Reviving this old thread. Anything new on the scene of light-weight, hammer-action 88s since July of last year? Still use my PXs1000 for gigging but man it’s a noisy keybed.
There is a new thing: M-audio Oxygen Pro 88. I didn’t test it but YouTube guys found it interesting. Cheaper than Native or Arturia. Then I should like to test new Studiologic Numa Piano X. New wooden keys from Fatar, but it’s a digital piano, not a controller.
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I just bought a Roland A88 pro and love it. I’ve always been a fan of the Roland actions though.
I’ve never enjoyed anything with a Fatar keybed tbh, find the response very ‘lumpy’. To qualify that, I’ve never played the top end one (can’t remember the model number) that’s in the SL Grand for example.
Cheers
P
This one should be noted here:
64keys with Ivory Feel-G with Escapement
12.8 kg
28 lbs. 4 oz.
regards
I own an A-88, Love it, but heavier than I want to lug around
Unfortunately, I think if you want it much lighter than that, you’re going to have to compromise on the action, the clue is in the ‘weighted’ moniker… 
P
I’ve actually been questioning myself lately about why I even need a hammer action 88-key board for live gigging in a band situation (solo gigging jazz standards is different). For just about any pop, blues, rock, soul tune, I use a limited portion of those 88 keys- hardly ever the bottom octave or top octave. A good semi-weighted 61 key (my Novation Impulse) combined with my Roland A-49 on top may be just the ticket.
Really depends on how much your main instruments are piano-type ones (piano, Wurlie, Rhodes) vs. others. 95% of my setups have either a grand piano, upright, Rhodes or Wurlie on the lower keyboard, with just very few dual-manual organ patches in-between.
I’ve never been able to get comfortable with playing piano sounds on a synth-type “semi-weighted” keyboard like the Novation Impulse, so even though I don’t use the whole width of the keyboard, I still love having the feel of a true piano keybed on-stage, even if that means having to shlep my Kurzweil to gigs. Maybe a 73-key masterkeyboard like the Studiologic SL73 could be a good alternative - will see once the need to replace one of my keyboards comes up.
Another comment on the 61 key Novation: I’ve had a 61 key controller on my production desk for some time - I have to say that I never really got comfortable with the key range for piano-style playing. I always missed a couple of notes either at the top or the bottom…
Cheers,
Torsten
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SL73 on Ebay for $399. Hmmmm…
Depending on where you are, I’ve got 2 to get shot of…
P
I have both the SL Grand and the SL Studio, there is a huge difference in the feeling.
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But there is a huge difference in weight between SL Grand and Studio. I got an SL73 Studio and use it regularly when playing live. I think it is a very good compromise considering quality, price and portability.
I wouldn’t buy SL Grand because I was told that new Fatar keybed used in Numa X PianoGT is really good. I want to test it personally
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I have both the Grand and the Studio, too. I prefer the Grand, my back no! 
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Check out the Roland RD88. It has 88 weighted keys and only weights 25 pounds. It also has a built in audio interface so you can run one USB cable from the keyboard to the computer that transmits midi and sends the audio data. The RD88 has buit in speakers…they aren’t quite loud enough for monitoring in live performances but are good for playing at home.
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well I sprang for a used Studiologic Sl73 and love it. It’s got all the keys I need for band and even most solo jazz piano tunes. The key response felt a bit sluggish at first but I realized I just need to play it a little to get used to it. Set it up with my Roland A49 at band practice yesterday. The 73 handles acoustic and EP parts and even some clav work, while the 49 covers organ and synth parts. Definitely a smaller footprint and slightly lighter than the Casio PXs1000 I was hauling around. No regrets.
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I arrived to same conclusion. Best live setup is with a “portable” SL 73 for piano parts and a 61 keys synth action for synth, strings, brass and solos.
For the 61 I chose Native Instruments S 61 mkII but I bought used an M-audio Oxygen Pro and it’s very good too.
I will not change this setup. I don’t see any weak point.
I was trying out a Yamaha S80, but that’s a hefty 55 lbs (25Kg), and a Roland RD-700 was the same. I opted for the Juno-DS88, at thirty pounds (13.6Kg), much better, but I don’t gig a lot. I will say, I opted for new gear, because my old gear was starting to fail, and keyboards have a limited life. I used to buy a lot of used items, but I’ve had enough fail to avoid that for anything serious. I’m not quite to the point of going all VSTi in the box, but someday…
Do it as soon as you can. VST nowadays are much better than any hardware keyboard
At the risk of hijacking the thread… I definitely felt that way for a while, but after too many hours chasing buggy drivers, latency and software updates, I’m seriously considering giving up on the VSTs aside from isolated one-offs and going back to hardware for all the major day-to-day use.
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Sorry to be direct.
Buggy divers? Change audio board.
Latency? Check computer.
Software updates? Change OS
Here everyone decided that software setup can be managed successfully.