hammer keyboards : Fatar/Studiologic or CME ?

rainy-taxi · Post by **rainy-taxi** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:09 am

how about kawai?

To be honest, I never liked the touch from kurzweil. Just too light for my liking. I tried other stuff like yamaha aswell, same story...

My Ensoniq KS32 plays heavy ! But I like it and gives me some more dynamics. It seems that Kawai has very good boards which should outperform the fatar based stuff (aswell as yamaha/cme)

emulatorloo · Post by **emulatorloo** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:13 am

I have the Korg SGXproX -- really nice, you could probably find a used one cheap.

http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/SN ... GproX.html

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... GproX/10/1

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:34 am

My modus operandus is to just listen to what comes out the other end. When I get it set up, if I can get the voicings I want, without too much effort, then it's a good keyboard. Also, my scales always sound better on a good keyboard.

One of my favorite keyboards, believe it or not, is a Yamaha upright. I've never had one, but when I try them at friends houses they always sound great and feel great. Of course, my favorite is a Steinway, with a Yamaha grand at a very close #2. Of the three I described above, the K2600's Fatar feels most like the Yamaha Upright. But plug in Ivory's Steinway or Yamaha C7, and it feels like the real thing. I just love this thing!

Of course, I'm not a keyboard monster like some of you guys. If we were talking about saxophones, I'd be nit-picky like you've never seen me. (good saxes stopped with the end of production of the Selmer Mark VI. There hasn't been a consistently good sax made since then)

Shooshie

Albert Bacardit · Post by **Albert Bacardit** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:56 am

Thank you Shooshie but I'm a guitarrist myself -turned to keyboardist (not pianist) sometimes- and I reckon Dan is too. Certainly, a Studiologic is not the closest to a real piano but it can be quite practical in the studio. I cannot say the same for live purposes ...
BYT Dan, if you ever come down to Barcelona, please let me know.
And Merry Xmas to everybody!

daniel.sneed · Post by **daniel.sneed** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:45 am

If you've ever played a real acoustic instrument, any of them, you know how desperating an electronic keybord can be.

Studiologic VMK161+ is the very first to bring me the feel of playing an instrument. And curiously with most of my libraries. Even those sounds originaly not designed to be played thru a hammer action !

The Yamaha P80, very praised among pianists around here, though really "dynamic", did not gave me that feeling.

BTW hello Albert, see you one of these days here or there.

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:51 am

Although I focused on MIDI problems (stuck notes, sudden volume changes, etc.) with the CME gear, I should have mentioned the even worse problem that is being reported by scads of users (who's to say how representative they are of the total number of buyers though): frequent power cycles during gigs (this is even true for the tri-pedals, which MUST be powered, unlike most)! That was the final nail in the coffin for my own decision.

As for Kawai, the MP-series has quite recently been revved up. I personally find the lower-priced MP4 and MP5 to be too compromised to feel all that realistic in spite of being actual wooden keys (the response just isn't fast enough for serious playing of classical, jazz, or latin styles).

The MP8 II (that latter qualifier is critical) employs kawai's most advanced action normally reserved for their far more expansive Digital Grands. It is probably the most realised piano-like action on a digital semi-portable today, but I emphasis the "semi" part because it weighs about 85 pounds! NOT gig-friendly! Yet it is controller-happy and well-MIDI-spec'ed for multi-module setups.