Keys....

[aristotle]

Soooo.... We had some Spinal Tap drama with the band, and have had to re-jigger some personnel, and as a result, some material. End result is that we're a bit more "80's" focused and require some keyboard stuff. Keyboardist's in this area are few and far between if the take per-person is less than $300 a gig, so I figure that I can stand in on the keys for the songs that require it (the re-jiggering ended up netting us another guitarist who's phenomenal, and the songs that really need keyboards can work out with just one guitar...)

I also figure initially that I'll get something cheap and easy to play, but as usual, end up getting in waaaay over my head. I now find myself with a Yamaha XF8. Man is that one impressive machine. To really do it justice, I'd need to go off to some PhD program but even uninitiated, this is one of the most impressive pieces of musical gear I've ever experienced. The possibilities are endless. You can alter every aspect of all of the signal generators in the thing to dupe any song that you can imagine. Seal's "Crazy"? No prob... split the keyboard so that the left side is strings and the right side is just the perfect tweaked organ gated just like on the original. Deep Purple's "Highway Star"? Again, no problem... None of it comes out of the box, but monkeying around with the guts of the thing is most of the fun. Anybody else here a newb on keyboards who fills in live? I'd be interested in how you handle it. The Yamaha (and plenty of others) allow for all sorts of sequencing, but I really resist playing along with pre-programmed anything....

 

[László]

Well, as a keyboard player I can tell you that the Yamaha stuff is nice because the keyboards themselves feel good (IMHO the best keybeds on the market) and play well, and their synth engines are among the most powerful out there for hardware synths.

Being able to split the keyboard into zones is child's play and a feature on most keyboards made after the 80s, actually. If you have a laptop and an interface, you can also use it as a controller for soft synths that are even more powerful than the onboard stuff. But that's another matter entirely.

I'm a big fan of the Yamaha stuff for live use.

 

[Tosca]

+ 1000 for the Yamaha stuff. I have an XF8 too (after having an original Motif and Motif ES8) and agree it's incredible. Best overall KB worskstation IMO. That thing is a beast to carry to a live gig though, unless you have a road crew, and hope you have a good case and solid portable stand. Regarding the complexity...you may know this...but there's a site called Motifator.com with very helpful traning videos, midi and sound libraries you can purchase, and a very helpful forum (like this one) for answers to specific questions. Personally, for a live situation, I'd go with something a bit more portable with less sequencing capabilities. The Yamaha Mox series is very nice, and uses the same Motif sound files. I went with a Roland FA-06 for our few songs that need KB live...super portable and easy to use (although not as great sounding/playing as the Motif). Good luck.

 

[aristotle]

Thanks for the replies guys.. And I agree with the feel of the keys Les. Interestingly though, for much of what I'll be doing, I actually find that the accurate piano feel makes it harder for a hacker like me to do synth stuff live. I'm a complete neophyte with this stuff, so things like the split key options were an eye opener.

And Tosca, you're absolutely right on the size of the XF8. I do have a case with wheels, and I'll probably give it a shot relative to hauling it to a gig or two, but it's waay overkill for what I'll be using it for. When I was looking into it though, I thought that all of the features of the Motif series looked like it'd be fun for me way into the future, and figured that I'd get something smaller and more reasonable for gigs. I don't have much of a need for sequencing live (it would require a mindset reset for all of us to play that way....) and there are plenty of other options for what we do. I've definitely been peeking into the Motificator forum. Not much need to ask any questions so far though since it seems that just about anything that I've wanted to ask has already been asked and answered there. It has been really really fun though because even with all of the hundreds of pre-stored voices, you just about always have to tweak something in order to make it work out for any particular cover. The only problem is that I'm getting way too into it and developing stuff I want to play rather than stuff we are supposed to play.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I used to get down with a pair of Korg Tritons, I liked having two separate boards rather than messing with splits, and I could play one while scrolling presets on the other one.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[John Beef]

Did your drummer spontaneously combust?

 

[shboom]

I play in two bands. In one I cover rhythm guitar, some lead work and vocals. In the other I cover lead guitar primarily and vocals. I also cover keyboard in both along with harp. Gets a little busy switching back & forth and by the nature of the beast, I end up bringing the most gear.
I've always sworn by Korg kbs. For me (IMHO) they deliver everything I need. Editing & patch assignment is pretty straight forward, no surprises.
I current use my SP200 as my dedicated stage piano and my Triton Extreme for all organ and synth work. Both sit on an Ultimate stand and run through a Fender 410.
From the sound of it, you could probably use just one kb, if you found the right one. No sense in getting too busy if guitar is your primary instrument.
I kind of got this role dumped on me, only because I already had keys in my studio.
Depending on your budget, If you can find something along the lines of a T3 or similar, it would most likely give you everything you need, without breaking the bank. They're out there if you look for them. I have one that I use occasionally, and they're great.
Yams are good, as are the Nord Series or Alesis. For me, like I said, Korg works for me. Get whatever's right for you.....not somebody else.
Good Luck in your search.