Can I live my one board summer dream?!?

[SaskiaHamilton]

The way playing live has been evolving for me personally over the last few months and into the summer means I really want to simplify my equipment setup and make it as portable as possible. Recently I have transitioned to using my iPad pro as a sound module which has worked really well. But there are occasions (sometimes within the same set) where it would be more beneficial to use some onboard sounds and keep the iPad for sheet music etc. I can also pretty much get away without the need for external amplification and would prefer for the most part to use a good set of internal speakers

 

I am loving what I see from the CT S1 - both in terms of the quality and range of the tones provided, which would cover 80% of what I need, with the iPad backing up the rest. I also love the minimal form factor and think would look great in the sort of environments I tend to play. BUT I really need 88 hammer keys for some stuff. My piano playing is already sloppy enough as is without a non weighted dragging me further into ill disicpline!

 

What would people say is the closest 88 hammer equivalent of the CT S1?

 

Just to clarify this is what I would need to get to my one board dream.

⢠88 hammer keys

⢠Good range of quality tones equivalent to the CT-S1 that cover most of your classic key sounds (EP, Rhodes, Wurli etc as well as Piano)

⢠Internal speakers (Ideally bit louder than CT S1)

⢠Able to be battery powered

⢠Comes with music stand (more important than you might think)

⢠USB out and some way to have the audio from the iPad come back into the board and play though internal speakers

⢠A mod wheel would be great, but also ideally perhaps a couple of controller elements to send CC to the iPad (I could live without this)

 

Budget would be under $800 (ish)

 

Feel like the the PX-S1000 would be the closest but tone list is a bit limiting, and in the couple of instances have tried one out I never really connected 100% but willing to have my mind changed

 

As always any advice massivley appreciated

[AnotherScott]

Feel like the the PX-S1000 would be the closest but tone list is a bit limiting

Have you looked at their CDP-S350? I don't think any of the Casios have USB audio input, but I could be wrong.

 

There are lots of boards with internal speakers, and lots that run on battery, but very few that meet both criteria. You'd have more options if you split the two functions, i.e. combining a battery powered keyboard with a battery powered amp. Some thoughts about amplification at https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2872449 and I've seen other threads mentioning some pretty low-cost rechargeable speakers that people found adequate (don't expect too much, though). If you go used and can keep the speaker in the $100 to $200 range, you're at about 600-700 for a battery powered hammer action 88... that could get you in the range of a used Korg Kross or Casio PX5S. I don't think either has music stands, but there's enough free panel space for you to velcro a small stand that could hold an iPad vertically, if that's what you want the stand for... though it would not be centered. You wouldn't be getting USB audio into the board, but if you're talking about an external speaker, you'd be wiring to that anyway.

[Groove On]

There's also the Studiologic Numa Compact series. From what you wrote above, you probably want the 2x version.

https://www.studiologic-music.com/products/

[bfields]

But there are occasions (sometimes within the same set) where it would be more beneficial to use some onboard sounds and keep the iPad for sheet music etc.

 

If that's the only reason for onboard sounds, you could get a second iPad instead. Displaying music isn't very demanding, so bottom-of-the-line and/or used should be fine.

[ElmerJFudd]

Tall order for the price range.

 

Casio PX-560

[Mike Martin]

CDP-S350 or PX-S3000 both fit most of your requests which the exception of USB Audio. The CDP-S350 doesn't have any physical controllers but the PX-S3000 has some knobs, expression pedal input and more plus the advantage of tone and effects editing.

[SaskiaHamilton]

As always thanks for all your reponses, few things hadn't considered - Casio definitely seem to be the direction to lean.

 

Had thought about a battery powered speakers in the past but have never really come across a product that seems to fit the bill (and testing anything seems near impossible these days) I don't need anything that powerful really, its more of a clarity issue that lets them down IMHO

 

- SH

[gg22]

Yamaha MX88 has a USB in/out interface. A bit over your budget though. ($1000?)

[AnotherScott]

re: some of the suggestions...

 

...Numa Compact 2 has the speakers and USB audio interface, but isn't hammer action.

...Casio PX560 has the speakers and hammer action, but not the USB audio interface (also pushing a bit further past your budget)

...Yamaha MX88 has the USB interface and the hammer action, but not the speakers

 

---> and none of the three are battery powered.

