From donniemac88@yahoo.com Sun Jan 02 08:21:34 2005
Subject:Re: OT? speaking of "feel"


Walter,
I play a Yamaha S90, and absolutely love it. To me, the keyboard
action is very good, my hands don't ache afterwards -- unless I get
too wild -- and the piano and electric piano sounds are top-notch.

Previously I owned a Kurzweil PC88MX, then an Ensoniq ZR-76. I never
really warmed up to the Kurzweil -- it was too big and bulky, and
its tones just didn't cut it for me. The ZR-76 sounded very good,
but my hands were always in pain the day after I played them. And if
we did several nights in a row, forget it. At that time, I was using
the ZR-76, a Korg CX-3, and a Roland Fantom (a 76-key semi-weighted
workstation). But if we had to play more than one night in a row,
I'd leave the ZR at home, move the Fantom to the bottom of my stand,
and use a Roland XP-80 that normally stayed in my home practice rig.

Anyway, I finally sold the ZR-76 and went shopping for a good-
feeling weighted keyboard with good piano sounds. Based on
everything I'd read, I'd narrowed my choices down to the Yamaha P-
250 and the Roland XV-88. I played the P-250 for a short while. I
loved the way it felt, but I realized that its palette of sounds was
too limited for my needs. So I moved over to the XV-88. I didn't
like the feel of its keyboard and decided its sound palette was too
similar to the Fantom that I already owned.

As I was leaving the store, I walked past the Yamaha S90. At first
glance, it turned me off -- I've always had an aversion to keyboards
that have the mod and pitch wheels mounted up on the control panel.
But I reached down and played something on its triple-strike piano
patch, and I got drawn in. I ended up pulling up a chair and playing
it for a good long while and left with one under my arm -- or more
accurately, on a two-wheel hand truck! ;-)

Anyway, I don't know what your price range is, but if you can, give
the S90 a play and a listen. It's very versatile, has some great
sounds, and, at least in my opinion, has a great feel.

> in the group know more about the subject of this particular "feel"
> than me. I'd really like to get steered to a keyboard that's not a
> hand-wrecker, a somewhat lighter action, but still piano-weighted.