I’ve been looking for a good 88 note MIDI keyboard controller. It’s a surprisingly challenging task given how many new choices have sprung up recently. For me, the main thing is the feel of the keys. Beyond that it’s icing.
A bunch of players (NPI) have jumped into the very inexpensive segment, but so far I’ve been underwhelmed. I really wanted to like the M-Audio Keystation Pro 88, which is generously festooned with knobs and buttons, but the actual keyboard felt like cheap springs and the range between low velocity and high was not well calibrated. And, no aftertouch. Not too much of a surprise since it’s under $500.
Next up was the CME UF8. Again, lots of knobs and sliders, and this one does have aftertouch. I finally found these at the Yamaha area at winter NAMM (Yamaha seems to be distributing them). I remember reading that some people had a particular problem with the keys but I couldn’t recall the exact problem. Played one for a minute or so and a key got stuck before finally going down. That’s what it was! Next!
Some of the Studiologic boards from Fatar get high praise, but they put the pitch and modulation controls in really strange places, and in different places on different products. It’s like a car company putting the steering wheel on the ceiling. Maybe you’d get used to it, but would it ever feel natural?
At this point, as I readjusted my price expectation, I figured I may as well get a keyboard with built-in sounds, since who knows, maybe I’ll start doing jazz gigs or something. After a bunch of online research I zeroed in on the Yamaha S90. Not much in the knobs and sliders department, but I’d rather have a good keyboard than bells and whistles. Users love it, and it has a neat editing app where you can actually tweak the onboard sounds on your Mac or PC. My local music store had the next generation, the S90ES, in stock and after playing it I was again disappointed. Not terrible, but much stiffer than I like; and not in the way that would make it more like playing a real piano.
The only keyboard so far that I’ve really enjoyed playing is the Kurzweil PC1X. The action seems just right for my fingers. A little bit of resistance to even out the velocities, but not so much that you feel like you’re playing under water at 10,000 leagues. The onboard sounds are pretty good if a bit generic. Unfortunately I don’t think there’s much tweakability on them, aside from basic stuff like filter cutoff. I guess that’s what software synths are for these days. It has (channel) aftertouch and an optional ribbon controller as well. I’m close to the edge on this one, but the tweaker in me doesn’t quite want to go for it. Which is funny since I started this journey not even thinking I wanted any sounds onboard and I’ll probably never record with them. A more disconcerting issue is that people have reported having very bad experience with Kurzweil customer support (even while giving high marks to the build quality). Given my recent (and ongoing) Dell experience, this worries me.
When it comes down to it what I really need is a 9" Steinway. That would be righteous.
Hey, It’s only 7 months until Xmas! Maybe Mr. Steinway, err, I mean Santa will make your righteous dream come true! (Or maybe I can buy you a brandy snifter
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=174&f=634&viewall=1 and work our way up or down as the keys may be!)