So! Korg has this new keyboard design in which all the effects are controlled by pressing the actual keys in various combinations. Good idea? Bad idea? What are your thoughts? Have you tried one yet?

My biggest fear is changing the tone mid-song without intending to do it.

You can find the full article here:
http://www.musicgearreview.com/article-display/3156.html

My Alesis Micron uses the same idea to switch between eight different banks of sounds (Lead, Strings, Brass, Bass, etc.) but you have to press and hold a switch on the top of the keyboard to make it work, so it's impossible to accidentally change from brass to bass in the middle of a tune. Are you saying that you have to hit regular keys in a pattern to change? If so, that seems risky -- how could you predict that a certain pattern wouldn't occur in the natural course of a song?

Yeah, you actually have to strike the keys and hold them in. Their "safety" is that it takes 2 seconds, as far as I can tell, and that you have to use the C at the very highest part of the piano, which many pieces never use. So it shouldn't be TOO likely to happen, but still, none of the other keys are labelled as to WHAT they change...so you have to memorize it. And what about quick adjustments as well? If I need a Clav sound, it's at least 2 seconds before I can get it, and you hear keys clicking in the process. And the volume knob is in the back of the keyboard. I know they wanted to make it look like a "switchless" design, but the back is what people usually SEE right? Unless you're playing to the side, yeah. And it's definitely out of reach to get to without bending over the keys. Weird.

A bit awkward, I'd say. Seems like a lot of work to avoid switches. Especially the volume big up front. Maybe they think you'll use a volume pedal.

Goodness, that almost sounds less convenient than anything!

And I agree with Laklander - You'll have to hold the high C with your right hand, select with your left, but always remember the cut the volume before hand. Seems more like a hassle than a convenience!

I vote that we go back to carrying a different keyboard for every sound you need -- Wurlitzer, RMI Piano, Arp string ensemble, Mimimoog, Mellotron, Hammond B 3. Them wuz the dayz.

ARGH...NO!!!! Now that Nord and Korg actually have decent sounding modules that emulate those keyboards, no haha. I'd rather not require a U-Haul for every gig only to have my Leslie dropped. Not that I own a Leslie...yet.

Alex, what happens is that when you hold the high C in, it mutes all the other keys...so if your piece actually does use a high C or you hold it in, not only will you have picked a different sound, you'll have muted everything that was going on already.

Gig-FX has a pedal called the Chopper that simulates a Leslie as well as tremolo and other such effects. http://www.gig-fx.com/products/Chopper/chopper.htm

Sells for around $190, I think.