Fun & Exotic Digital Keyboards 😸

That one is easy. It's a real cat piano if it can have keattens

Okay, showing my age here a bit...
My current version of Band In A Box is from 2009, it wasn't all that expensive then, can't remember how much. It took me a long time to figure out how to use it. My version came with a feature called Real Drums, which is comprised of samples. BIAB is definitely geared toward jazz, and the Real Drums include very realistic and very usable brush and stick kits. Although you can't really use BIAB on the fly for accompaniment, it's fairly easy to make some good sounding back tracks which can be exported as midi or audio in separate tracks or combined. And, remember this is with the 2009 version. So, maybe current versions can do even more.

An easier way to get some backing tracks, although more restricted, is with Jamie Abersold's Play-A-Long sets. They are recorded with the drums in the middle, piano on one side, bass on the other, so very easy to use just the bass and drums. Some of the JA stuff suffers from tempos being a little too fast, but most of it is spot on with the original arrangements. His Miles Davis, Jobim, and Count Basie tracks are very good.

Years ago, maybe in the early 90s, I had a neat little thing from Yamaha called QY-20. It was about the size of a VHS tape, had several drum kits, three or four basses, some piano voices, organ, vibes, horns, strings, ran off of midi, had a set of buttons laid out like a keyboard, and was either programmable, or, if I remember correctly, which I might not, could follow left hand chords from a digital keyboard. I also remember a friend who had a Yanaha PSR something or other that would follow left hand chords. Of course, tempo changes had to be changed manually; not exactly AI, but quite usable.

If I were using something like Band In A Box, I'd probably be creating my own arrangements with it and then playing along. I don't tend to do things like everyone else, tending to pair songs together that may not have been paired previously, taking off onto little side trips where I might play a part of a different song in place of the current one where the chord structure works just fine, but it's unexpected, sometimes even a bit humorous or playful. I'd probably not be that interested in off-the-shelf tracks to play along with.

I do kinda remember a friend, years ago, that had a Yamaha keyboard that would do some little tricks like play along with bass? or drums? and had a few quick "buttons" of some kind that he could quickly generate a 2 bar? or 4 bar? ending. Not even sure what that would have been. I recall it being pretty simple, not really able to handle complex chord structures, that kind of thing. Certain kinds of music it might work better with than others. Probably not so great with jazz.

Anyway, I haven't exactly seen setups that were geared towards flexible live performance, usually more geared towards laying down some decent sounding studio tracks. And I suppose that's nice. Maybe not quite what I'd ultimately hoped to find. Never know, with AI so commonplace in music these days, it may not be that far off that AI could be a person's backup band, live, impromptu. Guess we'll see.

johnstaf Sophia Now THIS is not a piano, and I desperately want it

I have one and it's horrible.

It has tiny keys that are difficult to control. I didn't buy it to play like a piano, I wanted and extra MIDI controller for different functions.

Thanks you so much for splitting this topic navrinda, I appreciate it This topic turned out to be a lot of fun... and of course course now I'm adamant that I want something... how would this look dangling from my purse?

All jokes aside, I have been eying up something cheap and cheerful like the Alesis Melody 54... or would that be horrible too?

@Gombessa how do you like your little Casio? It's a bit pricier than some of the others and I do need some spousal approval (or rather, avoid too much spousal disapproval) so I try to limit spending too much money on my new hobby

Sophia @Gombessa how do you like your little Casio? It's a bit pricier than some of the others and I do need some spousal approval (or rather, avoid too much spousal disapproval) so I try to limit spending too much money on my new hobby

Oh, that might have been Navindra I don't have a mini keyboard, as fun as I agree it would be to noodle on! But to be honest, I think if I had one in my office, I wouldn't get any work done, I'd just be practing the passages that are giving me so much trouble on my full-sized piano in the next room!

Whooooops, sorry Yes I meant navrinda of course! <wipes glasses clean>

I've owned a lot of keyboards over the years, in chronological order - upright piano as a child (well, parents', really), Hohner Pianet M, Micro-Moog Synthesizer, Baldwin Solid-Body Electric Harpsichord (the very one once used by the group The Royal Guardsmen and heard on the Snoopy vs. The Red Baron recordings.), RMI electric piano, Wurlitizer p200 electric piano, Rhodes suitcase, Brambach baby grand, a 1959 Hammond M3 customized with a line out, Yamaha pf85, Yamaha ypp35, Yamaha SY77 synthesizer, all gone. I currently have a Yanaha p35. The only one of the bunch that I kind of miss, and only once in a while, is the Hammond.

Nice! In my case the idea is definitely not to replace the lovely Clavinova. So whatever will be added to the piano family will have to be sufficiently different - as in, it has to have lots of voice and rhythms, and shouldn't take up too much space. And some cuteness factor is definitely preferable - ooh that cat piano! I can't get it out of my mind, you wicked @Rubens you!

This talk of small keyboards made me wonder about something. I’ve heard about pianos being fitted with a 7/8 keyboard, which is something I would like to do with my piano but never will. If I could find a digital piano with a weighted 7/8 keyboard, I would be all over that. Does anyone even make those?

Cassia If I could find a digital piano with a weighted 7/8 keyboard, I would be all over that. Does anyone even make those?

They are out there, but typically created by very niche manufacturers. Here's an example:

There are also pianists who have had their digitals (MP11, etc.) modified with narrow keys. I'm sure at great cost!

Gombessa thank you for this! I am now on their mailing list

This youtube vid is a good watch that talks generally about narrower-key pianos. But it's particularly germane because the pianist narrator has an MP11SE, for which he had David Steinbuhler create a DS-6.0 keyboard:

He said it was $5000 for the new keyset (on top of the $2-3000 of the MP11SE itself).

I think the main issue with the small keys is how much you're going to limit yourself in terms of flexibility in terms of hardware.

I can choose from this one or that one and none of the hundreds of others even though they are nicer/cheaper/whatever.

Google tells me that the current standard key width has been in use since about 1880 so there's a lot of inertia there.

Just like with the folks who occasionally show up on this forum with alternative keyboard layouts, it's going to be difficult to get any traction in the face of the magnitude of standard equipment.

Something I would find interesting is how an average pianist would adjust to various sized keyboards on the fly, as in sit down to one size, play one song, sit down to another of a different dimension keyboard, and play another song, etc, no rehearsal, no previous time spent, just sitting down cold and playing.

I can't speak for others but I might think that a small change might be a non-issue where a significant size difference might not work at all, at least without a little time to adjust. Having never experienced it personally, it's hard to speculate.

Bellyman in college, I took a semester of harpsichord lessons. I never went immediately from piano to harpsichord (or vice versa) but often played both in the same day. I’m kind of fuzzy on details now but I remember there was an adjustment period. It wasn’t extreme but it would take some small amount of time to adjust from one size keyboard to another. Probably with more exposure, it would have gotten easier and faster.