Funny story. When I worked at Sweetwater, the first week, I bought an SL88 Grand, and an SL88 Studio.. .and within 4 hours, I knew I would be keeping the Grand, and so I basically gave the Studio version away to my friend, also an SE there at the time. The Grand, is excellent.
Guys and ladies - fist of all thanks for the nice review. It is a relief to have a channel that is talking honest and clear. To the Studiologic Grand 88 - listen to someone playing the piano for 54 years by now. This keyboard is the *only* option in the market if you want to play classic piano literature. There is no better action available. They are different, e.g. Roland or even Yamaha - certainly not better! Second, the app that comes with it - *if* you want to use VSTs, play synth, compose, this is a treasury! These options are very - very - very powerful. The midi you give your DAW will have so much complexity that a very lot of quite expensive software looks less, well, worth it. Third: The missing wheels. Well, the design of Studiologic is the following: buy the Grand. Then the SL P3D, three pro pedals, allowing you to play Moonlight Sonata from Beethoven. Then buy the stands, both, for computer / tablet and you will be muuuch more comfortable in the actual daily use of this. Finally, you will recognize there is a Studiologic SL Mixface. This connects via Bluetooth to all that has a screen, gives you 8 buttons, eight faders, eight knows, and transport control. Forget about wheels. This is much better. Finally, you will look into the latest VSTs coming out ... a very lot of them have x/y controls ... uuuhhh, move two faders with two hands ... not nice ... wait - I have the SL controls, yes! And you will see yourself positioned to the close left of your keyboard, moving these little pins with delicate care and smile. “How did they know it?” --- This package, all combined, is powerful to the extreme. It is much much more than the actual, already really excellent Midi keyboard. Every minute you invest in learning, trying, exercising and enjoying this will worth it and not disappoint. Sometimes there are learning curves, but all in all, what you get here is outstanding.
I picked up one of these in an auction this week for about a 10th of the original cost (yeah, I still can't believe it. And yes, it was a legit auction. It's been picked up for me already by a family member). Hoping it's in good shape. I'll have it on Friday and I'm like a kid who can't wait for Christmas morning!
This video answered all the questions I had and made me decide on the SL Grand instead of the SL Studio. Thank you very much for this very thorough review! Beautiful background BTW! Very slick!! Also many compliments on your awesome keyboard skills.
I bought mine when they first hit market around seven years ago I had the original SL 880 so I can absolutely say after using this board for years that it’s a solid investment and built like a tank and is a little heavy but is definitely portable and personally I just can’t bring myself to spend two grand for all plastic work station i rather have this and a good sound module or laptop and iPad because in reality this board is future proof you will using it ten years from now
Thanks again for this, I greatly enjoy all your videos. Will we see any more of those '5 minute patch builder challenge' videos? It would be a great shout for the app imo 👍
It would be interesting to compare this with Native Instruments S88. Since the keybed is also from Fatar and I think would be more of value because it has great DAW integrations, good LED Screen on the keyboard, and full ecosystem with Kontakt Libraries.
I have been a Sunday Keys customer for years(pre-Ipad era). I have used many controllers over the years. Lucked into a StudioLogic Numa X a few months ago. Seems like it is a SL88 with on-board sounds and then some! Would love to see you guys review the StudioLogic stage pianos at some point. I currently use the Numa with USB out into my macbook. Use the Numa as a controller for Sunday Keys, same usb brings all the Macbook Audio back into the Numa and I mix onboard with the SK audio. It is nice to have onboard sounds as a backup in case there is an issue with Mainstage.
The Nord Grand actually uses an action by Kawai. But generally Nord uses Fatar, yes. Also worth mentioning: imho only the new Numa X from Studiologic are currently using their new improved actions. And especially the wooden key action in the Numa X GT has received very good reviews. But it might be more suited towards classical pianists.
It is a sad testament to the lack of new, high quality MIDI controller releases that Studiologic SL88 Grand (released in 2017) is considered to be the state of art. When are we going to get a replacement for Kawai VPC-1 that has been the best MIDI controller on the market since 2013? We are getting controllers with new buttons, lights and features no piano player who uses piano VSTs needs. I am very disappointed that the old Fatar “wooden” action is considered to be the best MIDI controller action. Michael
11:24 as for stock curves, they suck imo. If you really need to get a close piano dynamics for your VST, you'll need to create your custom velocity curve for SL88 Grand. But once you've done it, you're good to go!
Great review, but as someone who isn't familiar with midi controller i want to ask how to connect the midi controller to the mixer sound board for live performance?,....
One of my friends at church got one and says it feels better than our Yamaha montage8. I haven’t tried it myself but I’ve heard good things.. maybe I’ll pick one up for myself.
