Alesis Photon X25 User Reviews at zZounds

"Small And All Purpose" submitted December 5, 2010

By a customer from gmail.com

Overall

Features

Ease of Use

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Kung Fu Grandmaster

Music Style: Many

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Sound: The X25 is a MIDI controller and has no sounds. Feature: The features are probably one of the X25's strongest points. With the latest driver the controller had no problem expressing all it's knobs and buttons through Reason on my Windows 7 laptop. It's knobs and wheels are smooth, the AXYZ sensor is also very sensitive. Balanced or un-balanced audio inputs too?! I mean c'mon... The only thing I can say against the features is this units lack of pads, it would truly be an all purpose MIDI controller if it had even 4. Ease of Use: Although the LCD display is small, it clearly displays all of the controllers information. Quality: This is high quality synth gear, the best plastic synth keys can get, nice rubber knobs and wheels, and a bit of weight to it is always a good sign of quality electronics. Value: The value of this product is of course quite reletive to an individuals needs. If you are looking for a small MIDI setup, this plus a pad trigger is probably it. Manufacturer Support: Easy to find and read downloadable manuals and drivers. It's very likely you won't need to call Alesis. When I purchaced this gear I read a lot of posts on forums about getting the Photon X25 to respond with Windows 7 and Vista. I can tell you that it's all NONSENSE written by people who either don't know the basics of hardware interfacing or they are posting before they gave it a good try, starting with the basics, READING THE MANUALS and DOCUMENTATION. To get mine to work was very simple. Of course it didn't respond as soon as I plugged it in, rarely anything ever does! Alesis provides a document for resetting the AXYZ and the factory defaults. Windows provides great documentation about configuring and updating USB ports. Having trouble? Start there. The Wow Factor: Great spacey colors and lights, the mod and bend wheels gradually glow brighter as you roll them, backlit green display. Looks like a ton of fun. One rating point lost because Alesis doesn't make a black one.

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"Good find if you can work it..." submitted October 10, 2006

By a customer from yahoo.com

Overall

Sound

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Player

Music Style: Rock

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Sound: Works well on my tower with no issues. BUTT, (thats a big butt) my Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop for some Reason, cant power this particular keyboard via USB and the Battery power drained right down so I had to suffer the expense, and worse, the inconvenience of another cable (power supply). Also, the audio would squeal out high pitched sounds that I couldnt use whenever the laptops disk drive spun. So, the audio i/o was basically useless for me. Feature: The templates arent to usable for the synths in Reason. Similar buttons are mapped to different layers. Too much togling back and forth. Its kinda sucky like that, at least for me. Ease of Use: The thing went into melt down from the low power conditions when connected to my (kickass) notebook. USB is rated for 5 volts but this units power supply requirements is 6 volts, also four C batteries at 1.5 volts, equals 6v total. So, I dont understand this. Although, again it does work on my tower PC. Anyway, the thing had to be reflashed as per Alesis website instructions. Really the whole thing was a PITA and sucked up half my Saturday for nothing. I needed this to connect to my notebook so Im going to return it. I wish it worked. becuase its the best for the money, no doubt. If it worked that is. Ease of use? Yea, right. Quality: The keys feel way better than M-Audio's do. Only Novations higher up SL series feels better. The Alesis knobs also fell WAY sturdier than the M-Audio stuff. Overall very solid and well built. Not crappy feeling. Value: Great value if it works with your setup, worthless in my case. Manufacturer Support: Some support, but I shouldnt have needed it. I felt like a Alesis tech when I was running thier flash upload utility. The Wow Factor: Like I said, best bang for the dollar IF it works for you. Overall: Just didnt have any luck, I guess.

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"Quirky, compact MIDI controller" submitted July 25, 2006

By a customer from gmail.com

Overall

Features

Ease of Use

Quality

Value

The Wow Factor

Musical Background: Active Musician

Music Style: Ambient, Jam

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VERIFIED BUYER

zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us.

Feature: Has everything I was looking for, but I wish Alesis made a power supply appropriate for this controller. I hate relying on batteries when I can't get a USB 1.1 connection. Ease of Use: Not difficult. Learned to program presets without having to read the manual. Quality: Never had any problems with the keys, but the controller assignments are sometimes flaky. A few times I've tried to turn a knob and gotten gibberish on the display, with no CC data sent. Changing the CC value makes it work again, but this kind of unreliability is unacceptable for performance if you need the knobs. I have had problems with the pitch bend and mod wheel calibration, this is a known issue and Alesis offers a recalibration guide on their website. Having to recalibrate my controls about once every two months is a drag. The USB audio/ASIO is unusable for me; routing WinAmp through the keyboard sucks 40% of my CPU. I've tried ASIO4All in several configurations, but it's still a CPU drainer in every application. Will never route an audio signal through this device, nor will I recommend it. Value: If everything worked as it should, it would be worth the price, but instead I get 25 keys, some unreliable controls, and useless audio capabilities. I wish I'd gotten a Photon 25. The Wow Factor: Looks like a toy IMO. The light-up controls don't appeal to me, but everyone I know likes them. Overall: An intro-level MIDI controller compact enough to take on the road. If you're willing to take the time to learn to deal with its quirks, it's not bad.

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"Great MIDI controller with audio.... on paper." submitted January 26, 2006

Overall

Sound

Features

Quality

Value

Manufacturer Support

The Wow Factor

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Sound: DO NOT BUY X25 FOR ITS AUDIO!!! While it may work fine in standalone mode with one soft synth, it becomes totally unusable in DAW because it lacks an ASIO control pannel that provides you with latency control. This means if you put a couple of synths and effects your DAW is dead because of a too small latency you can't change! Feature: It is a great MIDI keyboard, lots of controls and knobs but be ware: It LACKS DATA FEEDBACK even if they are 360 degree endless!!! This means your keyboard is not going to read the soft synth's preset values and adjust the knobs values to that. This is a big problem with all the MIDI controllers. It may work fine if you are using it for one instrument only, but in a DAW, constantly jumping from track to track, from preset to preset it becomes pretty frustrating. The only units that support data feedback by today are Behringer BCF/BCA2000 and Mackie Control Surface, but they lack a keyboard and audio. Quality: Good quality Manufacturer Support: Mine came without a cable, but I returned it anyways. The Wow Factor: Not really. Overall: Great MIDI controller with audio.... on paper. In real pro life it becomes just a great illuminated xmas decoration for your studio. Alesis needs to work out REAL ASIO2 drivers and make the unit read the feedback values.

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Alesis Photon X25 USB/MIDI Keyboard with Audio

User Ratings

"Small And All Purpose" submitted December 5, 2010

"Good find if you can work it..." submitted October 10, 2006

"Quirky, compact MIDI controller" submitted July 25, 2006

"Great MIDI controller with audio.... on paper." submitted January 26, 2006