New keyboard for live performances

OK, I have to ask... weighted keys... but for non piano sounds?

I am not sure I get that. I use my weighted key Yamaha FOR piano players and my Roland non weighted for organ and synth sounds.

But, I am not a keys player... just a keys hacker.

best regards,
mike

In 2009 I taught music production in a secondary school and they had one of the Casio models. It played quite well and sounded fine, obviously if you make the effort with the amp and speaker or a decent PA it will sound very good. Acoustic sound was very suitable. It had a small collection of other useful sounds. A has a very basic sequencer and it also has drums etc . It does not create automatic rhythms and accompaniment parts, that is more the relm of the Yamaha or Roland home style instruments.

The action is quite good and it is heavyish but one person can easily move it around. Kawai make some nice instruments too I believe.

Thanks all. I'll talk to them again tonight and see if they're serious about this weighted keys thing.  I can find alot of reasonable synths with greater than 61 keys and without weighted keys in our price range without the weights.  Like I said anything will be an improvement, but at the same time I want to buy something that will last us for years to come.  With the weights, it seems it's either one of those Casios (assuming the weighted key quality is good) or looking to buy used.

I used to own one of the casios similar to the model I linked to above and the action is really nice.  I sold it because I am not a "pianist", I'm a keyboardist.  the model I had was an older model with only 32polyphony which I didn't like, either, I would easily reach its limit.  the casio above is 128 poly.  much better.
 
and on the MM8 - as I said above, I bought a used Motif XS6 - if I were in the market for a weighted 88 key board, I would absolutely look at the MM8!  it has the sound engine of the XS series.

Well, just to follow up, we went to a local reseller who is not part of a national chain (but a quick internet search put their prices in line with Zzounds, Musician's Friend, and Sweetwater).  Since they're local I'll leave the whole selling experience alone other than to say I feel like the sales guy knew what he was talking about.

What we ended up buying was the 61-key synth-action version of the Korg M50.  After coming up with a series of questions, including those you listed above, we came to the conclusion that we didn't really need the piano-style weighted keys.  That money was better spent elsewhere, as I'll explain below.  Two of us went to this local reseller and spent 90 minutes with a couple keyboards.  We both got all of our questions about the unit answered and demonstrated, so even though the guy obviously knew his way around the workstation he also made it seem like we'd be able to figure it out.  The other keyboard in our price range that we looked at was the Yamaha MO6, which also seemed like an awesome keyboard. We preferred the Korg touch interface for changing voices and editing sounds.  

And rather than a dedicated keyboard amp, we instead picked up a Yamaha Stagepas 300.  It's got a total of 5 inputs, which means we'll also be able to run our guitars through it as well should we choose, rather than the church's general PA system.  Short story which helps, in my mind, justify the purchase.  At our church we have a media ministry that does awesome.  But they're mostly volunteers and they have alot of responsibility.  We decided to go with the portable PA because 1.) we can take it anywhere and 2.) it'll take some of the burden off their shoulders.  We've had problems with guitars and our old keyboard being muted and nobody in "the booth" knew that we were expecting sound.  Bad communication. This eliminates all that.  
For $1700 total (for the keyboard, the PA system, a double X-type stand, a padded bag, and a couple cables for the stereo output on the keyboard), we feel like we got a pretty good value.  Here's where I'd like a little critiquing on our purchases.  The reseller told us hey, if there's a problem with anything or it doesn't meet our expectations, here in the next 30 days we can swap it out for something else.  The M50 itself seems to come highly recommended from all kinds of reviews online.  The reviews for the Stagepas have all been pretty positive as well.  If you'd say otherwise (or concur, for that matter) please do so. :)