Hi. Help!
I'd appreciate any help you kind folks can provide.
I'm in a 3-piece multi-genre band that plays out regularly. We've been together four years, and just played our 100th show last night.
In order to expand our depth, I've started playing a keyboard (Casio CTK-7200). Since I'm the bass player, and had spinet organ lessons as a kid, I'm splitting the keyboard, a bass tone on the left, and whatever else is needed on the right. I've got the bass side mostly panned to the left and send that output to the bass amp through a volume control, so I can pretty much can match the tone and volume of the bass guitar/keyboard, so it's hard to tell when I switch mid-song. Several bass players have told me that they couldn't even tell. I've got the right output going mostly to the PA. (I learned that hard pans limit the total signals being sent, so there's always 10-20% going to the opposite side. Plus I can hear some of the right side in my amp, so it serves as a monitor.)
This all works out pretty well, but the Casio has lost it's brain a couple of times after a few sets; bad output on the left channel. A quick power down/up and set the bank/registration was needed, but I don't really want that to happen again. Plus the quality of the sounds on this keyboard, particularly the pianos, isn't exactly the best quality. So I figure it's time for an upgrade.
Which leads to my question, finally. What would you folks recommend for a good 61 key arranger keyboard for live use at under a grand? I've looked at the Korg Kross 2 and the Roland Juno DS. Are there others I should also be considering, particularly newer ones that I may not be familiar with?
Highest on the priorities would be ease of use in a live situation, so quick access to the various presets I can make. Likewise, a less convoluted means of creating these presets would be very nice, although if I have to dig way down into a menu driven format it would be okay.
I obviously need line outs, splitting, layers (more than one would be nice,) panning and other controls like that. But also something with some decent sounds, particularly pianos, organs (B3?) and a good variety of other ones available (flute, oboe, kid's piano, brass section, string session and some others currently used.) I really have no use for the rhythms/styles/drum pads since I've got a real live drummer for that! Although having them doesn't hurt anything. I also have little or no use for the international sets of instruments for what we play. So those features aren't that important and don't have to be that good.
Thank you very much for any input you can provide, I really appreciate it.
Oh, PS; on-board speakers aren't a must, I've got amps to use at home, but right now I'm partly using the on-board ones to hear my playing. I don't want to have to push too much out through the PA monitors, so we can still hear our voices. Any suggestions on how to supplement that monitoring would be helpful. Maybe the headphone out if it didn't cut the line outs; or I could use a splitter to send part of the right line out to my personal monitor, as one alternative.
Edit: maybe useful info. The genres we play are various forms of rock, from southern to classic to progressive, light jazz, pop, country, blues, a bit of funk and some dance. Our typical venues are many fraternal organization clubs, various medium to larger size bars, and occasionally an indoor or outdoor festival. We usually have PA support for the festivals, otherwise it's just all our own equipment. And yes, I know, with the pans I'm losing stereo imaging, but since we run the PA in mono this way actually gives me a little of that effect between the PA and my bass amp.
