M-Audio Keystation 88 Pro

This is an update, and partly response to the previous post by an user who gave the 88pro a "1" in Expresiveness/Sounds. I think his view may be correct from the unit he got, but so far I've known no problems myself.

We know there might be a bad batch of factory Pro88s that are not working properly, having highly inconsistent velocity response, broken keys, and such. No problem. Return it and try get another.

I can't see how the poster below this post, did not notice the "expresiveness" problems with his particular keyboard, before buying it! Didn't he try to connect some module to the keyb to test its expresiveness? I mean, people like me who HAD to order it online did trust blindfolded in this product, and well I got the luck to get a 100% good unit.

I am no pianist, at least no pro pianist in any way. I think people out there who are complaining THAT much about expresiveness (broken keys is another distinct matter), are just piano freaks that were used to play Chopin and Brahms passages in their homes uprights and baby grands. When they saw the M-Audio announce of the FIRST HAMMER-ACTION 88 KEYBOARD CONTROLLER FOR LESS THAN 500 BUCKS, they thought to themselves: OOOUUCH!! I want the same thing I've been experiencing for just 500 bucks!! Then they went and buy it, fooling themselves into thinking that the Keystation Pro 88 was THE SHORTCUT to spending $5000 into a baby grand or old upright piano. Cmon!! If you LOVE PLAYING ACOUSTIC PIANO, and want the same 100% experience you are not going to easily BYPASS that fooling yourself into thinking a $500 boards is giving you not only the action, but also the expresiveness a real, mechanical grand piano has!

Not to say, that M-Audio is lying in their specs and advertisement. On the contrary, they are being honest, Keystation Pro 88 is a MIDI CONTROLLER. Got it, Chopin-freaks?? :) MEANING, the purpose of this product by M-Audio is NOT to get you piano freaks avoiding your expenditures on "the real thing".

By the way, which sound modules or synths are you using to emulate yor "piano dream" would be an interesting survey... I guess they try to connect the Keystation Pro 88 to a junk 16-voice cheap Yamaha "piano" module... so they get what they deserve.

My last word on them is: if they want it to be 100% like a real piano, go SPEND tons of bucks in a REAL piano, and then shut up. I've had ENOUGH of product bullying here! It seems we tend to concentrate our musical and expresiveness frustrations into material things, ok, ok. I won't follow that route. I am the most happy I could with my Keystation Pro 88. I'll read and listen to worries of users who had really enough interest in the Pro88 to actually get time getting used to it, PLAY it, and start nitpicking the thing just because it doesn't compare to your ol'days Steinway you touched once while in high school or conservatory and that you'll never own (so you try to fool yourself with a $500 thing, and I guess that's the cause of your musical frustrations).

If you're that freak about "piano action" and "expresiveness", what are you doing here? Just buy a Bosendorfer, buy a Yamaha C7, buy a real Steinway, and get the way out of good companies such as M-Audio that are giving us users competitive products with good overall functionality and superb keytouch (and I play really good piano modules with this thing, so I am not by any way some techno kid that doesn't know what he is talking about).

This is a simple and easy to use keyboard, played with it and had no need to read the manual as the screen tells you what's going on.

You can layer and split the keyboard, have real time control over many parameters inside your sound module,has 88 keys, is midi and usb capable, many buttons to control everything your sound modules will allow. Too sad, cause it falls short when not backed up by good keyboard action.

Now, I want to tell you the real issues on this keyboard, its action (keys) is the worst I have experienced, allow me to explain, this keyboard will not reproduce you finger touch accurately, to prove this try playing a bussy arpegio and you will encounter that this keyboard will mute and delay some notes, also causing your fingers to get confuse( making your execution sound very unnatural), it is very disfunctional when it comes to its keys velocity, it will randomly sound harder on keys you are hitting softly (very bad dynamics, trust me), its key mechanics won't flawlessly and smoothly represent the full velocity scale (all the 0-127 values), that's the reason why it also sounds loud during moments in which you are hitting it softly. Not suitable for R&R, or classical pieces, very far from professional grade. May have some cpu latency issues. I do ask myself if M-audio has an actual pianist testing this
"hammer action" they so proclaim. I am not trying to diminish this product, but rather keep potential buyers from being mislead and dissapointed. I feel bad about being this brutally honest but I did find this keyboard very dysfuntional.

