The perfect digital keyboards could be shoehorned into two broad classes: skilled workstation or arranger keys, and client dwelling / schooling fashions. This covers every little thing from children who simply need the best keyboard for beginners to discover on, all the best way as much as skilled musicians searching for an all-in-one digital keyboard they’ll simply transport from gig to gig.
The perfect digital keyboards are available in a variety of sizes and budgets, so discovering the suitable one in your wants can really feel a bit daunting to start with. Concern not although, as a result of we’ve achieved the analysis for you, leading to our professional round-up of the very best digital keyboards proper now. Let’s take a more in-depth look now…
Greatest digital keyboards: The MusicRadar alternative
Whereas the Yamaha Genos is undoubtedly the very best arranger / performer digital keyboard on the market, its mammoth price ticket places it past the attain of many. As such, in our view the Korg Pa700 wins out within the mid-range to premium sector. This digital keyboard is a stellar mixture of high quality sounds and the correct amount {of professional} options you’d anticipate for the cash.
On the extra inexpensive finish of the size is Casio’s providing for the very best digital keyboard, the CT-X700. It packs in a ridiculous quantity of options for the worth, however mainly wins out because of the high quality of sounds from its intelligent AiX sound engine.
Greatest digital keyboards: Shopping for recommendation
So that you’re out there for a brand new digital keyboard, however which kind do you have to go for? The reply to this relies on your wants as a participant. House keyboards are nice for newcomers in that they’re comparatively cheap, light-weight and transportable. They arrive with a variety of sounds, onboard rhythm and backing band options, and sometimes embrace a fundamental sequencer so as to document a efficiency and jam excessive.
Workstation keyboards are costlier as they’re designed to supply a full, studio-grade monitor with out the necessity for a separate pc or DAW (digital audio workstation). These are the very best digital keyboards for studio or reside efficiency situations, have superior onboard sequencer capabilities, and are bristling with studio-quality sounds {and professional} options. Unsurprisingly, they’ve four-figure worth tags to match.
Equally, arranger keyboards are primarily aimed toward performers who wish to replicate a full band sound, making them the very best digital keyboards for many who wish to carry out as a ‘one-person-band’. Like dwelling keyboards, arranger keyboards supply accompaniment kinds that react to chord adjustments and different consumer interactions, however these are typically far more versatile and complicated, that includes extra kinds than entry-level devices.
Greatest digital keyboards: Product information & critiques
This mid-range providing from Korg’s premium Pa line of arranger keyboards gives a good trade-off between options and price. As such, the Korg Pa700 Digital Keyboard offers loads of professional features to sink your enamel into, at a worth that simply tiptoes into the four-figure bracket.
Behind the superb seven-inch color TouchView show you’ll discover a whopping 1,700 high-quality sounds and 370 manufacturing unit kinds to get you going, however the Korg Pa700 Digital Keyboard has a stellar trick up its sleeve within the type of upgradeability. You’ll be able to obtain and import extra kinds from the higher-end Pa sequence fashions, in addition to third-party ones shared on-line, through a USB flash drive port.
Elsewhere, Outlined Nuance Management provides genuine articulations to acoustic instrument sounds, enabling your performances to sound extra lifelike. The Type Creator converts MIDI recordsdata into new kinds, there’s an onboard mp3 participant with voice remover, and also you’ll additionally discover a KAOSS Computerized MIDI FX generator with over 65 manufacturing unit presets.
The entry level for Casio’s newest CT-X lineup of transportable digital keyboards, the Casio CT-X700 advantages from the AiX (Acoustic Clever Expression) sound engine developed particularly for the CT-X vary, representing an enormous enchancment over earlier CT fashions.
Of the 600 AiX-generated tones, the dynamic piano, organ, string and synth sounds are the CT-X700’s sturdy fits, and there’s a big financial institution of world devices to discover. You’ll additionally discover 195 preprogrammed rhythms with variations and fills, 110 tune demos, and 50 observe workouts on board.
You’ll be able to layer twin voices and break up the keyboard. There’s a good six-track tune recorder and 32 reminiscence slots to retailer consumer settings as customized presets. The Casio CT-X700 digital keyboard could be powered by mains, six x AA batteries or by USB, and an auxiliary audio enter enables you to jam alongside to streamed songs from a smartphone, resting your machine on a specially-designed pad as you achieve this.
