Customer Reviews

M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Piano sound is truly the best sound you can find for even under $1000, and this is only $500.

Thats the good news.

The other sounds are ok, the organ sounds being the worst, and the electric piano being the best non-piano sounds. The worst part (and the reason i wouldnt buy it again) is the touch. If you plan on just pounding out chords, itll be fine, but if you play classical, jazz, or even most pop-styles that require a bit of touch, you will hate this piano. They say it is "Hammer-Action" but really they should be called "way-over-weighted". These are the heaviest keys i have ever played, and I wish i would have played it before i bought it online.

I actully ordered this keyboard off zzounds.com.
they give you a free stand and pedal with the purchase. $599 total.

I had a casio with about 66 keys... i wanted something with awesome sound quality that i could take to a nice hotel and just set up and play...i also wanted something that could hook up to my macbook as a midi controller.

this thing is awesome. yes the keys seem heavy, but to me it just feels like im really playing a piano...

if u are running through hanon finger exercises your forearms will tire... but i guess its like that with all finger exercises...

seems to me like the weight of the keys is just surprising to say the least b/c you dont really know if its a keyboard you are playing or an actual piano.

ok so pros: i actully like the organ sound... if you listen to medeski martin and wood, you will like it too... it sounds almost the exact same... i think all of the sounds are really good actully... its a very fun piano to play... it also looks very professional... it hooks up to my mac beautifully. works on abelton live, logic express, and garage band. what more could u ask for? this thing is a digital piano, a midi controller, and even the demos that come with it are good enough to just listen to @ leisure...

and cons: the touch does kinda suck... the more i play the more frustrated i get... the touch to sound ratio is kinda rediculous... regardless of how light you touch it still plays the same degree of loudness... its also kinda heavy (66 lbs)... lol. in a way i think that just makes it even cooler... but for some people it would become a burden taking it here and there...

4 stars just b/c i dunno its only $600...

Got this for my husband's birthday a year ago. He fell in love with it and it has been such an inspiration with his current album. We live in an upstairs apartment, and an upright standard piano is not an option, so this has been a wonderful compromise.

We've had no problems with keys or electronics. The included sustain pedal works like a charm. The onboard sounds are an excellent bonus (some of the best you'll hear, even in electric pianos costing $1000 more), but we use Reason, ProTools M-Powered, and additional midi packages to give us nearly limitless quality sounds (e.g., the Abbey Road package). Regarding the weighted keys, I was nervous about this and had my husband actually try out the playability at a local music store first. Turns out that we both prefer this weighting style to the standard light or no weighted keyboards like the Yamaha he'd be using for midi before. Try it first if you can, though, because it is definitely more like a standard piano - but just a tad more stiff.

One slight drawback - this is one HEAVY keyboard. I wouldn't expect to gig with it without a good quality case.

We are both multi-instrument entertainers and have been so impressed with this purchase.

I must admit that my experience with electric pianos is limited to this model, an ancient Casio ToneBank keyboard that isn't velocity sensitive, and an expensive Yamaha Clavinova.

I initially recommended this piano for a friend just starting out on the piano, having gobs of faith in the M-Audio name and listening to the samples online. (I also own M-Audio's SP-2 Pedal which is outstanding) M-Audio SP-2 US65010 Sustain Pedal Piano Style Sustain Pedal for Keyboards After reading about "graded hammer-action" being a must if you're serious about digital pianos, I thought the Prokeys 88 would be a great fit.

For first-time buyers, please note that this piano DOES NOT have built-in speakers! It's a stage piano with 1/4" Left/Right outputs for external amplifiers. With that being said, it has a 1/4" headphone jack on the front, a USB Port for computer connection, MIDI I/O, and 3x 1/4" jacks for pedals (Sustain, Sostenuto, Expression). Note that it comes with the AC Adapter and one SP-2 Pedal. Also note that this thing feels very sturdy and is quite heavy. (Some sub-20 pound full-sized boards exist, compared to 50+ pounds)

I've played the piano on a hobby basis for many years on an acoustic upright (Kawai), and the feel of the M-Audio ProKeys 88 was nothing but disappointing. While I can appreciate the graded hammer-action (you get tactile feedback), this board simply feels mushy and the keys take their sweet time returning back to their original position. Another irritating thing is that the velocity curve doesn't feel smooth, making it exceedingly difficult to play with expression. Despite having 4 settings, it's still either too soft or too loud with no middle ground.

This piano's saving grace comes from the great sounds it produces. With a little bit of tweaking, and some good headphones Sennheiser HD-595 Premier Headphone, this board actually can sound like a piano. Add to that some pretty good instruments like the acoustic bass and vibes, and the ability to layer sounds or split the keyboard into two instruments, I had a lot of fun playing with it.

