A Keyboard for Contemporary Christian Music (Church Gig)

[ChrisMcCoy]

In a departure from my standard gigging, I decided to accept an invitation to play at an evening "contemporary" church service last night. I brought in my RS-9 and it really covered what I needed to do quite well. Here's where it gets interesting...after the service, the Rector mentioned to me about considering having the church purchase a keyboard so that I wouldn't have to drag mine in there. My first thought was wow ! If they have a decent budget, I could end up getting them something really nice, and I'd get to play it once a week or more in addition to my regular club gigs. That said, the first thing that came to mind was Kurzweil 2600. Then I thought about the whole Kurzweil trouble issue with the company. Then I started thinking Korg Triton Extreme and Yamaha Motif ES 88 or Roland Fantom... Now, I know there have been threads about what's most appropriate for what, but if you were in my shoes, what would you do ? Have any of you had the freedom to make a decision like this on someone else's behalf ? It's not my money that's being spent here, so I'm thinking conservatively but also with a thought to getting something that will really cover the gammit. I'm also new to the whole "Christian Contemporary" music scene, so I'm not sure what will be covered/required in the future. I have to also consider that ultimately someone else may inherit this gig if I ever move. :D :roll:

[Spacehog]

From what I've seen of CCM stuff in the states, what you're basically looking for is something with b-3, electro and acoustic piano sounds, and a few bits of synth stuff (strings, pads etc). Personally speaking, I'd choose a Roland VR760 every time, because I think it's a great board and would cover all the bases easily enough, without being too complicated for use by non synth-heads at other occasions in the church (hey, it has a button that says "piano", and one that says "organ" :)). Yeah, you could argue Nord Electro but it's bright red!

From my experience, the keyboardist(s) in the worship band at my church (I play bass mostly) use piano sounds for 90% of the time, so something with a nice piano sound is the highest priority. I guess another option might be something like the Yamaha S90 if you want weighted keys... we have a Yamaha P120 and a Roland RD500 (I think) as well as a hammond organ with leslie, we used to have a CP70 before it broke...

All the best with this gig, it should be a lot of fun and quite rewarding :)

Martin

[Tusker]

Hey Chris, that's pretty cool. I play "second keys" at a community church and so I should have some tips for you. First of all it's a very rewarding gig. I definitely get more than I give.

I think the kind of keys you want really depends on line-up. In our case, the basic piano parts are covered by the worship leader, and I put in the filling. I got the church to buy themselves an xp30 just because it was a value at the time and we didn't need weighted keys for a texture machine. With hindsight, the issue space mentioned is quite significant. A lot of people are intimidated by a synth.

If you're a playing with a full band, it's help to have B3, strings, brass stabs, synth pads, etc. available. A rom based workstation such as those you mentioned would be appropriate.

If you are playing by yourself, it's probably just going to be piano, e-piano, and piano with strings mostly. (I dunno if yours is a B-3 kinda church.) One of the stage pianos would do the trick.

I'd suggest you go with a brand you are used to, simply because it would reduce your workload. Since I had a Roland synth at home I could design patches and then dump them into the church synth from a laptop, rather than doing any sound design on it.

All the best. Please let me know if I can be of help.

Jerry

[ChrisMcCoy]

Guys,
Thanks a million for the advice !
I'll be picking up some more cd's this week. Hopefully that will give me a better idea of some of the newer CCM stuff out there.
Thinking about it a bit, the group that played the service was myself and 2 guitarists. (Acoustic plugged into ch 2&3 on my keyboard amp) There has been some talk around the church office of combining with another church group that's fully outfitted with drums, bass and possibly electric guitar. That's got me thinking a bit more about the whole versatility thing. I like the nord electro idea. We do have big bright red doors on the front of the church, so it would match :) I'll take a look around this week and see if I can get some test drives in on some of the boards you mentioned. Thanks again !
Chris

[Deceit]

Well, it depends mostly on your church's budget. My singer's father is a qualified organist, and he uses a Viscount liturgical keyboard (don't really remember the name).
I guess a Roland RS9 would do for the needs ^_^ but I understand also you want something you may be borrowing for some time...well, almost any new board has a decent pipe organ for liturgical uses, even if I found the S90 samples very cool. In fact I like the Triton/Triton Le samples too and there are some pretty presets. I'd go for any Triton Extreme if I had to choose for myself :).
Deceit.

[ChrisMcCoy]

Well, back to the church gig thread to wrap up my findings here....
First of all, Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. This greatly helped me in the search for the "Church Gig" keyboard...so...
I finally got around to checking out all the boards suggested, plus one I hadn't planned on trying...
Needless to say, I didn't get what I needed from Guitar Center. They don't carry the Electro 2 or the VR760, and told me the only way to get one was special order. What a CHEAP way to do business with your customers. :x
The store I ended up at has been in business long before there was such as thing as Guitar Center. And their showroom was packed with everything you could possibly want to try. I won't mention their name, but they are located in Wheaton Maryland, and in our part of the state, they are the best. Here's what I found...
The Electro 2 and VR760 didn't really have what I wanted. After trying the Yamaha Motif ES8, I decided to go for 88-weighted keys. I really liked the sound of the Motif, and it was my top choice until...out of the corner of my eye I spotted a K2600X and a K2600SX in the display rack in the next room. I ended up thinking I wouldn't really need all the features of the SX, so I played the X for a while and pretty much fell in love with that board. As beautiful as the piano sounded on the Motif, I still liked the responsiveness of the 2600X just a little bit better. I've ruled out the Triton Extreme (88key) because I just felt that the keys weren't as responsive as the Yamaha and the Kurz. It's down to those 2 boards...we'll see what happens when the budgets go to the board for approval. The prices I got were very close between the 2 boards. Thanks again for all the suggestions ! :D

[eivind]

Don't forget one of these... the Roland PK-25 for the feet:

http://www.stoffelshome.de/alt_controller/roland_pk25.jpg :wink:

[ChrisMcCoy]

:D Thanks for the suggestion.
Might be tricky to use those as I play standing up. :lol: