What (musical) keyboard should i buy?
I’ve never bought a keyboard myself (and my piano skills are abysmal), but I’ve been very impressed with the quality of Yamaha’s Clavinova line of digital pianos in build, action, and realism. They’re very common in university music departments… they fit well in professors’ studios, and we just got some in the piano lab this year. Some of them can be hideously expensive, but others are likely to be in your price range, especially used. It seems like they’re built for pretty much your exact specifications: good action and good sound, especially on the plain ol’ piano performance. That’s a direction you can explore, anyway. Hopefully somebody more qualified to answer your question will chime in.
I second the Yamaha suggestion – the P90 is a great entry-level machine these days and the 120 is lovely. The S90 is a synth rather than a Stage Piano, but it has a couple of things that mean you might want to consider it today: 1) Yamaha have just released the S90SE which means some retailers might dump the S90 (now three/four years old) at reduced prices; and 2) it contains a multi-layer sample of Yamaha’s 700-series Concert Grand which none of their Stage Pianos do – 48Mb of samples over 8Mb gives you a much more expressive piano. I paid (translated) over $2,000 for mine, but with the S90SE out there now and the age of the S90 itself, you might find a bargain, at which point you’ve got (one of the best) Piano Samples in a standalone keyboard and most of the synthesiser capabilities of the Yamaha Motif range too…
I was looking for exactly what you were. I purchased a Fatar StudioLogic SL-1100 on scratch and dent from American Musical Supply. (The SL-990 is the replacement version) It has 88 keys and they aren’t just weighted and spring loaded but have an actual hammer mechanism inside for real piano action. I then purchased a Kurzweil KME-1 which has a wonderful triple sampled grand piano sound among other great piano, organ and other sounds. I think I spent right around $1000 total (with the above it’s about $800) and it sounds great and feels great. I’d highly recommend both.
