Synth Site |  Roland |  A-30

The keys are full-size and semi-weighted, so the keyboard doesn't "feel" like a toy when being played; the unit feels solid. Speaking of solid, it weighs perhaps 25 lbs., so it's a fairly heavy unit. Of course, as keyboards go, I suppose this would be considered light. The keys are velocity sensitive, however there is neither channal nor polyphonic aftertouch pressure sensitivity on the keys themselves. Can't have everything...

The keyboard is meant to drive a GS synth, with markings for GS patch settings, etc, although it should work fine to drive any synth. On-board controls include: "down" octive, "up" octive, programmably data-entry slider, pitch-bend wheel w/modulation (or channel aftertouch) push-back sensitivity. The unit supports programmable presets, grouped by ensemble (eg: piano), and you can create "combos," transmitting the same note (or a note up or down an octive) on multiple (programmably) MIDI channels. Or you can split the keyboard into two channels, eg: piano upper kbd, bass lower, etc. Useful for real-time stuff, I'd guess.

The keyboard's settings can be dumped/modified via SYSEX messages.

All said and done, I'm happy. It's only the second MIDI keyboard that I've owned, the first being a Yamaha DX-100 (feh!), but it's a solidly-built controller that does its thing well.