Had this card for a few years now. Never had any problems with it. I do a lot of digital sequencing and have found it great for the price. I run it through my Mackie desk and have had few records released with tracks made using it. There really is not much else with the latency and sound quality of this card available for the same price.

Pro's:

Great sound quality
Very stable (xp32)
Excellent price

Cons:

Mic/line jumpers
No breakout box

As for the previous comments about the bundled software, I didn't buy this card for a stripped down version of Ableton, but I was quite happy to get something for free.

I was expecting... A backpack.
But this isnt just an ordinary backpack. Feels confortable, feels durable, feels perfect to fit your gear on it. Great buy!

Excellent product, does exactly whay I wanted. I am using it on a Laptop running Vista with Sonar 7. The laptop found the card without any difficulty, I selected Uno as my output in Sonar, connecte d the midi cable to my midi module and everything worked.

Excellent product especially at the price.

My rating is high (8, not 4) because of the shockingly good value of this product however there are a few niggles which should be mentioned.

1. Earphones are terrible (worse than iPod ones)
2. TRS inputs are too close together for decent cables.
3. My first recording stopped for no reason after 18 minutes (there was 2 hours room left) - hopefully this won't happen again. I've read this is not uncommon and may due to faulty flash card.

That said, it's better quality than I thought it'd be - sure there's a little hiss on the provided mic (but very good for bundled tiny T-mic) but wired up to 2 x condensers (it has 2 channels with true 48V phantom power) and set to highest quality settings I am blown away with the quality - I honestly think people that complain of hiss are not setting correct levels/input settings.

Assuming it doesn't quit on me again (I reformatted card) this is a well built, extremely easy to use, attractive, high quality recorder that is astonishing value.

Extremely easy to use, this MIDI controller is ideal for all levels of music production. I have used this particular MIDI device in college and at home, and have just ordered one from this site as it is well worth the low price tag. It has a better feel than alot of other MIDI keyboards I have used, including a couple of digital pianos, at a fraction of the price. If you want good, sturdy, basic functionality at a good price this is the product for you :)

Having tried various headphones going back to 1985 (sennheiser hd540's (ref:gold) and more recently some in-ear etymotic er4i and shure e2c's i can safely say that the ie30's had me slowly rocking my head with a slight tap to my toes which is not something you do in public. The clarity of sound was astounding, each strike of a simble, the tap of fingers on bongoes, you hear it all.
If you're not using these earphones, in all honesty you are missing out on the true sound of music. I love the fact that you can replace the cable if damaged which i couldn't do with any of my previous in-ear phones. These will last me forever.

My initial feeling for this keyboard was cautious, as the first one I received had a dead key after only a day or so of usage. Dolphin Music's first class customer service though resolved the problem immediately and arranged for a swap around, so I was soon back with the Axiom Pro 61 and ready to connect it to my iMac running Logic 8 studio.

First impressions unpacking the keyboard were very good. The keyboard feels reassuringly heavy and well made, the controls seem to feel that they should last many years of use. As I pointed out earlier, this was my second model as the first developed a dead key after just a few days of use, but I guess that I was just unlucky! I quickly unpacked the axiom, installed the hypercontrol drivers for Logic and plugged in the USB cable. Turning on the keyboard I was greeted by the backlit blue on white LCD display showing software version number and then a general midi patch with onscreen sliders. The display is very clear and easy to read from a wide angle, unlike some other keyboards I have owned with colour screens. Although there is no contrast control, I have no issues with the screen. I prefer the white text on blue screen though so I quickly changed that setting in main menu. I was immediately pleased at how easy the keyboard was to use, despite having not even opened the manual! Perhaps though the most amazing surprise was when Logic Studio started up and I opened a previous song I had been working on. The display immediately reflected the settings of my track and I was able to change tracks, control the transport (play, stop, rewind etc) and adjust the mixer... without having to set any maps up or delve into menus! Opening up one of Logic's plug in synths the display of the Axiom immediately reflected the controls and I was able to tweak filters, resonance and just about everything from the keyboard's knobs! Awesome! If you prefer to use the sliders for voice tweaking, a setting on the keyboard enables you to swap around the functions of the sliders and knobs, with one set of controls adjusting synth or effect parameters and the other controls adjusting levels.
Very soon I was feeling at home with the Axiom, able to interact with Logic without having to resort to mouse and computer keyboard. The controls of the axiom felt very responsive, I particularly liked the infinite rotating knobs which means whatever the existing setting is of a parameter, you can touch the knob and adjust it as if the knob was already at that position. The sliders have a similar feature except they have a sort of clutch which prevents parameters from suddenly jumping to the new slider position. Instead when you move a slider, the onscreen display of the axiom shows where the existing value of the parameter that you are adjusting is and it waits for you to move the slider to that position before the parameter changes.
My previous keyboard controller had a synth action and so playing piano parts felt somewhat expressionless. The Axiom Pro 61 has a semi weighted more piano like keyboard, it feels more like a piano but still offers a light enough synth action for quicker parts. It feels much better quality than other controllers I have used and I particularly welcome the aftertouch which enables you to press the keys at the bottom of their travel to provide an additional pressure control to sounds.
The Axiom 61 also features drum pads, these are just great for not only programming percussion parts (they are big enough to use two fingers for flams and conga patterns), but you can use them to trigger just about anything midi! A particularly neat feature of the axiom pro is that you can set them to either velocity or pressure sensitive, and there are a number of different velocity and pressure curves available.
Above the pitch bend and modulation wheels are two large data +/- switches. By default these can be used to shift octave up and down, or by pressing twice you can transpose. Above these is a numeric keypad that is fully programmable, for example using the preset patch 14 you get a set of 12 shortcuts for Logic Pro for saving project, undo, toggling metronome, quantizing and so on... but of course you can change these to whatever you please.

