Your thoughts about the Studiologic SL73?

[LeesKeys]

On the off chance that any members have played a Studiologic SL73, I would appreciate your comments about the keybed. I've read everything from "love how it plays" to "returned the keyboard because the action was so stiff". I'm thinking about downsizing my Casio Pxs1000 to a smaller keyboard (ok, I know the SL73 weighs a little more). I own a Roland A88 which has a stiffer action that my Casio. It has gradually become slightly easier over time. So frustrating as a keyboard player not to be able to find a large selection of keyboards in storefronts, even larger stores in my area.

[aellison62]

I owned an SL88 studio and returned it because the TP100LR action was too sluggish and stiff. I assume the SL73 is the same? Not sure. I know the Studiologic Grand 88 controller has TP40L which is MUCH better action. I just don't like the panel controls on the studiologic controllers

 

[Amaryllis]

i also have the SL88 Studio, and i also had the same issue with the action: the heaviness can be improved a little by changing the curves, but it still feels slow and difficult to play, and much worse than (say) the Yamaha P-125.  i believe the 73 and 88 Studio are just different sizes of the same action.  if that's true, i definitely wouldn't recommend it; but there are people who really like it, so it might work for you...

 

i also wasn't particularly taken with the joystick controllers on the SL line.  the short travel range and the way the two axes are connected made it awkward to adjust things on the fly.

 

i'm surprised we haven't heard anything about a refresh of these with the new TP/110 and TP/400 actions from the Numa x Piano range.  the TP/110 in particular is supposed to be a lot better than the TP/100, based on a couple of reviews.

[CyberGene]

Owned a SL73. Wonderful functionality and price! It even has aftertouch. But the keys felt overly heavy and sluggish. It was so bad I preferred my synth-keyed MODX for pianos and Rhodes and was glad I sold it. I think the TP100/LR must be the worst hammer action I’ve ever tried and I’ve tried most of them. 

[drawback]

I owned an SL73 and liked everything about it except the action, as stated above along with hope for an improved keybed in the upcoming and yet to be tested TP110. 

[Art-0252]

Unfortunately I have to echo the experiences above. Had an SL88 with the same keybed as the 73 and sold it pretty quickly despite loving the price, build quality, and features. The action is just slow, clacky (I could always hear it over my studio monitors unless I was wearing headphones), and I really disliked playing it for piano or ep parts. Shame though, cause I absolutely loved the magnetic rail system that held my laptop. I wish keyboards like my CP88 had that as an attachment!

[Canoehead]

I quite like the action of my SL 73, but I certainly appear to be in the minority! 
 

Cheers,

Gord

 

[philtre71]

I've had the SL73 for about three years and absolutely love it.

 

I'm quite a 'heavy' piano player and the action is great for me. But I can see how it might not suit others.

 

Combined with mainstage (running on a laptop placed on the very handy magnetic studiologic stand) it's been brilliant.

[marino]

I recently bought an SL73. I partially agree with some of the criticisms presented here.

So why did I buy it? Simple: It has decent action *with aftertouch* in less than 12 kg, and I bought it new for less than 350 Euros.

I needed a weighted keyboard which could be easily moved between rooms, with aftertouch and zones, so I had little choice. And of course, the fact that I live in Italy has made the price a lot sweeter. Plus, the store took one of my ancient synths (SH-201) in a partial trade, so very little money actually left my wallet.

 

About the action: Yes, it's a bit slow - although I wouldn't call it sluggish. The heaviness doesn't bother me, as like philtre71, I'm a heavy-duty pianist, and I appreciate some resistance from the keys. I think I prefer this action to the Korg RH3 found on most Kronos and SV instruments.

I would like a little more of a exponential velocity response, but the only preset choice for that is rather crude for me. I haven't tried drawing custom responses yet, but I am hopeful. That's a great feature to include, especially at this price.

