looking for MIDI keyboard with ultra light keys

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I make music with people with very severe disabilities.
I also have a band, De Bridge, and the keyboardist has severe muscle weakness. She plays keyboard. Most MIDI keyboards are too heavy for her to play. However, the iRig Keys pro plays very lightly. The problem is that the keyboard only has 37 keys. I'm looking for a slightly bigger keyboard, I already tried the iRig Keys I/O 49 MIDI keyboard but it plays too heavy. I also bought the M-Audio Keystation 49 MK3. This plays a little lighter but not quite as light as the iRig Keys Pro. Who knows, a keyboard with feather light keys with 49 keys or more
This our website www.mybreathmymusic.com kind regards Ruud van der Wel

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I've never owned or even touched a Roli Seaboard Rise, but maybe someone else who has can chime in regarding its sensitivity? Also, it's not cheap, so that's probably a consideration.
Logic Pro | PolyBrute | MatrixBrute | MiniFreak | Prophet 6 | Trigon 6 | OB-6 | Rev2 | Pro 3 | SE-1X | Polar TI2 | Blofeld | RYTMmk2 | Digitone | Syntakt | Digitakt | SX7

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Dilayla bought herself a roli 2 years ago but it was to heavy to play . You can adjust the sensitivity setting in ROLI Dashboard but not enough. It is always hard to find solutions but we never give up :-) Thank you for your reply!

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Maybe something like the K-Board? It's not squishy like the Seaboard so you don't have to physically press down into it.
https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/k-board-pro-4/

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That looks interesting, I'll send them an email for more information. Thank you!

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All of my Korg synths had some of the lightest actions I've come across. Not dedicated midi controllers, but can serve quite nicely as one. X50 had 5 octaves. They also have microkey midi controller with small keys in various sizes, but I never tried one.

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Thank you I will look into that! That Korg MICRO key looks interesting

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I have an Arturia Keylab MkII 49 and it has pretty light action compared to the others I tried out.

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I used to have one of these low profile CME keyboards ( https://xkeyair.com )

Probably about the same feel as a modern laptop keyboard which was nice but kind of bad for velocity sensitivity. I think the 37 key version is the longest they do.

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The keylab essential 49 or 61 might fit your criteria. They have some of lightest keys I've tried, if not the lightest. They also have a good amount of midi controls such as pads, knobs, and sliders.

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Thank you! This might the one.

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Finger pain has always been a problem for me too. I've had to limit my playing severely because of it so I have always been sensitive to the lightness of key action. For a long time, I used the Korg micro range and it was OK but the small size of the keys was obviously restrictive. The CME flat keyboards I have also used a lot. They have a very light action with poly aftertouch but they have almost no displacement so you have to make use of the velocity/aftertouch instinctively when playing rather than deliberatively, if that makes sense. You can't really consciously control it by, say, bringing the key halfway up. They are 37-key only but you can get two of them and set them up so both can play at the same time over different octaval ranges. This is sometimes even more convenient than a conventional keyboard because you can place them separately rather than adjacently. I have to say, though, that I'm not really convinced of their build quality. Over the years, I must have gone through 5, 6 or 7 of them. I've lost count. It could also be that their very lightness might led me to treat them more carelessly than I would have a bulkier conventional keyboard, though, so that may have been a factor.

For bigger keyboards, I have got on well with the Fatar/Studiologic VMK-88. They don't make it anymore but maybe you could pick one up second-hand. It doesn't seem too oppressive on my fingers.

As regards hardware synths I have tried, the Behringer keyboards seem the easiest to play. The Prophet Rev 2 was devastating on my fingers and the Moog Matriarch is a bit tough too.

Finally, I've found that taking Glucosamine Sulphate helps alleviate my finger pain a bit. Maybe it would help the person you know.

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Thank you for this reply. Dilayla plays a – Yamaha PSR-EW 410 keyboard. That is a great keyboard for her. The problem for her with this keyboard is that because of her disability she cannot select sounds herself. So I build her a system with 2 iPAds and 2 MIDI keyboards. Now she can select sounds herself but the M-Audio Keystation 49 MK3 is just a little bit more heavy to play. For us it is hardly noticeable but for Dilayla it is tiring when she plays for a long time. Dilayla's has Spinal muscular atrophy type 2 (SMA 2) , a genetic condition that makes the muscles weaker and causes problems with movement. It's a serious condition that gets worse over time, but there are treatments to help manage the symptoms. This is a clip of our band where you can see Dilayla play https://youtu.be/MNI11OceKtM In the clip she plays her Yamaha keyboard. I wish I could find a big store with all the keyboard so we could try.

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Very nicely done! She’s an amazing player, as are the rest of the band!

Hope you can help her find the perfect keyboard! :phones:
Logic Pro | PolyBrute | MatrixBrute | MiniFreak | Prophet 6 | Trigon 6 | OB-6 | Rev2 | Pro 3 | SE-1X | Polar TI2 | Blofeld | RYTMmk2 | Digitone | Syntakt | Digitakt | SX7

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