Hardware/Product review sticky?

empirix

How about a product review sticky - basically anybody that has a product/hardware - write a review if they want or just a simple recommnedation.

I bring this up because i was using a cme uf6 midi keyboard and now just bought a M-Audio axiom 25 for travelling pirposes and this thing blows the uf6 away - excellent little keyboard, well made with very handy controllers and pads! It would be nice to know or have a chance of knowing this before buying it - from an Irish users perspective as i think we are a more intelligent people than most!!!!

jimi_t

empirix wrote: »

How about a product review sticky - basically anybody that has a product/hardware - write a review if they want or just a simple recommnedation.

I bring this up because i was using a cme uf6 midi keyboard and now just bought a M-Audio axiom 25 for travelling pirposes and this thing blows the uf6 away - excellent little keyboard, well made with very handy controllers and pads! It would be nice to know or have a chance of knowing this before buying it - from an Irish users perspective as i think we are a more intelligent people than most!!!!

+1

cornbb

Sure, if people provide the reviews I'll provide the stickyness

white_falcon

sounds like a great idea

+1 !

jtsuited

that bloody m-audio axiom 25 is useless. the worst thing i ever bought. You can't realistically use the the 'endless' knobs. The drumpads are ok, but the whole thing is a pain in the arse to program.
I have a swissonic cheap one that i've gone back to using because of the annoying idiosyncracies of the axiom.

cornbb

jtsuited wrote: »

that bloody m-audio axiom 25 is useless. the worst thing i ever bought. You can't realistically use the the 'endless' knobs. The drumpads are ok, but the whole thing is a pain in the arse to program.
I have a swissonic cheap one that i've gone back to using because of the annoying idiosyncracies of the axiom.

We have our first review then

I quite like my Axiom 25, find it grand for what it is. Agree with you about the knobs though.

jimi_t

cornbb wrote: »

We have our first review then

I quite like my Axiom 25, find it grand for what it is. Agree with you about the knobs though.

Haven't used the Axiom, but those fecking low-resolution endless encoders are becoming ubiquituous at the lower end of the scale - old school pots all the way!

cornbb

jimi_t wrote: »

Haven't used the Axiom, but those fecking low-resolution endless encoders are becoming ubiquituous at the lower end of the scale - old school pots all the way!

Yes, the fact that they are graduated/indented is completely pointless. I think it takes about 3 turns of the knob to go all the way from 0-127, although if I recall correctly I think the Axiom allows you to use different acceleration curves or something similar for the CC knobs. Speaking of 0-127, thats not very fine at all, its very common to hear a stepping effect depending on whats being tweaked. Thats the fault of the MIDI standard though, not any individual controller. 0-1023 would be far more appropriate methinks...

Anyway, back on topic. Anyone fancy writing some reviews?

white_falcon

Well I recently got an Access Virus Ti Keyboard

To be honest, I'm totally new to synthesisers. It took me about an hr to actually figure out how to change the sounds on it and then to figure out what in general the knobs do lol. So I would definitively advise reading the manuals...altho I still havent

The keyboard itself is amazing. The sounds are crazy ranging from the Matrix style sounds to organs and anything kind of dance, trance or trippy. I bought it myself as a lot of film composers use it (eg. thomas newman, hans zimmer etc.)

Theres at least 1400 pre-made sounds in it, which takes a hell of a long time to cycle through to find your own sound that you want. They arent arrange into any real order - it goes from snyth, to organ, to efx, to arp in one bank.

The sounds you get are crazy however. The only one thing I'd say if you don't have them already is buy good monitors for it. I found the software for it hard to set up with any music programs like Cakewalk Sonar, Reason, Abelton Live etc.

However, this keyboard is amazing. I can't exactly comment on it fully as I still have yet to get the full capabilities of it, but the sounds right out of the box from it are amazing

empirix

If your using Reason you can download a patch for the axiom that automatiically maps the controllers, its on the props site

I have a swissonic too, not bad but no way is it better than the axiom - anyways

jimi_t

white_falcon wrote: »

Well I recently got an Access Virus Ti Keyboard

What course are you/were you doing and where?

white_falcon

jimi_t wrote: »

What course are you/were you doing and where?

just finished a BA Music in WIT in Waterford, majoring in composition. The music tech course was not the best...at all...so I'm slowly reading up on everything i need to know.

I had 2k to spend on a keyboard as I needed one and someone said to get the access virus ti, so i just said feck it yea why not. loads of people i like use it...probably not the best reason to buy a specific keyboard. oh well!

Neurojazz

What was supposed to be a great synth (and one of the few hardware synths left out there) turned out to be very buggy. They even recommend turning local off when using the TI vst (so why did i buy/need the hardware??)

The sounds are flawless, the automation via a host is no problem and can now be reset during a session without having to reboot everything...

They chose USB instead of firewire... the usb interface has a throttling on it that hinders full functionality - not sure about vista etc... but this was tested on XP.

It's nice... pity it took 6 months to get drivers to work minimally...

Neurojazz

Flawless firewire soundcard... no driver issues, no installation problems, no noise, no pops, no crackles, easy to use, robust... errrr Great! - sounds awesome and still working after heavy use for 6 months.