I bought a Studiologic VMK-188

http://www.studiologic.net/vmk-188.html

in December, and I must say I am quite dissatisfied. The keyboard makes a lot of noise, and the velocity response is uneven: I can't play a scale without some notes popping out -- I have no problem doing so with a normal piano. Another annoyance is the combined pitch-bend-mod-wheel joystick, because sometimes you need a mod wheel that sticks to the position where you put it and doesn't spring back to zero (which the joystick always does).

I tried the CME UF8 in a shop and found the keyboard action very noisy and rickety -- too bad, the other specs and the price are very convincing.

I had the opportunity to try one of the Doepfer keyboards in a shop (only after I bought the Studiologic [:(])

http://www.doepfer.de

which impressed me a lot: the keyboard action is excellent, and it is very sturdily constructed. They are, however, quite expensive -- the top model is 1300 €.

Has anyone tried the Oberheim MFC3000?

http://www.viscount.it/product.asp?idcat1=-250368922&idprodotto=1296180404

Looks very interesting and has got excellent reviews:

http://www.paulvickers.com/index.php?oberheim
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov99/articles/oberheim.htm

Cheers
Pitt

Thanks Pitt for your response. I too, am curious about the MC3000.

Wouldn't the MC2000 be adequate though?

Also, I'm curious what you think of the action on the "VMK188 plus" that you own. Do you think it's harder than a piano or softer? Does the keyboard have velocity curves? I have the "SL-990XP" by Studiologic and the weight on the keys comes off a bit too hard and the playing perhaps a bit sluggish.

I heard that Doepfner uses Studiologics action. Is that true? How do they compare?

Nothing beats the UF8 in relation to price. I found the action good enough for me, but Ill agree with Pierre that it's a little more noisy than other controllers, though nothing annoying me in the slightest way - again, price is key here. U get a sustain foot pedal with the UF8 which I find of suprisingly good quality, which was not expected when paying so little for the controller. The pitch and modulaor wheels are in a good position, and beats said joystick any day (why do they keep making them??). The midi controllers are ok, but not good quality. Especially the faders are very plastic and doesn't have any resistance when being moved.

Price is key here.

The VMK188 is softer and more wobbly than a real piano. There is no possibility to select a velocity curve.

Both Doepfer and Studiologic keyboards use Fatar keyboard mechanics. But Doepfer seems to use keyboards of a better quality, see this forum thread in German:
http://www.musiker-board.de/vb/archive/index.php?t-12035.html

There is one keyboard with a fantastic feeling: the Kawai MP8 stage piano. Unfortunately, it's very big and expensive, and the built-in sounds are redundant if you use it for sequencing.

Darn Pitt. All these nice keyboards but way to expensive for me [:(]. I can't go over 900 basically. Right now, I'm in a dilemma because there really isn't anything that GREAT in this range. I hear the Yamaha's have great action but I need to have programmable pedal input and maybe a couple of sliders....sigh.

I don't know if anyone would agree with me here but I find that not being a piano player first and foremost, I find the weighted keyboards a bit difficult for inputing violin and other instruments, piano is fine but the others seem slow and not very responsive. I like the M-audio piece.

So your saying eric that because your not a pianist that professional weighted keyboards are fine for playing piano but a bit troublesome playing other instruments like violin? Just want to make sure I understand. Also, are you referring to the Keystation Pro 88? Isn't the action "spongy"? I heard that you can't get it to play p or mf velocity ranges easily...is that true?

I use an M-Audio Prokeys 88.

It's cheap (600 euro) and has a bunch of built-in sounds (Yamaha grand piano, Fender E.P. and so on) very useful when you want to play but your computer is off: just turn the keyboard on and play.

I have the Doepfer LMK4+ and it's fabulous [[[:P]]] [[[:P]]] [[[:P]]]

I've got an CME UF8 (their biggest midicontroller/keyboard).
The action is surprisingly pleasing (I'm a pianoplayer for many yearsnow), and have no problems playing other instruments with this beast, as to the keyresponse being to heavy.
I also need the aftertouch implemented (e.g. with some of Garritans lib's) and finally I assigned all 8 faders and 8 nobs to different controllers, which come in handy from time to time depending on the lib I'm triggering.
(The controllernumbers I've picked are as follows: 11-13, 15-24, 26-28.)
The price is outstanding and one mainreason why I went with this.
I know for a fact, that many af their first models had unacceptable flaws and where returned ore swapped, but this fairly new one works perfect.
Also the chassis seems solid and looks good.
i work with many different lib's, and having access to all keyswithces due to the 88 keys is indeed a great timesaver...