It seems well built, but it is a poor performer.

Don't need to deal with them. I am returning it.

No possile way for anybody with abilities to say that this keyboard performs flawlessly, it does not. I have played real pianos countless times, this keyboard falls short as compared to real piano action, it made me feel like I had to fight with the keys constanly to get somewhat good response, very stressfull.Not acceptable, not even for $499. Now I am dtermined to find a keyboard that reproduces my touch accurately, regardless if it is hammer piano action or else. That is what it all comes down to, proper expression.

Easy enough. It took me about a day to figure everything out on the KSPro 88 after reading through the advanced guide (that I had to download on the m-audio site). Everything makes sense and the big blue LCD is awesome.

But... it can be confusing trying to keep track of all those MIDI CCs and which knob controls what, etc. I actually made visual diagram of my keystation that shows the mapping I created for my softsynths (works wonders for my memory!)

This thing is packed with features. I love the knobs and I actually think there's almost too many of them. Most tracks I have produced I've only ended up using about half. The possibilities are there though for some serious control of your synths. This thing is a dream for anyone into producing drum n bass, techno, etc. Makes your software studio almost fear like hardware :)

The expressiveness/action of this keyboard is definitely not *great*. If you think you're gonna be banging away on this thing with huge amounts of dynamic range, it's not gonna happen. But it has it's own charm. For the first little while playing the keyboard I really didn't like the action at all. I instantly wished I had gotten a FATAR or something with supposedly bettter action, but the kspro has grown on me. It's great for organ and rhodes patches and for piano patches it's not bad for some rock, jazz and blues. Don't think you'll be playing any Chopin or Rachmaninoff but that's okay, I'm no concert pianist anyway. My fingers fly across the keys and I have no issues playing fast passages. Some of the velocities are inconsistent though.

My A4 key is louder than most of the other keys and hits 127 really easily. Also, the black keys play louder than the white ones so you have to consciously adjust for that. I've managed to learn the keybed pretty well now though and control the action of it to my liking. In my opinion, there is no perfect keybed and any instrument can be musical if you learn the faults of it and make them a strength. I don't know if that makes sense but I think sometimes too many people are bickering about this and that instead of just playing the thing and making music.

So far (crossing fingers)

I called once because an expression pedal I bought didn't work with the keyboard. Didn't get a great answer and the support guy said he would e-mail me with answer and the e-mail never came. Can't give high ratings here, sorry M-Audio.

If it were stolen I'd buy this again. Only because I produce a lot of electronic music and the knobs and sliders are a dream. The action is perfect for recording some quick riffs and the fact you can split your instruments up on 4 zones is bonus. The USB connection is a nice touch and the 88 keys are awesome for Ableton Live and samplers.

And we can't forget the price: cheap. IF this cost a few hundred more my review might not be as glowing, but for what you get there are no complaints at this price.

Thumbs up, M-Audio.

The unit is as difficult or as easy as you want to make it. If you really need to use all, or most, of those controllers then it will be a bit of work. But if you need to only use those sparingly and mostly use the keyboard to drive other modules or software synths, then it is pretty easy to use.

It has every feature imaginable for an 88 key master controller.........with one exception.....no aftertouch! Hard to believe that it doesn't include this basic feature as part of the keyboard circuitry. BUT, you can program it via pedal, so it's not entirely neglected. Here the unit gets is highest mark...9.

Here is where the ball is dropped in a HUGE, HUGE way. The expresiveness is pretty bad.

I will begin by saying that this keyboard does NOT play like a grand piano, or an acoustic upright piano for that matter. The action on my Kawai upright is MUCH, MUCH, superior to this keyboard. Forget about comparing it to a Steinway, Yamaha or Kawai grand. This thing cannot compete with the action on the real thing.

Now, let me explain something: By "action" I mean the way it PLAYS, not the way it feels. It feels fine. Arguably, if blindfolded you could be fooled into believing that you are touching a real piano. But that's where the realism ends. When the unit is coupled to GigaStudio's Gigapiano 2 it is very sluggish. Too sluggish to do any serious, rapid playing. I have tried every combination of velocity curve on the M-88 and various settings on the GigaPiano and have not been able to improve upon the action.

For working with synth sounds it also very sluggish. Way too heavy for any light, fast fingering.

However, for B3 or most organ patches the unit does pretty well. The weight actually helps for more percussive hits and funky kind of things.