Learn our full Casio CT-X700 review
Korg’s ‘EK’ mannequin designation stands for ‘Entertainer Keyboard’. Whereas the EK-50 fills the hole on the decrease finish of the worth spectrum for budding keyboardists, for a number of quid extra the brand new Korg EK-50L Digital Keyboard sports activities a beefed-up speaker system with twice the facility. It additionally has 24 new keyboard units and 87 further presets, giving it the identical sound set as Korg’s pricier i3 EDM-oriented workstation keyboard.
With 790 onboard sounds and 290 accompaniment rhythms, together with the brand new ‘up to date’ presets, the EK-50L additionally allows you to layer as much as three tones collectively directly for a large sound. You may as well obtain and import third-party model presets from the famend, higher-end PA sequence {of professional} arranger workstations.
Elsewhere, loads extra professional options abound on the Korg EK-50L Digital Keyboard. These embrace preset keyboard units, correct audio line outputs, half-pedalling assist (when utilizing a suitable pedal), 40 consumer registration slots for storing consumer preset mixtures, and a 12-track sequencer to document your songs. There’s additionally a USB port for enjoying MP3, WAV and SMF recordsdata, and for including extra kinds through a flash drive.
The Roland GO:KEYS is a enjoyable, compact and transportable keyboard full of over 500 high-quality sounds derived from Roland’s Juno DS engine. Providing absolutely wi-fi operation through battery energy and Bluetooth audio / MIDI, the GO:KEYS enables you to management MIDI units wirelessly. Or, you need to use it to stream your favorite music via the on-board audio system after which play together with these songs.
The Loop Combine perform differs from standard auto-arrangement strategies, as you mix loops to construct songs by merely taking part in notes on this digital keyboard. Every key within the first octave triggers a special drum loop in your chosen model, subsequent part up delivers a number of bass strains, subsequent up selects two totally different chord components, and you’ll combine and match all of those whereas jamming out excessive.
Moreover, you’ll discover efficiency management strips switchable between both filter cutoff and word repeat FX, or pitch bend and modulation. Elsewhere on the Roland GO:KEYS digital keyboard there’s a built-in 30,000-note tune recorder with USB export, and all of that is backed up with Roland’s legendary construct high quality.
Casio celebrated its fortieth anniversary as keyboard makers final yr, and this full-size, entry-level providing, often called the Casio CTK-1550 in some territories, serves up a plentiful quantity of options at a real discount worth.
Aimed squarely at youthful gamers, the CTK-1500 digital keyboard isn’t velocity-sensitive, and though the standard of numerous the sounds gained’t win prizes, this isn’t an enormous deal for many younger youngsters. Nonetheless, children will love the dance music settings, and with the 100-song built-in lesson library, 120 tones and 70 rhythms, there’s greater than sufficient right here to maintain newcomers occupied.
As with most Casio digital keyboards, the CTK-1500 features a voucher for £50 price of free classes from the Casio Music Academy. That is the place budding gamers can be taught to play as much as LCM Grade 5 customary piano with on-line classes.
Yamaha’s successor to the well-loved Tyros line of high-end arranger keyboards, the Genos justifies its eye-watering price ticket by sounding in contrast to another keyboard available on the market. Other than the worth, the principle factor that units it aside from the opposite keyboards on this record is the absence of any built-in audio system – it’s important to plug it in to an non-obligatory speaker set, PA or mixing desk, or simply use studio headphones.
This means that the Yamaha Genos is the very best digital keyboard for skilled songwriters, producers, composers and performers, and that is borne out by the sheer high quality and amount of the 1000’s of onboard sounds. In the meantime, the sophistication and flexibility of the 550 kinds out there in your built-in backing band improves vastly upon these discovered within the Tyros.
With a wealth of superior options similar to assignable knobs and sliders, voice concord and vocoder features, audio recording, and tremendous articulation presets, the phrase ‘bells and whistles’ might have been coined to explain the Yamaha Genos digital keyboard. It’s as becoming an instance of the adage ‘you get what you pay for’ as you’ll ever discover.
It is a model of the range-topping Casiotone CT-S300 that replaces the pitch bend wheel with a key lighting system. The Casio LK-S250 Digital Keyboard takes an illuminated strategy to studying by lighting up the keys to indicate you what notes to play subsequent as you be taught its built-in library of 60 well-known songs.
A enjoyable Dance Music mode with 50 totally different kinds allows you to remix pre-programmed songs and add vocal samples by urgent totally different key mixtures. You may as well join a media participant to the audio enter and play together with tunes via the newly redesigned speaker system.
Used along with Casio’s free Chordana Play app (Android, iOS), and that includes an enter to which you’ll join an non-obligatory microphone and sing alongside, the Casio LK-S250 Digital Keyboard makes a enjoyable and versatile studying software for aspiring keyboardists of any age.