I suspect that this piano wasn't quite meant to be a stay-at-home acoustic piano alternative, lending to it's many talents outside of the piano universe and stage piano designation. Also, with MIDI capabilities, I think this piano is more at home as a controller, giving you access its sounds for personal compositions.

While I'm pretty sure this was just a shipping anomaly, I received 2 defective ProKey 88's in a row. For the first, the right-most key was stuck and the response was random up and down the keyboard. The second one had a broken hammer-action on the B and C above Middle C, and it came with a bum AC Adapter.

In the end, despite the great sounds and capabilities, the mushy feel of the keys makes it unsuitable for my purposes. I can't recommend this as a stand-alone piano alternative for advanced pianists, but it has potential as a midi-controller and for non-demanding applications.

Initially pleased when I received it.

First one I received had problems with a lower "E" key not sounding.

Also keys in the middle register banging against the case when returning

up. I returned the first one and received a replacement.

Everything was good for a while, but then it would go into different voices or demo mode while playing. Also developed a problem with keys not

muting after being played, and would continue sounding until struck again.

The action on this piano also is very heavy, and aftery playing a few hours, you definitely will feel it. Also the octave above middle "C" is

somewhat tinny. But it does have a good sound for the money. The quality

control on this product could be improved.

I'm quite happy with this one. The hammer action, although heavy, does give quite a bit of room for expression, given the velocity curves.

I bought it to run through synth modules, and into a PC for controlling soft-synths, so I wasn't too terribly interested in the built in sounds, which is good, because the built in sounds aren't all that great. The Grand Piano sounds tinny, and the "warm pad" left me cold. However, the Rhodes and Wulitzer e-piano sounds are decent, and the Clavinet is quite funky. In addition by using the layers, you can create some interesting sounds....

As a USB MIDI controller, though, it is nice, once you figure out how to get Windows to use the proper drivers. Don't do the same thing I did, and plug the keyboard into the computer before installing the drivers. Windows will use a generic driver, and no matter how many times you re-install the M-Audio drivers using the included CD, it will use the generic "USB Audio Device" driver. (If you were unfortunate enough to make that mistake in WinXP, uninstall the "USB Audio Device" in Device manager, unplug the USB connection, THEN install the M-audio drivers.)

BUT for controlling soft synths, VST instruments, and Propellerheads Reason, this is a nice hammer-action controller at a decent price.

I am not a professional musician, just a hobbyist with a few years of instruction as a kid, and I like to play from time to time. I live in an apartment and wanted a keyboard with a quality piano sound that was portable, and would accept both PA speakers and headphones, could hook up to a laptop via usb and yes, looked good.

This keyboard meets all those criteria for me. I bought it used (but in nearly new condition) for $300 which included the pedal and an x-frame stand. The keys are a bit heavy and yes the touch classical pianists expect from an acoustic piano isn't there. But there is some velocity pickup, it isn't like playing a cheap casio synth.

The piano sound, which I use 99% of the time, is solid. You turn the board on, and you're there. Playing immediately. No setup, no pushing buttons, just sit down and play, which is great.

For the stage performer, while it is a bit heavy, I think it would work well although I've never used it in that capacity. The keys are big and well spaced, and there are some "panic" buttons where if you get off-track with your settings, you can just jump to a known setting with a click. Good thinking from M-Audio.

If you want more voices, you can patch this in to your computer or a rack and apply whatever voice you want, or something you've created. Flexibility to grow.

Not having speakers built in means you can have audio quality as great as your wallet can burden. I have some small M-Audio units and they're very very good. I'm not sure what the technical term is, but the spacial quality when you're playing right or left hand side of the keyboard is nice, not too extreme, just a bit left or right as it would be in an acoustic.

Overall, this unit does what it's advertised to do, and it does it quite well in my opinion, at a great price. You can easily pay $1000 and have a keyboard that isn't that much better. Before I purchased this I was looking at a Korg model, and happened to catch a band where the keyboardist was using one. He said he had tons of issues, two of the keys stopped working and it was heavy as heck. $3000 keyboards have issues too, even if they are covered by warranty. I think a more direct competitor of this is the Yamaha (P90?) and there is another model that's all silver and wood-like plastic, which also has a great sound. Of course, Yamaha's keys are made to feel like the keys on a Yamaha acoustic, so if you don't like that feel, it might not be for you. They are also a bit more pricey, but not by much.

I have owned this keyboard for over two years now and through much use, I feel qualified to write a review on it. I have used it primarily as a midi controller in Reason (Propellerheads). I have found it to be very useful and reliable with the program. Every time I load the program, and begin to start sending MIDI messages to the program, the communication "freezes," but then within a few seconds, it jumps right back in and NEVER does it again for the entire duration of my session. It always happens at the very beginning and never occurs again. I have not looked into why this happens, mainly because it really doesn't bother me. It is very brief and once it's done, it is a pleasure to use. (It may not be the board or the drivers, but it very well may be!)

