Suggestions for a good, weighted controller..possibly a CME VX8?

[Darcity]

I am interested in adding a CME VX8 to my setup. It will mainly be triggering a Muse Research Receptor. Not too interested in the display cause I will mainly be looking at my 17" MacBook Pro. Anyone use this yet? What are your thoughts?

[Mark Schmieder]

I owned the CME UF8 for almost a year and felt it had better piano action than most if not all digital pianos on the market. I was able to get very quick response on fast passages and multi-strikes, and a good graded hammer action with heavier weighting at the bottom as on a real piano.

 

The CME VX8 is said to have the exact same action, but as I have never seen one in a store to try (even the UF8 had to be ordered after I tried one at Sam Ash in L.A. on a visit), I'm afraid to run with that assumption until the NAMM show when I will get to try one in person.

 

I like having four MIDI outs as that obviates the need for a MIDI patchbay on stage. The pad triggers and motorised faders are also a bonus, along with the gazillion controller knobs and ribbon controller.

 

I had lined this up for an autumn 2006 purchase, but suffered a $5000 theft loss around the same time and had to put off everything until now, when I have recuperated part of the loss by selling less critical gear. The CME VX8 is $1000 street price!

 

Now with the announcement of the Motif XS, I may reconsider and go back to the workstation approach. But that won't have graded hammer action as synths use balanced hammer action.

 

If you're not sure which you prefer action-wise, see if you can find a store that carries both the CME UF8 or VX8 and the Yamaha S90 ES or Motif ES 8. Short of that, for graded hammer action you might try the Kawai digital pianos to see if that's more the feel you like vs. the balanced hammer action.

 

As far as controller functionality is concerned, the CME stuff probably isn't as oriented towards people who use lots of sixteen-split templates in their work. It's a bit more basic on the programmability front, putting most of its emphasis on expressive hardware control vs. the bells and whistles of a Fatar Studiologic controller with its sixteen zones, etc.

[resigned]

To my knowledge noone actually has the CME VX in stock yet. It's been a full year waiting for the VX to hit the shelves and it still hasn't happened. Better make other plans.

[Ted Rackley]

I like the Kawai MP8, we're going to have one at our booth at NAMM triggering Ivory and Akoustik Piano if anyone wants to stop by and try it out....

 

Of course, Kawai has their own booth, too, but one of you mentioned Receptor, so, come on down...

 

-Ted

 

PS If anyone is interested in a Receptor demo, I'm out in LA all this month, i can bring one by anyone's studio if you like...though I won't have the Kawaii with me, it's a little big for the rental car..