RH3 KEYBED

[shap]

Personally I find the RH3 acceptable, but I prefer Roland's. Yamaha's I find are generally too heavy (except for the ones on the MOX8/XF8). It's strange because Yammie's acoustic grands are not as heavy as their digital pianos.

In the XF case, I wonder how much of the difference came about because of the no-lead redesign?

Personally, I'd give the nod, slightly, to the XF action over any RH3 I have tried (my kronos ain't here yet), but the ES and the XF actions are definirely harder actions than the RH3. That can be good or bad depending on your preferences, style, and standard of reference. I grew up playing a grand piano, and some of the things I want to play really benefit from a double escapement action. So to me, both of these actions are adequate, improving, but not there yet. Unfortunately I can't afford an electronically interfaced grand. Yet. And they're a little on the heavy side.

It will be interesting to see what I think after playing the XF and the K-88 side by side for a week or two.

[shap]

My piano teacher tells me that it's better to use Weighted keys to strengthen your fingers. I would guess stronger fingers on weighted keys, would maby be similar to weak fingers on synth-action keys.

That's not the right view, and if your piano teacher really said that, they have given, at best, part of the story, and they have failed to disclose bias. They may still be a good teacher for you; but be aware of their limits.

It is true, so far as it goes, that a weighted action is harder and will strengthen your fingers. It's good to get strong exposure to this type of action; the traditional piano is a widely used instrument, and the action is part of the instrument. Finally, it's good, when you are ready, to get a diversity of exposure. So weighted is a definitely a good thing to master.

It sounds like your piano teacher is a traditional classical instructor. Which is fine, but you need to understand that a traditional classical instructor (like any instructor) has a set of preferences, and at some point they may not be teaching what you are after. In it's malevolent form, preference manifests as bias. One reason Bela Fleck is a truly great teacher is that he understands the difference between his preferences and his biases, and is able to clearly articulate the latter.

A synth action is, quite simply, a different instrument. It enables different and equally valid things. It is no more worse than a piano than a piano is worse than a pianoforte. Training on a hammer action is a good thing, and I certainly found no trouble picking up the synth action. A gifted teacher would would present the trade-off to you as I have characterized it, or at least admit that their concentration of interest lies in classical instruments.

[Dave Ferris]

Fwiw--all Yamaha Motif ES, XS, XF , in addition to S90, 90ES and 90XS are all Yamaha's "balanced hammer" action.

The Yamaha CP300, CP33, P120, 140, 155, CP50 and the new MOX8 are all "graded hammer" action.

The CP5 & 1 use Yamaha's newest action--NW (new wood)

Personally being more a pianist, I've always been more comfortable on the graded action of their DPs then the more synthy feel of the balanced action on the Motifs and S90s.

And their newest action on the CP5 for me is the most responsive action found on any DP or other keyboard.

[shap]

Fwiw--all Yamaha Motif ES, XS, XF , in addition to S90, 90ES and 90XS are all Yamaha's "balanced hammer" action.

Correct, but they are different generations. Beginning with the XS (I think - certainly the XF), it's a new, no-lead design.

I transtioned from an ES to an FS. They are both Yamaha balanced hammer actions, but they are very clearly different actions.

[shap]

Look, when a key is pressed, there is a contact that it will make, at which time the synthesizer will spit out a sound.
Its the same for 100% of all synths every produced.

That's a bit over-simplified. There is more than one electro-mechanical technique/mechanism currently in use for measuring key velocity. Some of them only measure attack. The one on the K-88 apparently measures release velocity as well. At the mechanical level, there are different mechanisms for aftertouch as well.

Now how significant this is depends a lot on you as a player. For most players it probably doesn't matter very much at all. But see my comment in a moment (below) about action and escapement.

[shap]

All my experience is on graded actions, but there are things I want to play that really favor synth action. For this and other reasons I just bought a Roland V-Synth GT. Figure I can play with a different type of synthesis and also use it as a controller when I want synth action. Avoided the Akai MPK series because those actions seem to be widely regarded as "too stiff".

But like I say, I'm pretty new to synth actions. Recognizing that there is a huge amount of individual preference in such matters, any advice on "feel" issues that I should be paying attention to as I learn a new tool? I figure if I'm going to learn a new tool, I may as well actually learn the tool.

Thanks!