Using the high quality sounds of Reason, I seldom turn the keyboard over to local control (using built in sounds and playing them through an amp or monitors). Whenever I do, I recognize the difference in quality. The built in sounds of the keyboard come in second, or maybe third place to the samples I get with Reason (Reason Pianos ReFill patches, or even the Reason factory piano patches vs. the built in factory keyboard sounds on the M-Audio). The e-piano/rhodes sounds on the M-Audio are not quite as good as the MIDI samples I can get, either. The organ sounds in my opinion are sub-par to begin with. However, not being "quite as good" doesn't mean they aren't playable. (I have used the built in sounds live, and got good responses.) The functionality of splits and layers are very nice. No complaints there. You can adjust individual layer volumes to create a custom mix of layers in seconds. Pitch bend and mod wheel parameters with local control are limited to factory defaults (they are not customizable during local control). That's a bit limiting.

As a MIDI controller (has USB and has MIDI in's and out's--nice feature) it works great. Obviously with MIDI software, the pitch bend and mod wheel can be customized to whatever you wish. The wheels have not faltered on me yet, and I use them regularly. I have a volume pedal hooked into it for an expression pedal. Works well with the keyboard. Never faltered. Tempo tap is a nice feature--see the manual.

The weighted keys I say feel reasonable. This, I feel, felt better on other keyboards (liked the yamaha s90 feel), but nothing can replace a real piano, so don't even try to compare the two. Weighted keys are only a simulation of the real thing. I say these come close and feel much better than bouncy non-weighted keys.

To sum it up, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because it is not a perfect buy, but is very reliable and the good sides outweigh the quirks. For the price you are getting a good bargain. I recommend it to anyone who wants a MIDI controller that also has built in sounds, which are somewhat decent-- and it is all justifiable by the price.

As a long-time week-end warrior, I've got to admit this is the best instrument I've seen in this price range for the professional player--or, for that matter, for a serious student of the piano who wants the full 88 with full hammer-action. Moreover, the current price for this "much" piano, especially through Amazon Prime, is so low that there's no way to rate it less than 5 stars. However, as is so often the case with trailblazers, there are caveats.

First of all, the prospective owner should be aware that this is a user-friendly instrument designed by actual players--i.e. real performers who have some notion of what a jazz trio sounds like, whether it's Oscar Peterson or Bill Evans, Herbie or Chick Corea, Gene Harris or Ahmad Jamal. Most professional-level electric keyboards are designed by engineers less committed to music than to loading up their pet projects with thousands of sounds (from waterfalls to choirs to symphonies to barking dogs and croaking frogs) and effects (have you ever wondered why top-level musicians play acoustic pianos without, heaven forbid, insisting on a single "effect"?). Consequently, a player of one of the current deluxe models can spend hour upon hour (those long nights before a gig) experimenting and poring through 300-page instruction manuals, wondering why so much discussion is being given to triggering automatic arpeggios. (When is there time to practice?) But this keyboard is the exception, a mere handful of pages, and only the 12-14 sounds you would ever actually use.

But the piano is not for everyone, and there are definitely serious caveats. We can only hope that M-Audio or another reputable company attempts a more successful implementation of a similarly inspired yet simple idea.

Pros:

1. No 300-page instruction manuals requiring hour upon hour of study simply to program the instrument so that it's "stable" and responsive to the musician's needs. This is practically the quintessential "performer's" ax. "Control" is the goal of every keyboard player, and more often than not the player is at the mercy of these over-cluttered, threatening machines. This keyboard gives the player control in terms of the technology, though its somewhat cumbersome action may hamper individual expressiveness.

2. While none of the sounds is screamingly outstanding, they're all very good--piano, electric pianos and vibes, acoustic and electric bass, strings, and organ. The organ sounds are especially surprising, better than the limited KB series included on some Kurzweil keyboards. Each of the sounds has "presence," each can be controlled by dedicated slider switches, no programming required.

3. The inclusion of an "emergency" button to put you in piano mode in the event of a sudden freeze on the job is a thoughtful, and most useful, touch. Moreover, the button dedicated to a "ride cymbal" for layering onto an acoustic or bass sound is absolutely inspired. These days it's a luxury to be able to include both a bassist and drummer on the job--and frankly drum machines are "canned," robotic, mechanical, time-consuming, prone to misfire. For any player who's heard a tight and grooving piano jazz trio and who wishes to approximate such a sound, the ride cymbal puts it within reach.

