Should You Buy the $99.00 Carry-On Folding Keyboard?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ธ.ค. 2020
- Continuing the search for a decent foldable keyboard, I found this interesting Carry-On folding piano marketed by Blackstar Amplifications UK. It is incredibly slim, with a fascinating method of folding up for transportation. An 88 key piano that can be held in the palm of your hand? Is it any good? Let's find out.
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![[Eng Sub] Super-compact digital folding piano - BLACKSTAR CARRY-ON 88](/img/n.gif)
This comes handy for travelling when there is really a need to practice the piano daily but you can’t bring a piano anywhere. It’s lovely and I would say better than none for a start!
88 keys and fold up design for just $100 is incredible, and nobody can complain about that. However, imagine if they made it $300 or $400 and used the extra cost to improve this...= game changer. I would buy one for sure if it was more playable.
But sell both versions. This is great for beginners.
It's good for practice, songwriting idea which is better than iPad screen.
The second version needs: velocity sensing, a port for using a real sustain pedal (not having to use an adapter), a 61 key version, a protective carrying case, more and better piano sounds and less clackity sounding keys.
I'd pay more for those features.
In germany notes are split in uppercase and lowercase, middle c is a lowercase c and everthing below is uppercase with a C C¹ C² and so on, with the numbers getting higher as you go down. Same in the other direction, 1 octave above middle c its c¹ 1 octave above that c² and so on. Its kinda confusing at first but you can just take middle c as a reference. And for some reason b is replaced by h in germany and b flat becomes just b. Its way more complicated than the system that everyone else uses. Anyways loved the video as always, i just came to watch it and i hope that you continue with these rewiews!
Thanks. I think this is the best review for this Carry on piano.
Don't mock the internal speakers. I wish my expensive MIDI controller played any sound at all. The clicky noise would drive me nuts though.
It actually doesn't sound nearly as bad as I expected it to. I might buy one.
It sounds worse in person, if you need to buy a portable piano, try a veetop or well, this works but dont expect anything ground breaking unless you can find other speakers
Your reviews are fantastic. You come at things from a fresh perspective.
When I took piano lessons, I was given theory papers regarding music, how it's played, and how it's written. On one of those papers, I saw something which explains the capital vs. small letters. Octave 0 is called, "Sub-Contra" with capital letters with two underlines, Octave I, "Contra" with capital letters with one underline, Octave II, "Great" with capital letters, period, "Octave III", "small" with small letters, period, and Octaves IV, V, VI, and VII (including the C8), "one-", "two-", "three-", and "four-line" with small letters with the corresponding number of underlines. We refer to octaves III, IV, and V and the "low", "middle", and "high" octaves.
I see it as a "hotel piano."
Idk about other people... I started with a real piano, and as time goes on, i became less interested with the real deal, and began my holy pursue of divine toys 😆.
Yet another great review. Thanks!
It's perfect for practise (I have one myself)
Those built in speakers! Sounds like it’s being played through a old AM radio and processed through a tin can!
...An AM radio whose 9-volt battery is near flat...
I was thinking of waiting music over the phone
Sounds ok though, maybe to keep in the car for out and about emergency rehearsals.
Just use headphones lmao
Coming through the jack it doesn’t sound as bad as I thought it would actually
The internal speakers do add a lot of distortion.
You did an amazing job making a very limited toy sound good. Even so anyone can tell you can play a real instrument very well.
just on time! it's great bcos I am thinking to buy it so before buying, it will be good to listen to you. Thank you, James! greetings from Greece
Just being able to articulate on this instrument the way that you did, makes you an amazing piano player. I give you props. Blackstar better hire you
Anyone else just absolutely cringe when they see a simply piano add, they just keep getting worse and worse
I can't control who advertises on my channel, sorry if those bother you. They do seem to have gotten worse lately lol
@@ThePianoforever hey it’s not your fault it’s mine for watching so many piano videos lol. I love the channel, great work and keep it up.
it looks a little more playable than the roll up piano that I threw in the trash. lol
what brand was it??
same
I almost buy one, thanks
I also had that too. Never again. This seems a better imo.
One of your most hilarious reviews yet. Always so fun to watch you.
Glad you like it! Thanks for the support!
I can imagine appreciating something like this in extreme situations, like you are in jail, or in hospital, and you can't have a piano in there, yet you crave for one so much.
