Jump to content

CyberGene

Member
  • Posts

    1,531
  • Joined

Posts posted by CyberGene

  1. I"ve never been impressed with Nord Piano, Nord Stage and Nord Electro HP when used with piano samples. Something is severely lacking in terms of touch to sound connection and changing velocity curves doesn"t help. I"m not sure the guys are really into acoustic pianos and know how to recreate one well, which has not been their goal anyway. And I doubt with using a regular Kawai digital piano action they would suddenly improve upon that considerably. That being said, I appreciate the appeal of their instruments as gigging boards for live music since their immediacy and ease of use is unparalleled so far.
  2. I"ve been researching the YC61 and found the following video that has awesome sounds unlike any other demo I"ve seen. Maybe it"s a creative use of the effects along with the FM-organ synth (it"s like an additive stuff as far as I understand) but it shows how advanced and lush this board can be. It would also apply to YC88.

     

     

    You may need to scroll a bit to find the more esoteric sounds but even the basic piano and Rhodes demos are good.

  3. Cybergene, My ES920 is pretty portable with the new plastic casing and RHIII (version2) keybed. If they put that in a MP7SE successor and make it really light to cary around , it's a winner IMHO. The key action is pretty light to play and ver responsive. Some people complain about bouncing keys and key noise . But to be honest - it doesn't bother me when you are actually playing the thing (either with speakers or good headphones). It may be a distraction for people in the room when you play with headphones, but which key action isn't. Only the GFII / III is very quiet and perhaps the Hybrid Grand action in the current Roland LX series. In other words - a lightweight action / case design doesn't have to end with a stiff and heavy to play keybed. You can actually have a very portable piano with very good action these days if it all fits together..., but the Tp100 was not.

     

    I owned a MP6 and it was excellent stage piano although not lightweight. I still have my old ES7 (not in my house though) and I love its light and nimble action for non-classical work. However I still think RH-equipped Kawai pianos are rather heavy as total weight. The ES920 is listed as 17kg. I'm after 11kg boards. Wondering how the Medeli actions such as in the Kurzweil PC4 compare to the rest in terms of feel.

  4. I haven't been able to try it yet (there's lack of stock even here in Italy) but a guy in another forum I'm on bought it and said the keys felt much better. The keys are still on the heavier side though, but more "fluent" than the TP100.

     

    I'm wondering if it is inevitable for such a lightweight action (in terms of total weight) to have heavy feeling keys. I mean if it comes from the design. Because the TP100 family of actions seems to be used in keyboards that are not explicitly targeted at hardcore acoustic piano aficionados but are mostly used in multi-purpose keyboards with pianos, Rhodes, organ and synths (Nord Electro for example) and most player would agree that a hammer-action with as light feeling keys as possible is desirable.

  5. but I sort of hated the TP100 , especially because it was exhausting to play and the keys had a sort of 'push up' against your fingers. Was if it was pushing back.

     

    Exactly what I've described a few posts earlier, which I described as "high back-pressure pushing against my fingers all the time". I'm not a native English speaker but it's apparent we describe exactly the same issue. If TP110 is at least a partial improvement upon that, then I will be interested in a Numa X 73/88.

  6. My main consideration is double-light, meaning a lightweight board with very light feeling (but still hammer) action.

     

    This is why I continue to often gig with an old Casio 88. The ones that pre-date the PX-130/PX-330 which introduced the triple sensor but became more sluggish feeling. The later ones got better than those, but still never as good as the earlier ones, IMO.

     

    I used to have a Casio CDP-100 (if I'm not mistaken about the exact model) which at the time was not only the cheapest possible digital piano with hammer action but also the lightest one (as total board weight). And yes, I remember having it for a while together with my RD-700SX (whose action IMO had the perfect weighted feel for all type of sounds between pianos, Rhodes and synths but the entire board was ridiculously heavy) and the action in that cheap Casio was not very different feeling than the Roland. The sounds were total cr*p though but they worked for non-pretentious gigs and later on I switched to VST-s.

