It’s crazy to me how many people have said the “Studio” version is less sluggish - the Grand felt much more natural and faster to me, while the Studio felt slow and “squishy.” Much to my surprise, I really loved the StudioLogic SL88 Grand. Having said that, I ran around NAMM over the weekend trying all the contenders I could find. I had surgery on both hands last year due to 30 years of pounding on these things, so I’m going to sell it in favor of a much lighter action. Just bought a brand new one and to my horror, Yamaha completely changed the action on the new ones… It is heavier and tedious to play - likely because of RSI issues. Man, I’ve been a die-hard Yamaha CP300 guy for about 10 years. There's a tread on the Pianoteq forum that shows irregularities between notes at the same velocities etc. But I think the new Roland and Studiologic should be contenders for around a Grand. The market for 88 note controllers is small. Regarding the new workstations, i gave the new Nord Piano a spin and that felt great !! having the sound engine built in and optimized makes it a breeze to play and also musically relevant. The new Arturia Keylab 88 has the same keybed. It's sluggish and not fun to play at all. I own the Arturia Keylab 88 and it sports the Fatar TP-100 and I absolutely hate it. I usually hate Fatar weighted keypads but the TP-40WOOD is good. I also liked the Studiologic SL-88 grand action. I haven't investigated on Midi 2.0 but i will look it up. the fact that the mod wheel can't stay at 127 unless you hold the joystick in position, is a drawback as far as i'm concerned. What bugs me is the pitch / mod wheel joystick. It has also 3 pedal inputs that are assigned to whatever cc and the pads that can also send cc control besides note numbers. īut I think that with proper attention to details, the Roland A-88 Mk 2 should be fine. probably due to the fact that they didn't really paid attention to the audio latency settings. but they had it hooked up to a Mac mini and a Roland soundcanvas soft synth with a piano sound and the feel was really sluggish. I liked the feel of the keys, the fake ivory finish etc. But what is also important is the relationship between the controller and the actual sound, the velocity curves, the latency of the audio card etc.įor example, I tried the new Roland controller at NAMM at the Roland booth. The action is very important for me as well. I was trained on acoustic piano for many years and started playing at 8 years old. I was at NAMM last week and tried both of them. I knew going in that I may never be satisfied with the sticks, so I am prepared to look at small hardware controllers like the Studio Logic Mixface, or software controllers "faders" on iPad, or a breath controller. dynamics and expression are not well suited on a spring loaded stick because they recenter upon release. But I'm going to try stick 3 "X&Y" next for dynamics and expression using it (left-right) pinched between my thumb and forefinger. So I may try a small rubber pad on top for grip. because of their small sizer, I've been using them with one finger placed on top, but they are slippery. I have been using stick 2 "Y" for expression but not liking that. They give you 6 controllers to work with, 3 with springs and 3 without. The 3 mini joy sticks are going to take some getting used to. I was using ( and going to sell) a 61 key Nektar Panorama P6, with semi-weighted action, and with the SL88 I have much better control over dynamics, especially at the lower levels. I do have an actual grand piano in the house and the SL88 Studio is much stiffer action but fine for me. Mine is $400 cheaper as it uses a less expensive Fatar weighted, hammer action. identical to the Grand model except for the keybed. One week ago I bought the Studio Logic SL88 Studio. A-88 MkII also has knobs and pads and is 10 lbs lighter, but those things aren't as important to me.Any info on the PHA-4 keybed in the Roland A-88 MkII? Is it comparable to the TP-40 on the SL88 Grand?.Is there a verdict on how good of a mod-wheel replacement they are? SL88 XY sticks seem a little tiny, can't find much info on them.I made a list of a bunch of keyboard specs over in this other thread, if it interests anyone. Quietest physical mechanics (maybe a bit less important, but a big plus).Shortest height (for a desk build with a keyboard tray).Best piano action possible (subjective, but maybe not as much in the limited MIDI-keyboard world).The SL-88 and A-88 MkII seem like the top two options for me and the center of this thread, but I'm open to other options too. I'm in the market for a new 88-key controller and could use some feedback if people know about all those options out there. Bit of a weird way to introduce the new Roland controller to the forums here, but this is where I'm at just now.
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