Semi-weighted 88 key MIDI controller

[Tom Williams]

My 10+ year old M-Audio controller is dying, so I am looking for a replacement / upgrade.   Must-have features are 88 keys and semi-weighted action, as  hammers wear out my scrawny arms too quickly nowadays.  Extra points for low (sub-$500) price, multiple pedal inputs, faders, and well-placed mod and bend wheels.

 

The controller's job would be for live performance, feeding MIDI into a Kurzweil PC4.

 

The current front runner based on specs and a couple of reviews is the Nektar Impact GXP88.  It lacks faders, but has aftertouch (!), as well as taking two switch and one CC pedal.  I also like the mod and bend wheels to the left of the keys. 

 

Arturia keylab looks pretty good too, with enough faders to control an organ, but pedal inputs seem to be lacking.

 

Any endorsements?  Warnings?

[drawback]

HammondDave raves over his new Novation. 

 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

Arturia, and now Novation with the faders on the right.  Tsk, tsk. But if it has a “premium” semiweight action, one might forgive.   If you get your hands on it, please let us know what you think.  

[HammondDave]

I am telling you cats, for a sub $400 instrument, the action on the new Launchkey88 is awesome!  

[bill5]

  

On 8/1/2022 at 11:01 PM, Tom Williams said:

The current front runner based on specs and a couple of reviews is the Nektar Impact GXP88.  It lacks faders, but has aftertouch (!), as well as taking two switch and one CC pedal. 

The LX88+ has nine faders, but no aftertouch FWIW, same price.

[Reezekeys]

11 hours ago, bill5 said:

The LX88+ has nine faders, but no aftertouch FWIW, same price

 

And no expression pedal input. Pick your "poison", I guess.

[HammondDave]

1 hour ago, Reezekeys said:

 

And no expression pedal input. Pick your "poison", I guess.

Same for the LaunchKey 88. Nine faders and no expression pedal.  Personally, I would go this route and use a volume pedal instead. 

[Reezekeys]

Exactly, that was my point. These companies make sure to leave that one thing out so you have to spend a few extra hundred dollars to get it - be it the expr. pedal input, faders, aftertouch. I wonder how much any of those features actually costs them to add. That's business of course.

 

Of course a volume pedal doesn't work if you need to use your foot to send midi data.

[drawback]

On 8/1/2022 at 8:01 PM, Tom Williams said:

The current front runner based on specs and a couple of reviews is the Nektar Impact GXP88.  It lacks faders, but has aftertouch (!), as well as taking two switch and one CC pedal.  I also like the mod and bend wheels to the left of the keys. 

The only caveat for me would be in the manufacture quality. I returned an LX88 that came with a warped keyboard that crested like a wave at middle C. I think some of the lightweight materials used in these l boards are to blame. I’d rather pay a premium for a more substantial semi-weighted action.

 

I’d be interested in hearing if the GX is an improvement over the LX.

[Stokely]

I've actually got my eye on the Studiologic Numa compact 2x....not sure if that counts as "semi-weighted", I reckon (and hope) it's the same Fatar action from the sledge and my Kurzweil pc361.  I find that synth action "beefy" enough to work for just about everything including piano.   Studiologic calls the action "semi-weighted" so I'm not positive on what it is.

I honestly wish it was 73 or 76 though.  It's more money, but it also has its own sounds and a built-in audio interface if those are useful features.

The launchkey 88 does look very nice, I hadn't noticed it because I was focused on 61 key controllers other than the Studiologic, and had restricted my search to ones with aftertouch.  For piano-centric controllers though I wouldn't need that.

[HammondDave]

4 minutes ago, Stokely said:

I've actually got my eye on the Studiologic Numa compact 2x....not sure if that counts as "semi-weighted", I reckon (and hope) it's the same Fatar action from the sledge and my Kurzweil pc361.  I find that synth action "beefy" enough to work for just about everything including piano.

I honestly wish it was 73 or 76 though.  It's more money, but it also has its own sounds and a built-in audio interface if those are useful features.

The launchkey 88 does look very nice, I hadn't noticed it because I was focused on 61 key controllers other than the Studiologic.

