Anyone use the new CME keyboard?

[R2OS]

Planning to buy the CME UF8 (with the firewire ext.)

CME UF8

Has anyone had any experience with these keyboards yet?

CME UF8 Pic,

[jho]

Originally Posted by R2OS

Planning to buy the CME UF8 (with the firewire ext.)

CME UF8

Has anyone had any experience with these keyboards yet?

CME UF8 Pic,

I would run away. These are direct quotes cut and paste from their from their site:

"New concept intelligent electronic keyboard with realtime controlling

UF keyboard can be combined with automatic accompaniment software,which can increase your fun of playing.Otherwise,the expansionability of UF keyboard is never be available in electronic keyboard"

...."Expansionability" ???

what the...

Here's another:

Second Synthesizer in your performance
During a live performance,a single synthesizer will never be enough,and it is very expensive to buy another synthesizer or digital piano,but with a UF,you can connect UF with your synthesizer through a MIDI cable,your dream of performing with 2 synthesizers will come true.but the cost is very low.



If I were you I'd look for maybe a used Roland A-90. If you get one with the VERD1 expansion (or something like that) it's got a bunch of good bread and butter sounds, plus it's got 4 midi in, 4 midi out, buttons to control all those on or off, tons of control, keyboard mapping options / splits and combos with the different midi synths you may have connected, great feel, it's really a great 'big' midi rig controller for CHEAP, same ball park used as what you are looking at. They are no longer made, so of course you'd have to find a used one.

I've never seen or heard of this CME but based on the marketing poop I'd say it's whack

[R2OS]

Originally Posted by jho

I would run away. These are direct quotes cut and paste from their from their site:

"New concept intelligent electronic keyboard with realtime controlling

UF keyboard can be combined with automatic accompaniment software,which can increase your fun of playing.Otherwise,the expansionability of UF keyboard is never be available in electronic keyboard"

...."Expansionability" ???

what the...

Here's another:

Second Synthesizer in your performance
During a live performance,a single synthesizer will never be enough,and it is very expensive to buy another synthesizer or digital piano,but with a UF,you can connect UF with your synthesizer through a MIDI cable,your dream of performing with 2 synthesizers will come true.but the cost is very low.



If I were you I'd look for maybe a used Roland A-90. If you get one with the VERD1 expansion (or something like that) it's got a bunch of good bread and butter sounds, plus it's got 4 midi in, 4 midi out, buttons to control all those on or off, tons of control, keyboard mapping options / splits and combos with the different midi synths you may have connected, great feel, it's really a great 'big' midi rig controller for CHEAP, same ball park used as what you are looking at. They are no longer made, so of course you'd have to find a used one.

I've never seen or heard of this CME but based on the marketing poop I'd say it's whack

Thanks for your advice and opinion. What does a used Roland A-90 cost, do you think?

[jho]

Here's one with the expansion sound card already in it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

[sparker]

Hi - we're distributing the CME 'boards in the UK. We've been pleasantly surprised with the build quality of them, and the UF8 especially has a much better action than I was expecting - I'm not sure if it has graded hammer action (heavier weights on the bass end keys, lighter at the top), but it does feel really rather good.

The website needs some work, as we've pointed out to CME, but check out the product in the flesh before you're influenced by some ill-advised translation..

We have some detail on our site (excuse the plug) www.arbitermt.co.uk

Cheers

Steve

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by sparker

Hi - we're distributing the CME 'boards in the UK. We've been pleasantly surprised with the build quality of them, and the UF8 especially has a much better action than I was expecting - I'm not sure if it has graded hammer action (heavier weights on the bass end keys, lighter at the top), but it does feel really rather good.

The website needs some work, as we've pointed out to CME, but check out the product in the flesh before you're influenced by some ill-advised translation..

We have some detail on our site (excuse the plug) www.arbitermt.co.uk

Cheers

Steve

Steve thanks for the response. CME is a Euro company. Unfortunately they didn't hire a good English speaker/writer for their website. I wouldn't fault them for that and basing an opinion on a company because of poor grammar on their site is pretty silly. I haven't heard much about the CME boards but the little that I have heard says it blows the Keystation Pro 88 out of the water.

[jho]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

basing an opinion on a company because of poor grammar on their site is pretty silly.

How is it silly to formulate an opinion based on the company website? After all, that is exactly how they are representing the product!

[robdarling]

Originally Posted by jho

How is it silly to formulate an opinion based on the company website? After all, that is exactly how they are representing the product!

JHO,

Call me when you've conceived, designed, built, manufactured, distributed, and sold a product internationally in many languages.

ps. By your standards, I'd have to say that if your coffee is what you're proud of, should I go to Starbucks for my next mix? And the buttons on your gui are slow and chunky, your 3-d shadings are grainy and pixilated, and the whole site moves like it's on a very non-professional server or is badly programmed. I'd never go to your studio if that's what you think quality is.

Sorry to be a hardass, but I have a zero-tolerance policy for criticism that has nothing to do with having used a product and being able to speak first-hand about a product. This place is otherwise a seething mess of half-professional hacks. dfegad

[Dr Gruv]

craig anderton liked it and is buying one...

i've read his articles for years and have trusted his opinions... i believe he reviewed it in the last keyboard issue - high praise from him...

[jho]

Originally Posted by robdarling

JHO,

Call me when you've conceived, designed, built, manufactured, distributed, and sold a product internationally in many languages.

ps. By your standards, I'd have to say that if your coffee is what you're proud of, should I go to Starbucks for my next mix? And the buttons on your gui are slow and chunky, your 3-d shadings are grainy and pixilated, and the whole site moves like it's on a very non-professional server or is badly programmed. I'd never go to your studio if that's what you think quality is.