Good for learning and mastering sight-reading before transitioning to a standard piano. Most students give up because they can not master sight-reading and hit a plateau in their learning curve. With this, all they lose is $99 dollars!
I'm sold, for the sole reason that I am a complete novice with a free space problem. It would be fun to learn in one of these.
Hi @ThePianoforever, if you ever find a foldable keyboard that doesn't suck, could you please do a video on it? I think your TH-cam reviews on foldable and splitting keyboards might be the only ones that I trust. There are waaay too many affiliate marketing driven videos in the TH-cam space. After I saw your video, I went to a shop that sold splitting keyboards and asked to try one, and the experience was exactly as you described. Like a toy keyboard. I'm so glad I didn't buy one online.
Dear James, I'm from The Netherlands, and this is the way we notate the Octaves: Subcounter octave: ,,A through ,,B. Counter octave: ,C through ,B. Grand octave C through B. Small octave c through b. One striped octave c' through b'.(one-striped c' being middle c, the one nearest to the keyhole) Two striped octave c" through b". Three striped octave c'" through b'". (Three striped c being the high c all soprano singers talk about) four striped octave c"" though b"" (four striped f"" being the famous note of Mozart's Queen of the Night) and, finally five striped octave c""' through b""' and c"""".
This is why half of your notes are in capitals, and the rest are not.
Welcome to Europe.
16:11 Topre key switches (used in realforce keyboards) can detect how much you’ve pressed, thus can calculate the velocity. They even have a keyboard that supports MIDI emulation. So it’s possible, hope we can see a legit foldable keyboard someday
As for key weight, maybe someone can use the tech that PS5 controllers are using
I'm hoping one of the big names will tackle this prospect, and create a pro-level instrument that folds like this. The Reface series from Yamaha have a decently slim action, if that was scaled up a bit to be full size it would be bulkier than this, but probably reasonably compact. Some synths have diving-board style touch sensitive keys, too, and some that I have tried feel amazing. That could be a possibility too.
@@ThePianoforever totally agree I am a music and music production enthusiast and its a great step forward thinking start of having something portable for music production
@@ThePianoforever Hey there. I am an aspiring luthier and designer of experimental musical instruments. I hope I can make this kind of portable piano for people like you to play one day. Look out for the girl with the world's largest electric guitar in about 5-10 years time
Hey James. Thanks for yet another competent review. I think this is a party toy: the kind of thing you buy for someone as a gag, get it out at parties and mess around with it. Break it and you haven't lost a whole hell of a lot.
As someone who has deployed to Afghanistan a couple times, and spent hundreds of nights in hotels for work... I gotta say I would have loved to have this just to practice and monkey around on. Pretty cool! I’m sure (and hope) the portable technology will only improve. 88 keys is a bit overkill for something portable. Maybe cut the keys down to 61 or 76 and there will be more room for better functioning electronics.
Have to say, built-in speaker aside, it actually didn't sound terrible. Sound quality was surprisingly good given the price and form factor. Obviously no pressure sensitivity, but overall quality wasn't terrible like I was expecting.
That being said, seeing you play this makes me wonder how you would enjoy the keyboard on the Arturia MicroFreak synth.
Funny you should mention Arturia synths... I'm working on getting one soon. The keybed in it is pretty awesome.
That was a lot of fun to watch.
It actually doesn't sound too bad coming through an external speaker😳😳😳
Great job! Thanks again!
Clearly this is not an instrument for club dates, but if the usb can connect it as a midi instrument in order to enter notes into Finale, it could be a cheap way of doing it.
Being an aspiring composer i not only use the piano every day, i also find my self in transit etc., with music inside my head, thinking; «man, i wish i had A piano right now to note this tune in my head».
I still haven`t decided yet, but you made it much easier to land on A decition. Thanks.
I love your videos very good showing different kinds of pianos or keyboards
DUDE I BETTER BE ABLE TO FIND THIS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THIS IS THE BEES KNEES
It sounds a lot like the old 1980s department store synths. The Yamaha PSS series comes to mind.
Cool little concept keyboard, not a good instrument but it’s a fun thing to mess about with
Yeah I agree, the idea is a good one. Folding and unfolding it over and over again is just pure fun :D
@@ThePianoforever Just like a Transformer...
