Feature:
Its got built in knobs and faders that feel nice to touch and work well with the 'learn' function. the pitch and mod wheel also feel nice to touch and use,the keys sink lower than most 88 key electric pianos and give it a somewhat 'clunky' feel, but having said that, its great for hip-hop production,you'll find the 'clunky' keys are good for creating riffs,and before long you'll get used to it. it doeesnt limit you in any way during your creative process and it definately is a good midi controller to have. I gave it a 9 because it has all the features a midi controller should, i would have given it a 10 if they had thought of something unique that worked really well.

Quality:
the build is good,and it does certainly look alot more expensive than it is,all the knobs and faders feel really nice to touch, the only let down is the feel of the keys, which you get used to..and you'll only notice if youve played 'proper' EP's which this board is meant to emulate, thats the only reason i gave it an '8' because of the feel. but overall..the quality of the product is good and ive never regretted buying this. I gave it an 8 because the quality is good apart from the feel.

Value:
Its good for the money.

Desirability:
SEX APPEAL ? well...im sure it could have looked alot sexier..but the personality is more important than the 'looks' right ?

Sound:
Unratable

Ease of Use:
It's very easy to use,plug'n'play,power is derived from the usb 2.0 hub I gave it a 10 because it is indeed very 'easy to use'

Support:
never needed support. (thanks god)

Overall:
Im happy with it, it does its job, and its never given me any sort of hassle of any kind. Im thinking about buying a smaller lighter midi controller for those synth parts and have it on top as an addition to this.

• User: a customer from hotmail.com
• Submitted: 7/21/2008
• Style of Music: Hip-Hop/R&B/Grime/Bashment/Rock/Alternative
• Location: London

Feature:
There are lots of knobs, buttons, and even 88 weighted keys. I have to say the velocity and feel are not top notch. But for $300 (on sale), it's a hell of a deal. There's no aftertouch either so I give it an 8.

Quality:
It is big. Recommend keeping the packaging to move it around. Hasn't gotten any damage on it yet so I am happy with it.

Value:
I like it for piano playing (88 keys), but I wish I would have gotten a smaller one with after touch for synth playing. Looking back on it, the Line 6 kb37 would have been pretty cool. I am content with this one though.

Desirability:
no sexiness to it. Who cares?

Sound:
I rated a 3 on sound because it doesn't have any sound. Fine with me. It is a great midi controller.

Ease of Use:
If you don't know how to wire up a midi controller to a soft synth, it may take you a few days to get everything down (it's very easy if you are the slightest bit computer savvy) It is big so it is hard to put it near you computer. I have mine to the side of my computer right now and it works good for the price.

Support:
I gave a ten because I have never had to contact tech support.

Overall:
Probably will use this for the rest of my life unless I get a hardware synth, which I probably won't.

• User: a customer from gmail.com
• Submitted: 6/8/2008
• Style of Music: Metal, Rock, Techno, Dance, Pop

Feature:
Enough nobs and sliders no matter what your doing. Only 10 presets but if your more on the digital side of this product, you can save presets on your cpu and swap them out that way, the M-audio software helps alot as well.

Quality:
Everythings held up fine so far, its a heavy board, probably not a great gig board but I dont use mine for that.

Value:
For its rediculously cheap price, you get a very decent board. I got mine used and it works fine.

Desirability:
It looks very nice, actually looks more expensive than it is.

Sound:
No sound, its a controller

Ease of Use:
Plug the USB in and go, doesnt even need a power cable. People seem to be saying great action and bad action in all these reviews. What I would say is that if your an acoustic or grand piano player you'll like the key action or get accustomed to it much easier than a non-weighted board. Personally I cannot use non-weighted keys because they are far too light and I always hit keys I dont want to. Its not exactly like an acoustic piano but its close and the keys have a nice heavy feel. Those with classically trained fingers won't have a problem making these keys do what you want. If you are normally a synth player with non-weighted, or lightly/semi weighted keys, you will probably hate this board, these keys are much heavier than you will be used too and will feel "clunky". They are a bit noisy but nothing even semi-loud wont immediately drown out. Mine have held up to alot of Beethoven and Mozart so far and still no breaks or sticks.

Support:
Havent needed it yet

Overall:
So there are how many other weighted 88key MIDI controllers out there? 3? I wasnt going to waste money getting a keyboard with sounds that I would never use, so i saved a bunch of cash. I use Apples new Logic Pro 8 with this board and using Mainstage is all you really need to program this boards nobs sliders and splits. Its SO FREAKING EASY WITH THE RIGHT SOFTWARE!!! If your doing it through the synth then your not using this board for what its meant for, this is for people who use the computer vs the syth itself, not the other way around. Take all the money you would spend on an expensive synth and go spend it on a good cpu and software, this thing and a laptop will rock your socks off and make much better sounds than any board. Softsynth sounds are way ahead of on-board sounds in quality and variety and much easier to customize. My setup sits beside an acoustic piano I never use anymore because I have at least 12 different Piano sounds I can use that sound like $40,000 grand pianos.

