Using 2 keyboards for gigs

[jpscoey]

I would, generally, not gig without at least 2 'boards.

My tendency (being brought-up as a piano player)

is to use the full 88-note range of the keyboard..... as & when the urge takes me! -

therefore 'splits' can be a huge disadvantage (suddenly finding you're playing a completely different sound !).

Having a 2nd tier keyboard to turn to not only gives you a different option of voice/sound etc,

but, as has been previously stated - it gives you a 'back-up' if the worst comes to the worst.

[Scott]

My tendency (being brought-up as a piano player)

is to use the full 88-note range of the keyboard..... as & when the urge takes me! -

therefore 'splits' can be a huge disadvantage (suddenly finding you're playing a completely different sound !).

Yes, that's yet another advantage, combinations that simply can't be done with a split... for example a left hand sequence of string chords, with a right hand piano line that starts at the top of the 88 and continues down to the bottom of the 88. If you want your parts to "cross," not only do you have to set up splits with appropriate octave shifts in advance, but each hand is still limited in range to whatever number of keys exist on its side of the split.

Also, multiple keyboards is particularly much simpler and more flexible when you're dealing with more than two sounds. Let's say you're playing left hand bass (so you're typically going to dedicate a minimum of two octaves for that), and you want to be able to rapidly switch between, say, rhodes and hammond sounds during a song, while keeping the bass going with your left hand. To do that with one keyboard not only requires a carefully planned 3-way split, but the piano and organ sounds will both end up with very limited ranges.

[Scott]

But another big reason no one mentioned... you can't play great piano on an unweighted action, and you can't play great organ on a weighted action. So that takes two keyboards.

Well actually you can play piano on unweighted action (check Kamelot's keyboard player Oliver Palotai) and organ on weighted action (check Jordan Rudess), but of course it is more pleasent and better feeling to do both of them on their "proper" type of action

Yes, being enjoyable to play ("pleasant and better feeling") is part of it. But I think there are also legitimate physical limitations to consider.

So yes, you can play either sound on either keyboard, but that's why I qualified with the word "great" which I used as shorthand to mean taking full advantage of the techniques associated with each instrument. You can certainly play very nice piano parts on an unweighted keyboard (and possibly faster than you could on a weighted board), but I don't think it's possible to get the kind of fine control of piano dynamics that you do on a weighted keyboard; and you can play organ on a weighted keyboard, but you're not going to be able to do all the same kinds and amounts of glisses/smears as you could on an unweighted keyboard (at least, not without bleeding).

Certainly, an exceptional player will be less handicapped by the "wrong" board than most players would be. But still, no matter how well Jordan Rudess plays organ on a weighted board, I bet he plays even better on a board that lends itself to organ playing, at least when employing traditionally organ-specific techniques.

There are some boards that supposedly really do work well for both, though. I've read that the Vax77 action really works well for both piano and organ. But that's very much an exception.

[mrteclas]

Another cool feature of having two keyboards, is that you can feed one's line in but the other's line out. For example, play a Roland synth with Korg effects.

Just to be innovative.

[mocando]

Another cool feature of having two keyboards, is that you can feed one's line in but the other's line out. For example, play a Roland synth with Korg effects.

Just to be innovative.

No luck with the M50, since it has no line in.

[billbaker]

Interesting topic...

I'm a 2-key-rigger from way back [rhodes & clav!] and am still playing weekly 30 some years on now.

My reasons for two:

I can get by on one or the other of my triton/trinity or extreme/triton rigs [been programming the extreme for 3 months now] because I've hacked 'em extensively and know where everything is on my "best-of" bank without thinking about it. So if one were to fail I could still cover most everything I need to. Now imagine you're on a boat at sea and a keyboard fails... gee, wouldn't a second board be handy? You don't tempt Murphy by taking just one board on-board.

Smoother cross fade of parts is another consideration... wanna let that string part hold a sustained note or fade naturally as you start in the piano part? Sustain the top and jump to the bottom - no abrupt cut-offs.

Sometimes parts overlap or play in the same range (unison) for only a short time then one or the other becomes dominant. That's a much easier trick to pull off with two 'boards than as part of a split or a vel-switched program.

Variety - if you're doing Stairway to Heaven (and who hasn't) the keys WILL end up playing the recorder parts - what's the best way to make it sound like two recorders and not simply a keyboard player doing the usual two-finger magic? Split the parts to two boards; then you can vary tuning, attack, vibrato and other parameters to make it sound like two individual players.

Finally, Exclusivity... Quick one beat horn hits? Put 'em on the top board and when you stab a board set up for just horns, you GET just horns and not one of the other 5 voices on that multi-split mega-patch mentioned earlier.

BB

[mrteclas]

Another cool feature of having two keyboards, is that you can feed one's line in but the other's line out. For example, play a Roland synth with Korg effects.

Just to be innovative.

No luck with the M50, since it has no line in.

I was talking about M3 or OASYS, for example. I know M50 doesn't have line in

[Kim Lajoie]

Another perspective -

I actually prefer gigging with one keyboard over two. For most of the gigs I play, we have hardly any setup/teardown time, and the more gear I carry, the longer and more complicated it is. Most of my gigs are with my M50 and Moog MP-201 pedal, and I have some rather complicated combis with key splits and pedal-toggling for changing sounds. And I went with the M50-61 because it's lighter and smaller.

Having said that, it'd be great to be able to gig with two bigger keyboards!

-Kim.