This idea is still in it's infancy, in 2030, these things will be fully functional as musical instruments
As you may remember, I have a small motor home. Might be fun for travel, without having to commit to hauling a full size keyboard all over the country.
A piano like this, in my opinion, would be good for people to take "baby steps" before deciding on whether to study piano on a regular piano, practicing while away from domicile, or composing. What do you think? Happy New Year.
Hey James I am a fellow be honest I think that little carry-on is cute and some of the voices are not bad especially the Oregon voices keep it up I enjoy your videos Joe
The Korg MicroKEY usb/midi mini keyboard also uses laptop-keyswitch mechanisms for the keyboard action. That one even has velocity sensing too. ;) Mine was pretty nice until a key broke off. :(
It seems to do velocity sensing by having the keyboard switch have two sets of contacts, and the plunger/cone hits one set first, then as you press a little further, the other one hits. It looks at the time between the first and second one hitting to determine the velocity. (as far as i can tell)
29:49 for reference as to how silly this keyboard is, when it accidentally played a note right there I thought it was the start of the samsung washing machine tone 💀
Regarding lowercase/uppercase notes, it is called Helmholtz pitch notation, and it is what we use in Europe
I have a CME xkey midi keyboard and it has "computer keys", but they are crazily touch sensitive. Once you get a hang of the feeling, it is super playable. Perhaps you should check it out :)
Don't think of computer keys in the negative as there are several types of key mechanisms which have been developed over the years. It could be a scissor switch or buckling spring mechanism (Google computer keyboard technology). So, there could be a degree of sophistication in the mechanism, but for $99, I don't think it would be too advanced. With a MIDI interface, computer and VSTs it has potential having a full 88 keys. Excellent review.
Gosh, you even manage to make a toy sound good. The company that manufactures them should pay you to include your playing in their marketing material.
If you were to set it on the floor, cross your legs and wear a purple and black horizontally striped shirt you could look like Schroeder from the old "Peanuts" cartoon strip! 😊😊🎹 Actually though, JPS, this would be a fun keyboard for someone to take camping, carry along when you're stuck in your hotel room on a business trip, accompany Christmas Carolers outside, etc. It only costs $99 after all. I can see several reasons why someone might have use for a keyboard like this to play with. Fun video. 👍👍
that piano sound reminds me a little bit of the older Yamaha YPT- Series keyboards
You sound pretty good to me on it!
Omg it's the player not the instrument, sounds amazing 14:30
I’ve bought one, as I spend a lot of time in a hotel and need to practice. Not ideal, but it’s better than nothing.
Bless your heart - my first thought beyond the word “oy” is that maybe you are in quarantine and really trying to keep this vlog going. It’s better than the Schoenhut but sadly not red. Toddlers love primary colors.
I actually thought about one of these to travel with but getting a $100 little Yamaha was probably a better deal.
Great video!
The sound was better than expected but, you can really hear the aliasing in the upper register due to lack of multi-sampling.
I’m looking for a lightweight, portable keyboard that I can take with me to practice at work and other places. One of the pieces that I am working on is the Gigue from Bach’s Partita No 1... will the height of the black keys throw me off too much? It’s hard for me to get the black keys consistently on my Everett grand. I also plan to learn Ballade No 1, Liebsleid, and several other big pieces. I’m just looking for something to work out fingering, practice hands apart/together, etc... will I hate this keyboard?
My 3 year old's would love it! 😂
I could totally imagine kids would have fun with this. The build quality isn't incredible so it might not last forever, but it does have a metal bottom plate and actually feels reasonably well-put together for the price.
Actually, you can easily adapt a 1/4 phono plug to an 1/8 or vise versa.
"some action noise" hahaha
It's a shame about the lack of velocity. I have a tiny Korg NanoKEY2, which has "computer keyboard"-type keys, but they ARE velocity-sensitive. Not as much as a full size keyboard, of course, but the velocity is there.
yeah maybe 4 nanokeys could be linked somehow, smaller but responsive, I haven't yet tried a nanokey but seems like a better option
Thanks your review helped me a lot for taking the definitely don't buy decision, I was about to throw 100$ away in this
Hi James, some ideas on "Clavier Folding Piano"?
Do you have plans to test it? Considering foldable keyboards It seems better than average. Plugged to an outer module I guess it would be a great solution for those of us who really need a portable device. It would be great if you have the opportunity to show us some more about the product.
