I'm really looking forward to the A-88. Roland and Akai are the only controllers that feel good playing. Everything else on the market is kind of a squishy sponge, with varying degrees. The only other 88 key controller with that thin footprint was the M-Audio (that I knew of) and this looks to be a better built and featured product. Price??

31-Aug-12 04:40 PM

What's the story on aftertouch on these keyboards? Any chance of polyphonic aftertouch on the A-88? (I know the answer will probably be 'no' but come on, can someone make a new controller that provides the expressiveness once offered on old controllers so we don't have to buy a 10+ year-old piece of gear and hope it doesn't break down.)

31-Aug-12 07:19 PM

Bring back the A-80. These suck. Give us poly aftertouch. Mod wheels AND pitch lever. Why not? Instead of another dumbed down cookie cutter generic controller. There are musicians out there waiting in line for something good! Not this

02-Sep-12 02:04 PM

Too bad they didn't think to include the polyphonic aftertouch of the A-80 and A-50 keyboards. If, say, you want to use the polyphonic receptivity of Spectrasonics' Omnisphere, you'll just have to go to eBay to get one of those old keyboards, or an old Ensoniq, because these new boards won't fit the bill, apparently. Shame.

02-Sep-12 03:47 PM

Poly aftertouch would be amazing, but hell, I'd be willing to settle for channel aftertouch...

06-Sep-12 12:27 AM