All that being said, I bought the M-88 specifically as a GigaPiano controller and it has not bee good for that. I get more realism out of GigaPiano when using my Korg Trinity or even my Korg Z1(so I know it is not GigaPiano. Plenty of realism there. The problem is the M-88).

This, I find to be the biggest let down and cannot give it a high rating in this department. Quite disappointing.

Too soon to tell, since I've only had it about four months. But it looks about as solid as most anything out there today.

I've dealt with M-Audio on other issues before(not related to this board) and they have some excellent support.

I am a piano player, who happens to play keyboards/synths, not the other way around. I didn't need another board to control my synth rack, since I own two Korgs(listed above) and they do just fine.

All I wanted was a real piano feel with piano action! Is that asking too much?! Apparently it is! Seems that humans can send me to the moon and design bombs that fly through chimneys to hit their human targets, but we cannot design a keyboard that has real piano action!

You may say: "Oh, that's because you haven't tried the Fatars or the Yamahas or the Kurzweils, blah, blah, blah..." You know what? I've tried them ALL! I've been messing around with MIDI and home studios since the day that MIDI came out and to be honest with all of you, not a single board comes close to the action of a real piano.

Now that we FINALLY have killer piano samples like GigaPiano and the countless other clones, we don't have the keyboards to drive these great sample libraries!!! How can that be?!

In conclusion.....Keyboard design is lagging software samplers by a bunch and it's time that someone makes a controller that works flawlessly. One that is tested against the best piano samples and tuned to perform like the real thing.

Take a little crash course in Midi if you need to. Assigning controllers and everything else is very straight forward.

Let me just say on the keybed: Pretty heavy in some areas. Very light in others. I sent mine back for a replacement because about 5 keys had to be forced down. I've read elsewhere that you should by the one you play and like. Maybe they were right. Unfortunately, I'm buying mine over the net. The replacement should be here soon!!
Where the keybed felt good, it felt really good. Obviously there's an issue with manufacturing to have such an inconsistent keybed from one board to the next...
Hopefully the 2nd one will clear this up, because the features are incredible and so easy to use. It's hard to complain about all this for $500
I miss the KX88 :) But it didn't quite cut it in the layering department. However, I drive a laptop using http://www.brainspawn.com 's Forte. So most of my layering, splitting and program changes are handled in there...

What more could you want for features in a midi controller?

n/a

Jury is still out on this...

I don't know about M-Audio's support, but AMS sure came through on the replacement!!!

If it were lost or stolen, I would want this or another 88 controller.
Been playing off and on for 20 years.
I love the features. I love that it's USB and no power cable.

This is definatly not the easiest keyboard to use, but the basics are not too difficult to figure out. I haven't had this beast long but I've sussed programming bank / program changes to the buttons and basic midi CC's to the knobs. It would help if the advanced user guide took things a bit more step by step. The included software is pretty straight forward and makes things clearer.

Bearing in mind the limited range of controller keyboards available and the price, I think the pro 88 has got fantastic features. One of the big things for me wanting an 88 noter was how will the keyboard feel in playing - of course it is - why would anyone lug these monsters around if playing it didn't feel great? I was lucky enough to get a demo at a shop where I compared the action to some Roland fantoms and Korg pianos. It wasn't quite as nice as the Roland but to my taste it knocked spots off the korg. (SP200). The action is positive if a little on the heavy side, and Yep it does NOT feel like a grand piano. I used to own a rhodes stage 73 and the pro 88 has more in common with that than with an acoustic piano. You know you are playing this thing. However I am getting used to it and the weight and very slightly deeper key travel in no way effect the playability in my veiw. I'm sure that others will disagree and will maybe find it unsuitable, but hang on a minute it's under #400! What I am discovering is that having sussed out a nice velocity curve I am playing piano for hours on end. I can't put it down! (I can barely pick it up either but that's a different story) The range of knobs, buttons and sliders on the pro 88 is far more than I will ever need. With a bit of head scratching they do exactly what thy are supposed to do. The only functions that I think would make it even better would be SMF playback and maybe a more intuitive or comprehensive display. The thing looks and feels better than the ads and pics on the net would suggest. You have one midi out and you can store 10 preset "set ups" in the memory. I'm using this live, and with some careful programming I can pump out 170 (17X10) bank change / program change messages (17 at a time ) on one easy button press. This is a big problem solved for me and I guess many other players. The zone feature is excellent. you can programme up your modules or card sounds to be on 4 different zones and different midi channels and it works beautifully. It weighs 47 pounds and it's just about managable on your own.