• Submitted: 12/5/2007

Feature:
I've gotta admit, you get alot for the money, but what good is it if you can only save 10 presets? WTF Maybe it's a great controller for the home, but trust me, DO NOT TAKE THIS ON THE ROAD FOR LIVE USE!!

Quality:
This thing is basically a TOY. One guy here got it right, it's like buying a ferrari with a hundai engine. Let's put all these great features on a board, and then make it out of paper thin plastic and pressboard. I take very good care of mine, and it's all scratched up from rubbing against the inside of a well padded soft case.

Value:
I've gotta admit, for under $400 it's Quite a value, but how about this idea. Let's charge $200 more and make the thing actually useable!

Desirability:
for the money it's worth getting if you need something that stays at home, and you don't mind throwing it out after it dies..

Sound:
controller

Ease of Use:
Unless you're a Midi Geek, you will not have fun programming this thing. I've been using midi gear for 20 years and still needed tech support to help me program basic commands.

Support:
Tech support will NEVER I repeat NEVER admit that they have heard of any of the endless problems that anybody who knows how to Google would find if they searched reviews of this thing. OH AND GET THIS! IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM AND IT'S UNDER WARRANTY? YOU STILL HAVE TO SHIP IT BACK TO CA FOR THEM TO FIX IT. NO AUTHORIZED SERVICE CENTERS ANYWHERE. YEAH, GOOD LUCK GETTING THAT THING BACK IN 1 PIECE AFTER SENDING IT ACROSS THE US AND BACK.

Overall:
really not worth the money, you're better off looking for a used Kurzweil or Roland controller. Who cares about weighted keys if they are gonna feel like garbage. You only need a weighted keyboard if you're gonna play strictly piano. How do you like playing organ or synth sounds on a weighted keyboard? it's very very un-natural. 10 Presets is all they give you? so basically you can only save 10 patches, that's it. This big monster with a million controllers, and you can only save 10 different layouts. Whoever came up with that idea should be Shot..

• User: a customer from soundimageband.com
• Submitted: 9/27/2007
• Style of Music: all types
• Location: New York

Feature:
Knobs, Sliders, Buttons, Keys - lots of all of them. What's not to like? 4 zones, USB interface, great value. Keyboard feel is so-so. Weighted, little mushy/heavy. Adjusting velocity curves helps a lot. Consider that you're getting the equivalent of a Mackie C4+ Keyboard in the bargain and its a great deal.

Quality:
Feels a bit on the cheap side - but for the price - you can't lose.

Value:
Really good value for the price I think.

Desirability:
Its pretty sexy with all those knobs, buttons, sliders, and keys.

Sound:
No sound - its a controller

Ease of Use:
The manual is weak. Software for programming it is so-so. It takes some digging to realize potential.

Support:
Once you reach them, they are good. But long hold times....

Overall:
Should do fine - use it in studio - might buy a second one for live because I hate tearing it out of my studio to go gig.

• User: a customer from mac.com
• Submitted: 7/11/2007
• Style of Music: Rock, Pop, Alternative, Film Scoring
• Location: USA

Feature:
Would be nice if like the Evolution it had templates that lable nobs and sliders for common uses. so many knobs i get lost. I usually program a four or five to do common functions on several instruments. <img src="http://www.evolution-i.net/images/fp_top_ad_right_reason.jpg....imgtag" /> Another thing that would be cool, if the LED display could be configured so that if you dont want to see every midi message its sending. Maybe you just want it to hang out and relax. I would also like to change the colors of the back light on occasion. Im happy that it is back lit! dont get me wrong.

Quality:
I had to return one. Luckily it was in the first years warranty. The keys were sticking (only comming 1/2 way back up). And they have some springy noises in them. Its not built for the road, but I use it at the big gigs. Made a custom case for it. Lighter than my 90lbs controller, but 40lbs plus another 20 for case and accessroies, its a beast to move. But its 88 weighted keys.

Value:
I believe it is the cheapest 88 key controller with the most knobs and sliders. but you get what you pay for. they didnt put in any supperior craftsmanship here. but it does a fair job.

Desirability:
I saw one guy who did his own repairs on his. while he had it all in peices, he went ahead and put a sweet paint job on it. I think the silver trend is comming to an end or going going gone already.

Sound:
I read one reviewer saying that it has sound. Yeah mine also has alot of noise in the key action.

Ease of Use:
It took me a while to learn to use it. I am more hands on learner, but i kept the manual handy for the first several months.