Yamaha’s legendary PSS Portasound vary from the Eighties has been reanimated within the form of three new light-weight, sub-£100 fashions: the Yamaha PSS E30, F30 and A50. With cartoon FX and a quiz mode, the E30 is aimed toward youthful children, and the F30 for extra auto-accompaniment kinds. Our choose of the bunch is the Yamaha PSS-A50.
Geared extra in direction of transportable synth-based, dance-oriented music making, the A50 drops the F30’s auto-accompaniment options in favour of a versatile arpeggiator and movement FX perform. This digital keyboard delivers real-time pitch bend, filter modulation and slowdown results, all on the contact of a button. It’s full of 138 totally different arpeggiator sorts, a portamento change and 42 high-quality sounds sourced from Yamaha’s pricier E-series keyboards.
One of many largest surprises from the Yamaha PSS-A50 digital keyboard is its high-quality, velocity-sensitive keybed, taken from Yamaha’s Reface synth sequence, whose 37-note mini key format makes the unit extremely light-weight and transportable. Able to operating on batteries or USB energy, all which means the A50 makes a good fundamental MIDI controller in addition to a super-fun twist on transportable keyboards.
RockJam gives a variety of cheap keyboards for newbies, all aimed toward delivering enjoyable and leisure for youths at a worth that gained’t fear your financial institution supervisor. These are the very best digital keyboards for kick-starting your little one’s musical ambitions with out an excessive amount of monetary outlay (within the occasion that keys end up to not be for them in spite of everything).
Whereas the 750 tones aren’t precisely award-winning, the RockJam RJ461AX (the AX mannequin designation stands for ‘Alexa’) provides compatibility with Amazon’s Alexa voice management service, primarily doubling as a standalone Amazon Echo good speaker of kinds. This enables the RJ461AX to stream tunes through voice command so as to play alongside to them via the unit’s built-in audio system. It is a fairly cool trick for preserving children motivated.
In order for you velocity sensitivity and high-quality sounds you would possibly wish to look elsewhere, however for the primary ramble via the foothills of your musical endeavours, the RockJam RJ461AX is nicely price a glance. It comes with keyboard stickers and a Merely Piano app voucher, and for those who’re not fussed about Alexa, there’s a fair cheaper model out there within the form of the RockJam RJ461.
Digital vs Digital: what’s the distinction?
Apart from the kinds of keyboard listed above, the best digital pianos are digital keyboards designed to duplicate the sound and really feel of an acoustic piano. As such, they don’t often supply the identical diploma of tonal selection and breadth of options, similar to auto accompaniment and preset kinds, discovered on different digital keyboards.
Most digital pianos have 88 weighted keys, so these are a lot greater and heavier than the form of transportable keyboards listed in our information to the very best digital keyboards. That’s why we’ve excluded keyboards which are marketed as digital pianos, since these are barely totally different and are coated in a separate information.
Greatest digital keyboards: what to search for
For those who’re now searching for an digital keyboard, it’s a good suggestion to acquaint your self with the fundamental options, in addition to the extra pro-level options you’ll discover on the costlier fashions. Let’s check out these now, beginning with the precise keys…
Keys
On the subject of the variety of keys, we’ve made 61 keys the optimum standards for our round-up of the very best digital keyboards. This five-octave span is the most typical measurement for any such keyboard, giving loads of scope for two-handed taking part in.
When it comes to key measurement, a lot of the devices in our digital keyboards information make use of the full-size piano key format. Full-size keys are often the very best sort to be taught on, because it means your expertise will probably be simply transferable do you have to ever end up sitting in entrance of a daily piano.
Headphone socket
For those who don’t wish to trouble anyone else whereas taking part in, a headphone socket is a should in your digital keyboard. This implies you may hold your musical noodling to your self with out annoying the neighbours.
Speaker output
Constructed-in audio system are a vital characteristic for any such digital keyboard. As a rule of thumb, the upper the facility output of the amp that powers the audio system, the louder the sound. So for those who’re searching for a room-filling sound with out having to plug into an exterior PA system, larger powered audio system may very well be vital for you.
If not, the typical dwelling keyboard comes with a pair of audio system every with an output of between 2-5W or so, which must be completely ample for dwelling use.
Velocity sensitivity
A velocity-sensitive digital keyboard will reply dynamically to your taking part in, in order that tender taking part in leads to quiet notes and more durable taking part in creates louder sounds. With out it, sounds keep on the identical quantity regardless of how laborious you play, so velocity sensitivity is important if you wish to add any diploma of expressiveness to your taking part in.
