Pianopinions please....

[abinning]

Thanks again everyone.

iMas: Yes, the forthcoming "Quantum Leap Pianos" sounds very interesting...

Spikey Horse: ....as does the VSL Bösendorfer Imperial!

Shooshie: FYI the MacBook Pro does not have external SATA as standard, you can however add 2 ports via a PCIexpress card. I am lucky that in my 'day job' role I use an 8-core MacPro with 10 drive external PROAVIO raid, and 2-disk internal RAID (primarily as I work with multimedia and HD video production), and I also have a MacBook Pro with a couple of Western Digital FW800 drives. I doubt I would have a 'slow disk' problem!

Noting tim57var's remarks - I didn't mean to offend Magic Dave. I think the MachFive2 piano is excellent, but (for me) it's not a Steinway. Again, excuse my ignorance, but who exactly is Magic Dave??

I was going to save it for another post, but as it's highly relevant here, and has been brought up already: keyboard choice. I won't ask 'which is best' as again it's a daft question, I'll pop in to my nearest music store and hope they have a few on demo to try!

However, I would like to know which board would be best to get the most out of MachFive2 - not just for playing piano, but for other performance control, i.e. faders, knobs, possibly even breath control... I used to have a Roland RD500, which I believe was also a Fatar mechanism, but I used to find the Kurzweil PC88 a bit shallow on the key travel. I think a MIDI controller (rather than a stage piano) would be most appropriate, and here in the UK it seems that M-Audio and CME are the major players now, although the Fatar VMK188 looks quite interesting with its' weighted and graded hammer action, and MachFive control presets. Anyone used one of use - indeed anyone know if it's the same action as in the K2600?

One final point on performance: having just done a quick test, my MacBook Pro (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, 3Gb RAM) runs MachFive2's German Grand with IR Verb and EQ quite happily streaming from the internal hard drive, with audio settings of 48kHz and a buffer size of 512. (Starts to break up a bit at 256), and that's with Mail and Safari open and the Dashboard still running. Can't be bad really. Rock-on MachFive2 (replace with 'Jazz-on' or 'Classical-on' to suit your personal taste)!

[Shooshie]

Magic Dave is one of our favorite MOTU employees who often posts around here. He is not affiliated with the site (nor is MOTU), but he's a good guy who usually knows all answers to MOTU questions. He's also not easily offended, so you needn't worry about that. Dave harbors no illusions of unreality that I know of; he's just one of the most accurate sources of information that we're privileged to have around here, and tends to call a spade a spade, rather than a flared bladed earth moving device with extended user interface of forestry product. If you know what I mean, I mean.


Shooshie

[rcannonp]

I was going to save it for another post, but as it's highly relevant here, and has been brought up already: keyboard choice. I won't ask 'which is best' as again it's a daft question, I'll pop in to my nearest music store and hope they have a few on demo to try!

However, I would like to know which board would be best to get the most out of MachFive2 - not just for playing piano, but for other performance control, i.e. faders, knobs, possibly even breath control... I used to have a Roland RD500, which I believe was also a Fatar mechanism, but I used to find the Kurzweil PC88 a bit shallow on the key travel. I think a MIDI controller (rather than a stage piano) would be most appropriate, and here in the UK it seems that M-Audio and CME are the major players now, although the Fatar VMK188 looks quite interesting with its' weighted and graded hammer action, and MachFive control presets. Anyone used one of use - indeed anyone know if it's the same action as in the K2600?

If piano is your thing, then I would make sure to get a keyboard with weighted action. I'll have to leave it to the real keyboard players to recommend a model.

I decided that I am going to learn to play the keyboard better, I and I went out and bought a Casio CDP-100. I'm not recommending that one for you, because it has no controllers. It's got crappy onboard sounds, but it plays like a piano. I bought it for the keyboard and the MIDI out. Having the piano action on the keys really makes the samples seem to come to life compared to playing on my old synth action keyboard. When you can feel the weight of the keys it really feels like the sound is coming from the keyboard, and it affects the way that you play.

[SixStringGeek]

However, I would like to know which board would be best to get the most out of MachFive2 - not just for playing piano, but for other performance control, i.e. faders, knobs, possibly even breath control... I used to have a Roland RD500, which I believe was also a Fatar mechanism, but I used to find the Kurzweil PC88 a bit shallow on the key travel. I think a MIDI controller (rather than a stage piano) would be most appropriate, and here in the UK it seems that M-Audio and CME are the major players now, although the Fatar VMK188 looks quite interesting with its' weighted and graded hammer action, and MachFive control presets. Anyone used one of use - indeed anyone know if it's the same action as in the K2600?

Oh, that's a whole big can o' worms you're fixin' to open there.

It sounds like you are a "piano" player at heart which means you probably care a good deal more than most about how the keys "feel". In which case I would advise you avoid the M-audio keyboards. I have an M-audio keystation pro 88 - which is the best board for fiddly knobs around and also wonderfully cheap - but the keyboard action is kind of cheesy feeling. Better than the keyboards on a lot of hardware synths - but definitely falls short if you like a real piano. It suits me fine as I'm a guitarist first and foremost and largely self taught hack on the keys. But "real" keyboardists complain about the feel most bitterly.

The best feeling keyboard I have (and I have nearly a dozen) is the one on my trusty Alesis QS8. But you get no fiddly knobs with it and the user interface is beyond minimal.

There have been discussions about keyboard controllers. You might check them out.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22077
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21239

[magicd]

... and tends to call a spade a spade, rather than a flared bladed earth moving device with extended user interface of forestry product. If you know what I mean, I mean.


Shooshie

Sometimes a shovel is just a cigar...

Dave

[Spikey Horse]

After looking for a new keyboard/ controller solution about a year ago I decided to go for a Yamaha P-70 (Yamaha's most 'feature basic' 88 key fully weighted H- action) and an Akai MPD-24 for sliders, knobs and pads. The Yamaha has no Mod or Pitch wheel but I'm happy to use the MPD's knobs/ sliders for that ...... another option could have been to get a very cheap 2 octave controller keyboard with mod/pitch and knobs (M-audio 'oxygen' or whatever) but I really wanted some decent pads so chose the MPD-24.

This combo works so well in practice and in terms of layout is so much more flexible (ie not having the 'controller bits' forever stuck behind the piano keyboard but wherever I want it, next to my mac keyboard, on my lap, on top of the piano....). Of course we all have different needs but I'm so glad I went for the more 'modular' approach even though I did it because I had to having decided to get the P-70.

.. anyway, just throwing it out there..

[monkey man]

... and tends to call a spade a spade, rather than a flared bladed earth moving device with extended user interface of forestry product. If you know what I mean, I mean.
Shooshie

Sometimes a shovel is just a cigar...
Dave

LOL!

I can hear you now, Dave:
"I did not have sex with that... Unicorn".