cjfox

There used be a chart someone did, carefully weighing the DP keys in grams. Can't find it now. My own personal experience with DPs goes as follows: Yamaha P90, OK but got rattly and loose after a few years, got a CP40 for a good deal, thought it would be a high end experience, but hated it. Very heavy action "sludgy". Sounds were good, weighed a lot. I sold it. Got a Roland FP5, action was good, a very different experience than Yamaha, but it was heavy and I didn't like the sound. I sold it. Got a Casio PSX3000, liked the action and the sound. Got scared after watching the video about the weights being different on the black keys, but I'm not a classical player so I played it a lot. The Casio tends towards the lighter end of actions. I still have have it, but am not using it live due to some reliability/build quality issues. Got a Kawai ES110. Definitely my favorite action, light but very dynamic. Limited sounds, the piano is great for solo playing, but doesn't cut well in an ensemble setting. Recently got a Roland RD88. I got it mostly because I was needing a weighted board with a good piano sound and lots of other sounds. So far I am very happy with the RD88, the action is heavier than the Kawai lighter than the CP40, but nice and solid without being sludgy or tiring. The sound is great, the live recordings I have done confirm that the piano sound is the sound I want be presenting. I play at a blues jam every week where I play the house Yamaha baby grand, so I think I have an idea about an acoustic piano in an ensemble setting. I guess the bottom line, is that action and piano choice are a very individual thing. My 2 cents.

I've never had lasting success cleaning the contacts, replacing the rubber strip of contacts was the way to go for with a couple of Roland pianos I had. The dynamic response was off on a lot the keys, not when releasing the keys, but your problem sounds similar. Unfortunately Roland will no longer sell replacement parts to an individual, you now have to go through an "authorized dealer" so if you are in major metropolitan area, you might be OK finding the contact strips.

I got a couple of speaker covers made by this guy: www.zeuscovers.ca Very reasonable pricing, great products. He's Canadian, so even less if you're pricing in USD..

If you are using Ernie Ball pedals, the 25k pot works better for keyboards (higher level output) that the 500k for passive instruments.

I like the low impedance Ernie ball stereo pedals. They can be used as traditional analog volume control, or can be used as an expression pedal with a breakout cable. Eve though the pot is 25k vs 10k in a traditional expression pedal, the difference is negligable for my use. They are solid and don't move around on the floor. My other favorite is the Boss FV 500L. Also solid metal, and can be used either as a stereo volume or expression. The expression pot is 10k if that is a necessity.

I tested all the possibilities of noise, swapping cables, different input devices, and compared it to the other QSC K8.2. It was bad. Like if you hold a cell phone up to a poorly shielded audio device.

I bought 2 K8.2s after all the great comments here and other places, I had the cutting out issue with one of the speakers right away, luckily under warrantee and they fixed it, although it took a while.. I discovered another weird problem with my second speaker, only from the "mix output" "XLR C". A strange digital noise, quite loud, that does not come out through the main speaker. I was using the two inputs for my keyboards and sending the FOH send from the XLR out on the back of the K8.2. The soundman was very confused at first. Now I have the first speaker back, and waiting for the second to come back. The guys at the music store think I'm the unluckiest guy ever, to buy and send two QSC products back.

I can't find it now, but there was a trick posted to the Korg forums about using the Kronos leslie effect in IFX 1, IE two leslie sims in series. It sounds counterintuative, but it works pretty good for spicing up the CX3 organ without a vent. That being said, I have a Mojo and a Nord Electro 3, and they both have better Hammond sims than the Kronos CX3. Like everyone else said, it depends on how much you need the "Hammond" sound. If it's only a couple of organ pads for some songs, OK, but if you need a lot of Hammond get a different clone.

I'm surprised no one has brought up the Roli Seaboard, has Poly AT and release velocity. I have one, but I'm still learning how to utilize all the available midi functions.

You guys are a bad influence once again. I bought a pair of QSC K8.2s. As stated here, they sound great, although I have yet to gig with them, Things are opening up slowly here. My question is what DSP setting do forumites like for keys? I have been using "Live" but the default was good.

I have the all black model, part of what sold me! I haven't heard of a newer model coming out, I don't have an integra, but the sounds overall are very good. EPs, synthy stuff is very good and lots of them. Acoustic piano is ok, but the keyboard is a bit light and too short for AP stuff. Organ is ok for occasional pads, but not compared to clones like a Nord or Mojo ( I have both). I had it in a 2nd tier set up for a while, I thought the keybed was your average springy synth type stuff, but keybed action is always a very subjective, and you would have to try it yourself. You can play back WAV files from the USB stick in the back, and you can use the built in blue tooth to connect to an ipad, so there's a lot of connectivity going for it. If you can get one for a good price go for it!

I bought one new in the 80s, with the PG800. Great pads and strings, osc sync was great for solos, and I really liked the keyboard action. I don't regret selling it, though, my Kronos fills my synth desires these days.

No one's asked how big the boat is. I did a cruise on a friend's boat and brought a Casio PX S3000. Lightweight, batteries, speakers, and I could bring it ashore for impromtu jams at the pubs along the way. Do you need weighted keys? Can you store it on the boat easily?

There's a Kustom 88 piano on craigslist now in my city. https://victoria.craigslist.org/msg/d/northern-manitoba-kustom-88-keyboard/7320291262.html

I have never bought from Reverb, I find the prices too high compared to local craigslist or other local used sites. I have noticed on local sites however that as soon as soon someone posts something with an outrageous price, others pop out of the woodwork "I've got one of those, it must be worth..." Grandma's magic finger organ for $1000.