Why 76keys is not common on arrangers?

Hi I am new here, after reading through most of the post here, I realized I'm pretty "far away" as most of you have either the Kn6 or Kn7 - and I just bought a Kn1400sx last June!

Anyway, there is lots of stuff which I can learn here from you guys. Keep up the good work!

By the way, why is it that most arranger keyboards (even the top range like the Kn7) does not come with 76 keys?

I believe that size is the most important factor in not making the keyboard a 76 noter. 76 keys tends to make it bulky and not so convenient to lug around on gigs.
Also the most common keyboard to obtain by those who make them is a 61 note config.
Recently the 76 note keyboard has become available. The Roland Atelier series has a 76 note lower keyboard so the piano voice can be played over a wider range of tones.
Lloyd

Maybe technics owners can only count to 61 ?

DanO1 my boy, I think your on to something. Us tech players can count up to 61. That beats some of those Yammy boys who can’t count that high and don’t know what to do with the rest of their keys. You can tell by the way they sound.

Grandpa Doug

In the UK 76 Key boards sell well, but this is not true of sales of 76 key boards the the USA.
Having now a 9000Pro 76 note board for the past year I can appreciate the benefit of having the extra keys. The major advantage is having right hand key splits and having the space to play within these. Also the 9000Pro & VA76 both have a much better key feel and response than the 61 note equivalents.

Graham UK

[This message has been edited by Graham UK (edited 02-26-2003).]

OOOOOO ! Doug, The sharp edged tongue

Welcome to the Forum, FreeStyle. The KN7000 has the facility to shift the keyboard plus or minus 2 octaves, using buttons on the control panel. The shifts can be saved in panel memory and with a bit of practise, used during your live performance, to produce a much greater range. It should also be bourne in mind, that many of the musical instruments, apart from the pianos, would not produce sounds over the entire range of of the 76 keys - for example, trumpet, alto sax, human voices etc......
If you are primarily a piano player, then I can understand the frustration caused by the 61 key limitation.

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Willum

[This message has been edited by Bill Norrie (edited 02-26-2003).]

Thanks for the feedback!

Lately, I played mostly the piano on lead and arrange the rest. Kinda like David Foster style. It feels good to have more keys - it's like you're in there . Well, that's just me.

I do play other songs with sax, bass or strings on lead. Sometimes, when I feel beaten from work, I would pick the piano sound, switch the auto-play to piano-mode and just jam along with ballad rhythms accomps. It's a real stress buster!

There are times I wanted to do boogie-woogie stuff (bass runs using piano) and I had to quickly find the key shift button to do it.