M-Audio Keystation 88es

I WANTED A KEYBOARD TO INPUT MUSIC TO SONGWORKS MUSIC NOTATION PROGRAM. I PURCHASED THE 88ES TO HAVE A FULL RANGE OF NOTES. THIS UNIT IS GREAT! IT'S THE SAME AS MY BABY GRAND, AND HAS THE FEEL OF A PIANO. I AM VERY PLEASED WITH THIS UNIT!!

Harry King review of M-Audio keyboard controller

Fantastic keyboard for the price. It fit right into my DAW setup and XP. Love the power through USB feature. I purchased the power supply just to have both. The key action is fantastic and the wheels are precise. I did have a problem with the keyboard's own midi timing, but rerouted it in Cubase through my Motif Rack and there's no problem that way. Thanks Sweetwater for the M-Audio 88es at such a great price

The Only MIDI Controler You'll Ever Need!

I had searched for months for a basic MIDI controller that didn't have all the knobs and sliders and bells and whistles. I finally found this great controller. The M-Audio Keystation 88es is all you'll ever need to really get creative with your audio plug-ins. The feeling that you can wring out of these keys is very nice. The touch is amazing. I have absolutely no complaints about this controller. By all means, buy this keyboard!

Great MIDI Controller

Exactly as advertised -- a good 88-key controller for under $200. There has been some criticism about this product because the keys do not have "piano action", but it is more responsive and has a better feel to me than my FantomX. If you are looking for an 88-key controller and don't need the frills of some of the pricier full-sized boards, you can't go wrong with this one!

PERFECT for What it is!

Ok, for the price, and for what I need, this is the best thing out there. All I wanted was a basic midi controller. I don't need all the sounds (I can use virtual instruments). It feels great, with it's semi-weighted keys. It is almost a must have for a person that just needs a midi controller and need more keys to really excercise their fingers on. I highly recommend this item and will probably use it forever in my home studio (which will hopefully someday go proffessional).

Great Product for the Buck!

Just got mine in. Great product and looks great in my home studio. I'm learning how to play piano and got this keyboard for the 88 keys i needed for practice. My old M-audio key 49, Im giving to my kids for use in Reason 4, but this baby will stay in my studio for a long time.!!! Good Job M-audio!!

Everything I expected

I purched the Keystation because my old MIDI keyboard was causing Finale 2012 to crashed frequently on my I Mac. There have been no crashes since using this controller. I am still trying to get used to the difference in sound between the MIDI keyboard and this controller.

Everything I expected

I purched the Keystation because my old MIDI keyboard was causing Finale 2012 to crashed frequently on my I Mac. There have been no crashes since using this controller. I am still trying to get used to the difference in sound between the MIDI keyboard and this controller.

Perfect for the money.

I got this as a happy medium between smaller boards with more knobs and sliders and the bigger, hammer-action 88 key boards, which also have the knobs and sliders. I don't really play real-time, so I don't need real-time controls other than mod wheel and pitch bend. As a sequencing tool, this is absolutely the best value for money out there. Action is fine. No aftertouch on the board is a bummer, but easily forgiven given the price point, and the fact that I can just draw in the automation curves for aftertouch by hand. I love the fact that it's bus powered. If you sequence, and can live without hammer-action and aftertouch, this is your huckleberry.

Basic, but it works

This keyboard has fairly good synth action and 88 keys. It doesn't do much more than that, but I've had it for almost a year now and it's never not worked. One thing I wish it had was some M-Audio drivers. It uses the basic windows drivers so it appears in my DAW as Universal Midi Controller which makes it hard to distinguish from a couple other midi devices I have hooked up. Overall though, it works for my need, which is a simple 88 key controller.

Great potential, but white/black key balance could use improvement

I love the low profile and attractive looks of this controller, which make it perfect for desktop applications. But the one thing I can't get around is the unbalanced weighting between the white and black keys. The black keys are significantly more stiff. I tried to compensate by slightly stretching the springs on the black keys. While this balanced the action, the black keys are now too hot on velocity - so one step forward, one back. I recommend paying a little extra for better key action. Unfortunately, there's no other 88-note controllers with this great low profile, but performace is what matters most. Hopefully, M-Audio will come out with a improved version soon.

Decent value, but watch out for a few things

The good:
This is a decent value. Action isn't Steinway, but it's more than reasonable for the money. My need for this particular keyboard was something lightweight and trim enough so that I could pop it right on my computer desk and program sample libraries. In that regard, it's quite serviceable.

