Studiologic SL88 Studio

Product Information

Korg’s D1 is a relatively budget-friendly stage piano and MIDI controller. It’s not one that we’d typically place amongst the best controllers, but we know that people who need weighted keys often need a good stage piano and controller; the D1 provides both in one unit.

StudioLogic is the finished products division of Fatar, so when it comes time to show off the finest keyboards they can manufacture, it makes sense to feature them in their own family of products. The SL88 Grand shines in that regard. With its compact profile, the SL88 STUDIO is an extremely portable professional controller. Thanks to a perfect integration with the TP/100LR keyboard, it weighs less then 14 kilograms. The SL88 STUDIO is studio and stage ready with a rugged full metal casing. Sculptured endcaps made of a highly resistant synthetic material help shield the premium TP40 wood keybed perfectly and provide a safe grip when handling and transporting. It's a quality construction and the action is more than adequate for any use. I'm using it now exclusively and haven't felt the need to switch to my stage piano to improve piano part performances. The keys can be a bit loud if you play with higher velocity. The thudding sound will most definitely be an issue for a light sleeper in the same or even the next room during the quiet hours of the night First a big round of applause for anyone who can ship this amount of functional gear at this price point.In our opinion, the Fatar-sourced hammer action skews a bit on the heavy side—pianists might consider this a plus—but can be lightened up via the 11 velocity curves. Aftertouch, which is also adjustable, had a wide sweet spot and was responsive to subtle changes in finger pressure. The key tops are textured, the keys sit tightly with no lateral wobble, and we just can’t over-emphasize that this action feels far more expensive than it is. The drum pads feel good enough that MPC purists just might not wrinkle their noses here. The keybed - it's a work of art. Fatar are very well known for making some of the most, if not the most realistic keybeds out there. The wooden keys with synthetic ivory feel fantastic to the touch. The keys are not too heavy, in fact they are slightly lighter than an actual orchestral grand, but the feel is essentially identical. Velocity response and aftertouch record flawlessly. It's an absolute joy.

Within the Organize tab, it was easy for us to organize sounds into collections. For some players, this is useful to organize set lists for live work. In the studio, you can create groups that arrange sounds based on the session work you do, such as organizing your orchestral collection of sounds separate from your jazz set from your pop set and so on. Last but not least the included soundware. NI bundles in Komplete Select, which comprises nine virtual instruments and soft synths—Massive, Reaktor Prism, Monark, The Gentleman piano, DrumLab, Retro Machines, Vintage Organs, West Africa, and Scarbee electric piano. An SSL-style bus compressor rounds out these goodies.

I bought this mainly as a weighted keyboard for piano/Rhodes etc. with my DAW. I prefer an un-weighted controller for most other sounds. I particularly like it for playing Rhodes/Wurli sounds. I think it is the way the keys bottom out. It just feels great. The velocity curves are useful as I found it difficult to get the harder velocities on the default setting. I'm not a great player though so YMMV. These controls all get smarter when the A-88 is connected to a Roland SuperNatural-based instrument such as the Integra-7 module or Jupiter-50/80 synthesizer, automatically mapping to key parameters on a per-sound basis as well as enabling sound selection directly from the unit. Since many unweighted Roland synths now offer a SuperNatural internal piano sound, the A-88 could be a great addition if you intend to use that sound much. Feel of the keyboard suits us guys who are not entirely piano players but want a piano like action (I am a synth, and organ player primarily and piano alternately) I had to upgrade from the terrible Arturia Keylab88 since the action on it was horrendous. The SL88 Grand is quite heavy all around but I don’t mind since it sits at the center of my music production studio. What happened was that I got this one instead so I tried it out and then of course I had to buy it instead of getting the Studio version.