What's new

New Roland A-88mk2 is ALMOST perfect

What the world needs is a "Left Hand Section" that's just a little box, like what's on the left side of the A-88mk2 and the Doepfer LMK-4. Then you could use a Casio digital piano or whatever you please, or even strip out the key bed from your favorite existing controller or synth, build it into your desk, and not worry about what to do about mod wheels etc. You could call it "Leftie". Such a box could have:

- USB-MIDI as well as 5-pin MIDI in+out with merge so you can patch it in line with your keyboard if you want - or not. It might be convenient for some to be able to separate the MIDI inputs from the keyboard and the left hand section.

- Ordinary wheels, but THREE of 'em, like on the Yamaha SY-99. Sprung pitch bend plus two ordinary wheels for Mod + Expression. For many users this would be enough, and they wouldn't even need faders or knobs.

- An option for drum pads, but small ones similar to the A-88mk2, not a full MPC-style gigantic 16-pad square. Either two rows with 4 or 6 pads per row, or a single row of 12 or 16, with software assignable LED colors and data types, and the ability to have either the notes themselves or just the LEDs "latch" so if you're using it for keyswitching you can see which one was last pressed and is therefore active.

- An option for knobs and / or faders. Definitely 100mm faders, not those shorties, and since an 8-knob panel is about the same size as a 4-fader panel, maybe there would be two available spots to put the panels in so you could have 4 faders + 8 knobs, 8 faders + 0 knobs, or 0 faders + 16 knobs.

Heck, you could almost build this out of EuroRack bits at this point, and indeed that might be the shortest path. There are so many eager EuroRack makers these days that it would probably be easier to convince one of them to tool something up rather than trying to turn the battleship HMS Roland. A standard 3-rack-space EuroRack size is just about perfect - 100mm faders will fit, and Doepfer already make a pitch+mod wheel module (although it's CV only). There are a variety of shallow "skiff" style enclosures that would sit nicely in the available space, and there might be one that's the right size already. All that's really missing is a MIDI brain for the thing, and this might already exist - I've just lost track of the hailstorm of Euro stuff lately. But at NAMM I'll be scoping for such a thing, or the way to put one together with all the cables inside so you don't have front panel spaghetti over there.

I've been digging around in the Livid Instruments site looking at their Builder series, which would make something like this possible but... hassle. But their Builder Brain might be the CV>MIDI engine that we'd need.
I have made some of that with arduino and a local company that builds controllers

I have 16 knobs (with buttons for banks)and 8 100mm faders, I also have a steinberg pad cmc but I only use it to trigger expression maps.

I have disassembled a yamaha digital piano and it plays great. I have it in a sliding board beneath the desk (still looking for something nice with 7cm height)
I haven’t found a solution for pitch bend yet!

I will have them plot the controller names once I decide the best config:
35B9E9A8-C63E-4A0E-8ADB-1E6DDFC19335.jpeg

The company is
(Not affiliated)
 

Attachments

  • D8537E63-4A8A-4D23-87A9-140ADEF45CB8.jpeg
    D8537E63-4A8A-4D23-87A9-140ADEF45CB8.jpeg
    117.6 KB · Views: 18
I’m currently using a Kurzweil K2500x as a master. It replaces my Roland A80, which I loved but is worn out. The performance setup page is perfect for this.
 
I have made some of that with arduino and a local company that builds controllers

I have 16 knobs (with buttons for banks)and 8 100mm faders, I also have a steinberg pad cmc but I only use it to trigger expression maps.

I have disassembled a yamaha digital piano and it plays great. I have it in a sliding board beneath the desk (still looking for something nice with 7cm height)
I haven’t found a solution for pitch bend yet!

I will have them plot the controller names once I decide the best config:
35B9E9A8-C63E-4A0E-8ADB-1E6DDFC19335.jpeg

The company is
(Not affiliated)

Well that's just about perfect! Bookmarking Yaeltex.
 
These days a $13 teensy board is all you need to make a midi controller. Wire up whatever pots and switches you want to it, and write a dozen or so lines of code in the arduino editor (basically copy and paste and edit your CC numbers) and you have a midi controller. powered off USB. Buy a box, drill a few holes...

The keyboard to the left was built 6 years ago out of a casio keybed (great if you like a heavy action) an axiom 61 note keyboard (horrible!) and the knobs and sliders from an old roland A-30. I wired the drawbar pots in for the axiom sliders. Had to fit all the boards from all three units into the box, which was a pain!

But the new one I'm building now has (real!) hammond drawbars running into a teensy board. Much more compact! I also retrofitted the KX8 keybed on it for aftertouch, using a couple of long FSRs from sparkfun plugged into the teensy. Works great, although no AT on the black keys.... And I built a breath controller using a $20 pressure sensor and some 1/4" tubing, and the teensy is running that too.

I have a second teensy for all my foot pedals and switches, which means I only have a single USB cable running between the floor and the keyboard.

One teensy can run a dozen pots and 15 switches IIRC.
 
:) it was our own ED who indirectly made me check. His https://www.roland.com/us/products/rd-2000/ (favourite controller)(it like my favourite controller which I still use the Roalnd A-90 from decades ago, has both joystick and wheels) also by Roland is perfect for me except it too shockingly doesnt' have after touch.

