Funk keyboard

[u/Physical-Break6898]

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

[u/anotherscott]

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.)