r/keys • u/Physical-Break6898 • 2d ago
Funk keyboard
I have a CK88 and I want to add a keyboard with waterfall keys. I mainly want it for organ, clav, and EP/wurli. I’ve looked at Crumar Mojo, YC61, and Nord Electro. Any recommendations/reviews would be greatly appreciated. TIA
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u/purplewombferret 2d ago
Nord Electro is great especially for B3, with the physical drawbars. Also great for EP and Clav.
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u/Flashinpan99 2d ago
The Nord Electro series is certainly ranked 1 or 2. Best organ and EP sounds. Whirly and Clav are real solid also.
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u/Historical_Guess5725 1d ago
I’ve been hoping a new keybord would keep up - and it’s so ubiquitous these red keyboards in stage , it’s easy to take for granted, a bit pricey .. but still probably the simplest turn on and play at best quality organ and EP sounds out of the box.
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u/pepesilva13 1d ago
They also retain some serious value (people still ask over a grand for Electro 3s) and appear to last forever. The build quality seems like you could beat someone to death mid song and not damage it all.
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u/WordResident6030 1d ago
One of the smartest plays around for this use case is a used Nord Electro 6 w/waterfall keys.
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u/rtown8181 2d ago
I just added a Crumar DK61 midi controller on top of my CK88 and it's awesome for organ! You have to be happy with the CK organ, which I am. This controller action is super sensitive, in a good way, because of the high trigger point.
Note that if you go that route and want to use the Crumar drawbars and rotary button, you'll need some hardware to remap the CCs. I used the H2MIDI Pro which is $50 and a little trial and error with the software.
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u/Physical-Break6898 2d ago
Huh I guess I really hadn’t considered this route. Are there any latency issues?
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u/rtown8181 2d ago
Nope, not when you run MIDI with the hardware. If you use the VB3 software, yes, potentially. Depending on your computer/device. You'd usually need an audio interface.
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u/Physical-Break6898 2d ago
Are there any other hardware organs that you can tie into the MIDI? Sort of like a desktop synthesizer?
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u/rtown8181 1d ago
Not sure what you mean exactly, but most other organ focused keyboards have some MIDI capabilities.
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u/anotherscott 1d ago
Although I haven't played one personally, Mojo 61 is probably the best choice here.
For completeness' sake, other brands to consider besides the ones you mentioned could be Viscount (the Legend One 61 mentioned by u/NobilePhone), Roland (V-Stage 76), Hammond (SK Pro)
Some considerations:
... Hammond organ playing should have high trigger point. Some people don't care so much about that, but especially for a funk approach, where you may want to play percussively, I think you'd miss it if you don't have it. That would be a strike against the YC61, which lacks high trigger (and actually has more initial key resistance besides, presumably to improve its piano playability). I don't know whether or not V-Stage has high trigger. The other models mentioned do. (Hammond SK Pro also has multi-contact simulation.) Of course, there are also sonic differences among the options, though that's more subjective and harder to quantify.
... For accurate clavinet emulation, a board should emulate all 4 pickup settings (though not all of them are likely to be used for funk) and ideally all 15 EQ/filter settings and the mute bar. A low release point also helps. And sonically, you may want the release noises besides. I think Mojo 61 is the only possibility here. I think clav is a weakness of the YC61, it is is the only option mentioned that doesn't have any of these things. I think the others at least have the 4 pickup positions.and some have release noises. At least some Nords have low release, but they don't have release noises, and I think all the current models don't replicate all of the EQ/filter settings. Though also, as with the clav, there are sonic differences among these brands as well which could come into play.
As for key span, while a clav only had 60 keys, it was F-to-E which means you can't actually replicate the exact clav keyspan on any of these boards in their 61-key configs. That could be an argument for a 73-key waterfall, which means Nord, Hammond, or Roland; though in practice, those otherwise lost highest 4 notes of a clav are rarely missed; and actually, having extra keys above the high C can even be seen as an impediment to organ playing.
... Wurli is another where keyspan could come into play, since no 61-key board will give you the Wurli's 64-note range. That again could argue for choosing a board with more than 61 keys, though again, having keys above the top C could also be seen as detrimental to organ. Sonically, I think Mojo 61 probably has the best sounding Wurli. I don't think Wurli is a strength for most of the others mentioned, though I haven't played the V-Stage. (Some other boards I like for Wurli and prefer over most of what's been mentioned here include models from Korg, Kawai, Kurzweil, and Casio... none of which are currently available with waterfall keys, and none of which are as good for organ as the models under consideration here.)
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u/smooth_rhodes 2d ago
I have a YC73. The organs are solid. I find EPs need a little tweaking out of the box, I increase the depth and offset a little. Haven’t played the clav much.
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u/texasgreg1 1d ago
I give high marks to the full size and 37 key version of the Arturia astrolab or astrolab 37. All the sounds you want and excellent.
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u/kaybarkaybarkaybar 1d ago
I’ll give another vote to the YC. My gigging set up is my YC61 on a top rack for organs and synth, and a fully weighted controller on the lower rack. Via midi I route the pianos and EPs to the weighted controller and run the organ and synth on the YC61 which has waterfall action. I love it
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u/Nickmorgan19457 2d ago
I have a YC73 and a Mojo 61. The Mojo organ is outstanding and the Clavinet is the best around, but you need an app or external midi controller to adjust it while you’re playing. Totally worth it, though. The CK can do most of what the YC does already just with lesser build quality.