It's very expressive providing you've programmed it right! No sounds though.

Seems good so far but I'm reserving judgement untill I've used it more.

not sure yet

You can pick these up for #325.00 I was happy to pay a bit more as I got the Demo and good support at the dealer. At the price I don't think you can get this level of control and playability on anything else . However I never tried the Fatar range.

For starters, this is an 88-key hammer-action master controller with a great number of assignable pots and faders, developed recently by M-Audio. It has both USB port and MIDI sockets for communication with your synth modules and/or computer sequencer and virtual instruments, and it can be powered both by USB and by a 9vdc adapter.

This monster can intimidate you at first glance, no matter the friendly, big size blue display. Programmability (basically mapping of MIDI controllers to physical knobs, faders, and switches) is straighforward for simple operations and set up of the keyboard operation, but for complicated mappings or operations the manual is not explicative enough (it uses a bad, not very "musicianship" style to it).

Even with that, you can just switch it on, and try for yourself without having to look at the manual... function legending is quite good, and you can "guess" most of the functions at the left of the display... but I proceeded that way only to find myself several minutes later that I had assigned somehow the damper pedal to some 0/127 round cycling of values at every foot tap... I had to resort to factory settings. And the manual didn't help very much.

Just take pacience, combined with a bit of experimentation by yourself if you get bored... The full manual is NOT printed neither included in the provided CD-ROM, which is a shame. Only some joke of a printed Quick Start guide... you have to download the full guide from M-Audio's page... :(

Anyway I've seen no manual for a MIDI controller having more than 10-20 pages... so that's not M-Audio's fault that the unit has such a simple purpose... yet it's a very comprehensive, useful and versatile machine as we will see now... It seems this unit leaves all to your imagination... with a bit of time, you can end up setting up complicated, expressive controller routings and mappings that can make all the yet unexplored details in some soft synth come suddenly to the surface. Creatively speaking, this is very desirable and the unit will allow you to do it. It's just a matter of getting used to the gear.

I am not, by no means any M-Audio rep, but I love this product so much that maybe it gives the wrong impression. Maybe I am a bit biased, but let me explain and then check for yourself in your local dealer.

The question here is: What are you getting for that price tag? Let me ennumerate: 88 full sized hammer-action keys, 24 rotary knobs, 9 smooth 60mm faders, 22 switches (5 of which are next to the pitch and mod wheels, and can be assigned to MIDI machine control functions for e.g. sequencer transport control), and dedicated buttons or combinations of them for operations such as Transpose, Octave, Program, Channel and Bank selections, and saving/recalling of combinations of controller assignments (10 locations max). And, again, the big blue display... so nice. Digits so large that you can concentrate on playing your stuff without getting your nose into the display to see what's happpening, no matter how much light there's around you. Those blue switch indicators for the keyboard zones are also quite sexy ;)

The feel of the keybed is very very good. I can't see what moves somes folks out there (specially in some M-Audio forums) to complain that much about its feel. Curiously enough, some of them were all-life pianists, other were just gig keyboardists or the like. As they say, there's no written rule in tastes. But I do like this keyboard's feel. For people accostumed to banging on cheap, plastic-spongy feeling 61-note synth keys, this can be quite a revelation. I've felt another brands such as Rolands, Yamahas, etc, and I can see no arguable difference that would interfer with your particular style of playing. The keys are definitely weighted, but without that hard-to-the-touch feel of Roland that makes my hands all sore... You can play fast arpegios on this, and it won't break or miss notes.

I think you can't compare this to other 88-key controllers/digital pianos out there. Kurzweil PC1X, for example, sports keys a bit less-full size than this M-Audio (check it and you'll see). Rolands are very hard to the touch, making it difficult to play fast passages. Yamahas have a great feel, but also I find them less playable so to say... M-Audio's simpler, has more style in the look & feel, and is going to become the greatest MIDI controller that you can include in your home or project studio setup, although maybe for live usage is not that versatile (even with that, you CAN use it onstage, for it has regular MIDI sockets and a 9-dc socket for external PSU (not included, but most brands out there seem to work nicely). Oh, I forgot the TWO damper jacks (both re-assignable if you wish), and the expression pedal jack.

