How to mount a 32 Key keyboard on drumset?

[trenttati]

I'm adding a 32 key keyboard (m-audio oxygen 8) to my drum set and want to place it somewhere above my hi-hat for left-handed playing. I've been looking in music stores and online for a clean, nice looking system that will do the trick, but nothing has caught my eye in any decent price bracket.

Please, if you've done this or know of a product or three that will do the trick let me know. I'm not interested in building anything requiring soldering or too much time. Having it look good on a nice kit with new hardware is a plus. If the system is expandable to also mount a 12" laptop or 1U 19" rack unit, even better. Price range: up to $50ish

Many thanks in advance!

 

[prestomation]

Unfortunatly I dont' have any ideas for you, but the idea in general sounds kickass. I don't think i've ever seen(or heard of) a drummer who doubled on keys live.

That is sweet, give us some pics when you're done.

Sorry, that wasn't very helpful

 

[Dr ZEE]

here's an idea-thought
You can try this ...pic is attached...using powers of digital-imaging
You can take base-part of cymbal stand and top/holder part of snare stand (which I think may well grab'n'hold your controller, but there's no way I can know for sure...but I think you can figure something out to make the controller seat nicely and tight in three-arm snare-grabber .... So this way you can adjust height and angle of your controller and it all looks nice'n'cool and 'drum-set friendly'

 

[goodbyebluesky]

I think the drummer for semisonic or the verve played keys, even live while simultaneously playing drums, but very minimally I would imagine though.
So look them up and see what his live setup must be.

 

[Bdrum]

You would think that they would have a custom stand??
I would try a heavy duty sheet music stand Maybe pre-fab???

I'm wondering what your going to play on the right.

 

[trenttati]

Thanks all for your comments and especially to Dr Zee for the enthusiastic diagram. I don't have any snare stands that fold up small enough to hold the keyboard well enough for live performance. I thought of that idea, and that's probably what it will be in the end, but perhaps I'll put a clamp on the hi-hat stand and forgo an extra set of legs.

GoodByeBlueSky, thanks for the leads...I'm going to check them out as soon as I can.

What am I going to play on the right? A glockenspiel of course!! Who needs ride cymbals?

 

[Dr ZEE]

I don't have any snare stands that fold up small enough to hold the keyboard well enough for live performance. I thought of that idea, and that's probably what it will be in the end, but perhaps I'll put a clamp on the hi-hat stand and forgo an extra set of legs.

Here, man.... what the heck... it took me like 5mins to set-it-up with my ol'fatar controller ...I'm attaching quick shots-pic (due to file size limit I can only post small images...but you get the idea... the controller placed right above the hi-hats... still can be moved up above hats few inches).
I'm using here Pearl snare stand's holder and Pearl cymbal stand base. Parts match perfectly. But if you use different barand/design parts, then they may not fit... well, dooh ... What is the size of oxygen 8? Fatar is 10.5" .... snare holder grabs it perfectly. It looks like the smallest width it can hold tightly is about 8.5".... if your controller is smaller... I'd say you can simply add-up something, like piece of wood/plastic/felt or what have you...

well, what ever you do - good luck with this craze' set ...good luck playing as well - heh heh

 

[Adam P]

Not that its of much help to you, but the drummer of my old band had an Alesis drum machine bungee strapped over a piece of padded foam to the top of his bass drum. It had a keyboard (that our guitarist played) connected to the thru input and then both were connected to his Powerbook via M-Audio Quattro, and then run out into a vocoder and split between a DI box and a headphone amp.

Aside from that, I'll chime in on the snare stand idea.

 

[Tim Brown]

If you happen to use a Gibraltar Rack - Gibraltar makes a pair of special clamps that mount on the rack to hold things like drum machines and stuff -and they should hold a keyboard if you spread them out on the rack crossbars.

Perhaps I should say made....I just went and looked and can't find them anywhere.

 

[Dr ZEE]

If you happen to use a Gibraltar Rack - Gibraltar makes a pair of special clamps that mount on the rack to hold things like drum machines and stuff -and they should hold a keyboard if you spread them out on the rack crossbars.

Perhaps I should say made....I just went and looked and can't find them anywhere.

Yeah, with rack you can attach something like 'special arm' with holder, something similar to the way drum modules are attached to v-drums rack and similar. But then again, you need to find that 'special holer' or make it yourslef.
********

while playing around with this ...here's another thought. You actually can attach the snare holder part to cymbal boom, and then you can place your controller anywhere around/above your drum kit the way you'd place a cymbal. Now of course, your controller can't be too heavy, plus it's a bit shaky...especially if you are planing on some 'heavy key-playing' . Light cymbal stand may not work well for such application. I did try it with one of my heavy tama stands with counterweight on the boom... and it feels kind of OK. I'll attach photo here.

/later

 

[mikeh]

I would think a snare stand basket either inserted into a telscopic stand or mounted on a rack system who make the most sense (I've used snare baskets to mount a small 49 key unit that I triggered sounds from and I've also mounted Drumkats and other items that way.

I would not try to mount something as heavy as a keyboard to the highhat stand

 

[trenttati]

Thanks to everybody here, especially Dr Zee, I jerry rigged a snare basket/cymbal stand setup for my keyboard. The Oxygen8 is pretty small, and none of my snare stands would fasten up tight enough to hold the unit without stopping some keys from playing and being generally shaky. I put slices in rubber washers and slipped them above the stopper for the basket and now it fits, though not perfectly. The top arm of the basket doesn't hold the keyboard tightly, but I can play it without knocking anything over.

The next step is to add a platform for a laptop or synth unit.

I'm running garageband for my sounds and sending them out through an M-Audio mobilepre with low instruments going into a bass amp on my left and high instruments going through a guitar amp on my right. A stereo keyboard amp setup would be ideal.

Now it's time to start practicing...

 

[trenttati]

I just realized that I titled the thread 32 key keyboard, but I meant 24 key. I never watched sesame street as a kid and now I can't count because of it.

 

[tourettes5139]

Very cool idea. I may have to steal that for my band!