My hardcore gigging keyboard of choice: Nord Stage HP76
I absolutely love my Nord Stage 3 HP76. I did a lot of research before decided on this keyboard. Here are the reasons I chose it:
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1. By sacrificing a few keys, you get the lightest high-quality weighted keyboard I could find (other than MIDI keyboards).
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2. The hammer action is fantastic. It's a bit louder than some others I've used, but it feels great. It's a bit heavy, like a real grand piano, but not overwhelming.
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3. Of course, the sounds. This thing can do anything you need it to. I made sure to get a keyboard with a built-in synth module, and you can do so much with the one on the Nord.
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My ultra-lightweight gigging keyboard of choice: Roland Juno DS61, 76, or 88
My favorite headphones: beyerdynamic DT 1770 Pro
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As someone who lives in NYC, it's absolutely essential for me to have a keyboard that does everything I need it to do, while also being ultra light-weight and easy to transport. The Juno DS series is great for this purpose, still sporting a great deal of excellent sounds built-in (to this day, Roland's acoustic piano sounds are my favorite). This is the keyboard I would recommend if you're looking for something a bit lower-budget that won't break your back.
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This weighs just 11lbs.
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It also comes in 76-keys, and there's also an 88-key weighted model, though you sacrifice some of the portability.
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My favorite MIDI keyboard lineup:
The Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 or S49.
The NI Komplete Kontrol series are my favorite keyboards for production and composition. I use an S88 at home in my studio as a MIDI keyboard. My favorite feature is that it allows me to cycle through all of my NI sounds in Kontakt by category- is it a synth, sampled instrument, what other timbrel qualities does it have, etc.?
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