Re: Kurzweil MIDIboard: poly pressure vs. CS-80
|
In a message dated 9/30/04 10:06:37 PM, david@... writes:
I had a question for anyone who's got experience with both the CS-80
and the MIDIBoard.? For me, the best part of the CS-80 is the
keyboard: the feel, the velocity sensing and the pressure sensing.?
I love how the pressure has the rubber bits under the keys that
squish down about 1/16" or more as you press harder.?
The CS-80 has a light enough touch for "synth" playing, but the best thing is the piano-like keys: somehow the mass of the keyboard allows you to REALLY play the Poly AT. I owned one for about a year, sold it because I couldn't deal with the maintenance and tuning issues- it went to a better home where a real vintage synth nut could put in the proper time it needed.
I used to have a Roland A-80, which I got mostly because it had poly-
pressure.? I still think the A-80 had about the best piano action
I've ever played, but the pressure sensing was horrible.? The
problem (besides the senstivity, which could mostly be fixed) was
that the keys didn't move any after the initial bottoming out.?
There was zero physical feedback, unlike the Yamaha.
I also used to own an A-80, and sold it for the same reason: Excellent piano touch, very bad implementation of poly AT. You needed hands of steel to get it to do anything, despite changing sensitivity internally or even doing the Roland-approved mods to make it more sensitive- and with the "concrete feel" of the AT bed, it was difficult to control.
So, what about the MIDIBoard?? I haven't seen one in many years and
don't remember the feel.? How does it compare to the CS-80?? Even
better - anyone using one to control the CS80v program?? Does it
respond like the real thing?? They pop up on eBay once in a while,
so I'm wondering if one would be worth going after.
How best to put this? F#%@^%@ing YES!!!!! Now that I have secured mine, I can let out the secret: Short of actually owning a mint CS-80, the Kurz MidiBoard is simply the absolutely best implementation of controlling Poly AT ever made. The piano touch is good- not quite as good as an A-80 (which I feel was one of the best, even better than many boards that came after it) but the MidiBoard has that same spongy "give" that makes it easy to control Poly AT, even if you are using your 5th digit to bring out one note.
The only caveat is that the MidiBoard was made for a number of years- there were three OS revisions, and you DEFINITELY want the latest, 3.0; It is nearly impossible to update early versions. In addition, the actual keyboard mechanism was changed late in its run, to a "Suzuki" piano action which was a vast improvement over the original. I can give you more details privately if you want.
I am using it to control the CS-80V (as well as various softsynths, and a PolyEvolver) and to say I love it is an understatement! The CS-80V does a "decent" job of emulating a real CS-80, but of course it pales in direct comparison. Still, it is good enough for me.....the MidiBoard does an excellent job of interacting with the CS-80V software to really make it respond to playing technique. The only major bummer is that the virtual ribbon (controlled by pitch wheel in the software) does not drive the oscillators down to zero like the real thing. It has been suggested to fix this in the next software revision.
In addition to the MidiBoard, I also have a Peavey 1600x and a Kurzweil ExpressionMate ribbon controller sitting on top of it. Yeah, I really WOULD love it if Crow came out with a rackmount modern analog CS-80! Needless to say, the fact that the Alesis Andromeda does NOT respond to PolyAT is one of the biggest gear disappointments I have ever experienced....
Any other poly-pressure keyboards to report on (Prophet T8, GEM S2/3)?
Prior to finding the MidiBoard, I did use a GEM S3 for quite awhile- it has a synth-weighted keybed, and the PolyAT is not quite as spongy, but it is very usable. It is built like a tank, has 7 midi-assignable sliders, and it is nice having the 76 keys- makes a great overall synth controller. It was also not a great seller, so people let them go pretty cheaply (I bought/sold mine for $350). The only downside to the Gem S2/S3 is that there is volatile RAM, so once you set up a "performance" to control a CS-80V (assigning sliders, PolyAT, etc.) it needs to be saved to 3" floppy disk (remember those) so that it can reload on boot-up. Pray the floppy drive never fails, or you will have to manually change the settings each time you turn it on.
Sorry for rambling.....!
-Marshall
|
Join yamahaCS80fans@groups.io to automatically receive all group messages.
