I bought this a while ago because I wanted a MIDI controller that I could use for my shows and also in my studio setup at home. I now have others but this baby was one of my first controllers. It works great as just a general MIDI controller or when you want to play for fun - since it also provides sound banks. You've got your standard power connection, plus a pedal connection for sustaining, mod and pitch wheel, and a lot of other buttons to change your MIDI channel and the sound patches. You also of course have standard MIDI in/out connections.

UTILIZATION

While my primary instrument isn't piano, I've been noodling around on pianos and keyboards long enough to be a good judge of key feel. The action on this keyboard is pretty much top notch for anything but the real thing. The weight of the keys and the amount of bounce back is a great emulation of what you'd find on a grand piano. That means it's going to be less suited for using this thing for programming percussion, but it's good news for piano players. Setup is a breeze - power it up, connect the MIDI cable, and almost all current hosts would surely recognize it and you'll be all set. Plenty of buttons make channel and patch selection very easy and intuitive. The manual (if you ever even need to look in it which you probably won't), explains everything well.

OVERALL OPINION

I got this keyboard years ago, and I still use it sometimes today when I want to play on something that feels like a piano, but I want to be able to output to MIDI. The action is definitely this board's best asset. The sounds are a little bit dated now, they sound a little cheesy. This keyboard new was a bit expensive, but you have to pay for quality action on a controller, so if you want top quality it's a good price. I'd get it again if I lost mine.