It's not my favorite controller - I don't own it, due to no aftertouch and shockingly bad firmware where you cannot set different CC number to individual sliders! You choose a custom CC, and it's the same CC across all sliders, just on different MIDI channels... it's a joke compared to Kurzweil's flexibility (I'm still using PC3K8).

It just has a pretty great (triple sensor) keybed. That's all. It feels very good to play it. However, after playing it extensively in Berlin (hard to find it locally in Croatia), I was kinda left surprised by how it doesn't effortlessly respond to key repetitions. It almost feels like a regular dual sensor keybed... or it might simply be the case that my key repetition technique sucks balls... However I also played a Kawai MP7SE there (plastic keys but also triple sensor), and it was way easier to do key repetitions... But it's bulky as hell...
 
Last edited:
It's not my favorite controller - I don't own it, due to no aftertouch and shockingly bad firmware where you cannot set different CC number to individual sliders! You choose a custom CC, and it's the same CC across all sliders, just on different MIDI channels... it's a joke compared to Kurzweil's flexibility (I'm still using PC3K8).

It just has a pretty great (triple sensor) keybed. That's all. It feels very good to play it. However, after playing it extensively in Berlin (hard to find it locally in Croatia), I was kinda left surprised by how it doesn't effortlessly respond to key repetitions. It almost feels like a regular dual sensor keybed... or it might simply be the case that my key repetition technique sucks balls... However I also played a Kawai MP7SE there (plastic keys but also triple sensor), and it was way easier to do key repetitions... But it's bulky as hell...


Sorry for misrepresenting what you said.

Hopefully you can appreciate why I came to the wrong conclusion based on reading some of your posts in the past, without the additional info above.

rsp
 
Last edited:
Yeah sure. That was when I had a few cursory rounds with it, the action really feels great to play (and this opinion on mine is still unchanging - it is simply great! But for key repetitions, I assume I need to work on my technique, since I didn't find it effortless to play, when I can do the same thing just fine on my upright back at my folks' place). But when I got more time to play with it, that MIDI CC limitation killed the dream for me... I know I said in one post I would be getting RD-2000 to replace my PC3K8, however this is not happening after all, because of the above.

As it stands, there is still no perfect MIDI controller for me, anywhere...
 
I still love my A-90, but indeed wished it had more and better sliders and it is exceedingly heavy. Thank goodness I don't have to move it often.
rsp
 
I've asked before but Im curious again if anyone knows of a keyboard controller with the same feel as the Nord Piano 4? Its the best digital keyboard bed I've ever played and the smoothness and response definitely improves my recording & playing over both the Doepfer and Komplete Kontrol 88
 
Interesting options! I still prefer something with at least a few decent on-board piano sounds. So I don't always have to fire up the PC, adjust the latency, etc., etc....

... just to practice or to workout some quick ideas.
 
I've asked before but Im curious again if anyone knows of a keyboard controller with the same feel as the Nord Piano 4? Its the best digital keyboard bed I've ever played and the smoothness and response definitely improves my recording & playing over both the Doepfer and Komplete Kontrol 88

That one very likely uses Fatar TP/40GH, modified by Nord... So no other board has it, at least not with those same modifications Nord did, whatever they might be.
 
PolyAT is very rare on fully weighted controllers due to added weight, costs, and the compromises required for escapement etc. This is why I never liked the Kurzweil MIDIboard back in the 80's or later on when one became available to me for peanuts (maybe even free) and I turned it down.

I have been told by certain vendors that it is almost impossible to support PolyAT without side-to-side key wiggle at some level, and that this can work against good piano action.
 
Last edited:
As for pads, Arturia and Korg have traditionally had the ones with the most sensitivity levels and accuracy, both on dedicated pad controllers and for pads that are on their keyboard controllers.
 
As I still prefer Kawai's action to anybody else's, and also the built-in sounds (which would not be what I use in the studio anyway, but for practice and maybe some gigs), I am hoping they'll have a MIDI 2.0 board soon.

I was initially excited by this new Roland board, but every product they make (in hardware at least), ultimately disappoints with one or two fatal flaws (which seem intentional in order to keep you in the upgrade cycle) and I've also been burnt too often with short-term compatibility limits and for stuff that has sounds, the baked-in-ness of the reverb and room ambience in the raw samples.

Nevertheless, I always keep an open mind about anything that comes along, and have some hope for this board once full details are more clear and one becomes available to try in person. I won't be at NAMM though.
 
I have the previous model of A-88. It was designed to be integrated with Roland Integra, so I never use the measly controls that version has. But I have to say, for playing piano A-88 is incredible.

How do you handle fast repeated notes on it?
 
BTW escapement is the single most important feature to me on ANY keyboard and is why I have suffered without one for almost five years now, ever since selling my Kurzweil PC3X to a former member of the Grateful Dead (one of my employer's clients). I'm glad the Kurz went to a good cause, supporting budding songwriters at a local showcase club founded by him. Using Fatar action was wrecking my technique though.

I play a lot of latin styles, classical, jazz, even stride, where fast repeats of the same note are absolutely essential. And as acoustic upright pianos generally do not have escapement (except for upright grands), I've been hoping for this to be delivered well in a digital model.

Both Kawai and Yamaha now have such models, but I, like Nick, have so far been unable to achieve proper technique on a Roland that is spec'ed to support this feature, even after hours of practice. So I'm not convinced it's a personal technique issue. But I'm willing to be proven wrong.
 
Top Bottom