everyone says the new Roland A-88 is suppose to be just amazing... 
 
The MAudio Pro was ancient but full of goodies and I was use to it.  But may upgrade to the new impact lx88 which is cheap till I can recover from present circumstances at which point I'll give um both a try.  I did hear mixed reviews roamin' round the web on the Arturia keyboard awhile ago...
'

Yes, the Nekar looks good for the money...semi-weighted keys. Has Sonar compatibility. Not available in Australia yet:(

I also use the M-Audio Keystation 88 Pro! The only thing I don't like about it is the black keys are lower in height than the keys on a real piano. After you get used to it it's not so bad.

I had the Keylab61 not the 88 keys so take this with a grain of salt. You have to use act or generic surface to map sonar to the Arturia. The generic surface works better for me. All the knobs, faders, control work fine and very easy to map. I customized a bunch of VST plugs and sonar just remembers the settings when you make the plug active, very cool. The downside and the reason I returned the Arturia controller is it's very badly built. I have dead keys and broken mod wheels within the first week, and the pads are useless as they are very stiff. There is basically no support from the company either.

Not very encouraging news for the Arturia...must have been disappointing for you. Thanks, it's good to know especially about the company support, or lack thereof.

Hi,
 
I have the Arturia Keylab 88 and im very happy with it.
Dont compare this Keylab with the smaller Keylabs; they have a completely differnt keyboard. The 88 has fully weighted hammer action, the smaller ones dont
 
Interaction with Sonar is fine only have some trouble sorting out the transport buttons, for wich ill make another thread.
 
Peace
F.

Hi. Thanks for letting me know. I ended up buying the 88 Nectar Impact LX88. I'm pretty happy with it although it doesn't have fully weighted keys, but it has good integration with Sonar with some initial issues I had to sort out. I ended up also buying the Roland 130R which does give me the weighted action on the keys, so I use this for piano and the Nectar for soft synth etc sounds.
 
Good the Arturia is working out for you. :-)

Alan, how is the "key travel" and "bounce" on that Nektar? I am looking at one myself at the moment, as I am getting sore joints in my fingers now when I play for extended periods on the fully weighted keybeds.
 
Dennis

Hi Dennis. It's pretty light with good resistance. Accurate though. You'll find it pretty easy to play I think. It feels less plastic than the smaller key versions and I was initially concerned that the 88 would be like this - as I played the smaller one in a shop but they didn't have the 88. But I was relieved when I received it that it felt quite nice and less plastic feeling...so as a midi-keyboard, I'm quite happy with it.
 
A few black keys have a 'spring' sound' which is audible when playing it without sounds - testing eg. I've had some conversations with Nectar about this but doesn't really bother me normally, although I'll keep an 'ear' on it and see if it gets worse...but so far it's remained the same.
 
Hope that helps.

The Arturia 88 is AMAZING!!! As a university student of music (classical piano major, music technology minor) I can say this is the best midi controller I have yet encountered. The keybed is incredibly realistic. I went to about 5 shops around Melbourne and tried all the digital and stage pianos as well as midi keyboard (priced $500 up to $8k) (including the roland A-88) and this has by far the most realistic piano feel!!! The A-88 was my second choice, but this was the best hands down. Chopin's Aeolian Harp sounded incredible on it! The keys are heavy, but no heavier that a heavy piano. The software (Pianoteq 5 and Arturias own synth plugin) it comes with is worth almost $500 in itself. The board is 12 kg, making it extremely portable. It comes with a detachable stand, and a detachable rubber extension of the board on which to sit your computer (a major help if you're planning on playing live sets from your DAW while playing piano.) Looks beautiful Buy it!