The other:
1) I've been working with MIDI since the beginning. I always refer closely to a product's MIDI implementation chart. Oftentimes you can learn about features that were too squirrely to put into the manual. The chart for this keyboard clearly states that channel aftertouch is supported. It ain't necessarily so. You can assign aftertouch to the volume fader, but nothing happens when you press the key. I don't call that aftertouch.
2) The keyboard only transmits a fixed release velocity. That in itself isn't unusual--most of them do--but it unfortunately transmits a value of 0 (instead of a more common 64). If you have presets that respond to release velocity, you may find them acting peculiarly.
3) You can reprogram some aspects of the keyboard. For instance, you can assign the volume slider to transmit another continuous controller. Unfortunately the keyboard forgets all settings when you power down, so you have to reprogram every single time. This is just plain dumb. A serial eeprom costs less than a buck.
4) And finally, the keys are all labeled on the case just above the keys. C2, D2, E2, etc, just like a home organ from the 1950s. This is an irritant for two reasons. Many sequencers and other keyboards allow you to specify either C3 or C4 as middle C. With the 88es, you're stuck with C3. More importantly, the keys are used as buttons to reprogram aspects of the keyboard. If the keys were labeled by function, I wouldn't have to go scurrying back to the manual every time. Opportunity missed. I'll probably make up my own label and tape it over.

Conclusion:
I probably have been around the block too many times to give M-Audio a pass on what I believe are thoughtless omissions. But the keyboard feels pretty reasonable, and I will be able to make good use of it. Perhaps these issues can be dealt with in a V2.

Terrible action, breaks within a few years

I have owned a few of these, mostly because nobody makes good MIDI controllers with 76+ keys that are synth action and are less than the price of just buying a freaking 76 key workstation. And so I have been forced to use these for the last 4 years.

The good:
-Very skinny and light weight. It's nice having a board that is easy to move around.
-It's almost guaranteed that this will break within 2 or 3 years, so if you get the usual music dealer coverage, you will basically be renting these for $10 a year.
-It has 88 keys that aren't hammer action. I think this is the only controller on the market that offers that.

The bad:
-This will break. I'm on my third one in 4 years. I keep one that is only 'sort of' broken as a backup, because these WILL break.
-The velocity sensitivity is VERY different between white and black keys. You will learn to compensate for it, but it will be weird switching between this controller and any real keyboard instruments or any other controller. It is almost impossible to get a full 127 velocity from the white keys, but very effortless on the black keys.
-The action is atrocious. The keys are too resistive or something...and they feel like they press down further than most keys for some reason. At any rate, if you have to play a lot of fast runs, stay away from this. If you play pop music like me, it will suffice. I do plenty of synth stuff and flowery piano crap, and I get by.

In conclusion, buy this because you don't want to spend $700 or whatever on a decent controller that is 76+ keys and is synth action. Get the coverage, and when it breaks, enjoy your free new keyboard. Probably a good idea to have some kind of a backup if you play live. Don't even bother with a case, because it's going to break anyway, and if you use a case then you don't get to enjoy how light and easy to move around it is. Just throw it on top of everything else in the trailer.

M-Audio 88

One word: Action!
The keys have terrible action and feel.
It's like playing on a toy piano.

88 Keys for $2.27 per key

The Keystation 88es comes with the very basic features that you expect from a decent midi controller keyboard, including MIDI ins and outs, USB, a DC in port (but no included wall wart, which is no loss since the unit can be powered by the USB cable), an input for a damper pedal and one other footswitch. Otherwise, it's a fairly sparse, no-frills controller with only pitch bend and modulation, a volume slider and a pair of buttons that implement the octave up/down function in case you have a Bosendorfer sample or some other reason to expand beyond 88 keys. That's in stark contrast to the Pro 88, which has yards of knobs and faders that should let you control everything from your VST instrument to your DAW mixer to the small appliances in your kitchen. This is not the only significant difference, though. I played the fully weighted keys of the Pro 88 at a local retailer, and it is more pleasant than the semi-weighted keys of the 88es, which feel stiff and decidedly plastic and synth-like, more so even than my old synths, like the M1 and Juno 60. Of course, the selling feature of the 88es as opposed to the Pro 88 is the price. It's awfully hard to find a respectable 88 key controller for 200 clams, and for the money, the 88es is just fine. The velocity sensitivity is perfectly acceptable, the damper pedal very functional, the volume fader works with my computer without any additional tweaking required, and the octave function also... well, functions. The unit is light (an advantage if you have to carry it around, a disadvantage when it slides around on your stand a little) but sturdy. For the money difference -- and what I need it for, which is strictly hobbyist home recording -- the 88es has been a very good purchase. I've always had only 61 keys at my disposal before, and the jump to 88 is truly liberating, especially when using VSTs like Sythology's Ivory. The plastic-feeling semi-weighted touch is a mild perturbance, but a few minutes into any session I warm up to it and it stops bothering me.