  7. I"ve never tried a Kurzweil (Medeli sourced) action but they sound like another alternative for creating a very lightweight board. GHS and PHA-4S are also worth mentioning. In the last few weeks I"ve been considering Numa X Piano 73, RD88, CP73 and PC4 but I"ve only tried the CP73 (and liked it), others are not available for testing where I live. My main consideration is double-light, meaning a lightweight board with very light feeling (but still hammer) action. I"ll wait for more reviews of the Numa.
  8. I had a SL73 with the TP100 action and that action was so heavy to play I couldn't get used to it and sold it. It was heavy, sluggish and with a very high back-pressure pushing against my fingers all the time. It was very difficult to play piano and Rhodes stuff on it. The keys felt much heavier and sluggish compared to the grand piano action in my N1X for example and that action isn't known to be very light either.

     

    I almost ordered the Numa Piano X 73 a few weeks ago but I was worried the TP110 wouldn't be an improvement, so I put the order on hold. I'd be interested if there has been any improvement though. I asked Studiologic on their Facebook page but they didn't answer and I'm not sure whether they don't want to answer (because nothing changed in terms of weight distribution) or just don't bother replying on Facebook, although they seem to reply to other people.

  9. Rhodes was killed by the DX7 that didn"t sound like a Rhodes at all. And now we have excellent digital keyboards that are compact, light and affordable and recreate the real Rhodes sound perfectly. What are these guys thinking with this new Rhodes? Who would buy it besides a few die-hard Rhodes aficionados with deep pockets.
  10. Around 19:36 into the Explorer video, Daniel Fisher uses the octave up button.

     

    His right hand solo jumps up an octave. The note he's holding with his left hand, however doesn't seem to change octaves. I don't think the Explorer has keyboard splits so I guess it's just clever patch programming.

    The octave buttons don"t affect the notes that have been held prior to pressing the buttons. That"s how it works on most synths.

  11. Call me greedy but I can hardly remember when I last played a chord with less than 6 notes 𤣠I"m so much used to the Herbie Hancock style m7/9/11 such as:

    A E B C G D

     

    And I often even play another A and B in the right hand, between the G and D, to fully thicken it on my Hydrasynth.

     

    5-note polyphony totally breaks the deal for me. Why not Take-6 or even better Take 8 ð

  12. I'm wondering, those guys that complain about "suitable for funk", what music do they play on a purely analog synth then? There are way too many (around 1 million and 1 billion) demos on YouTube that will demonstrate filter opening and closing with resonance on an oscilloscope and call it a day.
  13. The demos sound great and the price is unbelievable. What"s the catch? Why is this cheaper than the Prophet 5? BTW I thought it was made in China in order to be cheap but on a picture from Thomann it says 'assembled in USA'.
  14. I"ve also watched some of Herbie Hancock recent videos where he plays the Kronos. IMHO it sounds rather cheesy and tasteless. Well, who am I to criticize Herbie Hancock, but he"s been my favorite jazz pianist for all my life (along with Chick Corea) and I think I know what a terrific Herbie is. Well, not this one. It"s a no match for his young years when he had multiple real synths, keyboards and effects on stage. I"ve read somewhere on this board that workstations mostly appeal to older folks and as humorous it is, it seems to be true even for the big legends :(
  15. I don't see the problem with Behringer making clones. There is no OB-XA currently being produced (OB-6 is similar but not the same), the license has long ago expired and used OB-XA-s are way too expensive and rare. What's wrong with producing them again and making them affordable?

     

    Behringer are also in the process of creating a replica of CS-80 going to such lengths as reverse engineering chips that are no more produced and have no technical sheets. When you take in mind the CS-80 was so prohibitively expensive that only a few could afford them and Yamaha apparently aren't interested in reissuing it, then what Behringer does is actually pretty awesome. Those were instruments that most people could only dream of. Now everybody can have one of these for a great price and all that is legal. Not ethical? Define ethical.

×
×
  • Create New...