Just received a Native Instruments S88 MK3, and thought the piano touch was very much on the heavy side. My acoustic grand piano has a keydown weight of 49 grams, the S88 MK3 between 60-65. I am going to give it more time to evaluate, but I am also waiting to see if Studiologic comes out with an updated SL88 Grand (with polyphonic aftertouch) in the near-ish future. In the meantime your Keybed Feel segment was very useful. Btw, I personally would prefer it if you demonstrated it with a straight-forward piano sound, as opposed to the "layered with pads/strings." Thanks
My s88 mk3 didn’t feel much different than the sl88. It does have a slightly heavier feel but it’s a keyboard. I’ve gotten used to it and it’s really just not a problem.
SL88 Studio has been out for a few years. They added a fatar Keybed and doubled the price? I think it would be useful to make a comparison between this and something like the Arturia Keylab 88 mk2 and the native instruments s88. Just doesn’t seem like the sl88 really has much to offer here.
JFI, Arturia Keylab 88 mk2 uses the same keyboard as Studiologic SL88 Studio, to be exact - it’s Fatar TP100LR. It’s a hammer weighted keyboard, but plastic one and not graded. In SL88 Grand they put Fatar TP40W, which is wooden graded hammer action keyboard (which means that the keys on the right are lighter than on the left). The same TP40W keyboard is used on Nord Piano (5 if I’m not mistaken). So the main difference is the keyboard quality and the feeling. Btw, both of them are using 3 sensors which improves the sensitivity
Just for the record, both the Studio and Grand models have been out for several years, and both use Fatar keybeds. As mentioned in the video, StudioLogic is the consumer face of the company Fatar. The Grand has a higher quality, wooden keybed and some other things, which we touch on in the video. Maybe we'll do some more keyboard reviews with some of those other brands. For this video, because we've used the Studio for years, it was interesting to compare the Grand to it.
I have a question that has been buzzing in my head for several months: why spend a considerable amount of money on a piano released in 2015? Isn't it a bit dated as an instrument? will they ever release an updated version perhaps with the tp-400 wood?
I'd love it if they did that. The Numa line has a built-in audio interface, but also has built in sounds and lots of other features that aren't useful for a midi only rig like this one.
Bro! I have an SL73. Could they have made the mod/pitch "sticks" any more useless? I think not. No tactical feedback at all. Just like wiggling a loose tooth. I love the keybed, yeah. But please talk to these guys. Best made ever, originally Fatar I think. Been around since Beethoven. But those controls suck. I wish they had a model-option for standard wheels. Thoughts?
The controller is sending midi into the iPad that you see in the video, but it's not plugged straight into the iPad. It's actually going into a powered USB hub. There's an audio interface off camera connected to the USB hub as well, which can then run the audio output.
Great review! And great playing, David! I didn't know that "the red keyboard company" uses FATAR keyboards. I wonder if the same keybed is in my Yamaha YC88 that I love!
I downloaded the demo version of Sunday keys on Mac M1 Max and i am using montage 88 as the keyboard to connect. I notice that playing Sunday via montage has a low velocity but once i play directly from mac using mac mouse to click the software key it sounds loud enough. Not sure why not syncing with mac.
Mouse clicks on the keyboard trigger a full velocity of 127, thus the contrast. You might look at adjusting the velocity settings in your Montage if you'd like to make that keyboard feel more or less sensitive :)
I’m about to return my Keylab 88 for this. I felt the keylab was too heavy/stiff and not expressive enough. Playing fast paced songs would be somewhat hard on the keylab in my opinion
"This is not a sponsored video. We're not receiving anything in compensation..." Other than a $1000 midi keyboard? I'd say that's compensation enough for a review to be honest. Or did you have to return it after the review?
Hi Rebecca, happy to confirm that no, we didn't receive the keyboard as compensation for doing the video! That's part of what we were trying to articulate in the video when saying "we're not receiving anything in compensation". I can also confirm that after doing this video I ended up buying this controller myself because I really loved it! Been using it ever since. -David
I would think this product will fit a narrow, very specific market. I can't imagine spending that much on a pure controller that has no.... controllers other than keys. Arturia anyone?
Some folks prefer the clean, minimal approach, I think. It's not for everyone, but for our use case where an iPad is the primary midi controller/device it works perfectly and the keybed feels amazing.
These are nice to play. But depending on the kind of work you are doing this is not in my top 3. For composing orchestral music, film scores, manipulating CCs etc the Native instruments s series mk3 are the way to go. So depending on what you are using this tool for, it can be a good choice. Just seems pointless to make a “studio” keyboard without quality studio functionality.
En el sl88 el pedal queda pegado a veces en mainstage alguno sabe q puede ser ?.. y ustedes en la pantalla del sl88 dejan activadas las 4 zonas o solo 1 ?
