Looking for a 76 Key MIDI Controller with some real estate on top

[seratone]

Just like the title says - A controller with a flat top for another keyboard. I'm looking to build to a Mainstage rig. I want to keep things pretty compact so I want to avoid an 88 key controller. I also am hesitant to have two keyboard stand tiers so I'm looking for a controller that has a flat surface on top for another 46 or 61 key controller with no faders or buttons in the way. I found something called a CME Zkey - but it's not longer available.

 

Does anyone know of such a thing?

 

 

[stoken6]

Do you need weighted action? The old Viscount/"Oberheim" MC1000 came in a semi-weighted 76 action. Apart from one large data wheel (that you could simply pull off) there's a 7-element screen and a few low-profile buttons. Nothing that would get in the way of a controller on top - I gigged it as a controller under various boards in exactly this way:

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Iconoclast]

The Studio Logic SL73 studio 73 is 3 keys short but meets all those requirements.  You can accessorize it out with a computer shelf and SL MixFace and it works fantastic as a Mainstage rig. Although this picture is the SL88 grand, they are the same dimensions in depth/height, just not width and weight.

The Mixface and the computer shelf attach with a very strong magnetic based structure that is firm and allows you to place them where ever they will fit on the keyboard.

 

[J.F.N.]

6 minutes ago, Iconoclast said:

The Studio Logic SL73 studio 73 is 3 keys short but meets all those requirements.  You can accessorize it out with a computer shelf and SL MixFace and it works fantastic as a Mainstage rig. Although this picture is the SL88 grand, they are the same dimensions in depth/height, just not width and weight.

The Mixface and the computer shelf attach with a very strong magnetic based structure that is firm and allows you to place them where ever they will fit on the keyboard.

 

 

"a controller that has a flat surface on top for another 46 or 61 key controller with no faders or buttons in the way"

 

Rules out everything available on the market new today, including the SL series with it's control center in the middle of the top space!

[seratone]

Both of those are great - weighted yes. Definitely looks like I'll look for something older.

 

I used to have a VK8 organ with what I recall having a coffee table top - I had a 49'er up there but looking at it now, it's pretty small.

[Iconoclast]

24 minutes ago, J.F.N. said:

 

"a controller that has a flat surface on top for another 46 or 61 key controller with no faders or buttons in the way"

 

Rules out everything available on the market new today, including the SL series with it's control center in the middle of the top space!

The picture you posted of the CME Zkey doesn't meet that criteria either. You might be able to put a mini 48 on top of that but a 61 would be too big. Not to mention the depth would be an issue for a lot of controllers.

You can certainly put another keyboard right up against the SL keyboards. Their pitch/mod sticks are a lot lower on the top than the example CME. The center switch and screen on the SL never needs to be used, especially not during a gig. You can cover that baby right up and never notice it.
 

It's really only used to set the keyboard preferences up (midi channels, keybed velocity gains and feel, pedal and switch mappings) and you can do all that in the computer based editor anyway. I literally never touched that switch and only used the screen to make sure that nothing ever changed on the settings...which never did. With SL edit you could conceivably remove the switch and tape over the screen and lose no capability.

Are you trying to put the 2d board on top of it and lose a stand?
 

[stoken6]

3 hours ago, seratone said:

Just like the title says - A controller with a flat top for another keyboard. I'm looking to build to a Mainstage rig. I want to keep things pretty compact so I want to avoid an 88 key controller. I also am hesitant to have two keyboard stand tiers so I'm looking for a controller that has a flat surface on top for another 46 or 61 key controller with no faders or buttons in the way. I found something called a CME Zkey - but it's not longer available.

 

Does anyone know of such a thing?

 

 

Requirements: 76 weighted keys and a flat top. If you're willing to consider 73 keys, then Yamaha P121, Korg SV1/SV2, Crumar 7/17, Viscount Legend?

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Paul Woodward]

Wouldn’t you need access to some sort of controls, pitch bend, mod wheel, even just buttons to change channels or volume etc. which would be obscured by a top keyboard unless it was very deep. The SL as mentioned above has probably the most sparse interface, but it still isn’t completely flat or empty.

[Dave Number Four]

I used to use a few blocks with Velcro to allow an NC2x to sit on top of a cp4.

 

Those models don't help you but just in case the concept helps you (where the bottom keyboard has some faders and buttons but the blocks let you lay another keyboard on top)

[ProfD]

15 hours ago, stoken6 said:

Korg SV1/SV2, Crumar 7/17, Viscount Legend?

The SV top is not flat. However, the Crumar and Viscount would work.😎

 

 

[stoken6]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

The SV top is not flat. However, the Crumar and Viscount would work.😎

 

 

So here's my thought process. Virtually no lower board is deep enough to support an upper board entirely on its own. (The CME that @seratone posted certainly isn't). So I'm interpreting the requirement as "front edge of the upper board rests on the lower board, rear edge of the upper board supported separately"  - as in the pic in @Iconoclast's post - which is something the SV can do. 

 

But it certainly an't flat-top.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[J.F.N.]

16 minutes ago, stoken6 said:

So here's my thought process. Virtually no lower board is deep enough to support an upper board entirely on its own. (The CME that @seratone posted certainly isn't). So I'm interpreting the requirement as "front edge of the upper board rests on the lower board, rear edge of the upper board supported separately"  - as in the pic in @Iconoclast's post - which is something the SV can do. 

 

But it certainly an't flat-top.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

The only ones I can think of that have enough space, eventually, would be the Crumar and Viscount electric pianos, or an old Roland RD 250/300 or something in that line. And second tier would have to be a board that's not too deep where the rubber feet fit within the estate.

[AnotherScott]

29 minutes ago, stoken6 said:

So here's my thought process. Virtually no lower board is deep enough to support an upper board entirely on its own. (The CME that @seratone posted certainly isn't). So I'm interpreting the requirement as "front edge of the upper board rests on the lower board, rear edge of the upper board supported separately"  - as in the pic in @Iconoclast's post - which is something the SV can do. 

 

But it certainly an't flat-top.

 

Right. I have, in fact, rested the front of a top board on the top of the SV1. There are other questions though, like whether the OP requires that the board have pitch/mod controls (Grandstage could beat SV that way), and whether the OP would consider a hammer action an advantage to mate with a non-hammer top or a disadvantage due to heavier travel weight or just not wanting a hammer action board.

 

Picking up from Dave Number Four's CP4 woodblock idea, I think some boards become more or less viable depending on your need to access their own top panel controls, or the placement of the ones you feel you do want to keep accessible. But this approach opens up more possibilities. Demonstrated here, for example...

 

https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/180211-low-profile-2nd-keyboard/page/2/#comment-2870476

 

[Delaware Dave]

https://images.app.goo.gl/RULFqx3KerZQDTQh9

[ProfD]

4 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

Picking up from Dave Number Four's CP4 woodblock idea, I think some boards become more or less viable depending on your need to access their own top panel controls, or the placement of the ones you feel you do want to keep accessible.

Along those lines, the Hydrasynth Deluxe while 3 keys short has plenty real estate on the right-hand side depending on how the top KB is being utilized. 😎

[ElmerJFudd]