****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I have been involved in professional music production for years, but recently wanted to get serious about learning how to play piano. I selected an app (I am using SimplyPiano) that I thought would be helpful, then set about looking for an appropriate keyboard. I will also be using this to input scores into PreSonus Studio One via MIDI, so obviously a MIDI output was essential. As great as this is, I also have young kids, so I know my time is limited. That said, I didn't want to spend too much on this setup in case my plans just didn't work out. This keyboard fit the bill very nicely for me. I understood what I was getting...this is a $100-and-change unit, not a Nord Stage 3. The sounds aren't winning any awards, but they aren't terrible either, and some are very playable. There should be plenty of decent variety to suit your needs. The keys don't feel "cheap" and play well. Again, they aren't weighted or anything like that, but perfectly fine for my purposes. The biggest two issues I see are this: the internal speaker quality and the MIDI port, as others have noted. When playing some of the bass patches, you literally can't hear the lowest notes at all. I solved this issues easily by using headphones and/or plugging into an external speaker (in my case, a mixer/amp/floor monitor setup, but any decent external powered speaker would do). Once I did that, the sound quality was actually pretty darn good. The other issue was the micro-USB port for the MIDI output. I could see what others are saying...it's not the most "robust" connection. I've seen this type of thing on other equipment before and there was a very simple solution for me - I plugged in my cable, made a stress loop and taped it off with a piece of gaffers tape - problem solved. Granted, I will be unplugging that cable very infrequently, so this works in my situation. Barring that as an option, I would just be careful and gentle with it, and you should be fine with reasonable use. All said - this is a very good option for anyone looking to start out, especially for kids just getting into lessons, or anyone in need of a very portable unit. It was 100% plug-and-play into my iPad for SimplyPiano to recognize it for MIDI input. It also work with absolutely no issues as MIDI input on my Windows 10 PC. $120 well spent.
