From eslawson@comcast.net Wed Feb 19 09:29:58 2003
Subject:Re: midi controllers with waterfall keys?

Bruce,

I've had the opportunity to play an Electro 73 side-by-side with a new
CX-3 (I have not played an Electro 61) and I'm 99% sure that they are
DIFFERENT actions. Perhaps they are both supplied by Fatar, but the
actions are quite different. I would presume that the Clavia 73 and
Korg 61 are not the same keyboard. Let's forget all about the double-
trigger phenomenon and just compare the two keyboards, side-by-side,
with both instruments turned off. This is based on my recollection
from several months ago, so additional experimentation could produce
variances. I did play the CX-3 for a long time and have very good
recall of what the keyboard action felt like.

The CX-3 action is very light and takes barely any effort/weight to
depress a key (I'm guessing that a small stack of pennies would hold it
down). The Electro, on the other hand, has quite a bit of resistance
(I'm guessing it may take a whole roll of pennies to hold it down).
Also, when doing palm smears/wipes up and down the white keys of the
Korg, there is a noticable "play" in the keys in that they flex/move
from side-to-side fairly noticeably. The Electro's barely move. On
the black keys, doing smears/wipes on the CX-3 seems to produce a
higher degree of "wiggle" than the white keys and the Electro keys are
again very rigid and not wanting to flex much at all.

If I remember correctly, the CX-3 keys bottom-out at a fairly shallow
point and do not accept any additional push below the bottom-out
point. The Electro keys depress lower and actually have a slight
amount of "give" at their bottom-out point, almost as if there is
aftertouch there (not saying this is necessarily a good thing, just
different).

In terms of the mechanical noise created when playing the keyboard
actions, the CX-3 seemed a bit "clackety" to me, for lack of a better
term. I heard a fair amount of racket during percussive playing
(really noticeable when playing late night with headphones). The
Electro keyboard is quieter during vigorous playing.

In terms of physical dimensions, I would swear that the Electro keys
are slight wider/fatter than the CX-3 keys (both white and black
keys). I also heard another user comment that the white keys seemed a
little bit shorter, but I did not really notice this.

These are the differences that I recall off the top of my head. Anyone
else care to comment?

Regards,
Eric

----- Original Message -----
> keyboard vs. the CX-3's "flimsy" one. I'm 99% sure that
> the Electro 61 and the CX-3 v2 (and BX-3) use the SAME keyboard.
> They are both made by Fatar, and they look the same, other than
> minor differences in color. I doubt that Fatar would be making
> two different waterfall keyboard designs for a niche market,