Best
StyxStyx[/b]

I've been using a Kawai MP9000 which I have been very happy with for many years. Now I need more controllers and perhaps a lighter touch. So I've been thinking about this:

http://www.clavia.se/products/nordstage/flyinlogobig.jpg


I hear the touch is good but haven't tried it yet. Looks cool though.

Austin, since I'm not a piano player I don't pretend to know what's the best keyboard. I think that a weighted keyboard does feel more like a real piano but for me (just my opinion) the weighting lends itself to playing like you're playing a piano. The Keystation Pro 88 is good enough to input different velocities without trouble (unless you're used to weighted keyboards) and it's cheap enough so that I can buy more extended libraries for VI [:D]

This is just my opinion, it could be all wrong, I'm sure with more money you are going to get more quality, but deciding where to put my money the comments above are how I justified it to myself.

Is CME's UF8 Pedal inputs assignable? I would like to change the volume pedal input to a different cc number so I can use VELXF with it. Have you tried Studiologics action and compared CME's UF8 with any of them? Is the weight of the keys harder or softer than a real piano? Thanks. I tried the UF8 but I had to stand to use it and it seemed a bit hard to play...maybe I was in a bad position.

Looking in the UF8 manual, I see that you can assign the volume pedal input to another cc number which is cool. I browsed in the CME forum though and found some rather big problems.

1. You can't reach 0-127 in any of the velocity curves. The most dynamic one (setting 1) doesn't let you reach 127 no matter how hard you hit it basically where as the curve 2 only lets you hit above softer playing so you can't get proper dynamics...

2. The mechanism that CME is using to create their hammer-weighted action relies on a sealed gear. This gear has a drop of oil in it that comes to rest when the keyboard is not played. The initial throw of a key will be stiff, then... when the gear is properly lubricated again, the key moves as it was intended. *note* this doesn't sound very good...

3. The standard procedure for using the UF8 is to run some glisses (raking the back of your nails causing every key to drop and return) up and down the keyboard before performance or recording. *note* this sounds strange to have to "warm" up the keyboard before playing....

I also hear that the keys are "stiff"

4. If the gear is not lubricated, the key will not fall easily, and therefore your playing will be out of time (late).

Then a user asks: Do you think this is something that can be worse or better depending on the keyboard, or how long it has been owned , how hard it has been played etc?

Forum Moderator responses:
I'm not sure if it improves over time, but I have a suspicion it does. . I have been playing my UF8 for about 4 months or so. The region around middle C, which gets the most abuse, does seem to fall into playability faster than keys that rarely get hit. Which is why it is recommended that you gliss up and down the keyboard a few times before recording.

UF8 owners, am I wrong on any of this? Since this is from CME's forum I doubt it and thus I probably have to turn down the idea of getting one. Otherwise, it looks great.

A new keyboard is coming by CME....looks promising. It's called the VX8 and it has motorized faders, a ribbon controller(!), and "GRADED" Hammer Action plus lots more but those are my highlights. Let's hope this one is great! What do you think of it? Link:http://cme-pro.com/products-list/product-vx.html

I bought myself an UF8 just a month ago and I have so far not encountered any of the problems described. Personally I like the action way better than my old Studiologic 880 Pro which I had earlier. That one had serious problems in the electronics department and I never really liked the action of it. I feel my playing is much more ON time with the UF8 go figure... Maybe you have to be careful to check the build quality of the item you get, but mine has been a pleasant experience.

Also, when checking a product forum you have to expect mostly problems. Check the Steinberg, NI, Cakewalk or whatever forums and you'll find mostly complaints even though the product in question for the most part works perfect.

That said, the features of the VX8 sounds great!

/Mattias[/code]

Mattias, have you noticed a bit of "resistance" for a key to go down at first and then playing it for a bit, it goes away? How is the expression? Can you play soft parts and then play fast stuff like using a piano sound?

Also, I've read a bit on the Roland A-90 which sounds like a great high quality controller with nice hammer action. Anyone try this one before? Where would one find one since they don't make it anymore?

A friend of mine had an A-90. I thought that the action was a bit heavy and mushy, especially for non-pianists.

Clark