I bought a 49-key Xio because I wanted lots of basses and FX sounding patches... the endorsement by Roots Manuva was also a factor, I respect his music. He was right to say it's really loud, and to me the sounds in it are very good, as good as the Yamaha AN-200 modeling synth I used to have. You can tell the sounds in the Xio are not in the same league as something like a Korg Poly-Six, but only just.

Basically it came with a drivers/help DVD, power supply and USB cable... pretty much all you need to make music with it right out of the box. It works as a MIDI controller. The USB interface part had a lot of time lag, that was dissapointing.

I've had experience with a few old Yamaha FM-synths, which were all programmed through menus like the Xio. Even so, this machine takes a lot of getting used to, to figure out what setting or sub-menu has been chosen. Frankly, something might have been wrong with the Xio I had because sometimes it seemed I didn't have access to the settings I was trying to change. If you get one, use the DVD tutorials, it's probably the only way you'll figure out how to program it.

This is why I rated it so low - I think Novation really screwed up in trying to make a very low cost synth/interface/controller; they must've farmed out the manufacturing to the lowest bidder. The keys SUCKED, they are wobbly and something was wrong with the velocity sensitivity on mine (you had to strike the white keys really hard to get a moderately loud note, and even that didn't work sometimes). In addition the X-Y pad, which is the coolest synth interface ever, was misaligned or something and would BEND in to the unit when I pressed hard on it. I know this is not part of the design, because I exchanged the Xio for an X-station, and the X-Y pad on the X-station is rock solid.

It's cheap, but it's built cheaply - you get what you pay for. Or maybe not.

I contacted Novation about the quality issues and they were very quick to get back to me. They did however basically tell me to talk to the retailer if I thought the Xio had a hardware issue (translation: it's cheap, so if you think it was built badly work it out with whoever sold it to you).

I really liked the design of the Xio. The grey body with a blue display, and the black controls looked really cool. If only it had worked as well as it looked...

Hobbyist

Experimental

Tasty ambient,rave & electronica programs...sound quality is surprisingly good!The most expressive synth on the market for the price! Some sounds are pretty bland,but at least you have the option of tweaking them...but I have no complaints for the price. I have the Korg Triton Extreme & the Alesis Ion and the XioSynth is a welcome addition.

Product comes with all the necessary accessories.The most useful feature-at least one of which,is the over-sized ribbon controller..woah! Just the synth part alone,is worth the price,so how could I wish for anymore features that it already has for the price?!!

At least 30% of the programs,you can very easily get wonderful sounds...some of the other ones will take quite a bit of tweaking to be useful. It's plug & play to a certain extent,but I have yet to delve deeply into it's other functions,as I don't have a dvd rom player to view the manual-so needless to say,I cannot comment on the manual either.

For the very modest price of this board,I can safely say,that this is the most solid & well made keyboard on the market for it's price point...no exaggeration folks! The keys have a nice weight to them & they are spring loaded...great action & very comfortable for such a compact synth!! The joystick is incredibly strong & smooth...unprecedented action on this control!! This synth has to be felt to be believed...you really need to experience this board for yourself,to know what I am talking about....I believe this synth will last for 20 years...hopefully!

There simply is know other synth like this for the money...an incredible value.

Can't comment on this yet.

For a keyboard that's made out of plastic,it's very tasty!!

Veteran recording hobbyist,keyboardist & audiophile

Rock,jazz,ambient,downtempo,pop,blues..too many to mention