Sorry to be a hardass, but I have a zero-tolerance policy for criticism that has nothing to do with having used a product and being able to speak first-hand about a product. This place is otherwise a seething mess of half-professional hacks. dfegad

You're welcome fuuck

[robdarling]

I think "You're welcome" is the contraction of "You are welcome," if you want to be fussy about language. Glass houses are a bitch.

[jho]

Originally Posted by robdarling

I think "You're welcome" is the contraction of "You are welcome," if you want to be fussy about language. Glass houses are a bitch.

Thank you! fuuck

[De chromium cob]

Originally Posted by jho

I would run away. These are direct quotes cut and paste from their from their site:
I've never seen or heard of this CME but based on the marketing poop I'd say it's whack

The manuals from many (almost all?) Japanese manufacturers are often hilarious to read due to the translation, so I wouldnt condemn a product just due to bad grammer.
And as far as I know, there's nothing wrong with using contractions in the english language, so I dont know what that was about.....but what do I know, I'm just a half professional hack!

[robdarling]

JHO's original post, before changing it, was "Your welcome," a mispelling of the contraction, an obvious irony given his busting on the foreigners for not getting the language right.

As for the Japanese, my favorite Manual reading of all time was an early description of SCSI for the Roland 760. It said simply this: SCSI is a black art. Outside of changing termination and id numbers, we can offer no advice.

[jho]

Originally Posted by De chromium cob

The manuals from many (almost all?) Japanese manufacturers are often hilarious to read due to the translation, so I wouldnt condemn a product just due to bad grammer.
And as far as I know, there's nothing wrong with using contractions in the english language, so I dont know what that was about.....but what do I know, I'm just a half professional hack!

I can appreciate that.

Just based on the features that I was able to pick apart from the website, it didn't look like too much to get excited about (except maybe the price) One midi out port? A-90 has 4 in and 4 out plus buttons to turn them on/off on the fly. I dunno. I kind of think live performance when I think about a big midi controller, so perhaps it's ok for a 1/2 professional studio hack purposes. So seeing as how my website is a hack job it should fit right in!

[jho]

Originally Posted by robdarling

JHO's original post, before changing it, was "Your welcome," a mispelling of the contraction, an obvious irony given his busting on the foreigners for not getting the language right.

As for the Japanese, my favorite Manual reading of all time was an early description of SCSI for the Roland 760. It said simply this: SCSI is a black art. Outside of changing termination and id numbers, we can offer no advice.

Um, I'm not busting on foreigners at all. My entire point was that the features and specs (despite the shit website) don't look "all that".

But buy whatever you like! It's a free country! And rob, take a hike man. People are going to thing you are a CME pimp.

fuuck

[~ufo~]

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!
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[De chromium cob]

Originally Posted by robdarling

JHO's original post, before changing it, was "Your welcome," a mispelling of the contraction, an obvious irony given his busting on the foreigners for not getting the language right.

I think 'Yer Welcome' would have also been acceptable, seeing how he is south of the Mason- Dixon line.....

[jho]

Originally Posted by De chromium cob

I think 'Yer Welcome' would have also been acceptable, seeing how he is south of the Mason- Dixon line.....

Hayell Yahya buddy roe!

[hmurchison]

hahahahaha ufo you rock!!! I was just thinking about that infamous line when someone mentioned funny japanese translations.


"All your base are belong to us"

[tonysounds]

I'll admit, I have a hard time with someone giving advice on gear they've never owned, much less played or auditioned; but to rip on it because of website grammar does seem foolish, although I will admit it's bad form to put out global brochures without going the distance to make sure it's at least comprehensible.

That said, Anderton did give it a glowing review in the April Keyboard magazine. Seems like a lot of bang for the buck.

I've owned a couple Roland A90s (and an A80), and while it looks to be much heavier than the CME board (55lbs roughly), you'd be hard-pressed to find a better controller. It works really well, is laid out pretty intelligently, and can be navigated without beating your head into the manual. I used it to control my big rig (when I was still into carrying two racks of gear...JV1080, Matrix1000, JD990, Wavestation, O3r, M3r, MKS20, EX5r, HammondXM1 plus mixers and patchbays) and in addition to letting me preprogram splits and changes, just by flipping the 8zone buttons (disabling the internal VERD1 board, which has some very usable pianos but not much else, gives you 8 external zones) I could actually get through 2 or 3 "scene" changes with one "patch".

While it had 4 midi outs, I only used one; I programmed all 4 outs to be active so that if I experienced a problem I could just run another cable or just switch outputs and be back in business. It had a great feeling board and considering that new they cost me around $1800, they have held their value pretty well. I just sold my last one for $700 on ebay.

Very rarely does Anderton say he's going to buy the gear he reviews, so this may be a really cool piece, and it does appear to be less weighty than the A90.

Ok boyz, out of your corners, come out swinging, but no below the belt.

[syra]

I bought a UF6.

The action kills the Evolution, M-Audio and even my Motif!!!

Knobs and sliders feel good and it has aftertouch. No competition with the rest in my book...

[R2OS]

After reading different posts, I decided to get the CME UF8 with the UF400e firewire soundcard.

Finally got it home, and looking forward to trying it out, using the UF400e as the only soundcard for my computer.

Does any of you out there use it as well?

I'm a bit concerned about the (software) installation process, so if any of you have the time to help me out, it would be cool...

See you round.



CME UF400e

[jho]

Over time I've come full circle on this product. The validation is there are plenty of reputible folks using. Must be ok...that receptor looks cool too

Rock on.

[MissionDifficult]

From the site,

UF is the most cost effective omnipotent master keyboard available

You hear that? Omnipotent! I don't think I've heard that about any other keyboard.