The keyboard has both a sustain pedal and expression pedal input, USB and standard MIDI 5 pin din IN and OUT sockets. You can use it without a computer via MIDI but that requires an additional DC power supply which is not included.

Having now played the Axiom pro 61 for a few weeks, I am very pleased with the quality and flexibility of this controller and would recommend it most highly as an integrated controller for popular Digital Audio Workstations. I only wished they did a 72 note version!
The Axiom Pro 61 is considerably more expensive than most 61 note controller keyboards, but given the time it saves in mapping directly to all your effect and instrument plug in's in your DAW, not to mention the high quality semi weighted keys with aftertouch, quality slider and rotary encoders, pressure and velocity pads, you get what you pay for.

I would have liked to have seen a full printed instruction manual included, I'm not a fan of electronic manuals on CD's and ended up having to print and bind my own copy for reference. I also felt that the LCD display could be slightly larger, it's not that it is too small (size is 7cm by 3.5cm viewable area) but some of the information can appear a bit cramped and the abbreviations are not always easy to understand. It would also be nice if there was some sort of user programmable sleep mode on the display, as this would avoid me from having to switch off the keyboard to prolong the backlight (though it might be that its LED's).
Overall then if you are a Logic, Pro Tools or Cubase user (or indeed any of the DAW's that the axiom supports) then you should seriously consider the Axiom Pro 61 if you are shopping for a controller keyboard. The Hypercontrol technology gives you immediate control over plug ins, mixer panel and voices without having to spend hours and hours programming. The transport controls on the keyboard are just great and save you having to take your hands aways from the keys and control your computer by mouse or computer keyboard. 10 Stars!

An amazing pair of speakers they are. Punches way above its weight in terms of price and more surprisingly, its size. Very strong mid-range and an easy overkill for any onboard PC sound codec. Makes the AV40 look expensive (which it is not actually), and should be the speaker system of choice for any PC or MP3 player. Sounds so good on my 5G iPod that I am thinking of using a hifi grade Y-cable to improve the sound. I don't find the sound flat. It just finds out any weak audio source very quickly, just like a hifi system 4 times the price. I would recommend not to turn on the bass boost as it already too punchy.

As "professional" monitors, it can be better. But consider it as PC speakers, look around comparable "PC speakers" at similiar price such as the Harman Kardons, or even the Bose iPod docks, they don't even come close.

If using as media player speakers, such as 5G iPod / iPhone, will be worth plumbing for a 20 quid hifi grade Y-cable.

this really should be on every PC shop's speaker inventory.

Managed to install this card in windows 7 rc edition and using vista drivers installed in vista sp2 compatibility mode.(remember to install drivers before installing the card).

Upgraded from soundblaster audigy 2 zs, well worth the upgrade much better card and noticed hardly any background noise running my amp at high volumes.

Just installed abelton live, plugged my yamaha cs1x keyboard via the midi in on this card and no latency problems that I could notice.

Most of my equipment cs1x, s2000, novation nova, zoom rfx effects will route through my spirit folio mixing desk and then routed to the input of this sound card ideal high quality recording card.


So far so good.

Great product. After lot of research I choses the profire 2626.
Totaly satisfy. I had a line 6 KB37 which was ok but rubbish to record bass. Pre amp are so much better on the profire, Pro tools compatible ... Can't get better for the money. I diddn't check if it was in stock( my fault) and took 4 weeks for it to arrive. Good thing was:they always replyed to my e-mails when I was chasing my order. They dispatched it the same day it arrives and It was delivered in the channel island a couple of days after. Worth the wait.

Well starting off, where I have used this; My collage/ school have a new music room with 25 Macs with one of these hooked up to each one, ALOT of moneys worth. I managed to get the oppertunity to try out GarageBand on one of these macs, It instantly unleased a micro-studio into my hands, I used it to record my bass guitar, being it has a brilliant instrument input (along with a mic input), there was no lag what so ever, I beleive it was real time, or only 1ms latency. I also used this to produce a drum beat and other different parts via the keyboard.

