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This is probably the best MIDI controller board up until a few years ago. I've not lived with the Kuzweill PC controllers, and with Yamaha releasing the new CP1, 5, and another one, this board is a litle dated. That said, I think it stands up well, very well, or it would have become a time piece. They still for around 1,000 US on ebay. I bought mine for $400 with stand, sustain pedal, soft case with casters, etc. My unit has lived indoors most of it's life. I've owned a Peavey C8, and a Fatar Studio 90, and worn them out. I used these, as I do the A90 as MIDI studio centerpieces for most input, composition, tracking, playing, practicing stuff. The A90 has an intuitive playability that makes you want to play and play and play. Mine is the EX model with the VE sound card installed. The EP's on this are fantastic, but the acoustics are very bad. I have a D70 that carries the MKS20 clone piano sound, which are a cut about the JV series piano sounds, more full and less tinney. And I've yet to start triggering soft synths, which will open up even more interesting possibilities. I play this thing for hours on end and feel genuinely inspired to push, and create. It's not really just how "good the action is" as much as the overally way the instrument gets out of the way of playing and allows you to flow with your playing. The A90 is exceptional in this regard in some way that not even more expensive controllers do. I quickly put it smack in the middle of the studio. The MIDI routing is extensive. The buttons are of the JD series era, big, square with good tactile feedback. The MIDI functions are light-indicated which allows a type of default switching between sounds that you are trigger simply by turning MIDI outs on or off. That is a neat function and again, helps keep the flow going. I'll keep this one, and would gladly buy another one. I will use this live, but moreso it is my primary instrument. The action feels a tad heavy and here's how you can tell, you can't play fast single notes with one hand alternating index and thumb. It's always still making it back up the travel when it's time to play the next note. But it's not that bad, especially compared to a piano. It just works, no need to really say much in the way of esoteric language because if you play it and it does that for you then you know it and there's no need to go on forever about it. Many musicians have no clue about that experience so it wouldn't be productive to try to explain it in the first place. Just go play your 88 note controller!
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