Most polyphony
An digital keyboard’s most polyphony is a measure of what number of notes can happen directly with out notes reducing off abruptly as you play. You might not consider this as a difficulty, solely having a most of ten fingers in play at any time, however on keyboards similar to these that characteristic refined auto-accompaniment options, each sound the keyboard is making counts in direction of this quantity.
So that features drum and percussion sounds, bass and auto chord voices, in addition to something you would possibly occur to be taking part in on prime! So the upper the utmost polyphony, the extra difficult the preparations that your keyboard will probably be able to dealing with.
Rhythms / kinds
Auto-accompaniment has come a good distance from its tacky, muzak-flavoured early days. Reaching untold ranges of sophistication, at the moment’s dwelling keyboards now supply a loopy variety of genres and kinds, offering a variety of totally different variations that work for various components of a tune, similar to intro, ending and fill sections.
The larger the variety of rhythms and kinds on supply, the extra versatile your ‘backing band in a field’ will probably be. Entry-level digital keyboards can nonetheless ship a wholesome serving to of cheese, however high-end arranger workstations could make you sound like knowledgeable studio artist just by lifting a finger.
Energy supply
Many of the keyboards on this record could be run on each mains and battery energy, supplying you with the very best of each worlds with regards to portability and versatile alternative of setup location. Nonetheless, some may also be powered out of your pc through a USB connection, one thing else to remember for those who ever wish to use your keyboard as a MIDI controller along with your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
Additionally, for those who’re aspiring to rely solely on mains energy, verify {that a} suitable energy adapter is included within the worth, as they don’t at all times include one within the field
Sound engine
The expertise behind the sounds present in at the moment’s dwelling keyboards continues to enhance apace, to the purpose the place a great deal of what was ridiculously high-end tech 5 years in the past has now filtered right down to the extra inexpensive finish of the spectrum.
A living proof is Yamaha’s AWM (Superior Wave Reminiscence) sound technology expertise. As soon as the protect of their high-end digital pianos, AWM is now discovered of their E sequence vary of finances dwelling keyboards, however is displaying its age a bit in comparison with newer tech like Casio’s AiX system.
Maintain pedal enter
An acoustic piano can characteristic as much as three foot pedals, however solely one among them is completely important when beginning out, and that’s the maintain or ‘damper’ pedal. Because of this, most keyboards now supply a maintain pedal enter, to be able to obtain a sensible acoustic piano sound, however typically don’t embrace a suitable pedal within the worth.
Auxiliary audio enter
An audio enter will allow you to plug an exterior sound supply (similar to an MP3 participant or a smartphone linked to a music streaming service) into your digital keyboard in order that the sound of it should come out of the onboard audio system, and you’ll play alongside to your favorite songs.
Bluetooth Audio / MIDI
Some fashions of digital keyboard now supply Bluetooth functionality. Along with companion smartphone apps, Bluetooth allows you to stream music out of your cell machine via the keyboard’s audio system as you play alongside. It additionally allows you to document MIDI information of your efficiency over Bluetooth into the companion app or a third-party DAW for analysis and modifying.
Audio interface
For those who plan to do any form of computer-based audio recording along with your digital keyboard, you’ll finally want a method of getting the sound out of your keyboard into the pc. That is the place an audio interface is available in, a field that sits between your instrument and pc and converts the sound your keyboard produces right into a format of information that may be saved and performed again by your DAW.
This often means having to attach up an exterior field, however some digital keyboards now characteristic USB audio interfaces in-built, negating the necessity for that further field when connecting to a DAW-based system. Whereas not important, this sort of performance does turn out to be useful if you wish to hold cable-related faff right down to a minimal.
Instructional options
An enormous sector of the advertising and marketing demographic for some of these keyboards is schooling, because the overwhelming majority of keyboard gamers begin to be taught as youngsters. To that finish, numerous dwelling keyboards are focused primarily at inexperienced persons, and can supply some form of onboard instructional system, similar to onboard songs to be taught, illuminated keys that inform you what notes to play, built-in music lesson features or bundled subscriptions to on-line keyboard lesson providers.
Layer / Cut up
Different frequent options embrace further keyboard modes similar to layer or break up. Layer mode layers two sounds collectively to allow them to be performed concurrently, whereas break up mode permits two totally different sounds to be performed from the higher and decrease areas of the keyboard – helpful for combining a bass half within the left hand with a piano or organ sound in the suitable, for instance.
