A piano really portable with a good touch ?

[drooxy]

Hi everyone,

I have a Yamaha GT20 at home and I like very much its touch that is very similar to the one of an acoustic piano.

As I am quite often away from home for business reasons I would like to acquire a portable (really portable !) piano to keep on exercising...

The problem is that to get a good touch one told me that you have to look at 76 key pianos at least which is still a pretty big instrument to travel with !

Is there any 61 (or even less) note keyboard with a good touch on the market ? Or, at least, which one would you recommand in that range ?

Thanks to anyone for answering !

Cordially,
Drooxy

[peter_g_moll]

Dear Drooxy,

I am delighted to discover that there are several more people who are looking for a REALLY portable digital keyboard so that they can practise while traveling.  Here are two more threads seeking much the same thing:

1.     https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=inst;action=display;num=1079199900;start=0

2.     https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=inst;action=display;num=1060003862;start=0

What I have found so far may be easily summarized:

(a)     The only digital pianos on the market with FULLY weighted keys are 88-key instruments.  They weigh between 15 and 30 kg.  I got the one I think has the best tactile impression, the Yamaha P-90 and have travelled with it.  But it's very heavy and costly because it doesn't fit into the average taxi and attracts undue attention from customs officials.

(b)    Next best are is a 61-key instrument with SEMI-WEIGHTED WATERFALL keys.  This is the Nord Electra 2.  I have not been able to test it yet.  "Waterfall" refers to the fact that the key is square in front, viz. it is not the tangent key that one finds on most digitals and on many electric organs.  I don't know how weighted is "semi-weighted".

(c)     Next best are 61-key instruments with "synth action".  This is usually accompanied by descriptions like "velocity sensitive" and "aftertouch".  Sometimes producers refer to this as "weighted action" but in fact it comes down to a much lighter action than is the case with an acoustic piano.  I have tested some of these and find them vastly inferior to the acoustic piano action.  Examples are the Music Creator Pro by Evolution, the Alesis QS6.2, and many instruments by Yamaha, Casio, Roland, and Clavia.

(d)     There are plenty of 49-key keyboards on the market, some of which are labelled "touch sensitive" or "velocity sensitive".  I have not found any that claim to be "semi-weighted", much less "fully weighted" or "hammer action".  Some are actually keyboards that deliver sound, if only through headphones, and some are controllers, which means they need a computer linkup to deliver sound.  FATAR does several, and so does Evolution.

Hence the solution would be to find an engineer who could take the fully weighted keys out of a Yamaha P90 and fit them into an Evolution Music Creator 61-key or and Evolution MK-149 (49 keys), or similar instrument.  I am going to make inquiries but I have no idea where to start.

So in the meantime I have written to Baldwin, Bohemia, Casio, Clavia, FATAR, Generalmusic (GEM), Korg, Kawai, Kurzweil, Samick, Suzuki, Roland, Technics, Viscount and WERSI to ask if they can custom build a 49-key fully weighted hammer action keyboard for me.  I've had answers in the negative from Kawai, Suzuki, Technics (out of business anyway), and Yamaha.

If you find any more information, I'd be glad to hear.  In particular, if anyone has experience with the Nord Electro 2 by Clavia, I'd be interested to know to what extent this mimics the action of an acoustic piano.  If anyone knows of an engineer who'd like an assignment like this, please tell me.

Peter Moll

[drooxy]

Thanks really Peter !

I just visited the site www.clavia.com and saw The Nord Electro 2.

It looks like something we are looking for indeed but, as you say, what about the  keyboard ? The advertising says it is great but advertisings always say it is great !  

We should send a spy at Clavia to get some reliable information...    ! Or create an association that fights to get a good weighted "mini" keyboard  !

Also, I live in France and I am not sure that product is commercialized in Europe...

Wonder if we could avoid to pay a spy   or create an association   and just find somebody in that forum who knows that instrument and share his experience with us !

Sincerely !
Drooxy

[peter_g_moll]

Dear Drooxy,

Please see my reply to this in the post,

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=inst;action=display;num=1086101037

[drooxy]

Peter,

Thanks for sharing your experience of that keyboard with me. You are confirming Trigi's post who was qualifying the Nord Electro II of Synthesizer... So let's forget it...

Do you have some ideas about how to make things moving forward ? Personnaly I am stuck, thinking that the only thing we could do when we are far from home is work on music theory.

Cordially  
Drooxy