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The most helpful favorable review
The most helpful critical review
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Awesome...
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...
Published on July 12, 2006 by William Huston
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Mixed
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,...
Published on April 17, 2006 by C. Thornberry
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Mixed, April 17, 2006
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
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.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Awesome..., July 12, 2006
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
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...
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Good piano sound...but has some problems., November 13, 2006
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Great Flexibility with this Combo Stage Piano and Midi Controller, July 24, 2008
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
ProKeys 88 - Nice Features but Fails to Impress, July 10, 2009
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent MIDI controller, only OK sounds, September 2, 2007
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
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.
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Great bang-for-buck digital piano/keyboard, April 26, 2010
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
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.
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Excelent Piano, April 10, 2007
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
The best Stage Piano ever, so easy to handle, you don't need to break your head to learn how it work
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3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Very, very VeeRRrrryYyyy BAD keyboard, January 18, 2008
This review is from: M-Audio ProKeys Premium Stage Piano (Electronics)
I own this piece of ... gmmm... equipment for little over one year. I used it very carefully, never abused, never dusty and it has 3 (Three!!!) failed keys already! I am not keyboardist (I do play guitar) and whatever I played was far from elaborate passages of Chopin or Saen-Saens ;).
The feel of the keys is VERY heavy. Playing a song of one minor, one major and one dominant chords is a WORKOUT. The keys bounce back unevenly, with poor return velocity so even 16th notes to be played like a drum with a horrible knocking sound.
The action is SO high, and the back path is SO uneven it is impossible to play any meaningful arpeggio even on lightly moderate tempos.
It was my first purchase in keyboards and I was naive hoping that relatively inexpensive keyboard will be useful in the same way as inexpensive guitar. IT IS A MISTAKE!!! This is a bad keyboard and it affects your ability and you DESIRE to play it. Do not buy this trash.
Needles to say I'm not happy to drop this review as it is my admission of wasted $500 that is good money. If you want my advise, do not buy keyboards from M-Audio as apparently they are not competent in that field. They buy parts and assemble them but they do not have even near understanding and experience as Roland, Edirol, Yamaha,Kaway or Korg. I have their Axiom 49 that they call "best midi keyboard" as well as they call this piano "premium" and it is useable but very low quality keyboard. I have M1 keyboard from Edirol, that is cheap $150 keyboard, none of m-audio's is even near the awesome quality and solid feel and touch of Edirol! It is entirely possible that these m-audio products are premium articles among chinese peasants, but these are substandard trash by Western Civilization scales.
I am sorry that I have now to cash out more to buy a real thing. The resale value of it is zero.
One more word about sound quality. The sound of this keyboard is marginal at best. It is empty, shallow, lacking of presence. I do not compare it to some lush expensive units or multi Gb software samples. I compare it to most basic sounds from Casio, entry level Roland or Yamaha. The sound has very annoying modulation artifacts that becomes VERY apparent on decay.
If you are beginner, this piano will screw your techniques and defeat the inspirations.
If you are an advanced player, the artificial sound and horrible keyboard will be revolting.
If you are a musician who plays primarily another instrument but needs a MIDI keyboard that has some sounds for easier scatching it will let you down in all devisions.
Sorry but it is very poorly designed, substandard, low quality, heavy as a hell piece of "premium piano" for third world. This trash does not fit here in US.
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