Kaatza_Music
06-23-2007, 04:54 PM
There have been a lot of posts on this forum about keyboards and MIDI controllers. I finally bought my new controller after many months of visiting music stores and playing everything thing they had. My wife hasn't seen it yet so if I disappear from the forum you will know that I am no longer among the living. Pretty hard to hide too as it is twice the size of my old controller. "Look honey, I bought a new upgrade for my keyboard and it made it twice the size!" Unfortunately my wife's IQ is just as high as mine. I do have a solution though, keep a $1000 handy and tell her to go and buy a new wardrobe. That should work!
Seriously though, I wanted something with 88 keys that felt like a grand piano action. I played tons of keyboards and just didn't like how they felt under my fingers. So the Yamaha P-140 was it (at least in my price range). I walked out of the store with it for $1200. $200 over my $1000 budget. It has MIDI in and out, comes with a decent piano style sustain pedal which you can use 1/2 pedal technique on. It has stereo RCA outs (beyond me why they didn't use 1/4" phono) but with a stereo RCA to 1/4" cord I can hook it up to 2 amps and it works just fine. One of my concerns was it didn't have a master volume. The volume control only works for the build-in amp and speakers. Fortunately there was a work-around: there is an Aux pedal input that can be programmed for a volume pedal. I tried that one out in the music store just to make sure. It has 3 acoustic and 3 electric pianos plus a piano/strings combo. They sound okay, I could use them live if I needed to but I will never use them in the studio. There are other features which I will never use such as a built in sequencer.
So it is all hooked up and I've spend a full 10 hour shift using it. I love the feel. When I dial up the Steinway B from Gold XP it sounds fabulous! I couldn't get that kind of subtlety out of my old controller, especially when you want to play very softly. I am using it in combo with my Evolution MIDI controller. Bottom line is, I love to play it and it sounds great. I think it will be adding a whole new level of subtlety and detail to my music; especially the piano parts.
Seriously though, I wanted something with 88 keys that felt like a grand piano action. I played tons of keyboards and just didn't like how they felt under my fingers. So the Yamaha P-140 was it (at least in my price range). I walked out of the store with it for $1200. $200 over my $1000 budget. It has MIDI in and out, comes with a decent piano style sustain pedal which you can use 1/2 pedal technique on. It has stereo RCA outs (beyond me why they didn't use 1/4" phono) but with a stereo RCA to 1/4" cord I can hook it up to 2 amps and it works just fine. One of my concerns was it didn't have a master volume. The volume control only works for the build-in amp and speakers. Fortunately there was a work-around: there is an Aux pedal input that can be programmed for a volume pedal. I tried that one out in the music store just to make sure. It has 3 acoustic and 3 electric pianos plus a piano/strings combo. They sound okay, I could use them live if I needed to but I will never use them in the studio. There are other features which I will never use such as a built in sequencer.
So it is all hooked up and I've spend a full 10 hour shift using it. I love the feel. When I dial up the Steinway B from Gold XP it sounds fabulous! I couldn't get that kind of subtlety out of my old controller, especially when you want to play very softly. I am using it in combo with my Evolution MIDI controller. Bottom line is, I love to play it and it sounds great. I think it will be adding a whole new level of subtlety and detail to my music; especially the piano parts.