So I have used a fair number of synths with nice keybeds but never right in a row for a proper test… how would you rank them and where would the AK and DK land in there?
Best keyboard I’ve ever played as far as synths go - Prophet 6. By far, I’d say.
But the Analog Keys ranks very high, and is close to the Prophet 6 for me. I really appreciate that Elektron puts so much love into their keybeds.
For electric pianos and similar, Yamaha is my favourite, especially the keys in the CP88. Korg is close behind, though. The keys they use in their SV-1 board are great.
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Blofeld keybed is best I’ve played. Most midi controller keybeds are quite tragic really. They’ve got that feeling like when you were a kid and went to punch yer mate on the arm and missed…
I’d like to get a 49 key with fully weighted keys but I don’t think there’s any. Haven’t played the DK AK.
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I can not say much about keyboards, but I have a yellow sledge among other cheaper keyboards - the keys feel the best to me, althought the aftertouch could be a tack “softer”. It’s a fatar keybed used along other synths too (blofeld I guess).
Virus ti2…
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Roland Fantom-X 6
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The AK is one of my all time favourite synths, but, I wonder if my AK (probably the last batch 2017) had heavier springs than earlier ones, because it is most definitely harder than my Prophet-6 and OB-6 keyboards. And the Rev2 keyboard is slightly lighter than the Prophet-6/OB-6, but the recoil doesn’t seem to different.
I used to have the AnalogKeys sitting under my Subsequent37 and found that going from the SubQ37 to the AK was like going from feathery speed to ham fisted pounding.
As for piano, I’ve never had a better keybed than the Roland FP-30, which is the same as the higher models except for the top model that uses wood, but all have the same weighting, escapement, texture as the cheap FP-30. And the same sound engine too.
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They’ve got that feeling like when you were a kid and went to punch yer mate on the arm and missed…
The best way of putting anything that I ever heard.
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Oberheim Two Voice Pro feels very similar to the Prophet 6 - both great.
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Blokeys is alright
Yeah, I think basically anything with a Fatar keybed is going to be pretty good. The Moog Grandmother has great feel and uses a Fatar keybed. The Blofeld keys, Virus and Sledge are all Fatar keys, too, I believe
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I don’t have many keyboard synths, but of the ones I do have, the DX-7 and Juno-60 have the best keybeds, in that order. The SH-1 is by far the worst, to the point where I’ve plugged in a Keystep via cv/gate to get better keys (and of course and arpeggiator and/or sequencer) ; the MS-20 (when I had one around) had an awful keyboard too.
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yeah I have had/do have enough vintage synths that basically any newer synth worth putting a keybed into is an improvement, so I don’t stress over it. and I don’t think the SH series have bad keys, really; you should try a Polivoks! (I’m with you on the MS=20 though)
but really, a synth with only a 37 not keybed… you’re not gonna be playing Bach on the thing. it’ll be excellent for what you’ll actually do with it. this shouldn’t be a defining factor on whether or not to purchase AK or DK.
Yeah, I went and tried out the SH-1 keys again to see how they feel, and it’s really only in comparison to the Juno and DX-7 that it seems to have the least good keys of all the synths I currently have access to.
I did a quick comparison, and the 40 year-old SH-1 keys feel nicer and more responsive than my (desperately in need of tuning and renovation) ~100 year-old piano.
I’d love to find out how bad a Polivoks keyboard is in person one day. Because science.
Ranking how?
Here´s my personal Top 4 list:
1 Moog Voyager (not the ones with the China keybed)
2 Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S61 mk1
3 Waldorf Blofeld Keys
4 Korg SV1
5 Yamaha SY35
Ordered the Digitione Keys, i wonder where i will place it…
On the contrary…the worst ones:
Roland System 1
Korg
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Any suggestions of a nice-feeling midi keyboard?
Planning to get a very minimalistic one, preferably with 49 keys.
As cheaper, as worse is the keyboard feeling. Novation SL49 mk3 or Native Instruments S49 mk2 are top of the line, the rest is below. I like the Arturia Keylab Essential, but that is also rather cheap feeling, but ok for the price. No Aftertouch though.
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Yea I was thinking of ordered lists… for me I love my DSI pro 2 keybed and after wandering through a store recently touching every semi weighted keyboard i could find the only thing that really came close was the nord, but it didn’t really feel like synth keys even at semi weighted to me. For one it made me curious but also just wanted to see what people liked. From what I touched in store I would rank
- Dsi or Nord
- Roland
- Yamaha or Komplete Kontrol
I didn’t get to test any moog or blofeld but I’ve loved the sub 37 keys in the past but that was a while back. No flagship korg stuff either. No elektron.
Interestingly I found much less variation in the full weighted piano style keys… maybe because I hardly play piano but all of them seemed nice, while the synth ones I feel like the feeling of quality really drops off quick.
The Korg SV1 Pianolike Keyboard feels very nice! I Wish i Had space for it…also great sounding.
And if you for whatever reason only have space for mini keys, say 37 or so of them, the Reface can’t be beat.
I could get a Yamaha Reface for the keybed alone, if I was in a spot and could do with only 37 keys. It’s the Reface and then a long distance to whatever comes after that, when it comes to mini keys.
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