Fatar StudioLogic SL-880 Controller

The SL-880 is not really build for easy MIDI editing or control features. If you want this, you need to pay more for a different model.

I was well aware when I bought the SL-880 that it did not have an extensive user interface with a big display for example, but I simply did not want to pay more to have this. Using it the way I do, I still do not miss these features. I am not using a lot of special MIDI features, as I use it mainly with my piano modules. With piano sounds, or with modules with other sounds like saxophone e.g., I am very satisfied.

Best price / quality I found with respect to the "piano-feel" "hammer-action" for a device of this generation. I did not look for other devices of younger generations as I am satisfied with the SL-880.

For the first time in 9 years (!) I experienced the power-up problem. At these pages I found a reset suggestion (turn power on with up, down, edit pressed down for a few seconds). This solved my problem. I also looked at http://www.kappenburg.net/projects/Fatar_SL880/ Being an electronics engineer (dutch ing. degree, english bachelor degree), I can imagine the SL-880 having the design flaw described at this page. I am considering to use the "bridging solution" described at this page if I am experiencing the power-up problem more often, maybe I will post later if I do so.

The woman at the phone of the reception of the dutch importer (World Music) was probably not aware of the power-on problem. She did not want to help me further as I was not a dealer. The woman was professionally doing her job, but did not really help me. (I am getting sort of used to this behaviour at commercial companies in capitalistic countries :-) The postings on this site did help me.

I bought the SL-880 in the year 1998. I am mainly using it because of the nice "hammer action" imitating a "mechanical piano". With this I am very satisfied. I am not really using a lot of MIDI editing/control features, maybe also because of the limited user interface of the SL-880.

I used ths keyboard on gigs for a few years with a NanoPiano module. Then I got tired of the excessive weight and switched to a lightweight Korg with built-in sounds. I now use the Fatar at home. One problem is that even when I play with headphones, the key action is so noisy that my wife can hear them clacking from the other room.

The weighted keys are sensitive to subtle touch, although they are lighter than my preferred piano, an acoustic Yamaha (and much lighter than a Steinway). I'm a pretty straight-forward player, so I don't stack voices much or use the pitch and mod wheels. The keyboard works fine with my MIDI setup.

An important shortcoming is the lack of provision for a music stand. If you lay charts on top, they inevitably depress one of the Zone or Edit buttons. I drilled a couple of holes and mounted my own stand.

My gear is the electronics section os an old Korg 3500 for piano sounds, a couple of outboard synths, a Mac G4 with a Delta break out box and a MidiSport 2x2, and mixers feeding out to a sound system.

Does not apply. This is a controller with no inboard sounds.

I used this on a many gigs with no problems. However, when it first arrived the right side of the top cover was touching the high end keys. I opened the case and found insufficient tolerance for clearance, so I put in my own spacer.

Lately, my F above middle C has started to fail intermittently. Time to repair or replace.

Overall, it's been thrown around a lot, and still works. I'd say the roblem is quality control, not lack of durability.

I'm long out of warrantly. If I can ge that broken key fixed for cheap, I'll let you know ...

Prices have come way down since I bought mine for $800, and there are cheaper and lighter controllers available. I wouldn't buy another. But if it were a gift I would keep it ...

It's too simple. Very straight forward

The "Action" of the keyboard feals great. What's missing is Volume (CC#7) IMHO.
Yes, you can hook up an expressions pedal 880pro. However, I'm standing most of the time and expression pedals dont operate too smoothly when standing. Sliders are easier.

This is probably the worst part. I can't get 127 velocity out of the keys. Tops out around 100 or so. Not very dynamic. Also, strangely enough, I get higher velocities out of the sharps/flats than the whites. I've recorder this to midi tracks and had other pianists hit each with the same pressure and we all get the same results.

I've had it just not respond before. Usually when i leave it on for day.
Unplugging it usually fixes it. I have gigged without a backup, but it makes me nervous.

