PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

has anyone seen or played this thing? Just saw George Duke playing it on the NI Akoustik piano video, and was wondering if it was any good. Quick search shows that a lot of people have it somewhere near the top of their list.

Never seen/used it, but I have to say from the specs it looks very nice. I guess you have a difficult decision, as it's not cheap (999 EU - I bought my rhodes for way less!) - for that price I would want to try it first.

It's quite good for live gigs as it is built into a stable case with a separate lid. 20 kg is also not too heavy. The keys are from fatar . Imo they are a bit too light-weighted (coming from the real thing I like it more heavy-weighted), but this is always a personal opinion. You should test the play&feel by yourself anyway.

oh, they're fatar keys.. hmm, makes me think. I like that it's pretty narrow, but it's deadly expensive. Nobody carries Doepfer in the us do they... just that analogue something place in california that keeps coming up on searches.

That's pretty sneaky about the Fatar thing.. from this text on the page you get the impression that it's some expensive proprietary design:

"This type of hammer mechanics does not compare to low cost hammer mechanics offered by some competitors (not only a simple metal lever beyond each key)."

I wish I had some suggestions for you, as I'm looking for a nice MIDI keyboard myself. Sadly I don't know of any suitable ones

Fatar has gone way downhill. I have an older one that I like, but newer Fatar keybeds feel cheap.

If you have the budget, check out Kawai digital pianos. Best-feeling keybeds I've ever played, but over $1000 for the good ones. MP5 or something.

I have played both: LMK2 and LMK2+.
The first has very light-weighted keys, so it's no good piano-feeling. The 2+ has hammer-mechanic keys and feels good. Both instruments have basic masterkeyboard-functions - I never wanted more, i. e. the LMK4+, which is still more expensive.
Be sure that you have a good power adaptor - I had a crappy thing, and during a performance at the theatre it crashed down!!!
But with the second keyboard I never had such problems and it's a pity that I had to leave it.
Compared with the Fatar 1100 which I bought for myself I must say, the Doepfer LMK2+ is the better way. The mobo of the Fatar seems to be broken and the keys have a very irregular dynamic - it's a pity cos the keys are still good.

Cheers, Thomas

synthetic88 wrote:...If you have the budget, check out Kawai digital pianos. Best-feeling keybeds I've ever played, but over $1000 for the good ones. MP5 or something.

even the entry model ES4 has an extremely nice touch, the MP series has a solid reputation.

2 non-piano-player cents, Tom

Herr Voigt wrote:I have played both: LMK2 and LMK2+.
The first has very light-weighted keys, so it's no good piano-feeling.

Really ? The LMK2 is even more light-weighted ? uhm.
I still use the fp8 from Roland, which imo was one of the best ever built (ok, might be because it became part of me after playing 17 years everyday on it ). The actual available keyboards from Roland are not good, though .. but if you get your hands on the fp8 ..

Yes, the lmk2 has no hammers, is only light-weighted. It's good for playing organ sounds, glissandi etc.
I never played a Roland fp8, but some years ago I tested a fp9 at Amptown, Berlin. I liked it, but a colleague decided to buy a real crappy keyboard from GEM It had tons of weight, a poor sound and a catastrophal piano feeling. He never understood why I was angry.

so through some more research, I've found some interesting info...

turns out LMK2+ uses the fatar keyboard model TP10, which is also the same keys used for Kurzweil PC2X, PC88, and some other ones.. basically, the point is that TP10's mechanics are different from those of higher end home pianos, which are somewhat more sophisticated. Also my yamaha p250 is graded hammer action, which is only offered in Fatar's TP400(flagship) or TP40 line of keys.

So it turns out that in most cases, high end home pianos use higher end keys. The sad result is that the better keys + unneeded sounds + speakers all add up and once again, you end up with an expensive piece of equipment when all you needed was the better keys.

An interesting twist to all this is that the Fatar keys are interchangeable. Or basically, they all use the same board, and the same connectors, so if space allows, they can be swapped. Still, not a good idea to test out on 4 figure keyboards.

I guess Doepfer's approach with their piano touch controllers is that they had to be portable, and so the choice of using TP10, which I think is much lighter than the flagship TP400. But still, LMK2+ being a $1500 MIDI controller, I'm surprised it's not just the best of the best. It's cool to see all this tho, seems like a good step into figuring out the makings of a good keyboard.