Apart from the black keys having a bit different outline or distance to the white ones than usual (so what, you won't notice after your first couple minutes of tinkling), the overall look of the unit is just superb. From top to bottom, and this time it's for real, because the bottom of the unit is protected by this layer of wooden-like material (yeah!) that makes it feel so robust (and so heavy hehe). It really will shine as the masterpiece (looking-sense) of your studio. And surely it CAN get to be the masterpiece, because of the huge number of assignable, touchable controllers and faders... you can end up controlling all of, say, Cubase within this unit without ever returning to your computer chair. :)

The velocity curves are very diverse (10 total) and make it quite easy for those piano/gear freaks crying "I'm-a-true-piano-player-and-I-use-only-Steinways" out there, to get the response they're looking for... and if they end up not liking any of them, they are free to go spend their bucks on the real thing, right? :)

Mind you, I was trying to control my Roland XV-5050 module with all kind of MIDI keybeds, and the ONLY one that fit me right in the mood was this one! Some user was complaining in the forums about inconsistent velocity values across his playing... so, if he wants to end up with a metronom

As I said, the keyboard is very playable, you can always find the right velocity curve that suits you, and overall the feel and touch makes you very happy in studio applications.

Solid as a rock, had this sent to my basement studio location from the retailer 900 kms away by urgent postal service, and then another 10-15 kms jumping in the back of an old van, inside the original box and stuff... No problem at all. Ok, maybe not that solid for extensive gigging, but it surely will remain diligently working for me for ages at the studio... Maybe if your playing style is very very hard, you could end up breaking some key but that happens sometimes in most brands. Just try not to fake Marilyn Manson's keyboardist hanging this from swing ropes or such hehe :)

Some users have had problems with keys, mostly in the initial batch of pre-orders when this keyboard controller was released in the US. Gus Losada and some other very nice guys at M-Audio have been taking care of the group of dissatisfied customers. Prior to buying my Keystation, I had been browsing thru their questions and problems around the forums, but after all I was clearly decided to buy it and have it. And I don't regret at all. Mine works just fine, and it seems the few initial problems in production are now buried in the past (which is good for M-Audio's reputation).

As I said, there are guys in M-Audio tech sup with enough knowledge, expertise, and gentleness for us users, to make this a definite 10. I myself wrote an email to Gus Losada, asking him about the perceived quality problems from some users out there, and had it answered promptly. He assured me of guarantee of substitution if anything was bad. That confidence he showed made me finally buy it, even without trying it myself (there was no stock in any dealer around my location at that time). So I made the move, and no problem so far. I am a proud and happy customer now.

Contrary to what my case was, I honestly thing that to be sure you'll have to try this by yourself to see if it fits your feel-taste and playing style but, other than that, I think this is clearly a winner for years to come. M-Audio had the idea to launch an affordable 88-key hammer-action controller with extensive controller options as never seen up to now in controllers that size. They got it, point. And no other brand got it yet, point too (hehe :). Works fine and will sit beautifully in your studio, giving a "pro" look to it, but also for real, enhancing your workflow with the computer apps and synth modules, and making you enjoy the pleasure of 88-key playing. Have fun!

Installing the PC drivers straightforward. This has been my experience with all M-Audio and Evolution (now a subsidiary of M-Audio) gear, and a welcome change from the experience I've had with other musical instrument software.

Using the basic functions (playing notes and turning knobs) of the KS88Pro are pretty easy, but getting to the advanced features and heavy programming isn't very intuitive sometimes, and the manual isn't a lot of help. If you already own similar M-Audio or Evolution gear -- I have the UC-16 and X-Session -- then you've probably already gone through this learning process, and moving to the KS88Pro will be a breeze. If you haven't, you're in for some scratching your head at times. Once you get the hang of things, the methods are consistent, just not always intuitive.

(Note to M-Audio: The manual -- even the advanced one -- is borderline unusable. The advanced one needs to be twice as long, with more examples and supporting information. It has the feel of a document that was written by the product developers, complete with lots of small details left out -- because they were "obvious," perhaps? Please hire a document writer who can look at the product from an outsider's point of view!)

