Product: Generalmusic SK880 PowerStation
Price Paid: USD 3202.50
Submitted
10/04/2009
at
06:40pm
by
Reece
Ease of Use
:
9
This is a magnificent instrument!! it is easy to use (once you know how) and it sounds awesome!!! i bought this new at a music store and i have just now mastered it. editing on this workstation is EASY and it makes a huge difference in your final composition. the owners manual is very discript and very long, which sometimes makes it hard to find things, but if you look for long enough, whatever you need to know is in there.
Features
:
10
The polyphony on this keyboard is (i think) 64 note polyphony and exceding that is quite a task. the built in effects are under chapter 10 in the owners manual and since i have only used one effect, i dont know that i shoud tak much about that. Basically, unless you are billy joel, this keyboard has every feature you will ever need... i promise. to me this keyboard has all the features i could think of and then some. oh-and it has hammer action keys
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
9
The instrument sounds are about a 7.5/10. they could be better (and they are on some keyboards) but they absolutely could be worse. as far as portable keyboards go, this one has great sounds. this works well for all types of music, as you can adjust the sensitivity to any level you desire. as soon as you let off the key, it shoots right back up. the onboard effects are good to.
Reliability
:
10
It is very reliable. thats all i car really say
Customer Support
:
10
i have never dealt with the company
Overall Rating
:
10
I really enjoy this instrument and every day i learn something new about it. i would reccomend this to anybody who was looking for one, however, if you buy new, the price can be steep and only few can afford it. if anything were to happen to this, i might not buy this same keyboard, because it really is a lot more than i need. but from me it is a 10/10
Product: Generalmusic SK880 PowerStation
Price Paid: US $900
Submitted
01/05/2004
at
09:54am
by
Anonymous
Ease of Use
:
7
The OS is fairly easy to use and straight-forward. The general layout of the machine is like an old Yamaha PSR type keyboard. Editing is done quite easily, as the huge LCD on the machine allows you to access information pretty quickly and change settings with relative ease. My favorite aspect of editing is the Sound button which allows you to change freq. cutoff, resonance, attack, sustain, release, and modulation parameters of the currently selected sound all in one page on the display. Effects editing is relatively easy as well.
Features
:
7
The keyboard action on this thing is perfect (IMO). Not too spongy and not too bouncy. The unit boasts a pretty good set of effects. However, for any patch, only 2 presets (a reverb and then another effect) can be used. This can be a pain. Luckily, they added a few multi-talented effects such as Chorus-delay and flanger-delay which are two effects in one. However, editing those are a major pain, and they don't really change as expected. I.E. "Depth" may be chorus depth _or_ delay depth, you don't know till you try...
expansion: you can add non-battery backed ram to the thing (old simms work just fine)... There's a slew of other add-ins if you can find/afford them, such as an A/V card, SCSI card, etc.
I don't use the onboard sequencer... A 17" monitor is a lot nicer to use than the lcd. The keys are pressure/velocity sensitive... Included in the package (for the powerStation series) is a 2 gig Hdd with new styles, sounds, songs, etc. You can turn write protection off on the Hdd and store your own stuff locally on the machine.
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
7
The drumkits are very nice. All the sounds are at least B+ quality, with a few exceptionally nice ones. The strings, organs, EP's, in my opinion are the best. I'm very dissapointed that portamento doesn't work, as some sounds would be better with it. The synth sounds are nice and warm. This board is a fair 80's - pop/dance/funk board. I'd stay away from trying to do rock or classical. The onboard songs include a lot of 80's pop stuff which sound very realistic.
Reliability
:
9
I've had the software crash twice. A power-cycle is all it took to get back in shape. It's built like a tank... all wood/metal. It weighs a small ton.
Customer Support
:
6
NA. Dunno. Emailed once and got a reply. So I guess it's good.
Overall Rating
:
6
If the thing was stolen, I'd hunt the bastard down who took it and beat them with a boot. I'm addicted to the keyboard's action. If nothing else, the board is a worthwhile controller. But, it has some really cool features as well...
Overall, I give this thing a 6.5, simply because I know there are better sounds out there... Yes, you can load new sounds, but with the 2 megs of battery-backed ram available after the OS, it's pretty ridiculous to think that you could actually load enough to be satisfied. Ram is cheap... For something with as much power as this thing, they should have put a gig of ram in it.