[stoken6]

Yamahas have the neat one-cable "MIDI to and audio from an iPad" trick like the Numa 2, and some have speakers and battery powered (AnotherScott's triple threat above). Would something like a Yamaha P125 work for you? Not a huge range of sounds, but iPad can fill the gaps, perhaps.

 

Hits all your requirements except mod wheel and maybe sound range.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[stoken6]

Another thought - does your iPad have a headphone socket? Casio PX560 (and 360...) have audio in, so one USB cable for MIDI plus one 1/8in cable for audio. Not quite as neat as audio-over-USB, but opens up some other options.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[SaskiaHamilton]

Another thought - does your iPad have a headphone socket? Casio PX560 (and 360...) have audio in, so one USB cable for MIDI plus one 1/8in cable for audio. Not quite as neat as audio-over-USB, but opens up some other options.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

Yes it does - actually wasn't necessarily thinking of audio over USB (though that would be neater) so the board just needs an audio in really

[Werno]

I bought my daughter a Casio CDP-S350 for $550, and played with it myself for a couple weeks in a lakeside cabin before handing it off. Gotta say it was a ton of fun and I wouldn't mind having one myself. 88 weighted graded keys, 25 lbs, and few to none of the 700 built-in sounds were embarrassing; the pianos/keys were varied and usable. I had it up on a table where it was too high for me, so the action got to my hands after a bit but not sure that was the Casio's fault. There's a 3-pedal option if you want full sustain/ sost/ soft pedal capability, an LCD display that made most operations clear, and a phone/tablet app that makes operations and sound lists even clearer.

 

I hit the Cherry Hill NJ Guitar Center and Sam Ash prior to research and played the Privia S3000 and S1000 along with the S350; the Privia action felt a smidge better, but knowing my daughter I thought having a display would add more than the very slightly inferior feel would detract. Also liked the CDP-s350 dedicated buttons for tempo/tap tempo and other functions, easy split-layering, the hundreds of rhythms, the 6-track midi recorder, auto-accompaniment etc. which might or might not matter to her or the OP.

 

It also fulfills all the criteria the OP spelled out with the exception of a mod wheel- but it does have a pitch bend wheel, FWIW, which I didn't see mentioned in previous posts. It also has an 'audio in' that would allow the OP to play their iPad audio through the built-in speakers, assuming the iPad has a headphone output. The only audio output on the keyboard is the headphone jack, which I alternately plugged into some Sennheiser HD600 headphones and/or a stereo amp pushing some little B&W speakers- sounded better than the built-in speakers, and sounded closer to my Kurzweil PC3 and SP6 than I would have expected.

 

This would be my one-board summer dream, if that was my dream. YMMV.

[Stokely]

Not apples to apples at all, but as I posted in a recent thread I took a small-as-possible rig to my last gig so that our singer can bring it all to the next one (as I'm getting back into town, at best, 3 hrs before gig start).

 

Walking in with everything I need in a backpack and either hand has some DEFINITE appeal. In my case, it's a very light MODX7 and I also am using an ipad (for b3 organ). At this point after five gigs I'm ready to call this integration "reliable"...no real hiccups. I'm using audio over usb, but since the MODX also has audio ins I could do that instead from the ipad headphone out. Having no submixer was part of the plan for this ultra-simple rig. Not having it means I monitor everything from my monitor feed (normally I use my submixer to do that, as my keys are stereo in there!) and honestly that works well enough--though something in the Behringer xr18 we are using is affecting the sound negatively and I can't find anything (either in my channel or on my aux mix). Not show-stopping, but not as good as it sounds from the keyboard.

 

I did find halfway through the last gig that part of the iffy sound might be the cheap "chi-fi" in-ear monitors I bought (KZ brand). Lots of good reviews, but when I put my old Shure 215s back in things sounded better, despite 1 driver vs 5 per side. Perhaps you sometimes get what you pay for...

 

At least I know it can be done. My other keyboard is kind of "extra" anyway, a knobby synth I got not for need but because I wanted one....and the MODX and especially the ipad can do synths quite well.

 

Ironically I have something pretty close to your summer dream..a Moxf8 I got used for my son for 800 bucks (mint condition). I'm still deciding whether I want to try to bring that out vs the Modx7, and sell the other, but the pros and cons come out in favor of the modx7 at this point.