Hey guys.

As a keyboard player I'm fairly new to the gigging scene. I've played bass in various bands and I'm pretty clued in to the sort of setup required. As for keyboard I'm fairly clueless.

What I've got at the moment is a Casio Privia PX500. It's a nice enough stage piano, full weighted keys, full scale etc etc. The piano sounds off it are perfect for the sort of stuff I'm playing, and I'm quite happy with it.

I'm [hopefully] joining this covers band for a few paying gigs a week. They're playing a lot of well known covers, songs like "Angie", "Jammin", "Hey Jude", "Hotel California".

Those songs all use straight enough piano, except for "Jammin", and I can switch to a cool organ that sounds exactly like the one on the recording on my Casio.

But there's songs like "Don't Look Back In Anger" - Oasis, "Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd, "Dakota" by Sterophonics a few U2 songs that have these orchestral sounds, then there's a Kaiser Chiefs song with synthy sounds (One of my instruments off the privia does the synthy sound well, actually) and there's a few others where the Casio alone mightn't be enough!

Can anyone recommend an addition to my kit that will help me tackle these songs, and give the tunes an extra layer instead of always banging away at piano chords?

I have no real clue about the little synthy equipment you can get, but I've seen them put to good use at live gigs and I was wondering if I'd be able to get at them.

Any links/comments/feedback/general education for this synth newbie would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Conan

do what everybody else does and buy a nord. It should do you right.

What to look for depends a lot on your budget. And you seem to be looking for something that can make good orchestral sounds as well as synth sounds. These are both very different types of sounds. Orchestral is probably best with a rompler/sample based engine like a Yamaha Mo/Motif, Korg Triton or Roland Fantom. But all for these are in a very much higher price range than the Casio you have. Even the Nord that Justin mentioned which would be great for synth type sounds is not exactly cheap.

And it certainly sounds like you would be more interested in a rack mounted module you can MIDI up to your Privia so you don't have to drag 2 keyboards around with you. Is that right or were you looking for something with a keyboard so you could play both keyboards at the same time?

Hey Nigel.

Thanks for dropping a few names, I'll look into it and see what I can afford.

As regards your last question I'm not too sure what to say! I really know nothing about the midi capabilities of these keyboards or what a rack mounted module looks like!

I need a big long beginner's article or something! Can I get a little keyboard thing that I could use to get some of the sounds of my privia on it or something? I'm not too sure what you mean!

And as regards buying stuff, I'm living in Dublin so there's a lot of music shops... But they're very keen to sell stuff to you on the same day... Hopefully I can go in and get a few answers if the salesmen in there are feeling helpful.

The Roland Juno-D is also a good entry level synth and has a budget price tag.

While you can sample the sounds from other keyboards they will never quite respond to playing like the original keyboards. So if there are Privia sounds that you need to keep then you'd need to keep it to play those sounds. Plus it has the weighted key action that you won't find on a synth under $2,000

You probably should keep using the Privia and either add another keyboard or modules for extra sounds. A rack mount keyboard module is simply the same synth engine as a keyboard but without the actual keys so only requires a rack mount sized space but needs to be triggered by MIDI from a keyboard .... like your Privia. It saves space and also is usually lower priced. But maybe you want to have a second keyboard so you can play both at the same time if you have both stacked in front of you on a double stand.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 07-15-2007).]