SL88 Studio : The cheap one

Bought to be my master MIDI keyboard, let's review it after 18 months of use.

Cannot say anything new about the keyboard itself... basically it's good but noisy. Total device size is the minimum possible for this Fatar TP/100LR, which is a plus.

MIDI controller is horrible. It consistently misses the 6th keystroke since boot, leaving one note hanging (workaround: always remember to press some keys immediately after switching it on, before starting your software). After some hours, expect it to just stop working. It has been doing this through several OS installations, and now with a brand new PC. This is my second unit, the first one was too noisy (it also was b-stock), and had exactly the same MIDI problems.

Out of 3 X-Y joystick controllers, the first one is completely useless. It has springs on both axis, and both directions are the same.

The LCD display was cute, but now it's just a bunch of blobs, almost unreadable. And finally, the three buttons for the menus had some black magic thrown on them... i always use the wrong one.

Pros: TP/100LR, minimum total size, sturdy, cheap (now cheaper than when i purchased it)

Cons: Everything else you can think of.