The Enigma editing software, on the other hand, is great. In fact, it's the only reason why I didn't rate this category as a 4 or a 5. Mine didn't come with the software on the CD; I had to download it from the Web. That situation might have been changed by now. Once you've spent a little time with Enigma, you'll never go back to the clunky onboard interface, except to make little final tweaks.

Let's break this into two parts, keyboard and controllers.

Keyboard -- It has 88 fully-weighted keys, which can be programmed into four zones, which can overlap each other. Each zone can have its own MIDI channel, and some of the more common controls (wheels, pedals) can straddle multiple zones. I'll discuss the keyboard feel in the next section.

Controllers -- This keyboard has tons of them: 24 knobs, 9 faders, and 22 buttons, plus the standard Mod and Pitch wheels, and external inputs. I haven't yet figured out a need for half of them, that's how many there are! All of the controls are programmable to send PG or CC commands, or a MIDI note, and different controls can be sent to different channels. Buttons have the ability to send a CC value of other than 0 and 127. The buttons, sliders, and knobs have a good solid feel to them. The pitch and mod wheels are a little small for my taste, but useable. The nine sliders can be put into "Drawbar" mode where they work backwards from a mixer slider. (And yes, nine sliders is way better than eight for Hammond organ sounds!)

The KS88Pro works well as a gigging keyboard (my primary use), and can run from an AC adapter instead of USB power. The blue backlit display is bright and easy to read. It's moderately heavy to carry around, but still much lighter than many weighted-88 products.

The KS88Pro has inputs for two sustain and one volume pedals, which like everything else, can be programmed to other functions. It only has one MIDI out, plus the USB port, though, so it cannot drive multiple MIDI paths without adding a Thru box. It has a MIDI In, but this only works through the USB port; it does not merge a second keyboard's output into the KS88Pro's data.

The keyboard feel is an area of huge differences in opinion. When buying a fully-weighted keyboard, the usual questions are: 1) Does it feel like a grand piano? and 2) Is it musically useful?

The answer to the first question is clearly no. The keys do not feel like any grand, upright, or even spinet piano I've ever played. What they feel most like is a late-'60s Fender Rhodes, complete with that funny bounce when a key is released. If you're fortunate (or old) enough to have played an older Rhodes, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't played one, I strongly suggest that you try one before buying. The action is not what might be expected!

That said, it's quite playable. I've been playing keyboards for over 40 years, starting on piano. I no longer consider piano as my primary instrument, but I still enjoy playing one when I get the chance. Unlike some reviewers, I have not had issues playing trills, staccato repeat chords, or any other techniques.

The keyboard has no aftertouch, which I miss, although I don't depend on aftertouch as much as some players. It has nine velocity curves, and I find that the factory default (#8) or #7 are my favorites.

The case is solid, and my KS88Pro seems to have been well built. Some early reports noted that one or two keys were lower than the rest, but mine has no such problems. I haven't gigged out enough to say if this is a true "road warrior." If your need is for the studio, this keyboard will do just fine.

I haven't had to call customer support for this product. My experiences with M-Audio support in the past have always been good.

OK, so I praised and dinged the KS88Pro for various things, so why do I give it a final rating of a 9? Because, for the money, there's really nothing else in its league right now. If you shop around, you can get it for less than $450. Weighted keys, more knobs and buttons than you'll need, and a readable display -- all for that money? It sounds like a deal to me! If someone stole mine, I'd be back at GC in a heartbeat, ordering another one.

Seems pretty easy to use. For programming it, I could nose my way around the OS fine without a manual. For playing, all the knobs and sliders would seem to make life very easy.

There are a number of key features missing here for a pro instrument. (I assume this keyboard is geared toward pros, since amateurs would probably not need piano keys and gobs of controllers.) The first disappointment was the lack of pressure sensing. It's becoming more common to leave it off these days, and I (and others like me who really PLAY their instruments) think that's a real shame. I would not buy any modern keyboard without pressure sensing. Also, the pitch wheel is terrible. On the unit I tested, the spring in it was really weak, so it returned to center position way too slowly, and only after a slight delay. It may be that this was a result of some kind of damage, but that doesn't bode well, either. The second disappointment was the keyboard feel. There's more weight to it than in typical synth keys, but it doesn't feel like a piano at all. Too cheap and plasticky feeling. Kurzweil (PC series) and Roland (RD170, FP2) have shown that you can make weighted keys feel light but still realistic--M-Audio should get some tips from them. The third disappointment was the lack of a sequence playback option. A number of synths have these--not full-blown sequencers, just Standard MIDI File players so you can dump your sequences from your computer in for live playback. A brilliant idea, even implemented on synths as primitive as the Alesis QSR and Ensoniq SQ1. Not here. Finally, more MIDI ports would let us use one of these as the centerpiece of a studio rig.

