37-key unit with harmonium-like sound?

J

johnphoto

New member
Sorry for such a basic question from a newbie but the options are bewildering. I'm looking for suggestions for something that can be made to sound like a South Indian harmonium or reedy-sounding pipe organ via tweaking or sampling. It's only for use at home to accompany my vocal practice. I've had Casio MT-40 for many decades, perhaps it's time to try something a bit more modern and sophisticated.

Built-in speaker, and/or recommendation for a small battery powered external speaker
37 keys
Good build quality and decent-looking (not flashy)
Standalone (not for use with computer)
Perhaps older that will be at a good price on ebay or craigslist

--John in NYC
 
The best thing would be a Roland xps-10 but you will have a hard job finding one here because they were mainly sold in the Indian subcontinent only, but a few found there way here and appear on eBay from time to time. Other than that, the normal Roland sound canvas keyboards might be good. The sk-88 pro appears very modestly priced on eBay and has some very good sounds, including the common Indian ones.
 
The xps-10 is too big for my needs (37 keys). The SK-88 looks ideal but none have shown up on local craigslist or US ebay. I decided to get my feet wet and to start finding out what it's all about by picking up a Microkorg at an OK ($180) price. Seems I jumped in at the deep end. But it's fun finding my way around it. I will still look around for an SK-88 (or other small sampling keyboard, if that's the right term) because I'd like to input recorded sounds as opposed to synthesized.

I've realized I have another requirement: Ideally my little keyboard would have a just intonation setting, making all keys based on harmonics of a settable tonic. But perhaps such a beast doesn't exist, and I'll have to do it via my mac.
 
Does it really have to have only 37 keys? The Yamaha PSR-E343 and PSR-E443 both have three harmonium sounds ("voices" as Yamaha calls them)-- a one-reed, a two-reed, and a three-reed harmonium voice. The PSR-E343 would be less expensive, but the PSR-E443 has more features. Note that the older models (E333 and E433) don't have the harmonium voices.

Edit: PS-- I forgot to add, the PSR-E443 has scale-tuning function, allowing you to shift each note of the scale up or down by whatever number of cents is appropriate for your preferred method of just intonation.
 
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