73 key or 76 key midi keyboard?

Ponder5

Member
Legitimately asking about Piano controllers.... sorta.
I have a 76 note very old Roland MKB300(?) 76 note (E-G) keyboard. It's a tank. It's part of a setup I need to trim some weight from.

What i'd like is 73 or preferably 76 keys of piano action. 88 won't fit in the setup. Not genuine legit piano action (which is only found on a grand piano, yes, i get that), but sort-like-piano-ish action. Doesn't have to be weighted, because I don't want the weight, but has to have some feel to it beyond on/off switches.
No Chopin recitals on this one. Just some AP, EP playing. Right now, the MKB runs a Kurzweil microPiano module. So yeah, meat-and-potato sounds.
If it has sounds, fine, as long as they're very good. If not, it'll still control the KW module.

Any ideas? I simply haven't been keeping up with the market and naturally everything is hyped in the ads. The ideal keyboard would weigh very little but still play fairly nicely. Certainly doesn't have to be perfect.
I had thought of one the Yamaha Pianaggero (?) models - very light, only a few pounds, but there's no "piano" touch to it at all. And it doesn't squirt midi. As the KW sounds outpace the Yamaha sounds it would still need to control a module, which it can't.

I'm open for ideas. Wasn't looking to spending Nord money on this, either unless that's all there is.
 
Legitimately asking about Piano controllers.... sorta.
I have a 76 note very old Roland MKB300(?) 76 note (E-G) keyboard. It's a tank. It's part of a setup I need to trim some weight from.

What i'd like is 73 or preferably 76 keys of piano action. 88 won't fit in the setup. Not genuine legit piano action (which is only found on a grand piano, yes, i get that), but sort-like-piano-ish action. Doesn't have to be weighted, because I don't want the weight, but has to have some feel to it beyond on/off switches.
No Chopin recitals on this one. Just some AP, EP playing. Right now, the MKB runs a Kurzweil microPiano module. So yeah, meat-and-potato sounds.
If it has sounds, fine, as long as they're very good. If not, it'll still control the KW module.

Any ideas? I simply haven't been keeping up with the market and naturally everything is hyped in the ads. The ideal keyboard would weigh very little but still play fairly nicely. Certainly doesn't have to be perfect.
I had thought of one the Yamaha Pianaggero (?) models - very light, only a few pounds, but there's no "piano" touch to it at all. And it doesn't squirt midi. As the KW sounds outpace the Yamaha sounds it would still need to control a module, which it can't.

I'm open for ideas. Wasn't looking to spending Nord money on this, either unless that's all there is.

I'd stick with Roland. I have an RDX 300 that i got on clearance for a decent price that has that feel. I don't have any real recent experience with the latest stuff though and others may feel the same so that may be why no previous answers.
 
Gosh, what a happy and helpful group.

Yeah, when you read the title, it is either 73-key or 76-key. Most people in this happy and helpful group would think, what's the difference? and move on to the next thread.
 
To be honest, that's what I did - I didn't know there were keyboards with random 70-odd compliments of keys, and I wondered which notes they miss off - top ones, bottom ones or a few at both ends?

Personally, if you want opinions, then I clump them into my usual 3 types - unweighted, weighted and realistic, not the unhelpful weighted, semi-weighted and weighted. I've got quite a few, and being a pretend pianist, not a classically trained one I have these wired up and active.
My collaborator colleague Grant who IS a classical pianist tried all of mine and gave his opinion too.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------ME------------------------------------------------------------GRANT
Swissonic - 88 note mute plastic unweighted master keyboard ----------LIKE IT - and the faders and pads are handy --------hates it plastic feel and makes a clacky sound
GEM Pro-1 88 note weighted/realistic stage piano ---------------Feels like a real piano, but hard work! -----------------Loves it plays 'right'
Korg Triton 61 note plastic unweighted synth feel ----------------OK, just a bit unresponsive -----------------------------It's a synth, what do you expect more?
Kontakt S61 MKII 61 note plastic unweighted synth feel ----------------Favourite now, for the features not feel-----------It's like a synth, no use to me.

My favourite he hates - we both can get on with then weighted keys, so I wish I'd bough the weighted 88 not Kontakt, but physically it wouldn't fit.

I guess it proves it's the kind of advice that isn't really that helpful apart from describing them, it doesn't tell us if you'll get on with them.

My experience of all the Yamaha, Roland and Kawai digital piano style keyboards is that they're sort of OK, but the sounds aren't.
 
Yeah, when you read the title, it is either 73-key or 76-key. Most people in this happy and helpful group would think, what's the difference? and move on to the next thread.

I suppose that might be a problem with non-keyboard people.
Keyboards are made in 88, 76, 73, 61, and 49 key versions. Nothing more.
(Well, i suppose some nob will find a 54 key piano made in the 30s for dirigible service.)

As I have a specific hole to fill, I can use either 76 or 73 key. 88 is too big. 61 is not especially useful for piano.

In retrospect, I probably coulda made that part clearer in the original post.
 
Personally, if you want opinions, then I clump them into my usual 3 types - unweighted, weighted and realistic, not the unhelpful weighted, semi-weighted and weighted. I've got quite a few, and being a pretend pianist, not a classically trained one I have these wired up and active.
My collaborator colleague Grant who IS a classical pianist tried all of mine and gave his opinion too.


Swissonic - 88 note mute plastic unweighted master keyboard

See, I didn't even know the Swissonic existed. So yes, I'll check that one out.

GEM Pro-1 88 note weighted/realistic stage piano
I've been TOLD these are crazy heavy like my Yamaha KX88. I'll look around for specs.

Korg Triton 61 note plastic unweighted synth feel
61 key is out. Got several, myself.

My experience of all the Yamaha, Roland and Kawai digital piano style keyboards is that they're sort of OK, but the sounds aren't.
That's what i'm finding, too.
 
The Gem is severely heavy. Add the weight of a flight case and it's really only a two person lift. Grant and I have the same one. It's build really solidly. Thomann in Europe sell the Swissonic and function wise it does a hello of a lot of things. As I'm not a proper pianist, I find the extra notes down the bottom handy, but rarely go near the other end, so I can hit the octave down button and it works. My friend gets very cross when he runs out of notes.
 
Yeah, this looks like what I was afraid of.
Just gonna fiddle through the Yamaha, Roland, and Casio catalogs and see what i can find.
I'm not above doing a little surgery (like I did with the MKB), so probably gonna hafta go the hard way.

Thanks all!
 
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