Thank you ;)
Some of the passages with electric piano sounds kinda remind me of the ancient video game soundtracks. Could be actually acceptable for someone into that kind of stuff
I think the toy upright you reviewed awhile back would be a better portable piano.
Question! I'm getting ready to do a cross country trip in an RV, and then flying back across the country. I'm a fairly new player and want to keep up my practice on the road, but need something more portable than my huge weighty MP11SE. What do you recommend for something that packs in a bag and is fairly portable? (Can be MIDI, but nice presets are a bonus.)
I am really surprised that the piano sounded so good. I am a beginning adult learner and I think for my budget that will be perfect for my 1st ever piano.
definitely don't get this if you want to learn piano lol
Yeah don’t get this. Buy used $100 piano for the bang of your buck. Search the new price compare to the used price to find good value and make sure it’s in good condition,. Check EBay
I thought it could be useful for composers on the go, with Kontakt instruments and such....but no Velocity is a deal breaker.
I've recently purchased one and I'm not e even sure if they're midi capable in the intended standard, meaning it has some "janky" app as a way to connect to android and iOS devices but it doesn't even respond to music apps after doing so. With connecting it to a PC, nothing, it doesn't even see it as a device at all so at present, it useless itself for that unless I find some means of modifying it but on the other hand "Glarry music" makes a budget 88 key that does work for a similar price point which has proven to be good.
Check for the Wooting Keyboard (a PC Keyboard) and you find a way to potentially give such an approach sensitive keys - you can utilize key travel and travel speed with their analogue technology - unfortunatly as we have here two niche products these two will most likely not combine their designs in near future...
I feel like I'm watching Schroeder. The guy who can make a toy piano sound like Steinway. Thank you so much. Did you find a folding keyboard with acceptable sound for taking to the office to practice rock and roll in between gigs?
Can you do a review on the Williams Overture 2? Or have you done that one before? If so do you know if you can provide a link?
James, love your thoughtful, fun reviews! Could you possibly look at the Korg Microkey Air61? It is small, compact and bluetooth capable.
For its intended use it's not too bad.
Good video thanks for the education
Are you planning to review Alesis Recital? It’s an inexpensive 88 key digital piano.
Thank You . At least someone is honest. NEEDS MORE DEVELOPEMENT
Great review! So I have to connect it to external speakers for it to sound a bit better?
Velocity (what you called pressure, I think) is measured by reading two switches-usually optical-in succession for the same key to check the amount of time between the two closures. It’d take a bit of engineering but they could design this instrument with two sensors per key, a bit of a software update and you’d have a functional velocity sensitive instrument. Tell them to give me a call!
That's a great idea to improve on it
Fix it for them !
Hey ThePianoForever can you do a review on the angelet xts 690?
Because that is the keyboard I have
And also is it good to practise on for a real piano?
The key click is more pleasant than the built in sounds.
I RECENTLY BOUGHT A NEW KAWAI CA79 PIANO. THAT IS NOW MY MAIN PIANO. BUT I WOULDNT MIND HAVING A PIANO LIKE YOU ARE SHOWING HERE BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A SPARE JUST TO PRACTISE ON WHEN IM IN MY RECLINER CHAIR. THAT IS WHERE I SLEEP AND IT WOULD BE GOOD TO WORK ON THIS PIANO WHILE IN MY CHAIR SEARCHING FOR NOTES TO COMPOSE A TUNE PERHAPS. THE ONLY PROBLEM MAY BE IT COULD COLLAPSE BECAUSE I WAS HOPING TO BE ABLE TO PUT IT OVER THE ARMS OF MY CHAIR ONLY FOR SUPPORT. ITS AMAZINGLY CHEAP. AND THE SOUND SEEMS GOOD FOR THE PRICE FOR SURE. IT WOULD ALSO COME IN HANDY IF I WAS TO TAKE IT AWAY WITH ME WHEN I VERY OCASSIONALLY GO ON HOLIDAYS.
Maybe the lowercase are meant for the flat/sharp black keys.
I would prefer full size weighted keys even if it meant a slightly larger,heavier unit, also external battery that powers the piano. So I will wait and not buy until such improvements.
I played the "roll-up" piano once years ago, it was awful, you had to literally PUSH and squeeze the keys to get them to respond
It sounds like a typewriter.
