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Comparing Keyboard Feel - XW is not all that bad!


AlenK

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I just came back from spending a few hours at a local music store trying out and comparing various keyboards. They did not have an XW model there but of course I am by now very familiar with how that feels.

I can report categorically that at least to MY fingers, the XW's keyboard had a better feeling action than most of the other synth-action, unweighted keyboards I tried, which included Roland's SH-01 (Gaia), Juno Di, and BK-5 models; Korg's Krome, Kross, and King Korg models; and Yamaha's MX49.

The only unweighted synth keyboards I tried that I didn't feel were worse were on Novation's UltraNova, Roland's VR-09 and an old Korg M1 that was on consignment. They all felt pretty nice, maybe a step up from the XW's keyboard but only by a little bit if at all.

The best feeling synth-action keyboard in my opinion was on Roland's Jupiter 50 (they didn't have an 80 there) but of course that is semi-weighted and the 50 is a MUCH more expensive synth. I did not get a chance to try out a 61-note or 73-note Kronos since the two units in the store were both hammer-action 88-key models. However, reports say that the Kronos synth-action key beds feel very good.

Noise-wise, the XW's key bed is a little noisier. But the others weren't exactly quiet. A lot of them were quite "thunky". It's a matter of preference but at the end of the day you won't hear any of that on stage nor IMO should it bother anyone in a studio environment if you have your monitors at a normal volume.

The absolute worst keyboard I tried was onYamaha's MX49. Horrific, just horrific. The keys flex sideways (laterally), they flex longitudinally if you apply only a little pressure, they feel light and hollow (because they ARE light and hollow) and they are hinged right at the edge of the case (instead of back inside the case where the hinge belongs). You can actually see the cheap details of the plastic construction where they hinge. I thought the King Korg and Krome keyboards were bad enough but this was even worse than the Kross's keyboard, which is a step down from those other two Korg models (all those models are hinged in the wrong place and they flex as well, although not quite as much).

The only thing Yamaha didn't do was make the keys too short. That's the mistake Roland made on the Juno Di, BK-5 and presumably also the Gi, which all seem to share the same key bed. But even so I'd still rather play any of those Rolands than the MX49 or the MX61.


PS. I really could not recommend the MX49 or MX61 even if their key beds weren't a disaster. The XW-P1 walks all over those models in features and capabilities. They also cost more. At this store, which is where my XW-P1 was bought, the MX49 with its four-octave keyboard is priced $100 more than the XW-P1 with its (WAY better feeling) five-octave keyboard. The MX61 is $300 more.

The PCM-based synthesis engine inside the MX models is reportedly pretty good, probably even better than what is in the XW-P1, which is to be expected as it is based on a cut-down Motif XS (or should I say a cut-down MOX?). But to access most of that synthesis power - to do deep editing - you need to buy a third-party PC program. Contrast that with the XW, which can access almost all synthesis parameters through the front-panel interface and has a free PC/Mac editor (and now a free iPad app for editing the solo synth thanks to Mike Martin).

However, on the plus side the MX models do come bundled with a "light" version of Cubase, a virtual B-3 softsynth and a virtual-analog softsynth and they seamlessly integrate with Cubase and other DAWs (including outputing digital audio over USB). Casio really needs to address this aspect in the next XW model(s).

Too bad there isn't a rack-mount or module version of the MX. That's probably something I would buy if the price were right because the MX models actually sound pretty good, IMO.

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I can throw in my 2 cents....it does have a nice feel for such an affordable instrument. After disassembling I can report it is certainly not a Rolls-Royce keybed, but especially after adding felt under the keys, I can really "sit" on these without feeling like there will be anything breaking, a common problem with many keyboards, especially weighted ones. The thin padding underneath made the clunking in mine which is why my mod. Also less shock on fingers. Very sensitive, even with extra felt. Nice wide, full-size keys. Many of the higher end instruments have fairly narrow keys, unlike a piano or Hammond and not good for technique. The XW is pretty much the same width, important to me at least.

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