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Are there any synth workstations with real piano like action. For example how would a Korg M50 88 key with RH3 Graded Hammer Action compare to a digital piano action like a P-155?

sp250 - heavy
p-155 - heavy but springy

both are different and good :\

just for clarification, he was referring to the Korg M50, which is a workstation, not the sp250, which is a digital piano. As a rule of thumb, just about every decent workstation on the market today are available in 88 key, weighted actions. This includes keyboards like the Motif XS8, Fantom G8, Korg M3-88, etc. And generally (especially with the top-of-the-line/flagship workstations), this keyboard will have an action that is at least comparable to that company's digital pianos. For example, the Roland Fantom G8 has their PHAII action with "Ivory Feel," which is the same action as their RD700GX flagship digital piano.

What I don't understand about your question though is that you ask about the M50 (Korg) in comparison with the P-155 (Yamaha). These are really apples to oranges as they are two different manufacturers. Korg's weighted action is of course different then Yamaha's, regardless of whether it's in a workstation or a digial piano.

I was just wondering if generally synth workstations had decent actions comparable to digital pianos, I didn't know there was a real difference to the feel of the different brands. So would a decent synth like the M50 be an ok subsitute for a digital piano if I used a good software synth like pianotec?

Great thread!



WOW... I had no idea this was the case There are good synths that come with proper hammer-weighted piano action compariable to 'digital pianos' and 'stage pianos'? If that's correct, that'll be my new target market. For some reason I was assuming that you just don't get both together, and that it's one or the other. Synths like Alesis Andromeda, Access Virus, Nord, Moog, Korg, Novation etc etc - i thought they were all no weight or semi-weight key action at best?

oh yeah, the m50-88. they have the same rh3 keys i think, so didn't know why i typed "sp250".

oh and yeah, it is decent. but very subjective !

Short answer is yes, workstations do come in piano action models.

Action is very subjective for most people. Even among regular old acoustics the variation is astounding. Go out and try them. I like my almost four year old Fantom X8. The weight is heavyish and it's still got that digital piano lack of touch to it; the volume scales nicely, but the tone is a bit clunky in change. It sounds reasonable, not excellent by any stretch, but reasonable. The workstations have fairly good feel (at least Roland and Yamaha did for me.) Not sure about the Korg. I tried the Korg equivalent to the X8 back when I was looking and hated the feel to it.

Having the workstation makes recording a breeze and I like the extra flexibility for sequencing and messing around that you don't get off the straight digital piano.

Samples of the X8 (me playing): Mendelssohn op. 19, no. 6; Schumann op. 15, no. 1; Chopin, op. 28, no. 15

seanakaforty wrote, "As a rule of thumb, just about every decent workstation on the market today are available in 88 key, weighted actions."

Actually in my experience this is not so. Most of the popular "workstations" come with 61 keys and velocity sensitive key touch, but not weighted, i.e. Tyros II. "Work stations are designed for writing, arranging, composing functions and most are indeed portable.

Stage/pro pianos, i.e. Motif may or may not have 88 keys and weighted actions. Some do, some do not.

Many keyboards do not have the full keyboard and most do not have weighted actions.

Most digital pianos have 88 keys and weighted actions.

^What seanakaforty was iterating is that the big flagship workstation from most manufacturers (Fantom, Motif, M80) come in various iterations with number of keys and weighted options. Tyros, in my opinion, is more of an arranger than what I think of as a workstation and they serve different purposes.

Could anyone recommend some models/units (if any exist) that have:
- Very good quality synthesiser, covering whole range of sounds (not just piano)
- Fully graded piano action 88 keys
- NO (or limited) 'sequencer' or 'workstation' or extra functionality like that (I already have that in Cubase, so if I can cut costs on that area, I would like to)? This type of thing would be perfect for me, but not sure if it exists!

So I guess I'm asking for "synth with weighted action" rather than "synth workstation with weighted action"!

Sounds to me like you want something along the lines of a Yamaha S90ES or the up-and-coming S90XS. This series of synths have a nice action, great pianos, and hundreds of other sounds. These sounds are all tweakable, but there is no onboard sequencer (this feature is saved for the Motif line). See also: Yamaha MO8.

You will not find any synth/workstations with graded weighted actions. Synths and workstations have balanced weighted actions - all keys have the same resistance. This is because Yamaha/Roland/Korg/Kurzweil figure that the end users of an instrument like this have a high probability of not using this as a piano substitute. Also, many synth players don't want their drums, bass, etc to have "graded" weight.

Thanks for your post LesCharles73 - very much appreciated.

Will have a look at the Yamaha models you mentioned.

Nice work Les.

Thanks guys

I've been itching to take a look at the S90XS myself. Maybe even buy an ES if they get a little cheaper. I sure miss my old S90!

Yamaha MM8 has a Graded Hammer Action keyboard.

This is true, but it's not much of a synth or workstation. I say this because you can't edit or change the sounds on it, thus calling it a synthesizer would be incorrect.

I played the MM8 for a while, and was impressed by the price, but that was about it. It's big, plastic, and has an odd shape to it. The piano sounds were decent, but no better than a DGX or something like that. The key feel was ok, but it felt a little springy and the keybed feel was a little odd - kind of like dealing with a compressed sponge at the bottom of the key travel.

I do encourage anyone and everyone to take a look at this if you're interested so that you can form your own opinions on it.
It's just that I wasn't that impressed and it looks like it can do more than it actually can.