Recommendation - One-Finger Chord Triggering?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ratamahoo
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Ratamahoo

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Hi. I'm a drummer, not a keyboard player. I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive ($750 or less) keyboard to be used for some recording as well as for capturing song ideas. I have the following criteria that I'm looking for:

1) Less than $750
2) Good acoustic/electric piano sounds
3) Some simple abilty to record on-board (does that necessarily mean this
will need to be a "workstation"?)
4) Ability to program the keyboard for one-finger chord triggering (e.g. like
the Roland Juno-D offers)

I realize this is not much of a budget, but I'd like to get your feedback. The Juno-D might be a nice fit for me if only it had some ability to record (it doesn't, does it?).

Thanks everyone.
 
I realize you described a standalone keyboard, but $750 these days will get you a decent laptop, a USB controller, and an entry-level sequencer (Tracktion, EnergyXT, Reaper), plus a VST or two for sound generation. XT, specifically, has a nice chord generating component.

Cheers,
P
 
I have a DGX-305 Yamaha Keyboard which I think is discontinued. But then again everything gets discontinued.... It has all the features you need, and you might find one cheap on eBay. It costs about $400 Canadian. :D
 
Thanks for the response. I'll do some investigating on those ideas. Appreciate it.
 
I ain't no keyboard player, either. But, I do need to play more than just chords for most songs. My solution has been a combination of "software" keyboards and a hardware keyboard. For the chords, I use Bome's Mouse Keyboard. It's a free virtual keyboard that triggers my VST synths and soundfont players. It plays whole chords by hitting just one key on the keyboard. I also sometimes use the virtual keyboard built into my Sample Tank VST. It also has the one-key-chord feature. And, I use my Edirol PCR-300 hardware keyboard when I'm playing melody or fill notes. Piano, organ, bass guitar, and drums... all triggered from the virtual keyboard or the PCR-300. Total cost... right around $300 US. Oh.. and the PCR-300 comes with recording software, loop building software, and a synth.
 
Last edited:
ido1957 said:
I have a DGX-305 Yamaha Keyboard which I think is discontinued. But then again everything gets discontinued.... It has all the features you need, and you might find one cheap on eBay. It costs about $400 Canadian. :D
Click to expand...

I use a similar Yamaha keyboard, a PSR-K1 I bought for $300, also discontinued. In the $700 price range, today's Yamaha choice would be the PSR-500. All of these home keyboard units have built in sequencers that allow a number of tracks to be "recorded", as well an auto-accompaniment "track", which is actually multiple intruments playing backing music on multiple MIDI channels. I use this feature to sequence up backing for some of my songs, although afterward I often must save the "recording" to a MIDI file and then manipulate the file to turn adjust some of the instruments -- usually turning off the offending MIDI guitars that are present in most styles. If this is what you are looking to do, fiine. If not, be advised that, to my knowledge the single fingering of chords on Yamaha home keyboards is part of the auto-accompaniment feature, through which you play the chords and the MIDI backing "band" plays the backing music in the selected style. e.g. it does not work unless you are using the auto-accompaniment feature.

One additional thought -- for me it has been not at all difficult to learn enough real piano chords that I never use the single finger chord feature anymore. It is quite easy to learn the triads in the key of C (all white keys), and the ability of the keyboard to transpose up or down allows me to use the key of C chord forms to play along in any key. I still can't play much with two hands, but the multi-track sequencing function make that unnecessary.

Tom
 
Oancient1 said:
In the $700 price range, today's Yamaha choice would be the PSR-500.
Click to expand...

Or the one I linked to, the mm6, which can be had for about $500. It has a lot of the Motif sounds in it. Its like a cross between the PSR series and a motif: it's not either but has aspects of both. It doesnt have all the endings and intros that the PSRs do, the auto-accomp features on the PSRs are probably better. The mm6 has a mod wheel and knobs for filters etc.
 
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