Upper vs lower case: Helmholtz pitch notation, perhaps? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmholtz_pitch_notation It uses upper case for bass below C3.
the note fumbling on the advanced classical piece, especially with the electric keyboard sound, actually sounded kind of charming and fun to me!
So James,
If the black keys were taller or the white keys lower, then what do you think about it?
Cheers,
Rik Spector
Just watched your review. Very comprehensive. Enjoyed it. Informative.
However, you kept mentioning a price point of $100. I just checked and Amazon wants $199.00 + $39.00 shipping ( I suppose from the UK?)
I picked up this one at Guitar Center for $99.00 I will include a link for the $99.00 price, but they will not likely ship it to you as you are over the pond.
www.guitarcenter.com/Keyboards-MIDI.gc
I bought it for 86 euro's from a Chinese seller named banggood. Does have a little longer shipping time
@@daanvanderepe8580 how about the packaging? Is it safe?
i can finally play the piano when i travel
idea - oh I got this one. I want a pc keyboard but with touch of an expensive piano. Could bring costs down for pianos. I wonder if its possible to predict with machine learning a better piano than its possible to measure yourself with your own feel and ears. A generalized superresolution piano.
It can be used as a MIDI input.
Please update me; I've got one but the only connectivity that I see is some janky mobile device app and I'm not even able to get connection to music apps after that but if you know something I don't, please update here and let me know how... Thanks in advance
I took a couple picture of a portion of the keyboard of one of my Baldwin Hamiltons, then "spliced" it to make the full 88-note range. (I couldn't just do a pic of the entire piano, cause of parallax at the extreme ends making the keys look like they're at an angle, I needed them to all look straight.) Then, I did a bit of digital "folding" with the pic to come up with a "folding keyboard" concept with full-size sharps. (Basically the sets of sharps would "nest" in each other - the C#+D# nesting with F#+G#+A# and vice versa. I haven't uploaded the pic anywhere yet, though.)
Also I was thinking, maybe there'd also be a way, when it's nested, to "disengage" the keys from the action (so the action, depending on how it's designed, would still lay "flat" / at rest), then when nesting the keys have it press at least the white keys down, possibly making it a bit more "compact". I don't think it'd be quite as compact as that keyboard, though. :)
Speaking of compact keyboards.... I remember a dinky little cheap toy piano my parents had gotten once briefly - was one of those little kids electronic toys that makes beeping sounds when you play the very small keys (and when the battery was about to give out, the pitch would go up a half or full step while the note was sounding). The keys on that piano were narrow enough so that I could almost span 2 octaves and a third with one hand with effort (which was almost the entire range IIRC, that might have been 2 1/2 octaves), or 2 octaves without too much difficulty. (I might have had to twist my fingers a bit to fit between groups of black keys.)
For reference, on a normal sized piano I can reach a 10th fairly easily (except for C#-F and B-D# which are a bit harder), can do an 11th with some effort, and can kind-of stretch my left hand with my right to just barely make a 12th (but I can't play that in an actual song, except MAYBE a C- or G-Sus+2 (C2+D2+F3+G3 or G2+A2+C4+D4) might be doable with my fingers on the cracks between the keys, idk. :) Maybe I should try working on an excercise that Danae Dörken posted on her YT channel a month or 2 ago for stretching the hands... maybe then I might be able to actually play a 12th, I like the sound of them....
Love the reviews! Anyone know what the name of the piece at 26:27 is, or if it is custom?
Hello!
I am preparing for my Grade 3 classical piano. I have a descent piano to practice when at home. I might need to travel for a week or two often now. I wanted to know if I can buy this to practise scales at least.? Or the Lexington 88?
Not really.
if the buyer was a little handy at cutting and splicing wires... you could rig up a decent sustain pedal.
Are they weighted keys with such a thin keyboard? Is there midi in/out for this?
No weighted keys; it has a micro USB port.
At the end of the video you referred to a piano in the case below that you really like, can you give the title of that review you did as the name of the instrument was not clear enough to look up.
It's the Crumar Seven: th-cam.com/video/0buc-iqJypU/w-d-xo.html
I am sure there must be a different view to piano. And I also believe that piano is no more complicated or heavy than conventional piano but sounds the same.
Can you also review Eastar EP-120? I think it's pretty similar to Donner DEP-20 in terms of the price and spec.