next one.

 

But, if you want a backline solution, just get a MIDI fader box and specify a backline digital piano like RD700 or any of the other workhorses, which should be cheaper than a Motif.

 

Cheapest MIDI controller: Korg NanoKontrol:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--KORNANOKON2

 

Put velcro on the back and bring a roll of the other side to stick to the backline board.

[paulnajar]

Just to update this thread many thanks to all who replied. Much appreciated.

 

I've ended up buying a korg nano kontrol 2 for knobs, buttons and faders and a friend has loaned me an old Roland D70 76 note keyboard & flight case. I won't even plugin the D70 sounds - just use as keys, wheels and pedals for mainstage.

 

In the longer term I'm curious about the Roland RD64 as a lighter weighted keyboard and maybe add a 61 note second controller on top for these air travel type shows. I wish Akai made the Max 49 in a 61 note version as it offers Mackie control emulation which is the ideal for mainstage IMO.

 

Backline hire is just a rip sadly. RD700 etc are all about $150 a night unless the tur manager is ringing all the wrong places

 

When looking for my Akai MPK88 months ago I tried the Casio px5 and it may have been a reasonable travel solution except the RRP in Australia is $2000. So the distributor is gouging and this makes it a poor choice.

 

I could buy a RD64 and akai max 49 and still have about $500 left over.

 

Anyway, thanks again everyone.

[stoken6]

I've ended up buying a korg nano kontrol 2 for knobs, buttons and faders and a friend has loaned me an old Roland D70 76 note keyboard & flight case. I won't even plugin the D70 sounds - just use as keys, wheels and pedals for mainstage.

 

Good solution. The D70 keyboard has a quality action.

 

In the longer term I'm curious about the Roland RD64 as a lighter weighted keyboard

 

Will 64 keys be sufficient? In your first post you said "I could get by with a 76 note unweighted controller but no shorter."

 

Cheers, Mike

[Reezekeys]

I was chuckling as I read through this thread because I was going to post that you should get a nanoKontrol! That's the solution I came up with when I started touring a few months ago. I always get this Apex keyboard stand:

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img94/6466/3j2w.jpg

 

I have the keyboard du jour on a lower tier, then I remove the arms of the upper tier and use this handy product to affix the nanoKontrol to the platform:

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img14/359/faa8.jpg

 

It's been working great. Too bad that the original nanoKontrol is a better product than the current one I was lucky to get one on Ebay.