Favorite Midi Keyboard Controllers?

[Bannon]

Hello all,

I'm looking to take a piano class to become more adept at playing piano. I'd like to practive at home too, but am unsure what controller to buy. I currently have an Oxygen 8 which works fine for noodling around with my synths, but could use something larger for sure. 61 key? 88? Brand? The Evolution MK361-C seems like it might be a good deal. The Fatar Studio 88 seems interesting because it's partially weighted. I'm not made of cash though, and that could eb a bit pricey. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Pete

 

[ssscientist]

Here's one that I haven't played myself, but it's been widely recommended. The people who put in reviews on Zzounds are notoriously unreliable. If I trusted them to recommend stuff I'd have a really shitty setup, so don't put too much stock in the relatively low rating that this gets.

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--MDOKEYSTAT88

If you want to buy new not used and you're sold on the 88 key weighted thing I doubt that you'll find a cheaper alternative.

 

[Bannon]

Thanks for the advice. It's a bit pricey for me, but does it look nice! It has a ridiculous amount of knobs and sliders for a controller, which you can't have enough of, IMHO.

 

[lykwydchykyn]

I've been using an old roland clavinova for a controller; the sounds are terrible, but the action is ok. Not the best, but it beats a little synth controller.

Not much in the knobs/sliders department, but that kind of thing didn't really take off until the mid-90's when synth makers realized that they never should have gotten rid of them in the first place.

Check out some of the old roland A series controllers. You can pick them up fairly cheap on ebay.

 

[tedluk]

This is another one of those topics that comes up al the time.

First of all, someone else trying to recommend a keyboard for you is like asking someone else to buy you a pair of shoes! You need to go to the store and play each one of the keyboards.

To me, the Keystation 88 Pro has a very spongy feel and, though I think I could get used to it, I didn't like it very much. I also didn't like the Evolution series though I really wanted to since they have a better implementation of their controller functions. I settled on a Radium. It's not great but it's usable.

Since you are wanting to practice piano, your best choices would be keyboards with a weighted action and among those, the closest to a piano feel are the ones with graded hammer action. These emulate the characteristic of a real piano where the touch gets lighter as you progress up the keyboard.

Old school- Yamaha KX88. Perhaps the best controller ever made. They were in production for nearly 17 years. Yamaha discontinued them a couple of years ago. Don't know about availability used, but it's a great keyboard!

Current choices would be the Kawai MP9500 (a lot of people feel this is the best action currently on the market. I haven't really had much experience with it.), Roland RD700 and the Yamaha S90. I like the Yamaha's touch the best and it's a nice synth as well. The Roland is good, but I have a personal bias against Roland. The Kawai is a digital piano and has limited sounds. That might not matter to you.

Of course, your last option might be the most logical- Get a REAL piano!! There's nothing like the feel of the real thing!

Ted