Any keys dabblers recommend a board for function band gigging?

[mike257]

Our keys man, whilst being one of the most naturally talented guys I know (can play ANY instrument you throw at him) doesn't actually own his own keyboard. Every gig, he goes and pinches one from his dad (a veteran career muso himself) and uses that.

Its not the greatest sounding piece of kit and we're constantly ribbing him about it in the hope that he'll take the unsubtle hint and upgrade. I'm shopping around for options for him and wondering if anyone had suggestions for me.

Its solely a live performance board we need, and he's not particularly techy minded so a massive feature list and sequencing abilities are not important - good workable sounds that can be accessed quickly in a live situation are. Sounds-wise, its the typical acoustic/electric piano, organ, strings/pads stuff needed most. Decent sounding brass would be great too as there's some stuff we've attempted and abandoned because the brass sounds on his current board are laughable. Less important but a nice bonus is some decent synth sounds as I'd like to work some more modern pop material into our function sets. Got to be a self-contained unit as well - I've considered the VST route but its an extra level of complexity and potential problems that I'd like to avoid worrying about (because it will be me fixing it when it crashes!)

One board I've spotted that is very affordable second hand is a Korg PS-60, seems geared to our kind of setup so I'm keen to hear any real world experience of that, or any other suggestions that won't cost a bomb on the used market.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

Ta,

Mike

[GarethFlatlands]

Korg Tritons are alright, plenty of usable sounds. The brass isn't amazing on it's own but works OK in a band context and you can't have everything! Nice easy access to the sounds too, it's all laid out in categories (organs, brass, synths etc) and you can just scroll through them with the wheel, or select them via buttons if you know the patch no. you want.

The only problems I've found are intermittent crashes where it flips back to the default patch and the volume massively drops, necessitating a restart.

[Rainbass]

Hi,
I play a bit of keyboard in my band, mostly piano and strings, and I use a Yamaha MM6. I got mine a few months back for £300 or so. I think they are end of live so about half the price they once were.
It has 60 notes so not a full 76, but that's enough for me. The piano sound is extremely good, good organs and strings and I think the brass is ok. Some nice modern synth sounds too.
If you read reviews on it there are a number of negative comments but this is all around its limited sequencing and midi and lack of ability to tweak sounds, which is ideal for me and also your guy by the sound of it!

It has a memory bank where you store the sounds you want and 9 buttons to select them, so very easy to use on stage

Cheers
Dave

[charic]

For simplicity probably Roland or Yamaha. For features Korg IMO

[RhysP]

Another vote for Korg Tritons here. I've had a Triton LE for years & it's a great bit of kit. Really usable sounds (pianos, organ, brass, strings, synths) & very easy to use. Being a workstation it has a built in multitrack sequencer but I've never bothered with it.
Never had any problems with mine crashing.

[Mikey R]

My brother is a pro keys player and uses a Triton, and still uses it after nearly a decade.

The downside is that they are still incredibly expensive, compared to what you might get from Roland or Yammy.

[mike257]

Thanks guys, some food for thought there. The Tritons are certainly great kit - I hadn't considered them as I wasn't looking at workstations but there's a few gone for a steal on eBay recently. I used a Trinity for a while way back when so I'm aware of the quality. Think the complexity might be a bit much for our man though.

The 9 instant recall buttons on the Yammy sound good - I doubt he uses any more sounds than that in the course of a gig so I'll look into them.

I've tried looking on some keyboard forums but there seems to be a fair bit of snobbery dropped on those looking at the lower cost end of things. Knew trusty old BC would come good!

Will share all this with him and broach the difficult subject of getting him to part with some dough for gear! Thanks again and any more thoughts/suggestions are welcome

[charic]

Actually it might be worth checking out the Korg X50, I'm not sure how it compares to the Triton but I believe it's a simplified M50 which is what I have.

[GarethFlatlands]

[quote name='mike257' timestamp='1370306066' post='2099027']
Thanks guys, some food for thought there. The Tritons are certainly great kit - I hadn't considered them as I wasn't looking at workstations but there's a few gone for a steal on eBay recently. I used a Trinity for a while way back when so I'm aware of the quality. Think the complexity might be a bit much for our man though.
[/quote]

I use none of the more in depth functions of the Triton LE, just go between sounds using the menu. Hit 'Prog' and then 'Category' and it's all laid out by instrument style. There may be better options but I wouldn't call it hard to use. That said, the manuals it came with were terrifyingly large and in depth!