Support:
Even though I was happy that they were so easy to get an exchange (fast too) but the new keyboard keys are still a little springy sounding. No sticky keys yet, but this one is still young.

Overall:
Ill definately play this thing into the dirt, but that might be sooner than Id like. but the trend of cheap keyboard controllers out there. I try not to get too attached to it. its just a piece of plastic, wires and whatever else.

• User: a customer from yahoo.com
• Submitted: 4/13/2007
• Style of Music: Bubble Gum Pop, Jazz, Classical, Electronic, Etheral, Classic Rock, and noise.
• Location: Spokane, Wa, USA

Quality:
The buttons and sliders feel fine. The keys are fully weighted and I can't feel a real difference between them and an acoustic piano. Though the middle F key makes a "bump" noise when you hit it. It sounds like the key is hitting something inside the keyboard, like it is missing a cushion that would prevent this noise from happening. This might just be my model not all.

Value:
Maybe a little cheaper would be nice.

Desirability:
It looks cool, though the blue screen becomes its clearest when your sitting down. While if your standing up playing, its faded.

Sound:
It is a controller, it generates no sound.

Support:
Havn't messed with it.

Overall:
This is a good Midi controller. It is also good for beginners, you could get this instead of a full 88 weighted digital piano or acoustic piano for a how lot cheaper. But you would have to have a computer and Midi on hand to generate any sound.

• Submitted: 1/18/2007

Feature:
I'll give it a "2" because there are lots of knobs and it looks cool. That's one more point than it probably deserves because if the "feature" of at least decent action is not present, nothing else matters. (See under "sound".) Materials used? Ill-fitted, poor-quality materials is the best I can describe, at least where the key action is concerned. The pitch & mod wheels, knobs, switches and faders feel fine, but again, the KEYS don't work. It is like a bad joke.

Quality:
Another one that deserves a zero or a negative rating. Just plain terrible. Total junk, sorry to be so blunt. These things, at least the batch from which mine came, should have a no-time-limit warranty / recall to fix them. This did not wear out, it was sold with no fitness for a keyboard's intended purpose. Buying one of these is like buying pretty tires that explode when you drive on them except that all that the Keystations kill is your music. This is the stuff of class-action lawauits as far as I am concerned.

Value:
As a movie prop it would LOOK great. I especially like the cool blue lighting and all the buttons & knobs. Unfortunately, I make music, not movies. For my studio, this has become a blue "night light" as the backlight glows nicely and does decent night light duty if the Mac it is plugged into gets left on. That's the nicest thing I can say about it. Think of buying this like buying a really good looking car with a really, REALLY bad engine. You choose your analogy, but don't buy one of these, please.

Desirability:
The "sex appeal" is just fine, but as I mentioned before, the thing doesn't work. It is a pretty girl in a bikini who is too dumb to tell you her own name. It really is that bad.

Sound:
I disagree with others who say this "makes no sound". Mine makes a LOT of sound, especially the middle "C" which REALLY scrapes and grinds when you press it. But let me be fair and say that other keys also scrape and make noise. It is almost laughably bad, but blowing money on bad gear is not very funny really, is it? The scraping is clearly reflected as spastic loss of rhythmic control and virtually random volume on a given key when pressed. Much like a prisoner who is "hobbled" with a weight on one leg, different keys on this keyboard take different amounts of effort to press down so anything that is velocity sensitive sounds like the volume per note is virtually random. As far as I can guess, the keyboard must be built from a number of octave subsections internally such that over time they are shifting somehow and putting pressure on something. I have read elsewhere that lots of people have "C" keys acting up and that the action is awful. Mine was bought around 2005. Are they better now? No idea, but M Audio seems to deny there being a known problem and a bit of web searching plus the lack of quality in my unit makes it clear to me that M Audio is treating people wrong. I contacted them and they seemed "baffled" as to what might cause this, suggesting I send it in so they could look at it for a fee. Charging inspection fees for known problems with defective designs is bad policy. When I bought the keyboard, it felt slightly odd and I should have returned it, but I got distracted by a new baby in the house and then the warranty was gone before I used it again (after a number of months doing very little recording). Only after sitting unused for some months (in a clean air conditioned studio) did the scraping begin. Believe me, this unit is "cheap" in EVERY sense of the word. BEWARE!!!

Ease of Use:
This one REALLY needs to be a "zero". There is no way to get good sounds from this unit. I cannot properly describe how spastic and out-of-control the action is. Maybe if your hands were completely numb from cold or lack of circulation and you splashed them with warm water and then tried to play (a decent keyboard) immediately as your hands tingled and throbbed, that might cause some similar lack of control (again on a DECENT keyboard). The problem feels and sounds like unfinished wood (not even well sanded) scraping and grunting as it rubs back-and-forth when certain keys are pressed. I am at a total loss to tell you just how bad this unit is. You have been warned!

