M-Audio ProKeys 88 or something else?

As the title asks. Is there anything better than the M-Audio stage piano that doesn't cost a cent more? 88 fully-weighted keys, MIDI out, all that jazz.

I dunno... how's the tone on it? For that price (

The only thing that might come close is the Casio Privia series. I like the action on the Casio better but I prefer the sounds on the M-Audio. EWall

I know of a guy on the Yahoo keyboard newsgroup that uses one. He calls it his "throw-away" board, meaning his workstation (Fantom, I think) stays at home. It's not stellar, according to him, but it's good enough for a bar gig. Plus he doesn't expose his "nice" gear to stale smoke and beer.

Does it have string resonance ?

I don't know how it sounds (wasn't pugged in at the store) but the keys felt very cheap.

I remember trying it.

Keys: yuck

Look and feel: cheap

Interface: good

Sounds: good to very good

It's peanuts, right? Solid value.

Erm - well - actually *anything* else...

I'm not sure if we're all talking about the same piano here... I'm talking the fully-weighted one. List price $750.

I'm looking for a board that has good feel first and good sounds second. Everything else is optional. I can't go higher than 750 (LIST, please note).

A used Alesis QS8.1 with the Vintage Keyboards or Jazz Piano Q-Card might do you justice. It's built like a tank, good keybed feel, and with the add-on cards you get great piano and EP sounds. The stock piano sounds aren't bad either.

I bought the CME UF8 and love it... It's just a Midi controller though w/ no sounds of it's own.

If you're looking for feel first, then the M-Audio should be avoided. It feels REALLY bad. We're talking bottom of the barrel here.

Look more to the Yamaha or Casio Privia series instead.

Used is not an option.

What are you using for sounds? How much did the UF8 run you?

Be aware there are multiple M-Audio 88 key controllers. The first one that was released was had unsatisfactory action. It was this one:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Keystation88es-main.html

I have the Keystation Pro 88:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/KeystationPro88-main.html

I tried the Pro Keys 88, which is this one:

I was not impressed with the sound of the Pro Keys 88. I found the action of the Keystation Pro 88 to be reasonably good, so I went with that. For now I have it control SimpleSynth running a piano Soundfont at home when I'm learning/practicing. It controls my Emu Command Station when I take it out for playing with the band. I don't have a great acoustic piano sound in the Emu, but I do like its CP70 and Rhodes sounds, which I added to it via the Vintage Collection ROM. Our band's music does not require acoustic piano sounds. In the future, the Keystation will probably be driving, via USB, a MacBook running some kind of software piano - there are so many good ones out there. Unless I suddenly get rich, in which case I'll replace my whole rig with a Korg OASYS 88.

I'm frustrated. I can't decide on the most effective option to take.

Right now I'm thinking I should get the KeyStation Pro 88 and just run soft synths until I can buy a standalone module.

Viable? Not viable?

EDIT: Should I take this route, what kind of programmature do I need to run said synths?

If you want to got the controller + soft piano route, there are a ton of offerings out there:

Native Instruments Akoustik

Synthology Ivory

Steinberg The Grand

and a whole bunch of other sampled pianos.

There's also the Pianoteq physically modeled piano. Unfortunately, the demo didn't work on my Powermac G4 OSX machine.

If you don't already have a laptop that is capable of running any of the above, then you might have to settle for one of those cheap Yamaha or Casio digital pianos. My aunt is happy with her cheap 88-key Yamaha - its one of those under $500 budget pianos that a professional pianist wouldn't be happy with, but it serves her needs fine as a church choir director and beginning to intermediate level keyboardist.