I was on the lookout for a new midi controller keyboard for my home studio with, if possible, aftertouch. I was also on a tight budget.

The XBoard 61 for me turned out to be amazing value for money. Overall, it is better quality than I expected for the price, features 16 assignable knobs and has aftertouch. The key action is nicely balanced. A little weight for playing piano style, whilst also light enough for nippy leads and expressive parts requiring a fine degree of control.

The XBoard 61 also comes with a copy of Proteus X, an excellent soft sampler from EMU. Not only that, but it also contains a stack of CDs full of sounds including a grand piano CD, beat loops CD, drum kits CD, dance sounds.. and much more. Check out the EMU site for more details.

All in all, I found this product to be great value for money but the low price does come with a few down points. The XBoard doesn't have assignable faders, only Knobs and the obligatory single data entry slider. The key alignment isn't perfectly straight (.i. along the top of the keys) but as I didn't notice this until two months after I bought it, it's not a big issue. The patch select buttons are fine for me, but some reviewers has found these to feel low quality. Also, EMU state it ships with Proteus X version 2, but the box came with 1.5. However, Dolphin Music support were on the case and provided excellent service. I had my V2 upgrade in a couple of weeks. Another point of interest to look out for is that although the XBoard has 32bit/64bit driver support for Vista, the bundled Proteus X does not officially support either versions of Vista. However, if you have issues, you can try disabling UAC under Vista (this is a security feature so read about it before disabling) and making sure your XBoard drivers are correctly installed and your XBoard is switched on when trying to use the Proteus. You may also have issues installing the XBoard on Vista 64bit as when I tried, the drivers were not digitally signed! Which is strange because all drivers have to be digitally signed under this version of Vista. However, this can also be worked around with disabling digital signing (again, read up about it first), but I have yet to try Proteus under Vista x64. I'm sure however that some or all of these issues can be resolved with the help of the EMU support team.

In conclusion though, once you get passed these quirks, the product stands up as a solid purchase and great value for money. Nice keyboard, great software bundle, low price. Thanks again to the Dolphin support team!

First point of importance to me - Dolphin Music delivered as advertised and followed up on their sale very well. XBOARD - good key feel - I already have an EMU-X2 so I wanted compatibility out of the box. Knobs work well with ACT in Sonar. Buttons seem limited in assignability... which may be my inability to understand the manual. I would prefer to use the buttons for transport controls versus the 'key latch' feature for my audio software. This and the smaller units are perfect for the micro-studio guy whom might need the ability to play their software synths. The price makes this very competitive. The unit seems farily well built, I am a heavy handed player and the unit seems like it will be able to handle it for a long while. While I did not expect a KX88 type controller with weighted action, I was surprised with the solid feel. Unit would have received a 10 from me if the button's were more intuitive - e.g. patch change if set this way , and assignable if set that way. Right now it looks like patch change or numeric entry only for other controller assignments.

An excellent keyboard, brilliantly weighted and loads of features. No need for anything better/more keys this has 5 octaves and is all you really need.
Included software was good, however as I already make music I already have software that I use and I didnt want to change just because of the keyboard..I use sibelius, and then Cubase SX4, and then Gigastudio. But Proteus was fun to play around with!
An excellent buy if you enjoy making music, and there is no need to buy a better one unless you are riiiiich

The keyboard has been with me a few weeks now, and it is has worked faultlessly. It is connected to a Yamaha MU10 sound module and a computer running Cubase SX3. The 16 control knobs are brilliant and can be assigned to different parameters on the MU10. I find this so much easier than turning virtual knobs on the screen, and is especially expressive when used during recording. I like the light and sensitive action of the keyboard, and the control wheels feel both sturdy and easy to turn. With the USB cable attached, the keyboard does not require an external power supply, which saves another cable and adaptor! In use, all MIDI information is processed without any noticable delay, which is an improvement on my last keyboard which needed an external MIDI/USB interface. The Proteus X software synthesizer sounds amazing, but unfortunately on my computer uses a lot of resources. There is also a slight delay between playing a key and hearing a sound, but I suspect this would be improved with a better soundcard on the computer.
The whole package is remarkably good value, and I would not hesitate to recommend buying one.