I picked one up on sale at my local GC for less than $150. This thing is amazing so far for the price. I have used it with live and maschine.
Pros:
The case is all metal, real wood sides, its a tank! It weighs like 10 lbs!
1000 preset sounds included
Easy to use, intuitive - well thought out controls
The sample presets sound fantastic!
Cons:
The knobs and mod joystick are a little cheap feeling, could break with abuse.
Using the included software is a wee bit unstable in vst mode. I’ve had it
crash twice in the 4-5 hrs ive played around with it so far.
Registration is limited to 1 computer, otherwise I believe you have to unregister-reregister. Or they sell one of those usb dongle activaters separate.
Each preset’s synth can’t be tweaked beyond effects and envelope adjustments.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for a small keyboard, I’d say this one is pretty hard to beat for the price. You’d pay over $150 for just a keyboard of this quality honestly. You’d pay $50-100 for a sample library this large too!
Its actually pretty awesome for the price. Its got the springy synth feel to it with a nice amount of resistance. The only thing that feels cheap on it is the joystick.
I couldn’t decide to go with this or one of the larger ones. I decided that I would grab this just to keep on my desk.
Eventually I’ll probably want a full size 88 key though, but this is very nice to keep right in front of me.
This has been out for a while but I guess it’s easy to overlook. How would you rate that joystick control when using it? I wish they had pitch/mod wheels instead. Probably the only thing that stopped me from getting one.
If you want a straight midi controller the maudio oxygen 8v2 is a really really solid controller. I have had mine for 4 years now, abused daily, in a smoking env, dropped quite a few times, and it still works awesome, only real wear is a couple of the knobs I use frequently are a bit loose now.
Only thing it lacks is after touch which is pretty nice and a reason why I bought my x-station 61. (plus it was time to get a full sized keyboard..)
You’re only able to change the envelopes and effects, you can’t actually change the routing or change oscillators or anything. But they all sound quite good.
I believe there is a way to upgrade the licence, but i haven’t looked into it.
having 7 synthemulations with over 3500 presets and a nice pre-mapped midicontroller keyboard for it makes this deal really awesome when you consider the price of <600€
! I may wait for a deal and then pick one of these up as well!