Progman wrote:

psterrett wrote:

Kawai MP11SE. Why not have the best?

Because it weighs like a sumo wrestler.

i have a heavy keyboard (KX88) that i fought with for years.  what finally made it workable for me is a good flight case + a good handtruck.  now i can move that sucker anywhere, even up stairs.  just saying, maybe there's a solution ...

I'm glad that it works for you. I just can't think of handling 32kg keyboard.
Kawai with their mp11se whether they like it or not position it mostly as a stationary keyboard, like acoustic piano. Some of the reason why nord 88 keyboards are so popular it their weight. Even korg kronos 88 is 24kg. Montage 8 is 28kg and imo some of its unpopularity is due to its weight, rd-2000 is 20-21kg. Yes, with a great piano like keybed there is a price to pay but most people will settle for slightly inferior keybed than carry a 32kg keyboard outside. Also, i think kawai should design their keyboard construction not like a piano, but flat, like nord stage or montage, for example, i think it would make it easier to access the controllers and buttons. I'm sure they can design a great keybed that will go inside a traditionally flat keyboard construction. Also, i bet mp11se does not go inside many keyboard cases.

psterrett wrote:

Kawai MP11SE. Why not have the best?

Because it weighs like a sumo wrestler.

i have a heavy keyboard (KX88) that i fought with for years.  what finally made it workable for me is a good flight case + a good handtruck.  now i can move that sucker anywhere, even up stairs.  just saying, maybe there's a solution ...

Kawai MP11SE. Why not have the best?

Because it weighs like a sumo wrestler.

Casio claims that the keyboard on the PX-S3000 is is an improvement over the PX-5S. The PX-5S has features that are better than the PX-5S but not the keyboard and the price of the PX-S3000 is lower.
Has any of the more adept keyboard players tried the keyboard action on the PX-S3000?

No wonder they ditched their last keybed. I guess they listened to criticism of fake "tri sensor", bad responsiveness when playing fast, keybed too heavy for no reason. So they made a new lighter keybed. Better late than never. I'll check the px-s3000 once it is available to play, i'm curious to know if it is any better.

Hmmm can't say I tried anything in that price bracket, actually. Casio PX-5S was very good to me as far as lower budget is concerned. That same action is in some of their cheaper stage pianos as well, AFAIK.

Maybe PX-5S keybed is alright for the price but generally i find it awful, at least for fast playing, its keybed is like a cheap NWX knock off, though i find NWX (CP88 keybed) unpleasant because its too heavy, annoyingly heavy, as if yamaha said "Nord uses a very light tp40 which some people find too light? We will put our heaviest keybed ever made! take that nord!" instead of putting a middle of the road heaviness keybed, like in the yamaha montage 8, for example, which is very much pianistic but not too heavy, not too light. Though, yeah, in regard to PX-5S, its all relative for the price. I think its a good choice for people who start playing the piano because might not care and not spoiled and for people who mostly play chords.

Yes, S88 uses TP/100. Not a fan of it at all.

Is there a hammer action keyboard under £500 you are a fan of?

Hi,

I can highly recommend Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 for you. It has an extraordinary touch, weighted keys (it feels very realistic), the haptic is very natural and you makes so much fun to play it. At this moment I can also refer to a grand piano: there is only a slight difference between playing on a grand or the KK S88.

You wrote that you write a lot of music. If you use DAW for it, it will be even better because it offers an incredible host integration for some of them: Cubase, Maschine, Logic Pro X, Garage Band (I hope don't use that one ;-) ) and Ableton Live. You can control the virtual mixer, the position of the vertical curser (scrolling) within your project; you can mute and solo every single track; you have a record, play, stop, quantize, loop and tempo button; there are 35 MIDI-CCs (including mod wheel and pitch bend). A lot of things you can do with it.

I hope, this information helps you in your search for a new keyboard!

Nice but aren't the S88 uses TP100? I tried Arturia keylab88 in the store which uses TP100 and keybed is mediocre at best in my opinion, they did not have a S88 to test at that time.