Roland A-88 mk2 action way too heavy

I'm not 100% sure, but I think what you're saying rings true with my experience. Like a lot of yamaha digitals. It's probably a marketing/consumer expectation thing that the keys will have a lot of resistance. Guessing on that one too. As far as being able to fix it, I'm not a keyboard repair guy. Maybe try pianoworld or talking directly to your local keyboard repair people. Would love to know if heavy, slightly stodgy actions can affordably be, say, replaced by touch sensitive synth actions, or cleverly re-weighted.

Hi Concorde,
I guess the forum members will need to have knowledge of your frame of reference?

For instance - do you have experience with multiple other graded hammer action digital keyboard/controllers?
Or do you have experience with real grand piano action on real pianos?
Or were you coming from semi-weighted or even synth action with no previous experience of any real world mechanical pianos?

I was led to believe that PHA-4 is a nicely weighted action for the price points of most of the models that have it, possibly on the slightly light side but that the serious advanced pianists may not find it realistic enough for easy trilling compared to the best available with longer more sophisticated key actions.

So if you are a more advanced pianist perhaps you need a more sophisticated key action now?
Or say someone coming from synth key action possibly consider adjusting your playing position. Are you seated high enough above the keys?

The real crime is that PHA4 and PHA50 are both folded actions and so there's no reason they can't ditch the luxury aspects of PHA50 and use it on their budget portables. PHA4 is a clear departure and downgrade from even their previous budget actions. It's a shockingly horrendous and backwards design when you look under the hood and compare to all their other actions. Pure money or a glaring lapse of engineering are the only explanations.

Professional piano tech here...

About all you can do is change the sensitivity setting for the keyboard lighter. This will make it easier to get louder dynamics and the action will feel 'lighter'. This is also a trick with acoustic pianos and hammer voicing, hard, bright hammers make the piano feel 'lighter' than softer quieter hammers 'heavier' as you have to work harder to get dynamic response from the instrument, despite the actual gram weight remaining the same.

Piano touchweight is a complicated subject. First off, it's not about the heaviness of the keys but balancing the action friction through establishing consistent touchweight (downweight and upweight). Also, the measurements for downweight (48 - 58 grams based on manufacturer) does not include the weight of the damper lever. The action is weighed off on a workbench or in the piano with the dampers lifted. So when you play a key on a piano and lift the damper, the full weight will be a lot heaver than the 50-60g. Play a piano with the sustain on and off and feel the difference in the key downweight. The damper adds weight about halfway through the key travel, so you don't feel it on the immediate attack but it adds on the followthrough. Trilling at the top of the key travel will feel different than at the bottom of the key because of this.

This does not happen on a digital piano, it is weighed much heavier to account for the damper feel right at the top of the key travel. Also, touchweight on an acoustic piano action can be modified by easing friction in the action moving parts and changing the timing of the damper lift, and more directly by adjusting the lead weights in the keys themselves.

This isn't an option on a digital action, unfortunately.

PH4A action static weight is indeed high but when the key has started the dynamic weight is much lighter .  It is similar to the Yamaha p515 .  The difficulty for trills and repetition speed happens if you let the key go up to the top. I demonstrated in a video I make that you achieve easily 10/notes per sec with one hand using 321 or 4321 technique if you play within the interval of the 2nd and 3rd sensor . As soon as the key go up , it is becoming trickier . That said the PH4A action is quite good with an excellent midi output range ( light setting outs the full range 0-127, super light setting offsets the velocity by +~25 so not recommended for dynamics .

I'm sorry for Roland, but I don't see how the fault could come from a software...

Well I've tried the A-88mk2 on both MIDI 1.0 and 2.0 modes and it has the same problem.

I've noticed the unwanted high velocity notes tend to happen when there are multiple NoteOn's without a NoteOff on that note in between.

However, I just did a test where I deliberately did 10x NoteOn's on one note slowly without any NoteOff's between, and they didn't show any cumulative feature (i.e. no unwanted high velocity notes).

FIXED: I rolled back the A88mk2 software to 1.03 instead of 2.00 ; I no longer get these unwanted high velocity notes during fast play. I will contact their support again to see if they will fix v2.00 .

(I did this by downloading 2.00, then Copying Download Link, then modifying the URL to have "103" instead of "200".)

You're a scholar and a gentleman.

Even the new 2.1 update didn't fix this bug. Reverting to 1.03 did. Clever hack for getting the old file.

I kinda want my money back. "MIDI 2.0" was their main selling point. Bad enough you had to wait a few years for a firmware update... that broke it altogether.