 

The joysticks... urgh. Assuming that in theory they could be a good idea, I don't see why they didn't include a pair of wheels as well. And their throw is too short, and since they offer absolutely no resistance (except of course for the spring-loaded ones), using them with any degree of precision is a masochistic purpose.
In short, I think that *any* other choice of controller would have been better! Wheels, sliders, rotary, you name it.

 

The programming features are fairly complete, although I don't see why you cannot set a single zone to transmit from both USB *and* one of the MIDI ports at the same time; you have to program two layered zones for that. Apart from this, I find the dotation of features quite decent.

 

As you may have guessed, I don't exactly *love* this instrument; like their VMK176 many years ago, I have bought it strictly for utility reasons. It weights less than the VMK, making it truly transportable, and it weights defitely a whole lot less than their Studio 2001, of which I still have two. In fact, it weights less than half of a 2001!

 

If the SL will do its job as workhorse in the next future, I could declare myself satisfied. (of course, always ready to swap it for something new with better action and controllers... as long as it's light and cheap...)

 

 

 

[J.F.N.]

I just received mine here about 45 minutes ago, quickly hooked it up with my iPad Air M1 and played around a little with iGrand and Pianoteq (demo still, but damn I need this!). Initial impression - I LOVE the action, and this is right out of the box and after 15-20 minutes playing only, haven't even had time to hook it up with the computer and fiddle around with velocity curves etc. In addition, it is a beautiful board, sturdy, clean design, and feels very "Modern", so far the GUI wasn't rocket science, opened an Init preset and fiddled around with the knobs and buttons until I grasped what it was about, 2 minutes, tops!

 

I plan to use this mainly for Piano/Rhodes et al, and this will be just perfect, it actually reminds me a bit of the action on a well treated Fender Rhodes. Coming from the Organ/Keyboard side, I have no background or history whatsover with acoustic Pianos at all, Rhodes, yes, lots, and I bought it for practice and travel (it's a pretty neat little board for what it brings to the table!), but I can tell it definitely will be of use here for other situations as well (obviously). The action feels like it will be exactly what I need to get some proper Piano practice.

 

On a note, I've read that some people experience the action to not bounce back fast enough, dunno, I'm no Jordan Rudess, but I tried this just becaue of reading about it, did some quick repeats on a key with both one finger and two (faster), I am honestly not able to reproduce and hence can not confirm what I read, there were no problems in this dept. at all ime.

 

For synth and ditto, at least with the curve that is loaded per default, this is probably not the ideal situation for many of us (tested some synth instruments as well just for the H, not even close to great). In my case, I have a Novation 61SL MkII with a fantastic synth action (TP/9s if I remember correct), one of the best boards for these things I have ever had my fingers on, so that part is covered here already.

 

The included momentary pedal for sustain was nothing to write home about, though I have a bunch of others and this went in the drawer right away, a little bit surprised it didn't have a switch though, but who cares really, I even think most synths have a setting for that these days...

 

Will keep you posted further down the line.

 

[J.F.N.]

All of a sudden the keyboard on my PC3 76 only feels like an incredibly nice synth action keybed...

 

 

 

[Paul Woodward]

Had the 88 (exact same board) and quite liked it, but the keys became quite sloppy and noisy.

[J.F.N.]

6 minutes ago, Paul Woodward said:

Had the 88 (exact same board) and quite liked it, but the keys became quite sloppy and noisy.

 

Hmm I hope that's not happening soon...

[Jose EB5AGV]

1 hour ago, Paul Woodward said:

Had the 88 (exact same board) and quite liked it, but the keys became quite sloppy and noisy.

 

Did you store it vertically?

[Paul Woodward]

33 minutes ago, Jose EB5AGV said:

 

Did you store it vertically?

Nope, just found notes, especially black notes, became quite noisy. Loved everything else about it.

[J.F.N.]

Still having an amazing experience here, love the action. Playing with the standard "normal" curve, works like a charm!

 

This is a great board, and for the price, dang, Epic!