Support:
Yep, I contacted them and they act like mine's the only one doing this-- they'e not aware of what a piece of junk it is at all. Do some web searching. It can't be true; they have to know SOMETHING. A good number of bad units clearly got out. Is that 1 in 1000 or half of them or 99% of them? Who knows, but be clear that mine just keeps getting worse. Who expects a keyboard (hardly even used-- just a few hours on it) would start to grunt and grind while sitting in a clean air conditioned studio? I have a nearly 40-year-old piano in the same room. We bought it new and there has been almost nothing done to it (apart from tuning) since it was new. That keyboard feels 100 times better than the Keystation after all these years. Avoid these keyboards like a terminal disease.

Overall:
My daughter has a $100-range keyboard where the keys light up. That 61-note keyboard is MANY times more useful, even in a studio, than my Keystation 88. This is no joke. There are two uses for mine. Use to look at-- people walk into the studio and tell me it looks "cool"-- yea, great... and my 4-year-old also likes to play on it. Mind you, no child had ever touched it before it completely bombed and began scraping and groaning (after maybe 4 or 5 hours of use?) Had it kept working as when I bought it, change most ratings to a 4 or 5. I was trying to justify this thing at first because of a low price and the fact that I just needed midi control for soft synths. What a bad call on my part. If you buy one and are LUCKY, maybe yours will just be "mushy" and feel extremely unregulatd, but figure that it will be squeaking and grinding a few months later. These are CHEAP. Don't confuse that with "economical".

• User: a customer from bellsouth.net
• Submitted: 1/12/2007
• Style of Music: Various styles. I'll record most anything but primarily Classical & Rock (yes, a strange mix).
• Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Desirability:
sezy

Sound:
software dependent.

Support:
can't rate just get it

Overall:
Key ungrading from a cassio to studiologic pro 88 was a quatum leap for me. So this thing is a starship to me. Seeing how I paid less for it that the cassio a few year ago; I have to agree with the positive reviews. You get what you pay for. If I had wanted a panio I would go buy one. Comparing a keyboard controller to a panio that usually cost thousands it just plain stupid.

• User: a customer from netzero.net
• Submitted: 3/11/2006
• Style of Music: Contemporary gospel
• Location: Normal IL

Feature:
Not sure what the last user was grumbling about, this thing has 4 different zones, a number of different velocity curves, all the knobs, buttons and faders I'll ever need, and it feels like playing a real piano.

Quality:
This is a sturdy device. It is pretty heavy to lift, but I'm using mine in the studio as my main studio keyboard controller so I don't really have to carry it around. You could definitely take it on the road with you, but I'd recommend a helper. I mean, it doesn't weight any more than my Wurlitzer.

Value:
I use this thing all the time. It is a great price for what you get.

Desirability:
Its very sexy

Sound:
no sound

Support:
M-Audio has a great tech support department. I had a question on setting up the buttons to change presets, and they were very patient and helpful.

Overall:
I love this keyboard. Would get it again.

• User: I'd rather not risk getting spam
• Submitted: 12/19/2005
• Style of Music: Electronic
• Location: LA, CA

Feature:
This unit is useless for live gigs. hardly any memory, no splits no zones not enough midi outs. What has happended to controllers since the A-70 or A-90 which gave you up to 8 zones/splits. Lots of memory and daisy chaining. This unit is suitable for hobbyists only.

Quality:
Action is weird.

Value:
Can't use it Live.

Desirability:
Looking for used Roland Controller.

Sound:
N/A

Support:
N/A

• User: a customer from ij.net
• Submitted: 11/9/2005
• Style of Music: Industrial / Prog Rock
• Location: Clearwater ,FL

Feature:
Aesthetically, the unit is very attractive and seems to be a very comprehensive user-friendly interface for your modules and computer set-up.

Quality:
Because the look and the lay-out of this thing was so attractive, I spent a great deal of time in a music store playing this thing and trying very hard to convince myself that it was the right board for me....I simply could not get past how lousy the keyboard action was. I'm a real keyboard player, like many who have commented before me, and if this board was meant to simulate a real piano, it comes no where close. I think it's the worst I've ever played.

Value:
From my own experience, as well as taking into account the experiences of those I've read, it's a worthless piece of gear.

Desirability:
Again, it "glitters", but you've heard the saying regarding things that glitter.

Sound:
Makes no sounds of it's own ofcourse...it's a controller

Support:
Thank God I won't need M-Audio's support, because unless there is certifiably significant improvement in their quality of their products, I won't be purchasing anything from them.

• User: a customer from sbcglobal.net
• Submitted: 10/18/2005
• Style of Music: gospel, jazz, funk, r&b
• Location: Dallas, Texas