I ain't calling Italy over 300 bucks

I'm giving it a 4 cause for $300US I honestly don't think you can beat it. I want to try a CME UF-8, but from reviews i'm a little nervous too.
Sadly enough, I went and bought an Axiom 61 from M-Audio. Although it's not weighted, strangely enough it's much more "expressive" Very sad.
I bout the SL-880 cause I had M-Audio's 88Pro. Piece of junk. I sent all 3 back!
Unfortunately no one and I mean no one makes a good weighted "Midi-Controller" Those went out with Yamaha's KX88! There hasn't been a good one since. (Ok, maby the a80/90 from Roland)
My Fatar is on Craigslist and I think i'm going to have to by either a Yamaha cp33 or cp300 or p140 just so I can hook it up to my laptop to play Akoustik or Ivory!
I sware all this has made me want to just get a real piano for the house. There's no substitution in reality. However, none of us are going to own a Bosendorfer 290 or Steinway D in our lifetimes so if someone is kind enough to sample it for us, we might as well make use of it. :)

It is good for simple plug'n'play. I use Pro Tools wit various digital and analogue synths, though, the lack of display means your always shooting it the dark. But understand this keeps costs down.

Everyone else has mentioned so I'll not bother. The keys do have a nice resistance.

The velocities are very adjustable- I just never used them.

NO YOU CANNOT RELY ON THIS. AT A GIG DEFINATELY NOT

I have not tried to contact the manufacturers.

If it were lost or stolen my heart would go out to the stupid thieves...don't they read these reviews!?! I have had this for about three years and for the most part it was straight forward to use, though, I have never done any complex effects or programming on it. On of the lower keys began playing at full velocity, then I moved house (using all its original packaging) two more keys began to exhibit this phenomenon. So I decided to have a look inside. I figured dust and dirt was to blame on the ultra cheap rubber contacts and brushed & cleaned it in soapy detergent and sprayed WD40 and put it back together- now it was worse. So I'm taking it to an indendant repairer. Had an Oberheim B4 this one- swapped it for this. both a load of shit

Ok (plug and play)

Ok, all keys are there and it has possibilities to tune the key sensitivity.

Full 0-127 respons

No, not reliable at all. First, there is the switch-on problem (my solution http://www.kappenburg.net/projects/Fatar_SL880/ ).
And after a while one key broke down and now produces less output (need a nuke to get max output).

I haven't tried.

Well, it is usable. And after dropping the device from 1 meter on one of its corners while the case was open without any damage, I would give it a 10 on durability!

Ok, but see reliability below.

ok, has 88 notes, pitch bend, and mod wheels, and 4 customizable setups. However see reliablity below.

keys are ok piano type feel.

Can you depend on it? No, No, and No again.

My keyboard has never been giged and has sat in a home studio.

I bought this keyboard because it was cheap, I didn't stop to think where it was made/designed (Italy).

After looking at all of the other posts I can say that my keyboard is exhibiting the same screwball tendencies:

It transmits midi events to the sequencer even when not being played, and goes some way to explain the problems I have been having with the sequencer.

Switching it on is temperamental sometime no lights work sometimes they do.

Italy and electro/mechanical devices do not make for a happy combination (after all you wouldn?t buy a fiat would you?)

I only have myself to blame, but I will never buy another Fatar product again.

Don't no haven't tried, but got a feeling they would want a load of dosh to fix it.

If it were stolen I would think that the thief would have done me a favour. I could collect on the insurance and buy something that is reliable.

The fact that this product isn't reliable outweighs the mediocre handling at a budget price. I bought this product after looking at a review somewhere, however I made a big mistake buying on the strength of that review and its budget price.

If anybody want's to buy mine I'd be happy to let it go for #20 or so.

Awkward to use with a sequencer (I use Sonar 5 Studio). The user interface is antequated: 7 buttons and 14 red (off/on) lights. There is no display of what your current settings are: patch, transposition, keyboard mapping, channel, aftertouch, etc. It required too many button presses to make any changes. The user manual in minimal (no examples) but adequate to understanding how to use the SL-880 Pro.

It's a keyboard controller with minimal features for integration with your MIDI environment. Supports Channel After Touch, 4 zones/layers. Two parallel MIDI outs, no MIDI Thru. Pitch and Modulation wheels have a nice feel to them. Memory for storage of the last-used zone parameters.

