Salah Hamze
January 23, 2007

Rating: 10/10

When it comes to Midi control, the Keystation Pro 88 is the king. You will not find another fully-weighted, velocity-sensitive, lightweight, midi keyboard with 59 customizable controllers for this price! Plus this keyboard comes with a full array of light edition software, including the all-powerful music production software, Reason Adapted. I use this keyboard for every program from Reason to FL Studio to Pro Tools 7. All with one USB Cable that powers this thing! This is by far my favorite piece of equipment in my studio.

SoL
March 9, 2006

Rating: 9/10

Although a good workman doesn't blame his tools (does he?), I'm a firm believer in the idea that the quality of tool makes a workman's job a whole lot more bearable.

I’m a relatively new adventurer into the world of recording, and this was recommended to me by a friend whilst looking for an upgrade on my existing kit. First impressions always count, and I wasn't disappointed. It’s a nice-looking unit, and the build is good and sturdy. Although I guess it's probably more suited to studio use, you could take this on the road and it would happily cope with a goodly amount of live use.

The action on the keys isn't immediately stunning, but it IS firm and has obviously been thought about. The velocity response is excellent for live playing as well as recording, particularly if you're using this with pads or a piano-based sound. The button/menu arrangement is instantly user-friendly, and true to blurb, it is really easy to set up the faders and knobs for use with soft synths like Reaktor. M-Audio have also kindly added some preset zones and groups so owners of more complex instruments like NI B4 can happily recreate such classics as Procul Harem’s “Whiter Shade Of Pale” or the more rigorous passages of “Burn” by Deep Purple to their hearts content. Nice.

One word of warning though – drums have long been a problem with weighted keyboards, and this one is no exception. The weight on the M-Audio’s keys is great, but it invariably restricts the response if you want to record loops on the fly. My only advice is if you want a realistic feel on your drum loops, invest in a decent dedicated controller.

The PC setup is immediate and it didn't have any problems introducing itself to my other sound gear : I basically plugged in, and with a few minor tweaks was ready to go. A great advantage here is the USB-compliance which (PC power supply permitting) allows you to communicate with and power the keyboard with a single cable. Owners of older PCs will also be pleased to hear that there is a 9V DC connection if an external power supply is preferred.

Again, a word of warning : you can quite easily live without the Enigma software that comes with the keyboard. It looked like a rushed piece of software, and certainly didn’t help me set up zones and groups with the same ease as the other VSTs I use. Maybe I wasn’t using it properly, but I would venture that M-Audio could do better than that and hopefully will do in future.

In conclusion, this is a nice piece of kit at a good price. For anyone who is aware of what’s on the market (Kurzweil, Fatar), this board provides a lot of the features of much more expensive models for a fraction of the price. Although it’s not perfection, it’s certainly very, very good and well worth a look at.

SoL
March 9, 2006

Rating: 9/10

Although a good workman doesn't blame his tools (does he?), I'm a firm believer in the idea that the quality of tool makes a workman's job a whole lot more bearable.

I’m a relatively new adventurer into the wonderful world of recording, and this was recommended to me by a friend whilst looking for an upgrade on my existing kit. First impressions always count, and I wasn't disappointed. It’s a nice-looking unit, and the build is good and sturdy. Although I guess it's probably more suited to studio use, you could take this on the road and it would happily cope with a good amount of live use.

The action on the keys isn't immediately stunning, but it IS firm and has obviously been thought about. The velocity response is excellent for live playing as well as recording, particularly if you're using this with pads or a piano-based sound. The button/menu arrangement is instantly user-friendly, and true to blurb, it is really easy to set up the faders and knobs for use with soft synths like Reaktor. M-Audio have also kindly added some preset zones and groups so owners of more complex instruments like NI B4 can happily recreate such classics as Procul Harem’s “Whiter Shade Of Pale” or the more rigorous passages of “Burn” by Deep Purple to their hearts content. Nice.

One word of warning though – drums have long been a problem with weighted keyboards, and this one is no exception. The weight on the M-Audio’s keys is great, but it invariably restricts the response if you want to record loops on the fly. My only advice is if you want a realistic feel on your drum loops, invest in a decent dedicated controller.

The PC setup is immediate and it didn't have any problems introducing itself to my other sound gear : I basically plugged in, and with a few minor tweaks was ready to go. A great advantage here is the USB-compliance which (PC power supply permitting) allows you to communicate with and power the keyboard with a single cable. Owners of older PCs will also be pleased to hear that there is a 9V DC connection if an external power supply is preferred.

Again, a word of warning : you can quite easily live without the Enigma software that comes with the keyboard. It looked like a rushed piece of software, and certainly didn’t help me set up zones and groups with the same ease as the other VSTs I use. Maybe I wasn’t using it properly, but I would venture that M-Audio could do better than that and hopefully will do in future.

In conclusion, this is a nice piece of kit at a good price. For anyone who is aware of what’s on the market (Kurzweil, Fatar), this board provides a lot of the features of much more expensive models for a fraction of the price. Although it’s not perfection, it’s certainly very, very good and well worth a look at.

Luke raftery
February 4, 2005

Rating: 4/10

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