I do not know how well it works with Windows, but with a Mac, it was brilliant, Well worth the money.

I bought a pair of Q40 headphones from Dolphin recently with the intention of using them in a small studio - particularly of organ music - with the intention of using them later in the evenings, when using reference monitors isn't possible. Having always relied on the M-Audio name for both quality and affordability, I was not disappointed on either count.

My main reason for buying these headphoens was the quoted frequency response, which really does go all the way down to 10Hz - or seems to, anyway. Knowing that I needed to get good, flat response as far down as 16Hz - the bottom end of 32' rank on a pipe organ - I looked around, and found these headphones which seemed to fit the bill. What I discovered on trying them out was that they most certainly do - the clarity of the lowest pitches of various recordings with which I've tested them is phoenomenal: I believe at times indistiguishable from being in the building where the instrument is housed. In addition to this fantastic low-end response, the treble detail and imperfections which are always present in a pipe organ - pipe chiff, blower noise, key / mechanical action and acoustic imperfections - are all (wonderfully) apparent.

I found the situation no different when I listened to some of my own productions: the Q40's do what every artist might wish for by bringing out new details never-before-heard in previous compositions and prompting with them a whole stream of new ideas for modifications and improvements. In only a few days of having them, I've made a whole list of moments of old compositions that I want to revisit and rework. This is no doubt, in part a product of the impressive isolation the Q40's afford.

Whilst not entirely capable of giving the isolatory, "what-world-outside?" effect one could desire, the headphones were still capable (via my girlfriend) of giving me a hell of a fright. Her raised voice having failed to get my attention in the studio the first afternoon I tried the headphones out, she sneaked up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. I could well imagine a health warning on a big orange label on the side of the box: "to prevent palpitations, arythmias and infarctions, always face the entrance-way of the studio whilst using our product"!

When I opened the package and found the Q40's, I was again impressed by M-Audio's sleek packaging and design. Like the headphones, the packaging oozes quality, but inevitably didn't maintain my attention for long. Having unpacked them and discovered in the box the leather case, detatchable cable and 3.5mm adaptor, I was keen to try them out straight away. For their first session out of the box I wore them for four hours straight and hardly noticed any fatigue or discomfort. The headphones are easily adjustable (and do not slip unlike a previous pair I owned) and are well padded and comfortable. The provision of a detatchable cable is extremely useful in a small studio - rather than having to dig round on the floor for the right output to disconnect, one can leave the cable in place and remove the headphones from it - something which improves further a high-quality listening experience.

The one disappointing feature of these headphones is the leather bag they are supplied with - I would have appreciated (and paid a little extra for) a hard case, which would afford better protection of the headphones, when carrying them around in a backpack or travel bag. However, when I made the choice to buy the Q40's, I knew that the majority of their use would be in a single place, so the lack of a hard case did not feature strongly in my decision to buy.

In conclusion, these are a fantastic pair of headphones, of a quality for which I would have expected to pay significantly more. The lack of a genuinely protective case prevents me giving ten stars out of ten, but for those who need quality headphones on a limited budget, the Q40's will not disappoint.

There isn't much you can really say about a sustain pedal but for the price I paid here at Dolphin Music, you can't really get much better than this.

The pedal is well made will a good overall build quality and has a solid weighty feel to it that gives you the immediate impression that it will last for many years. Highly recommended!

Firstly excellent service from Dolphin Music.
As this is my first keyboard since school days!I am larning to use it with my Reason 4 Software.
My only gripe is that I cannot get the GM Module to work at the minute,and there are not enough assignable controls on the keyboard.
Otherwise a very good keyboard,I am very pleased with it,I control a lot of Reason with my mouse so Having less knobs is not a big issue,but would be handy otherwise

I purchased this to replace an E-MU 0404 PCI card for use in a Vista 64 system. The E-mu just wasnt playing ball, drivers not loading at start up lock-ups etc etc.
Not really in need of lots of in's and out's this seemed to fit the bill and i have to say i love it!
The sound quality to my surprise really out shines the 0404, sounding tighter on the lows and brighter on the highs, my mixes sound superb also latency within Ableton my DAW of choice is great, again better than the 0404.
Drivers installed fine, although do install the drivers FIRST then insert the card. I did it the other way against the include instructions!

Bought this item about 2 months ago now and haven't regretted it for one moment. I havent had a single problem with it. Set up was very simple and it was only about 30 mins from opening the box to the desk being fully functional. Faders are very smooth (they are slightly noisy but thats to be expected) and had no experiences of the faders going crazy like i've had on other systems! My only critisicm is that it only has 4 outputs. If they had just added two more then 5.1 would be possible. However this aside it is a great system. Just the fact it is fully functional with cubase and protools is amazing. And the LED display is an absolute godsend when your working with like 40 channels. Takes away the frustration of browsing through banks trying to work out which channel is controlling which! Genious.