Having the right tool for every job

[EricBarker]

F**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k!

 

I've got an ongoing dilemma. I recently moved from the big city (Honolulu), back to my home town in Fairbanks, Alaska. When I was in the city, I was playing big city gigs, doing big man things, and had a big rig with no less than 3-5 keyboards. Now I'm having fun doing folk jams on porches, but I miss my rig. So I schlep a bunch of stuff out there, and get weird looks. The only "plug n play" board I have is my Casiotone, which is battery powered with built-in speakers and decent piano sounds. But playing it makes me feel awful and uninspired, and awfully uninspired. I realized I don't really have a "jack of all trades" keyboard. My main workstation is a laptop rig, and my Crumar Mojo61 does everything to perfection EXCEPT acoustic piano (to the chagrin of the Klezmer band I play with). I've thought about getting a Korg SV-2 72 with builtin speakers, but that's over $2000 for a board that does everything that all my other boards do!

 

I'm miserable... and maybe a little drunk.

[drawback]

A Vox Continental 61 with a Vox VX50 KB would make a porch jam a pretty happy place.

[ElmerJFudd]

The Swiss Army Knife Board!

 

Vox Continental 73

Roland VR-730

Hammond SK Pro or Sk1

Kurzweil Artis7 or PC4-7

Yamaha YC61 or weighted action 88

Kronos 61, weighted 73 or 88

[KuruPrionz]

 

I'm miserable... and maybe a little drunk.

 

This is the problem. Either sober up or get much drunker. It is Alaska, I recommend the later. You will need the practice when the "Big Dark" comes for six months.

 

I'm just in Northern Washington but I came from California and I'm still not used to how dark it gets and how late in the morning and early in the afternoon it comes.

 

And, get an accordion!!!!!! Easy to tote, loud, sounds great and you can bop around. Forget about electronic stuff.

[MAJUSCULE]

Or a melodica, even easier to tote than an accordion.

 

Although it's a full 88, my Roland FP-4 has pretty great internal speakers and a relatively enjoyable action to play. Your usual amount of extra sounds included in a DP.

[AnotherScott]

my Crumar Mojo61 does everything to perfection EXCEPT acoustic piano (to the chagrin of the Klezmer band I play with).

Okay, so you need quality organ, clav, rhodes, wurli + piano in a single board (no splits/layers necessary)...

 

The SV2 you mention is still weak on organ. If you don't necessarily need Mojo-quality organ, though, the Vox mentioned by drawback and Mr. Fudd could be a good choice.... lightweight and very nice action, besides. Elmer also mentioned Kurzweil... the SP6-7 is another that might do what you need at a pretty reasonable price. And the YC61 he mentioned could make sense too. Some of this comes down to where your organ quality threshold is.

 

Dexibell J7 Combo is another possibility. Action is a little heavily sprung for my tastes, but with their newer downloadable "platinum" sounds, I quite like the pianos/EPs. Its MIDI functionality is much better than the Vox or the SV2, which makes it kind of painless to grab an alternate sound from, say, an iPhone/iPad. And the motorized drawbars are cool. ;-) But it's pricier than the SV-2 whose price is already making you wince. (Same with the Hammond SK Pro, which is stronger than the Dexibell/Vox/Kurzweil in organ, but probably weaker than any of those in pianos.)

[The Real MC]

I went to a party and a jam session started. All they had for a keyboard was a Radio Shack toy. I mostly used the cheesy piano preset. The feedback I got was that I made that toy sound like a million bucks.

 

It ain't the keyboard, it's your hands.

[AnotherScott]

It ain't the keyboard, it's your hands.

That's true, but I also understand his perspective of "playing it makes me feel awful and uninspired, and awfully uninspired." I can give what I think/hope are perfectly good and even perhaps impressive performances on crappy gear... I just won't enjoy it as much. And to whatever extent I also do this for my own pleasure (and not just the audience's pleasure, or to get paid), I'd rather really enjoy it. (And the threshold of where it becomes enjoyable can be different for different people.)

[hardware]

I use a Casio WK7600 for family gatherings.

Hours of fun, battery operated and 225 bucks from Craigslist.

The Piano actually sounds decent.

I hate piano samples that decay according to price. This one is close to my PX-3S.

[ElmerJFudd]

my Crumar Mojo61 does everything to perfection EXCEPT acoustic piano (to the chagrin of the Klezmer band I play with).

