![best midi keyboard 88 keys best midi keyboard 88 keys](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GzJgpKq8C3A/maxresdefault.jpg)
Yamaha uses different polarity from other keyboard manufacturers so look at the specs carefully. Make certain that the pedal matches the keyboard you select. You will find there are some nice ones that look and function like acoustic piano pedals and others that are just foot switches. That's a lot lighter and unless you use the other two pedals (I rarely do) it's just fine. Wheat Williams suggests you need a "a three-pedal foot controller with half-pedal action." This is nice to have but you may be fine with a single damper pedal. Check out the reviews in Electronic Musician and Keyboard magazines. Casio and Yamaha make keyboards like this and they are worth a look. These keyboards weight around 20 lbs so are really portable. If you are not a very experienced pianist and don't require the nuances of a fully-weighted piano action, there have recently been a number of excellent keyboards that have excellent touch without a fully-weighted action. At first I didn't want them but now I am glad that I have them.I can just pop the keyboard into the trunk and go. However, when I play at a friends house or informally, I use a keyboard with built-in speakers. When I am gigging I use a heavy duty amp and speakers that in sum add about 100 lbs. When I am playing in other venues I hook up external speakers as I do in my studio.ĭecent speakers can be quite heavy. They are fine for a small room and casual use. I have a keyboard which has speakers in it. When you are in your studio, you can use a computer for the sounds but when you are transporting the keyboard you can use the internal sounds and save a lot of hassle.Īs far as speakers are concerned, you also have the opportunity to bypass them in the studio and use them on the road. In many cases you will be better off with a keyboard that has sounds in it. But if you carry a separate sound module or a laptop you are adding both weight and several cables to the mix. The built-in sounds are just a circuit board that adds no weight. A true 88 key hammer action may weigh 40 -60 lbs. The heavy part of the keyboard is the piano action. You said that "By moving the sound production out of the keyboard, I expect it would also be lighter and easier to transport (several smaller components instead of one large keyboard)." In that regard a keyboard with internal sounds is more flexible than a keyboard without sounds. The external sounds can be a hardware synthesizer module or a soft synth running on a computer. Most stage pianos can work with either internal sounds or with external sounds using MIDI. Having built-in sounds will not restrict you. Let's check it out.įirst, you said "I'm hoping this will allow me to experiment with different sounds over the lifetime of the keyboard rather than being locked in with the sounds that are normally built in to a digital piano." It is possible that you are making a couple of incorrect assumptions.