I am very pleased with the Launchkey 88. I originally purchased it for an emergency backup that I could keep in my car, but am now also using it in my studio, and for smaller gigs and rehearsals.  All I have to bring is this 18lb keyboard, my stand, volume pedal, and my IPad. 

[stoken6]

3 hours ago, Stokely said:

I honestly wish it was 73 or 76 though.

That view is a perennial favourite, and one I subscribe to as well.

 

Cheers, Mike

[HammondDave]

20 minutes ago, stoken6 said:

That view is a perennial favourite, and one I subscribe to as well.

 

Cheers, Mike

I find the 88 quite useful for splits. Especially at that weight. 

[Tom Williams]

At the moment, it looks like I will pull the trigger next week for the Nektar GXP88.  I'll get it from the candy folks, so that if I hate it I can return it with minimal fuss.  Since I will be using it as a secondary controller on a Kurzweil PC4, I care less about the faders and more about the immediate playability I hope to gain from the aftertouch.  It's been years since I had two aftertouch keyboards in a stack, and I miss it.

 

Extra brownie points: mod wheels to the left of Low A instead of above it; an assignable potentiometer; and support for two switch pedals plus a continuous pedal.  Some 88 controllers support a damper pedal, period.  Unconscionable, at least for a live performer.

 

Biggest pre-purchase downer for me is that no one seems to make a gig bag that would fit a board that long + that shallow.  I plan (at least initially) to use the shipping box as a case.

[HammondDave]

1 hour ago, Tom Williams said:

At the moment, it looks like I will pull the trigger next week for the Nektar GXP88.  I'll get it from the candy folks, so that if I hate it I can return it with minimal fuss.  Since I will be using it as a secondary controller on a Kurzweil PC4, I care less about the faders and more about the immediate playability I hope to gain from the aftertouch.  It's been years since I had two aftertouch keyboards in a stack, and I miss it.

 

Extra brownie points: mod wheels to the left of Low A instead of above it; an assignable potentiometer; and support for two switch pedals plus a continuous pedal.  Some 88 controllers support a damper pedal, period.  Unconscionable, at least for a live performer.

 

Biggest pre-purchase downer for me is that no one seems to make a gig bag that would fit a board that long + that shallow.  I plan (at least initially) to use the shipping box as a case.

If your keyboard is less than 51” long, Check out the Gater 73 slim.  Both my Numa Piano X 88 and LaunchKey 88 fit perfectly in that case. 

[D. Gauss]

numa compact 2x works and you get sounds.

[Tom Williams]

18 minutes ago, D. Gauss said:

numa compact 2x works and you get sounds.

Thanks!  I had forgotten about the Numa. That's a winner, I agree.  But in this particular case, for compact gigging, the Nektar is already an upgrade, costing less than half the already very affordable Numa. 

[John H Carter]

I have both the GXP88 and Numa Compact 2x - the former is fine, but I find it tiring to play over a rehearsal or gig. The latter is good, but the mod and pitch "wheels" aren't so good for performance.

John

[Tom Williams]

19 minutes ago, John H Carter said:

I have both the GXP88 and Numa Compact 2x - the former is fine, but I find it tiring to play over a rehearsal or gig. The latter is good, but the mod and pitch "wheels" aren't so good for performance.

John

I have wimpy forearms, so "tiring" is important to me.  Can you elaborate a bit on that?  Is it due to the funny angle of the black keys, or due to the spring resistance overall?  My plan is to use the GXP88 primarily for EP and AP parts, although I'm also hoping that the aftertouch will facilitate some guitar and synth action as well.

[b3plyr]

11 hours ago, HammondDave said:

If your keyboard is less than 51” long, Check out the Gater 73 slim.  Both my Numa Piano X 88 and LaunchKey 88 fit perfectly in that case. 

Good suggestion - believe it should be Gater 76 slim. Dave - I took your suggestion for the Numa X.

[John H Carter]

5 hours ago, Tom Williams said:

I have wimpy forearms, so "tiring" is important to me.  Can you elaborate a bit on that?  Is it due to the funny angle of the black keys, or due to the spring resistance overall?  My plan is to use the GXP88 primarily for EP and AP parts, although I'm also hoping that the aftertouch will facilitate some guitar and synth action as well.

