Published on October 2, 2024 2:20 AM GMT
The keyboard is a bit of an awkward instrument to travel with. It'squite large, to the point that you have to give up at least one seatin a typical car. What makes this especially frustrating is thatI don't actually use the whole 88 keys:
The very lowest notes tend to be boomy, while the higher notes arejust not very useful in playing the kind of music I play. I usea bit over five octaves (B0-D6, 31-1175 Hz).
At the same time I've been wanting to have a separate keyboard fortaking to gigs. The ideal, really, would be to have an entire duplicaterig, which would halve the amount of setup and teardown involved, sinceI would only need to set up and pack away at gigs. This is enoughextra effort and expense, however, that for now I'm just duplicatingthe keyboard (and stand).
I decided to get a Yamaha P-121:
It is the discontinued 73-key version of the P-125, which is the ~currentversion of my P-85. [1] Which made it a bit hard to find one, butthere was one new-in-box shipping from Japan on eBay. I was a bitnervous, but it worked out fine.
The P-121 turns out to be very close to what I want: sounds and actionvery similar to my preferences, Yamaha's build quality and reliability,better condition than my P-85. The main downside is they didn't pickexactly the right keys to drop:
After telling it to transpose down an octave I still do have all thekeys I need, but the keys below B0 are really pretty useless while Imight very occasionally use keys higher than E6 if I had them.
I strongly considered telling it to transpose down a fourth and lyingto myself about what key I'm playing in. In some ways this isn't toodifferent from teachingmyself to play trumpet in standard pitch, but I think it would belikely enough to cause trouble when playing other people's pianosthat I shouldn't.
This is not an especially careful packing job, but it's really nicebeing able to put all my gear in back without folding down any seats:
I put a lot of stuff on my keyboard, and I need a way to keep it allfrom falling off. Because this keyboard is narrower, though, noteverything fit. I made a holder for the computer keyboard I use forbuttons:
Everything else just velcros on:
The box on the left is a box I made a few months ago that combines mycustomswitch box and my embeddedwhistle synth.
Here are the current p121 settings I use:
- Piano + lowest F: transpose down one octavePiano + third lowest E: disable reverbMetronome + rhythm + highest D: internal speakers offMetronome + rhythm + lowest A: disable automatic power off
For a case, I ordered a cheap 76-key fabriccase on Amazon. It's a bit floppy because it's designed for afatter keyboard, but there are velcro straps inside that hold itsecurely. I did have to tie a pair of knots in each strap to keep itfrom flopping around.
[1] Technically, the P-125a is the current version, but all the "a"means is that they removed USB audio support.
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