New Keys
Posted By Scott on October 1, 2010
After selling my vintage Roland PRO-E keyboard I was down to just two keyboards. I needed to do that to make room for another keyboard. What I was looking for was a 76 key lightweight keyboard with internal speakers that could run on battery power. I wanted a board I could easily take with me when I go camping in the trailer or go on a windsurfing trip. For now I settled on the Yamaha NP-30 and truthfully it might take a few months for me to decide if it’s really the one.
Yamaha NP-30
The NP-30 comes with a sheet music holder and metronome which are two must haves for me. After playing it several hours over the last couple weeks I can say I’m satisfied with it. The price was right, I’ve seen them for as low as $239. I got mine from Sweetwater Sound where you get a free two year warranty with the purchase and the shipping was free. As with most of the cheap Yamaha units the power supply is an addtional cost so add another $30 to the cost of getting one of these. I didn’t get a carry bag for it yet, Yamaha sells a NP-30 bag but it looks like everyone is out of stock on them but I expect they will be available again soon.
Negatives for me are that it only has ten voices, no rhythm machine and no digital display however I’m sure the simpler the unit the longer it can run on battery power. I’ve grown to love the semi weighted key action on my Roland Juno Stage. The key action (Graded Soft Touch Yamaha calls it) on the NP-30 is very lightweight in feel compared to the Juno Stage and I’m not so sure I’m going to be satisfied with it. The keyboard bed on the NP-30 is about 1″ shorter in length than the Juno Stage key bed. You wouldn’t think 1 inch spread across the 76 keys would make a difference but I think it does. Playing the NP-30 makes me really appreciate the key action on my Juno Stage. My third keyboard is a Roland RD-700. I love the sound coming out of that board and the heavy realistic piano key action feels great. However my old fingers will be sore if I do a long practice session on it. I’m thinking there is a Goldilocks joke in this post somewhere.
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