MIDI Controllers

Akai will be best known to SOS readers for their samplers and ever-popular MPC range — so what can they bring to the controller keyboard party?

Edirol's updated PCR keyboard range offers more controls than ever, and a software editor to make the most of them. Let's check it out...

This controller comes from a range that, unusually, takes the concept of a quality weighted action into the realm of the shorter keyboard — and offers hands-on knobs and sliders for software control to boot.

Synthesizer, USB audio interface, MIDI controller — Novation's Xiosynth does it all, and at a very reasonable price...

M-Audio's new wireless controller keyboard aims to free you from the restraints of MIDI cables.

Novation's Remote LE range offers a healthy selection of features from their popular Remote controller keyboards at a cut-down price.

Controller keyboards are fitting ever more control facilities into progressively smaller units costing less and less. Is the semi-weighted Axiom 25 M-Audio's best deal yet?

Note: this is a genuine product, not an April Fool hoax!

The price of controller keyboards has fallen sharply over the past few years, but whoever thought that we would see an 88-note weighted-action keyboard with aftertouch for under £500? Enter CME's UF8...

M-Audio have been producing impressive, inexpensive controller keyboards for some time, and have recently moved seriously into Firewire interfacing. The new Ozonic seeks to combine both capabilities in one product — and all for less money than you'd think...

Korg's Microkontrol was a highly versatile, yet compact MIDI controller — but perhaps, with its three octaves of miniature keys, it was too compact. The Kontrol 49 looks set to put that right with its four-octave, full-size keyboard.

No-one can doubt Fatar's long-established record for making quality MIDI controller keyboards, but that market has become highly competitive over the past couple of years. Can the VMK188 hold its own against all the budget alternatives?

Even the best weighted keyboards and sample libraries offer only an approximation to the feel and sound of an old-fashioned piano. So what if you just can't do without the real thing, but need to have your notes output as MIDI? Enter the Piano Bar from synth pioneers Bob Moog and Don Buchla...

Thin is clearly 'in' amongst manufacturers of keyboard controllers. Mere months after the arrival of Edirol's slender PCR1, M-Audio weigh in with the equally waif-like O2. But is it slim and trim, or just a lightweight?

The price of compact MIDI controller keyboards has come tumbling down in the past few years, but weighted-action full-length keyboards have remained relatively expensive —until now. We investigate the 88-note keyboard that runs off USB power...

There has been fierce competition over the past couple of years to create the ultimate portable MIDI controller for use with laptops. Edirol's PCR1 is one of the lightest and thinnest yet seen. Is it what we have all been waiting for?

It's been an unreserved thumbs-up for Korg's bundle of software synths so far... but will the Legacy Polysix and Legacy Cell scale the same heights in the final instalment of our three-part definitive review?

In the second part of our coverage of Korg's new collection of software instruments, we turn our attention to the virtual MS20, and the MS20-shaped hardware controller. Just how well do these renditions compare to the original?

Evolution's new class-compliant MIDI keyboards are a cinch to use with computer-based sequencers. But do they perform as well as their spec suggests?

Now that Korg's Legacy Collection is properly complete, we follow up last month's preview with the first instalment of our three-part in-depth review. This month, we focus on the Korg Wavestation plug-in...

Korg's Legacy Collection recreates some of their best-loved keyboards in software form. It wasn't finished as we went to press at the end of March, but we managed to grab this sneak preview as the final touches were being applied... (Full in-depth hands-on Review next month.)