KX = Kool and Xciting...! 
by Sammy James from Boston, MA, March 2008
Music Background:  I'm a full-time idiot who happens to be a producer and engineer...

KX 49 review -- by Sammy James

The first thing that you notice is the weight -- which is to say that it weighs next to nothing. At 6.6 pounds, it feels like a computer keyboard, not like a synthesizer.

The second thing is that the knobs, buttons, and wheels are all quality-made. I got a nice, crisp feel by pressing every front panel button. The mod and pitch wheels are loads of fun to play as well -- no "wheel misalignment" problems.

The final and most important physical attribute is the keyboard itself; the 49 keys are all delightfully springy, and yet sink properly to their pedal positions. This is good for players who are used to grand-style pianos, although the synth action of the KX is preferable for doing fast, up-and-down scalar runs.

If Yamaha had been trying to create the perfect keyboard, they clearly missed. But I suspect that they were trying for a "good enough" keyboard, and if this is the case, then they have a real winner. Good enough means that you can get stuff done with this piece. Good enough also means that you won't break the bank (or your back) picking one of these up, figuratively or literally.

I recommend this keyboard (or any of the other KX line) for anyone who owns Cubase or who plans to use the included Cubase AI product. All of the front-panel buttons map seamlessly to Cubase functions, including the transport. You can even set up keyboard commands to open any Cubase window, or to send commands like Quantize or Undo. But the real power is in the KX editor.

The editing program (which you download from Yamaha's web site, www.yamahasynth.com) is a joy to work with. What I discovered, much to my surprise, was what happened when I changed a parameter to one of the quick controls. I was using the G-Force Oddity program and I needed to change the Portamento time for a patch that I had created. By selecting the parameter in the editor and changing it to "Portamento" (yes, it is named fully in the editor window) the KX immediately picked it up and saved it to the KX's internal memory. Yes, I am aware that this is how it SHOULD work -- but tell that to the myriad of other companies whose products require that you transmit and receive data every time you make a single edit. Kudos to Steinberg and Yamaha for this level of automation.

Look -- it isn't perfect, as I said. Missing is aftertouch, and missing is a control pedal input. Too, there could be more assignable buttons (why give us only four? Buttons are cheap -- and most of us would love to be able to throw out the shift+alt+ctrl+whatever+wow-I-can't-remember-what-that-stupid-function-was button presses). The only other thing that I wish that had been included here was something that will, from what I hear, be appearing on a future Steinberg product. I'm referring to a product whose name is yet to be released, but which will feature a knob that can control any VSTi parameter in conjunction with your mouse.

This is a solid keyboard with strong features at a good price. With all of the other products out there, this is the first that I have ever owned that lets me pretty much get back to doing the one thing that I care about most -- recording and playing music.

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