The key is reacting if I only lift it half way and press again.
Thank you for confirming. This is how my Casio PX-130 behaves as well. Not ideal, but not a deal breaker as I'm no virtuoso pianist.
Could you, or anyone else that has it, measure the key travel when pressed all the way down? I've heard it is long compared to other controllers, but I'm curious by how much.
]]>I've read posts on some forums where people were concerned the 3rd action sensor was not very functional, based on playing and midi data. Has anyone else noticed this, having trouble playing very fast or repeated notes where the 3rd sensor comes into play?
The key is reacting if I only lift it half way and press again.
]]>Hey guys,
I had some trouble finding in depth information on the SL88, and since you guys seem to be pretty serious about controllers around here, I thought I'd post a few things I'd been wondering about, now that I have one. This is the first week, and I'll try to update if as I find out more or anything changes;
• It feels great. I hadn't been able to try one before buying (no one in CA seems to stock them) and the closest I'd been able to get was going back and forth between an A-88 and VPC1 at one of the big box stores. I'm not all that impressed by the wood since it seems more like slabs on top of the normal TP40 action (thus all the mechanical parts are plastic and metal - and they don't line up with the keycaps in the rear) but the end result feels nice enough me to call it a noticeable tactile improvement over the TP100LR in the Acuna I'm replacing...which did at least make up in accuracy what it lacked in raw feel.
• Triple sensors are noticeable. I had my doubts here, but there are grace notes in Lizst and repetitions in Shostakovich pieces I (sorta) know that are markedly more reliable for me on this than anything i've owned prior
• The action is pretty quiet. Few people mention this...and I think the Acuna was particularly bad (lots of thump, resonating loudly from the metal bottom) but this is MUCH better and at least on par with if not better than other boards I've had.
• There is indeed note-off / release velocity. Another hard bit of info to find.
• The 'Ivory Touch' keycaps are a lot better than I expected. It's not a molded-in texture like Roland's but a nice matte finished, dense-feeling plastic/composite with very subtle mottling. Much nicer under hand than shiny plastic; I hadn't payed it a second thought after reading product info but I'm admittedly rather glad to have it.
• The main damper jack does not seem capable of continuous input (at least not with the pedal I have) but any of the jacks can ben assigned to any controller output, so I was easily able to use one of the expression jacks. There are a 5 inputs in total, so it seems pretty flexible.
• The control sticks (pitch mod, etc) are very flexible in capability but seem likely to be problematic in use. They are small, with precious little travel and a pronounced dead spot in the center for the spring-loaded axes (nearly impossible to sweep through it without pause). I haven't gotten into tuning or calibration yet so that may be fixable.
• It is surprisingly compact. Shallower front-to-back than my Acuna, and with less rise behind the keys (even with the sticks and control knob). The end caps are the thinnest i've seen on any 88
• I think I can confirm the temporal aftertouch separation (values will not register within some number of milliseconds following a key strike) which I'm sure will bother some, but I've never been able to use AT gracefully anyway.
• Importantly, I have no QC issues. Keys all seem uniform, quiet, and stable. No rattles, clunks, stickiness, slow or irregular spots. There's a fair bit of negative feedback floating around for this model and I'm pleased to say mine shows no signs of corroborating any of it. As far as I can tell, it's built like a tank.
So... I'm quite happy thus far. My plan is to use it for a few weeks at least to make sure the action is one I can live with for a while, then build it into studio desk 2.0 (the current one is due for serious upgrading), at which point I'll likely open it up (plans are ambitious) and will try to post some pics. I held off getting one of these for a while due to the mixed reviews, finally jumping in because I found a cheap one. I wish I hadn't waited; it slides easily into the top spot among the boards I've owned. Any questions let me know
@eriks
...I was never able to get the editor software to connect to the MIDI keyboard even under Wine, in Linux Mint (XFCE edition). It’s nice that you are able to do so.
Best wishes—
On Linux Mint 19.2 (Cinnamon) I can get the Studiologic SL Editor to run (under Wine 4.0.2) and connect, and can change some of the settings (on an SL73 in my case), but not the key balance - because it tries to display an alert indicating that changing this setting is global.
Actually, any time an alert tries to pop up (e.g. "waiting for connection", or to confirm something), the SL Editor crashes. I suspect that all that is needed is to install the right user interface component(s). A related quirk is having to run the SL Editor three times before it will connect: by the third attempt Wine's midi driver is good to go and the SL Editor does not have to "wait for a connection" and hence does not need to pop up the alert box.
Have you (or anyone reading :-) by any chance had any luck with the Studiologic SL Editor on Linux Mint (or other distro), specifically being able to see those alerts and change the KEY-BALANCE under SL TOUCH ?
]]>Just in case if it's true and makes a difference to know....
]]>I run backing tracks & VSTis live in Reaper. The P1 has been great for transport control, layer controls, automatic parameter assignments have been amazing. Between the X/Y sticks on the SL88 and the Faders/Buttons/Knobs on the P1, I think I have live control covered.
]]>If you'd like to see the TP40/Wood action in action (though here the version modified by Lachnit with the light sensors), have a look at:
Thank you! That was interesting indeed.
]]>Yes, you make a good point. If you need the controllers, it's obvious where to go (and by extension, RD-2000 is a better controller since it allows for more than 4 parts that SL-Grand has). If only action is of importance, then FP-90 makes sense financially (that's what I was getting at).
Understood. I appreciate your input on this one!
]]>For n-th time I mention on various places - if you like RD-2000 action, the same one is also found in cheaper FP-90. You lose all the sliders and pretty lights, though.
It think the sliders and built in sounds in the RD2000 make it worth the difference in price between it and the FP-90. I can put them to use where the speakers are useless to me. So it comes down to if I'm gonna go double the price between the SL88 Grand and FP-90 I might as well just spring for the RD2000 and call it a night.
]]>