Product: CME UF-80
Price Paid: AUD 899
Submitted
05/15/2009
at
12:20am
by
Stuart Pritchard
Ease of Use
:
8
I plugged in the midi cable, briefly looked at the manual to tweak the velocity curve and off I went.
Twice I've looked in the manual to adjust a parameter like foot switch options. All very easy.
But...
The manual is very thin, both in content and thickness. I wouldn't want to drill down too deep because it won't give you much help.
I've not used the WIDI yet, but I've read other threads they were astonished at how easy it was.
I'm giving it an 8 because I've easy achieved the non-demanding things I've required of it.
Features
:
8
All I wanted was an 88 hammer action midi controller with nice action for a cheap price. In this capacity it delivers 100%. It has plent of other features I don't use such as WIDI, trasport controls, etc.
It has expansion slots, I like that.
It only has one midi out and NO MIDI THROUGH aarhhhhhh that really annoys me. Where's midi through gone these days? I've got a main brain with 128 note polyphony, I don't use computers or sequencers live, I want to chain lots of crappy midi keyboards as controllers to my main brain, but midi through seems to have dissappeared. I want it back.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
8
No sounds, keyboard controller only.
The velocity curves aren't great but they're acceptable. The action is vey nice for the price.
I nearly bought a CASIO weighted piano, just to use it as a midi controller (and cover up the name with white out). I much prefer the CME action, in fact it is better than a Yamaha P120 action which I find too spongy.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
It's new and I haven't had any problems. But then again it's just a controller, not much there to go wrong. And I'm not using WIDI, I bet that's a nasty thing if you get some interference happening.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I've heard CME are the worst. Their website is $hit and their Australian distributor won't even answer my emails about multiple expansion boards. I can only imagine what it would be like with a problem.
Overall Rating
:
7
I like it! It feels good to play, even when compared to much more expensive keyboards. It does what I want and it has the capability for expansion. I intend to use the WIDI at home to do quick and dirty score writing from my keyboard to the laptop. It will be nice not to hook everything up, but just stick the USB WIDI 'memory stick thingy' into the laptop USB port.
For the price it's great
