I have had the SL88 Grand for a few months now, and I am very pleased with it. I use it at home, playing rock, jazz and classic, and for gigs playing rock. I use it as a controller for piano sounds (PianoTeq), and organ module (KeyB Expander), and sometimes other sound modules (Rolands).
My main observations:
- The keys are awesome (yes, I know, top model from Fatar), I really like the ivory feel and the interaction. I grew up with an acoustic piano, it just makes a difference.
- Configuration is unlimited, more or less. I can easily prepare a gig, having the entire set list available and just switching to the next song, then having everything set up as I want.
- I had issues with the midi in and the expression pedal, turned out to be my Viscound DB3 that did not work well with the midi signals, and my Boss expression pedal did not work well either (I strongly recommend the Yamaha instead). Studiologic helped me with information and suggestions on this to identify the problems.
- The three sticks for CC messages works very well, however, I miss the opportunity to send PC messages. When you select a program (Studiologic term for setting or song), then it is possible to send one PC message, but I would like to be able to have the possibility to do this during a song to turn external features on/off. This is the resason for only four stars for features.
- Input and output. There are all you can ask for regarding connections, and I use most of them. Especially the possibility of sending output to different connections is an advantage, I don't have to make the long midi links using midi thru, and also the Roland sound module insists on listening on all channels, making separation an issue. But not on SL 88, as I just assigned on output connection solely for the Roland.
- It is heavy. The SL88 Studio is only two third of the weight, however, the keys are different, so it is your decision what you need.
- I am a little concerned about the knob and the sticks during transportation, but so far it seems to work fine. I consider making a small layer of some kind of foam to protect it, though.