Okay, so you need quality organ, clav, rhodes, wurli + piano in a single board (no splits/layers necessary)...

 

The SV2 you mention is still weak on organ. If you don't necessarily need Mojo-quality organ, though, the Vox mentioned by drawback and Mr. Fudd could be a good choice.... lightweight and very nice action, besides. Elmer also mentioned Kurzweil... the SP6-7 is another that might do what you need at a pretty reasonable price. And the YC61 he mentioned could make sense too. Some of this comes down to where your organ quality threshold is.

 

Dexibell J7 Combo is another possibility. Action is a little heavily sprung for my tastes, but with their newer downloadable "platinum" sounds, I quite like the pianos/EPs. Its MIDI functionality is much better than the Vox or the SV2, which makes it kind of painless to grab an alternate sound from, say, an iPhone/iPad. And the motorized drawbars are cool. ;-) But it's pricier than the SV-2 whose price is already making you wince. (Same with the Hammond SK Pro, which is stronger than the Dexibell/Vox/Kurzweil in organ, but probably weaker than any of those in pianos.)

 

Side question. Have Dexibell improved their Leslie simulator on the J7 since release? Does it have an aux out to run the organ engine to a vent?

[AnotherScott]

Side question. Have Dexibell improved their Leslie simulator on the J7 since release?

Yes. There was one significant update that, to me, brought the problematic fast Leslie from cringe-inducing to very usable. I'd rank its Leslie over that in the YC61 or a Kurzweil, for example.

 

Does it have an aux out to run the organ engine to a vent?

Unfortunately not... nor can you even pan organ to one side and your other sounds to the other for that purpose. OTOH, the J7 does have good MIDI functionality, and the moving drawbars function well running MIDI controllable organ apps, so you can get your "separate organ" that way. Possibly for $14 if VB3m on your smartphone does the trick.

[Moonglow]

Do your porch jams involve the need to play louder than a keyboard with built in speakers? If not, I"d look at some of the Casio stuff. I"ve used my PX-360 for 'unplugged' band rehearsals, and it worked out well. I"m more of piano player, so I enjoy the weighted keys. Among bread and butter sounds, organ is probably the weakest, although I found a patch in the organ section I sort of like. There are also several other categories of sounds (e.g., synths, strings), each with an ample selection of programs.

[Tom Williams]

Or a melodica, even easier to tote than an accordion.

 

Although it's a full 88, my Roland FP-4 has pretty great internal speakers and a relatively enjoyable action to play. Your usual amount of extra sounds included in a DP.

You have an 88 key Roland melodica? Wow!

[sherry]

I've ordered a Kurzweil PC4-7 for my all-in-one go to board. The problem with it, I ordered it in May from Sweetwater and I'm STILL waiting. Been told now hopefully September sometime. Ugh.

[Tom Williams]

I've ordered a Kurzweil PC4-7 for my all-in-one go to board. The problem with it, I ordered it in May from Sweetwater and I'm STILL waiting. Been told now hopefully September sometime. Ugh.

Same exact story here. Ordered to beat the June price increase. They tell me I'm next in line whenever the PC4-7s start shipping again.

[drawback]

No one's mentioned the Numa Compact 2X yet.

[AnotherScott]

No one's mentioned the Numa Compact 2X yet.

Good call... it could potentially fit the bill at low cost, and actually even has built-in speakers (though don't expect too much out of them). The sound and/or action may lag some of the other stuff mentioned, but it could be good enough. A Lester K could improve the organ at reasonable cost, too. Since we're only talking about playing one sound at a time, the inability to send organ to its own output for pedal use is less of an issue. (You won't hear the pedal's effect through the built-in speakers, though.)

[Delaware Dave]

i purchased the PC3 ten years ago to have an all in one keyboard. add a vent for the leslie and it does everything you need to do well. just played to 1500+ people Wednesday night and didnt feel uninspired in the least. it covered everything.

[AnotherScott]

The only "plug n play" board I have is my Casiotone, which is battery powered with built-in speakers and decent piano sounds. But playing it makes me feel awful and uninspired, and awfully uninspired.

The updated Casiotone CT-S1 is getting some nice reviews, maybe worth checking out as well, for a simple low-cost and also compact solution. At it's price, it would be cheap even if you bought a dedicated/velcro'd iPod Touch and ran VB3m on it for better organ, feeding its audio back into the Casio. (I think that would work...)