Suzuki KM-88

10 Rating for ease of use.
No manual required for stand along playing.

64 note polyphony, The keyboard action is excellant for me.
I could have bought a dedicate keyboard only with no sound,
but I wanted to get a better piano sound and improve my keyboard playing with a semi-weighted keyboard.

I tried the other keyboards on the market, and did not like
the cheaper three hundred dollar keyboard controllers.

Most serious acoustic pianists want a several ounces of pressure
per key. I found grand piano action harder and stiffer than the KM88. The keys feel like real piano keys, but not quite as much pressure is required to play, even though the "pressure" required is not stiff.

It is harder to play the keyboard than a DX7 or Organ keys, synth
players will be challenged. I owned mini moogs before I played
real acoustic piano, and found that a comprimise would be ideal.

You still need to work your instrument, but it should not be
so hard as to cause carpel tunnel. Blues and most music,
feels much better when played on keyboards with some resistance and some "reaction" to your playing.

For the money this thing works fine as both decent piano keyboard
with 88 keys and controller for modules, with splits and layers, as long as you don't need much for midi functionality as master controller.

Dedicated controllers offer much more routing and midi capabilities,
which the keyman 88 does not have. It has only basic midi functions
that work for my setup.

No reverb on the original units, the new models come with speakers.
I am also using the KM88 as midi controller. It seeems to be basically
good, except I do not have the manual and the midi button may allow
additional functionality.

Splits or layers are easy to set and use. There are only seven instrument buttons, two sounds are acoustic pianos. The only inferior
sound/sample is the strings. They sound more like mutted pads,
and I find them usefull still for background pads.

The acoustic pianos (two of them only) each have their seperate
strengths. I switch between the brighter one and the darker one
depending on the room, amp and musical context. The bottom ends are
both differant, two differant pianos/samples are probably used.

The top ends are much different and are usable dependant on the material and situation. People have told me that they thought it
was actually real piano sounding. Much more than my new soundcanvas
or the romplers I've heard or the older korg M1, casio ctk611, all which sound far too thin and metallic, each note is not unique
and may be a sample spread across more than one key. Anyone who
plays real piano gets a unique experience with each key.

This keyboard sounds like the "zoning" is not in the sound,
and it sounds like unique sound per key, but it might just
be excellant engineering. The KM88 makes me feel like I'm playing real piano.

I'm giving the sounds an eight, due to the fact that the piano's
sound very good to me, and this things not a synth with 8000 sounds.

This keyboard is built fairly well and handles being thrown into
the back seat of a car and lugged about and still shines and plays well.
No keyboard issues like other similar keyboards on the market.

I have to call Suzuki to try to aquire a manual so I can figure out
how to use the single button for midi. I have not opinion so far
about customer support.

I'd buy the new one in a second. It has speakers, 13 sampled voices, digital reverb and chorus control with EQ brilliance.

I wanted the Roland FP8 when it came out, but the keys are harder
action, and harder to play. The Roland was much heavier,
the KM88 is only 35LBS. One hand is all I need to pick it up.

My music appreciation has improved and my playing has developed
much farther than when I practiced on Synths only.

The price is much better than the FP8 and similar electronic pianos.
Hard to find a acceptable amount of weight and quality sound
and construction.

Very easy to use - not terribly many features to use

Keyboard action is terrible - described on the Suzuki web site at "Uniquely Pleasing"
Midi Capable

Both pianos are way too quiet and are too loud on the bass and too quiet on the treble. The rest of the voices are good, but since the pianos are what count, it gets a bad rating from me.

Always works

800 number answered all my questions

I would not buy it again. As a classical pianist, the action is terrible. As a member of a rock band, the sound is terrible. I had it for a week and traded it in for a Technics sx-p30, a far superior piano costing two to four hundred dollars more. It's worth it - the action, sound, and looks of the Technics are far superior.