As I wrote in the previous post I’m considering to buy the Yamaha P525, mainly to get a keyboard with a better piano action. Understanding all Yamaha keyboards is a study by itself.
Presently I’m playing on a Yamaha P140 with a Graded Hammer keyboard, GH and outdated. Quit happy with that and better than most other keyboards I tried. For my daughter I bought a Yamaha CLP625 and that came back home last month. Just playing on it a bit I realized that the keyboard (GH3X) is much better than my GH, the reason I started to think about new keys.
I’m not a particular fan of the Roland keyboards, although they are not bad at all. I did try the Native Instruments S88 MK3, as it would be an advantage just to have a controller with a good piano-like keyboard. I did not find it up to now.
Kawai has the VPC1 controller, that should be good and I will try it out tomorrow. I’m curious to the Kawai keyboards anyway.
With all these keyboard players in the community I am curious to the opinion of the forum,
cheers, Joop
Before Covid, I was averaging 6 gigs a week. Multiple venues, different stages. With so much wear and tear on my equipment, I was having problems with my higher end keyboards, and repairs were always needed.
It made no sense for me to keep ruining my good stuff, at lower end gigs. I started using cheaper midi key controllers I could replace very easily. I was already using Cantabile for great sounding vsts, which was better than hauling the heavy pristeen name brands.
I only used my expensive keys at special, large gigs
Two things I realized when I made this move was:
(1 - My aging body was not going to last when using the heavier keys
(which I learned earlier hauling pianos, Hammonds, and Voice of the
Theater Speakers). I had a hip
replacement 2 yrs ago, and looking to the second replacement this
summer. I am the poster boy for not wrecking your body playing
music.
(2 My wallet can not take the hit to buy these beautiful machines,
especially when I have all the amazing sounds I need in my laptop.
I know, there are many reasons not to do it, not at least the 22 kg, but playing a nice keyboard is just feeling so much better. The sounds, I’ll see, probably I’ll stick with my vst’s.
VPC1 is a great keyboard, but it’s for piano only. No wheels, no buttons. I have one at home, It looks like you’re playing a real grand. But it’s a 30kg beast, I’d have roadies.
I will add my two cents. I currently use a SL88 Grand controller. It cost me $1000 5 years ago and i love it. The key action is very much like the yamaha acoustics i grew up on. I believe it weighs in around 60 lbs. I still carry it around in a gator gig bag. I’m 67. The thing i like is that it is compact for 88 weighed keys. The joysticks are useless to me and i use an arturia beatstep and the buttons knobs and pads on my arturia mk2 controller for controlling Cantabile.
Im not sure you can find an 88 weighed keys in something lighter.
I did consider a cheap casio back a few years that seemed like it felt really good from a weghted standpoint but the build quality was not there.
Yesterday I went out testing. I’ve tried the Yamaha P-525, and the Kawai VPC1 and MP11 SE. I did really like the keyboard of the VPC1, even better than the MP11 SE which is newer, however the weight is really prohibitive. So I decided for the Yamaha, it should arrive in a few days, so I’m really curious to start playing it. Yamaha is 22 kg.
I’ve read about the SL88, but didn’t find it in exposed.
The SL88 Grand is about 23Kg (51lb), the feel is not the same as a real grand. I don’t know about the MK2 yet.
The SL88 Studio is about 14Kg (31lb), but the keybed feel is not good imho.
I know cuz I own both.