Cons (weight, action, size):

Weight. No one's going to carry this singlehandedly. It's either a 2-person job or a cart of some sort. To M-Audio's credit, they do not burden the player with yet another heavy, bulky, external power supply (wall wart). The power supply is inside the instrument, accounting for some of the extra pounds while facilitating electrical connections and providing peace of mind (in no time at all, a musician collects more wall warts than he knows what to do with--a sure recipe for disaster). For the player who plans to keep the instrument at home and doesn't require internal speakers, or for the musician who can set up the instrument in a club and leave it there for extended periods of time, this ax could be a killer instrument at a comparatively giveaway price.

In the category of "things I would do differently if I were on the design team"... First, leave the sounds, the layering, the splits (and of course the ride cymbal) just as they are. Most electric players I hear in performance don't use more than one or two sounds because they have too many to choose from! But the instrument really needs to be 20-30 pounds lighter to be practical for the week-ender. Some reviewers complain about the heaviness of the action--but the problems in this area have more to do with "evenness" than weight. Upon release, the keys tend to rebound rather erratically. The Fatar action of the Kurzweil SP-76 would have been a nice compromise between unweighted and fully-weighted action while trimming at least 20 pounds off of the instrument. Finally, a performer rarely requires--and probably wouldn't even notice--the difference between playing on an 88-key instrument and a 76-note model. The 88 keys are primarily for the programmer who plans to carve up the keyboard into numerous zones dedicated to different sounds. (For the pianist, on the other hand, 76 keys is plenty--even for the player who's responsible for laying down bass lines in addition to right- hand solos.)

At least, this instrument is a ray of light in a field that so far has been injurious to a pianist's sanity. On the one hand, there are the cheap "juke boxes with keys" that can be found in a Best Buy store; on the other hand, are the deluxe programmer models costing several G's and loaded up with sounds and effects just because it's possible--as though every pianist were a gearhead or techie intent upon constructing a massive, thickly textured movie score. But for someone who has heard a good jazz piano trio and just can't get that sound out of their head, this is one to take a long look at. It's such a musician (a real pianist!) that M-Audio has come closer to serving than perhaps any other maker of professional digital keyboards over the past 3 decades.

[Warning: M-Audio makes a similar, much lighter piano than this one. It might be the ticket for some players, but the description on Amazon has been wrong for several years now. The other M-Audio 88 ProKeys "lightweight, semi-weighted" piano does not, contrary to Amazon's description, have 14 sounds, including basses, organs, vibes, electric pianos, and ride cymbal (try 6). Nor does it allow for splits and layering (again, don't trust the description). It gets good consumer ratings and could be a good instrument for a beginner, a player who has a bassist and drummer, or a musician seeking an extra axe for those short rehearsal big band gigs.]

I paid $400 new for my Prokeys 88 about 3 years ago. The LEDs didn't all work from the get-go.
I bought it on recommendation from the dubious Paul Wiffen who used to write for the UK premier music tech mag Sound On Sound. Whilst his reviews are in-depth, I don't trust his judgement. OK his review was written some years ago, but from memory he gave me the impressions that the sounds were amazing. Actually they are complete crap and I have NEVER used the on board sounds, always using it as a midi controller for my 5 octave Roland Fantom G.
A few months ago the middle D note started hanging and the all-notes-off command from the Prokeys 88 didn't seem to function. I have trouble finding spares for it. I tried to fix it... Took an enormous amount of time to take it apart and in removing the offending key, damaging the securing clip at the back was unavoidable. Now not only do I have a note that rings on frequently, but when I'm playing the instrument hard the D note physically pops out.

I also own a Yamaha P90 88 note weighted keyboard... It is in Spain and I'm in the USA which is why I'm stuck with the crappy Prokeys 88, which will be replaced as soon as I can afford to spend the money on a new keyboard. The Yamaha was also a budget controller, but the sounds were far superior and useable. It is more portable... Sadly it is not made any more.

Do yourself a favor and buy a Yamaha ....Spend the extra couple of hundred bucks and save yourself years of frustration being dissatisfied by this sub-standard piece of junk. The hammer action feels sticky when you start to play the instrument after it's been away for a while. I've heard this complaint from loads of fellow owners.

If money was no object I'd set fire to it and smash it up with a large hammer and put the video on youtube.

M-Audio are good at midi interfaces etc, but this particular keyboard should not have been allowed onto the market. As for paying $599 for it.... that's way over the top. Now I wouldn't give $200 for it new. Also the power supply was a dud when I bought it. I haven't anything good to say about this keyboard other than the fact that it has 88 notes.

Anyone who says that this is a good keyboard probably doesn't know the first thing about keyboards. I've been playing since I was 7 years old and am now 56. I've played in many bands at pro level and gig regularly.

Do yourself a favour and look for something else.