I play in a jazz combo and also a rock covers band. I occasionally do musical theatre bands and all sorts of other random things.
20 years ago my wife bought me the Korg Triton Extreme 88 hammer action studio. I’m now 50, and the Korg is getting old, and it’s very heavy.
I’m therefore looking at venturing into the future and using a laptop and gig performer rather than programming sounds into the korg and having to try and remember where they are - particularly as with the covers band our setlist changes a lot (order and songs).
I have a decent laptop and also a Steinberg UR44 DAW
So the question is - if you were me, would you stick with the good ol’ heavy Korg, or sell it and buy something along the lines of a midi controller. And if so - bearing in mind I need a good piano action, what would you replace it with?
I appreciate it’s a bit of a “how long is a piece of string” question, but I’d appreciate any suggestions and also any feedback as to whether using a controller via the UR44 would be as good as just using the Korg.
The weight I think would be the only issue, otherwise I say keep the Korg and use that to control GP. I had the 76key one & yeah it was kinda heavy. It’s hard to find a good 88key that’s light though…it always seems like you’ll have to sacrifice a little bit of the action to get the feel. So I think at 50 take this as a challenge against Father Time and hit the gym and look forward to lifting that thing at gigs! At least until you’re 60 haha (I’m 55 btw)
Never even touched a Kronos. But specs for the 88 are 24.1 kg / 53.13 lbs. Studio Logic SL88 Studio is 13,7 Kg / 30,2 lbs. It has a key weight very similar to a Fender Rhodes. I love my SL88 for percussive voices like piano. Takes significant pressure to get aftertouch going. Joy sticks don’t have a large movement range and result is they are really sensitive.
Seems a lot of users here are looking for keyboards with controls on top. I take a different approach. I am going for less equipment more than less weight. I don’t want to be first to start set up and last to finish tear down. So I’m resisting with all my might using more than one keyboard. And, since my feet don’t really have anything better to do, I use a pedal board for all of those controls rather than using a keyboard I don’t like just to have controls on top.
I was using the SL88 as my lower for percussive and a Korg N264 as my upper for organ/synth action. I decided to get creative with the keyboard splits in GP so I could get to a single keyboard. I play piano on the Korg better than I play organ/synth on the SL88. So, the korg and the foot pedal board is all I take with me. GP and the laptop have to take care of everything else. 100% VST.
I use an SL88 as my weighted controller. I have just a single zone enabled for channel 1.
I don’t use the joysticks at all, they suck.
Instead, I bring a second lightweight 61 note controller which has buttons, sliders and knobs and I use that for all my controls
The 88 key is 28.5kg plus you have the gator case to take it to gigs which takes it up to the 32kg or so mark. Of course there is the matter of how long it will continue to last as some of the switches and dials are getting a bid dodgy - e,g, I can only access the B ram bank if I come at it by selecting C first (not A - you can’t go from the left!).
But - as you say, the actual keyboard action is good and it has no issues with the midi ports.
I’m going to d/l gig performer and have a play, as switching to VST would negate me having to use the internal buttons as much and give me access to a much wider array of instruments and sounds.
I can second the recommendation for the SL88. It’s a great midi controller aside from the odd joystick configuration. I modified mine to get rid of the joysticks and leave more surface space for other controllers/iPad/etc.