The Hammer-Action keyboard has a great piano-like feel. 8 zone-specific velocity curves, 8 global velocity curves, sustain input jack, and volume input jack.

I've owned two. Within several weeks, the electronics failed on both. On both, the control buttons stopped working completely. On one, the MIDI NOTE ON messages sent were incorrect when playing a repeated notes at high velocity e.g., I would play 6 notes but only 4 would be sent. I used MIDI-OX to confirm this.

I was unable to reach Fatar support. The only support appears to be from the reseller. Your only support option is to get a replacement. The reseller was good about replacing the first defective keyboard. (I didn't bother replacing the second--I just returned it for a refund.)

Due to the lack of reliable of the electronics, this product is not worth buying at any price.

Relatively easy to use, but the patch-setting via the keyboard is awkward. Plays well for my purposes. I play live and in my studio - but I don't depend on this for a living.

Action is nice for the price - I liked this best after trying yamaha and others.

I use a Roland 5050 with the XA Premier Grand. With this keyboard and the Roland controller I can get a piano sound for recording and live playing that sounds quite nice.

Mine worked well for 2 years in the studio until recently - but recently I started playing live which required frequent on/off cycles. The keys themselves work well live. But I ran into the power-on/reset problem listed by other posters.

With some effort I have identified the issue with power-on. After taking mine apart it appears that there are two main issues.

First, I took it apart and cleaned it - specifically I removed the two IC's and cleaned their contacts with a pencil erase and then with alcohol. (The IC socket contacts are cheap non-gold - potentially a problem as the unit gets older as they will oxidize.)

Second, I discovered a number of "rules" to follow for power-up. 1) Don't turn the power on with any MIDI or pedals plugged in. 2) When you push the on/off switch in, do it straight on, smoothly and with a moderate speed (don't punch it hard). You can tell if you do it right because the red patch lights flash on and then off AND THEN the green lights come on.

It seems that switch connects the 9V power input to a LM05 power IC. The switch connects one power supply voltage and then the other as it moves in. I found pushing it straight in connects the two power supply voltages in the sequentially so the main controller IC resets correctly.

So far this seems to solve the power/reset problem.

Never called them - since they're in Italy...

If this were stolen, I'd probably look around first for something I liked better - but I would not hesitate to buy this again if it had the best action.

It served me in the studio v. well for 3 years. Loved its action and its controllability. Hell, even pianists asked if I would recommend it and said "yes" to them. Just one problem. Recently (without any prior warning, as is the way these things sometimes) the keyboard started transmitting MIDI on/off notes to the sequencer causing MIDI jams. Then it refused to play any MIDI off notes (having read the instruction manual to and tried to rectify this) and now it doesn't even work like it is supposed to in the manual. Hmmmmmm. For all those who are using it and enjoying the keys, rock on. I just hope that yours doesn't go the same way mine did.

Be careful if you owned it for a few years and decide to take it out on tour. Get it serviced before hand.

If it was stolen, I'd try other keyboards before I bought anything else. Something that will work like it's meant to, and last ten years if not more. Heard the Roland keyboards are lush, as are the Korg controllers.

For the price, it was the best option for me. It is weighted, has aftertouch, and has a good range. The buttons are terrible, and very fiddly to use.... deffinately wouldn't go for this type again, would rather have a screen to show what's happening. Saying that, it works as a controller, and if that's what you need, with weighted keys then okay...

Action is fairly good, and you can get some good feel from it.... bit complicated trying to adjust for more subtle playing. The input method for the controller is not good at all..

Would never use this for a gig. the reason I'm writing this is to let anyone know... came to write / record today, and the keyboard had glitched, changing all the settings, so there was no midi output from the keys, after checking everything else (midi leads, midi interface, MAC, etc, restarting) I came to this site, and found a reset suggestion (turn power on with up, down, edit pressed down for a few seconds). Have had problems before, though this was the most serious., and expect the frequency of faults to increase.

Went through a shop, and that was years ago, so guess this keyboard is out of guarentee. Very heavy, so a real hassle to cart off to repair, let alone post

I would not buy one of these again, and would suggest looking at the competition. The user interface (the part whereby you change zones, note range, velocitys etc) is really bad, and I would definately go for one with a display of some sort.