 

The IK iGrand is unfortunately flawed though, having a lot of trouble with weird noise in the stand alone, not loading correctly in AUM after having saved and restarted a setup, etc. And overall the gain staging is effed.

 

Refund requested and I went with Korg Module + the Essential Pack instead. Works perfectly, sounds great!

 

One day, after the vacation, I'll definitely go with that Pianoteq and make a serious investment in it!

 

Now bedtime (about two hours too late... hehehe!!).

 

 

[Iconoclast]

I've backlined one before and while I didn't immediately fall in love with the action, it presented no problems in the gig. A couple hours and I had adjusted to it.

I think the new 73s have a different TP100 than the older ones and it's supposed to correct the strange bounce of the older TP100.

[StickMan393]

On 7/6/2024 at 7:27 AM, Iconoclast said:

I think the new 73s have a different TP100 than the older ones and it's supposed to correct the strange bounce of the older TP100.

 

As i understand it, the SL's still have TP100, only the Numa X has the TP110. Unless that has changed VERY recently

[LarsHarner]

Hello, in agreement with the posts above- I tried out the Arturia MKII88 which uses a similar if not the same action and found it a little on the sluggish side , and similar to my P125 which am selling to a friend (as I will either borrow someones keyboard at a songwriting event or take my CK61).

 

I purchased a SL88 Grand recently and am loving it so far. To me, its on par with the RHIII in my ES8. 

[J.F.N.]

1 hour ago, LarsHarner said:

Hello, in agreement with the posts above- I tried out the Arturia MKII88 which uses a similar if not the same action and found it a little on the sluggish side , and similar to my P125 which am selling to a friend (as I will either borrow someones keyboard at a songwriting event or take my CK61).

 

I purchased a SL88 Grand recently and am loving it so far. To me, its on par with the RHIII in my ES8. 

 

The SL88 Grand as far as I have been able to dig up should be using the same action as the Studio version, but instead with wooden keys.

 

EDIT: Specs say TP/40 Wood so above mention is not 100%, unless TP/40 Wood has the same mechanics as the TP/100LR which I would find strange....

 

After further research it seems the TP/40 action is a lighter Hammer Action, supposedly Fatar's lightest HA, while (evidently) TP/100 is on the heavier side.

[AnotherScott]

TP/40 is available in numerous weight variations... light, medium, heavy, graded, and then also there's the wood variant.

TP/100 is entirely different, it is a lower cost action that physically weighs less (so you find it in lighter weight boards), though it is not very light feeling to play.

[Iconoclast]

I wouldn't call the SL88s TP40W the lightest action. I have owned the Nord Stage 3 and Kurz forte, all of which used TP40, and IMHO the SL88 grand has a slightly heavier action than the other two.

At one point I had all three, and despite all having the same action, there were noticeable differences between the three.

[AnotherScott]

3 hours ago, Iconoclast said:

I wouldn't call the SL88s TP40W the lightest action. I have owned the Nord Stage 3 and Kurz forte, all of which used TP40, and IMHO the SL88 grand has a slightly heavier action than the other two.

At one point I had all three, and despite all having the same action, there were noticeable differences between the three.

 

because they are not the same action. Forte is TP40L (light weighting), I believe NS3 is TP40M (medium weighting), SL88 Grand is TP40WOOD which has a graded action (unlike all the others mentioned).

[J.F.N.]

Regarding the TP/100LR I would assume they have updated something in that keybed since the beginning of it, I read so many bad reviews of that bed and I definitely feel this to be out of proportion to it.

 

In saying that, I'm a big viking with huge hands and fingers, never been known for having light hands, this may be in play (no pun intended) as well.

[J.F.N.]

This board has turned my world completely upside down, I am truly happy for the action, and in addition it has made my PC3 feel more like a synth, which it obviously is, with really great keys and action, now testing changing the PC3 curve from Hard3 to PianoTouch, so far this feels even better, more responsive, even when playing non Piano style sounds...