krome or kronos x?

[ManfredMan]

I perform on stage with my Kronos 61 and a believe it or not, I also use a Yamaha YPG-235, which was approximately a tenth of the price of the Kronos and has 76 keys.

I do a lot of piano work and find if eq'd well, the Yamaha Grand Piano program on the YPG-235 sounds identical to the stock Kronos grand piano sounds. For straight-ahead rock and other genres we play onstage, I don't really need the nuances and variations that I can achieve with the Kronos, plus I have the extra keys on the Yamaha to stretch out on, and can put my other hand on say, an organ, horn or string sound on the Kronos.

I use the Yamaha for other sounds as well, but having the extra keys at the top and bottom of the the keyboard of the YPG-235 makes all the difference in the world when playing certain songs with the Grand Piano setting (there's even a dedicated button to pull that setting up.)

One of my favorite tricks when a musician comes up while I'm gigging or setting up, scratching his head when he sees the Kronos and the el cheapo Yamaha, is to have him close his eyes and tell me which keyboard I'm playing - half the time they are incorrect in their guess! BTW, I'm not knocking the Kronos - it has so very much going for it, live and in the studio, that the Yamaha does not, but I am OK with the Kronos 61, as far as number of keys, when I use the Yamaha alongside it (actually, below it on the stand.)