Problem is quite a shallow and very synthy key action, lighter action than most of my synths. BTW the aftertouch works really well on the 2x.

[brenner13]

I 2nd the excellent aftertouch on Numa Compact 2X, but as OP said, a bit more costly than desired.

[D. Gauss]

1 hour ago, brenner13 said:

I 2nd the excellent aftertouch on Numa Compact 2X, but as OP said, a bit more costly than desired.

check banjo center used section.  i got mine for under 400 bucks delivered.

[Tom Williams]

Pulled the trigger on the Nektar.  So far, not too bad, though the action is very light.  Buttons for selecting patches are pretty nifty, as is color coding.  I'll report later on the limitations of using buttons to send controller signals; the manual implies that the feature is quite primitive / limited. 

[Tom Williams]

So the Nektar controller has 14+ buttons available to send patch, bank, and CC MIDI signals. Cool beans, right?

Welll, let's go with tepid beans.

Buttons can send combined bank + patch in one fell swoop, and that works great. 

But the CC capability is laughable: press the button, it sends a value of 127 for the programmed controller number.

Release the button, and it sends 0.

A two-press toggle would have more value; heck, a one-value-only per button would have more value.

Fortunately for me, my Kurzweil can run that through a flip-flop function, so I still have some use for it, but for most live applications, the buttons will only be good for patch selection.

[miden]

Can't you modify the button from momentary to latch and vice versa?

[Tom Williams]

25 minutes ago, miden said:

Can't you modify the button from momentary to latch and vice versa?

As far as I can tell, no.  That would have been a very welcome feature.  Indeed, missing that, the button-to-CC feature evaluates to nearly useless out of the box.

 

Two positives on that point:

1. many years ago I programmed some buttons on my Alesis Fusion to raise or lower the pitch by a half or whole step while the button was pressed.  This was useful for trills and especially for guitar voices slurring up one fret without re-picking the note. 
2. As mentioned before though, my Kurzweil's architecture allows putting controls through various mathematical and logical manipulations, including a flip-flop function that goes on when a control goes from 0 to 127, then goes off on the next iteration of 0-127, letting me simulate a latch in the sound engine.  (A Downside of both #1 and #2 is that it means I must customize programs for the controller, instead of using it to access existing programs, if I want to use these other button controls.)

[miden]

That's a shame..I would have thought that that function on a controller would be default. As you say, not having it sorta makes them "one-trick ponies" hey!

[bill5]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:03 PM, Stokely said:

I've actually got my eye on the Studiologic Numa compact 2x....not sure if that counts as "semi-weighted", I reckon (and hope) it's the same Fatar action from the sledge and my Kurzweil pc361.  I find that synth action "beefy" enough to work for just about everything including piano.   Studiologic calls the action "semi-weighted" so I'm not positive on what it is.

I honestly wish it was 73 or 76 though.  It's more money, but it also has its own sounds and a built-in audio interface if those are useful features.
 

? The Numa does not have a built-in audio interface FYI. That would be a convenient feature, although I question how good the quality would be.

[AnotherScott]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:03 PM, Stokely said:

I've actually got my eye on the Studiologic Numa compact 2x....not sure if that counts as "semi-weighted", I reckon (and hope) it's the same Fatar action from the sledge and my Kurzweil pc361.  I find that synth action "beefy" enough to work for just about everything including piano.   Studiologic calls the action "semi-weighted" so I'm not positive on what it is.

Sledge and PC361 use TP/9S with diving board shaped keys. Fatar offers the TP/9S (S for Synth) both with and without weights (i.e. semi-weighted and unweighted). Sledge uses the unweighted version, I don't remember about the PC361. The Numa Compacts use the TP/9P (P for Piano) where the keys are piano shaped (solid sides and front with lip), and semi-weighted.

 

13 hours ago, bill5 said:

? The Numa does not have a built-in audio interface FYI. That would be a convenient feature

Yes, it does have audio interface, its USB connection sends and receives audio (as well as MIDI, of course). You can (for example) connect an iPad via USB, control it from the Numa's keys/sliders/etc., and have the sound of the iPad come back over the same USB connection to be heard over the Numa's speakers and/or sent out over the Numa's 1/4" audio outputs along with the Numa's own sounds.