Hope I don't miss the extra keys

[elprimito]

I'm waiting for my new K73 which will arrive on Saturday. (I'm giddy as a school girl.) Great service and great deal from Sweetwater. They've examined the unit and assure me that all is fine with the keybed. My only concern is that since I have always had 88 keys, I may miss the extra keys I'm giving up with the 73. I'm no Rachmaninoff, so I think I'll be OK. Any thoughts ?

[GregC]

you seem to be concerned about it.

do u have an 88 key to practice on ?

[Francois]

There are only two cases where you want to have the 88 notes model. One, you play quite a lot of classical pieces. Two, you split your keyboard quite a lot to control other gear or to play combis and karma and access various sounds.

UP to now, I was always a 61 or 88 kind of guy, but I'm glad I took the 73. As a piano player, I'm always moaning there aren't enough keys on a 61. With the 73, I don't feel I'm running out of notes.

[elprimito]

Thanks for the replies. I have a baby grand at home to practice on, and I think I'm worrying for nothing. I'm just going to enjoy this great instrument, and appreciate the it's smaller size and weight when gigging.

[NuSkoolTone]

I dunno. I DO miss the extra 3 keys I've been used to on every other workstation I've owned for the past 20 years though!

[ronnfigg]

Get a decent 88 note controller with a good piano action, MIDI it up and your problem is solved. And it opens up some interesting options, such as having an extra pedal, and having a greater split range.

[michelkeijzers]

I once had a 76 key (N264) before I always had a 61. But afterwards I also switched to 61, due to the following reasons:
- I am no piano player (that 76 was one of the last nonpiano keybeds)
- I need 2 keybeds anyway (for fast switching of sounds)
- The transpose of timbres has been increased to 60 at some point (cannot remember when)
- It fits better on the back seat of my car
- Those extra keys are relatively quite pricey (of course the weighting of the keybed makes the price difference).

I think it all depends if you are a piano player or not.

[1jordyzzz]

well as a piano player (i must say a begginer piano player ) i'm going for the kronos 88.. it's always handy to have extra keys.. especially if you are playing a classical music or improvising in jazz.. it's also great if you're planning to have a complex combis (splitting the keyboard into few different zones)
but, most modern jazz an pop music doesn't require that many keys... and another point of consideration, 88 is really heavy...

again, it's all up to taste..

[tdwctdwc]

I was debating whether i get the 88 or the 61 . Decided to get the 61, because i didn't wanna have to worry about the key problems and because i already have an acoustic piano .

It was a really close decision though, because to be honest, the pianos in the K sound better than my Yamaha upright...

I might end up getting an 88 controller , which i think you should consider doing .

Regarding playing jazz on a 61 : it doesn't bother me a bit because i can manage to have my left-hand chords really close to the right hand range. I believe it's very manageable to pull it off...at least for me...

[Randelph]

Being a piano player, the last time I had a 61 note keyboard I said, "Never again!". I personally need the lower octaves, the upper octaves are not as critical.

Esp. for playing wurli and Rhodes sounds, I love having the low A of an 88, and with a good piano, those last 7 notes sound fantastic; I love playing left hand bass, for example. But the 73, with its cheaper cost, the shorter length and the lighter weight makes it a tempting proposition.

A side rant:
I still don't understand why its NOT a standard with these mid-sized boards to go down to the C (OK, actually, I've heard a lot of reasons from other keyboard players as to why this is not so important for them; I still don't get it though). Or for that matter, why we're stuck with 73/76 notes.

The Kronos with its weighted action is a notable exception, but most 73/76 boards are semi-weighted, so the keybed itself is not nearly as expensive as the weighted action, but there's still a $300-400 premium for that jump up (which involves other things as well, of course, like the expense of a slightly different production run); but by my way of thinking, if I'm going to shell out that much more money, I'd like to go to a low C and high E or G (77/80 keys).

And for that matter, to make a 77/80 note board stand out as a worthy upgrade from the 61 note, or a more road friendly board compared to the 88, PUT THE RIBBON AND JOYSTICK ABOVE THE KEYBED, like the Nord, making it much much more portable because of its shorter length.

Enjoy your new Kronos!!!

[NuSkoolTone]

And for that matter, to make a 77/80 note board stand out as a worthy upgrade from the 61 note, or a more road friendly board compared to the 88, PUT THE RIBBON AND JOYSTICK ABOVE THE KEYBED, like the Nord, making it much much more portable because of its shorter length.

Enjoy your new Kronos!!!

FWIW I've never had issue with the 76 key layout, but to each their own.

Have to say I strongly disagree on the ribbon thing though. I never understood the ribbon in the middle of the board above the keybed. The current joystick placement is just fine and would feel strange anywhere else!

[michelkeijzers]

And for that matter, to make a 77/80 note board stand out as a worthy upgrade from the 61 note, or a more road friendly board compared to the 88, PUT THE RIBBON AND JOYSTICK ABOVE THE KEYBED, like the Nord, making it much much more portable because of its shorter length.

Enjoy your new Kronos!!!

FWIW I've never had issue with the 76 key layout, but to each their own.

Have to say I strongly disagree on the ribbon thing though. I never understood the ribbon in the middle of the board above the keybed. The current joystick placement is just fine and would feel strange anywhere else!

I use the expression pedal as function of the Ribbon so I don't need to remove my hand(s) at all. Also, most programs already have the ribbon programmed already.

[Randelph]

Randelph wrote:

And for that matter, to make a 77/80 note board stand out as a worthy upgrade from the 61 note, or a more road friendly board compared to the 88, PUT THE RIBBON AND JOYSTICK ABOVE THE KEYBED, like the Nord, making it much much more portable because of its shorter length.

NuSkool Tone wrote:

Have to say I strongly disagree on the ribbon thing though. I never understood the ribbon in the middle of the board above the keybed. The current joystick placement is just fine and would feel strange anywhere else!

Yeah, everyone has their preference- but who said anything about it being in the middle of the board? Of course, it would be to the furthest left as it could go.

The point being: the 77/80 note board, even with the extra keys, would be no longer in length than a standard 73/76 note board- and for the gigging musician that possibly can't fit an 88 note board in their car, or for whom the extra length and weight is an issue (it always is for me), you would still get most of the notes. And for those people preferring the "traditional" layout, the 88 note would be available.

Anyway- I know there's little chance of this happening, it's just one of those things I think Nord has been really smart about- they've managed to make their keyboards very gig friendly in terms of weight and length, which is a major selling point for some of us.

[danmusician]

As I've written before, I miss the bass notes more than the treble. I bought the 73 because I can't transport the 88 to gigs. The M3 goes down to C, which I prefer, but I can't stand the M3 keybed.

I ended up buying an Alesis Q25. It's MIDI class compliant and I use it for the lowest octave when needed.