None here.

Too soon to tell, but the pitch wheel thing and the flimsy keys make me nervous.

Don't know.

I didn't buy it. I really wanted to like it, and I drove for almost two hours to get to a store that sells them. In person, this keyboard was a real let-down. The reviewers of Keyboard magazine liked it, but they like everything from major manufacturers now that they're owned by a big corporation. I'm not sure how anyone who's used to playing a piano (or any piano-weighted keyboard from other manufacturers) could like this. If you're not a pro and you don't care about accurate feel in the keys, there are many other options out there for you. Especially on the used market: Kurzweil's SP series are lightweight and come with good sounds. The new Studiologic controllers are not cheaper, but they're lighter and feel better. Roland's A37/A70 (76 keys) or RS9 (88 keys) are cheaper and better. (You have to put up with the stupid Roland paddle, but at least the RS gives you lots of great sounds.) Alesis QS7, Roland JV90, Ensoniq SQ2, Korg 01W, etc., all are cheap 76-key synths that make great controllers. So I'm not sure who this controller is geared toward. Certainly not me.

Generally, the operation is pretty straightfoward here, but it's not perfect.

The good:
- bus-powered; all you need is a usb cable to get up and running with a PC
- passed the plug-n-play test, allowing me to play through the keyboard just by plugging it in (without any prior setup - this on a G4 with garage band, for those curious)

The bad:
- any more than basic keyboard functions need setup before working (like the transport buttons)
- mostly, for all the buttons and knobs on the thing, the menu controls are all done with multiple button pushes and dual-function buttons. With just a little more hardware and some better labelling, I think the number of times I had to consult the manual could have easily been cut in half or eliminated--especially considering the relatively few things there are to set up on the keyboard istelf

For what this thing is designed to do, it mostly succeeds; it's supposed to be minimal, and it is, with no extraneous features to drive up that nice low price tag. Someone looking for track control and a keyboard for midi entry will find most of what they need in one device, whith the bonus of a mechanically well-executed hammer-action to make it feel pretty good.

That said, there are some fairly basic things missing here: Aftertouch, and another midi port or two might be well-received by someone considering this as a primary controller in a studio with more than just a computer.

And though it's easy to see the cost-cutting reasons behind having no tone generating of any kind on board, I have to admit that for the considerable space this beast eats up (it ain't small, especially in the vertical dimension) I found myself wishing more than once that it could at least muster a basic piano sound without needing a companion computer or device. That's getting nitpicky, though, and for the price I can't consider this a legitimate complaint.

Unfortunately, here lies my main beef with this keyboard, and what is ultimately a fatal flaw. Without mincing words, the velocity response sucks. This is especially frustrating because of how nice the keys FEEL to the touch: I was surprised to find the action comparing favorably to a Motif ES8 nearby in the store. The problem is that the upper end of the range is reached far too quickly; what should be a stiff medium hit peaks out the velocity to 127, and any variation in velicity above that is lost completely. The Different velocity curves you can choose from help a little in the softer end, but ultimately don't change the range. As a result, playing at normal levels (for me...and I don't consider myself a hard player) had the velocity levels maxed out most of time, and getting any dynamics from the keyboard required a very conscious effort to play as softly as possible.

Ultimately, this puts a considerable damper on my ability to play expressively using this keyboard, and that was more than I was willing to put up with, so, back it went.

There were other minor annoyances too, such as the pitch shift having less-than-adequate centering, and poor tactile feel for the faders and knobs. (again, it's cheap, so I can't complain too loudly)

I didn't really have this thing long enough to hve a valid opinion here, but it did seem to be sturdy and well enough made to stand up normal use, and it didn't seem to have any problems while I had it.

I hate to say it, because I like M-Audio's thinking behing this device, and much of it is well done, but I couldn't recommend a Pro 88 to anyone. The velocity problem is just too glaring, and dectracts significatly from it's expressive capability?which is, after all, the point. It's cheap, but the money is still better spent on a used controller that won't limit the player to feathering the keys.