Synth and Midi Controller in One 
by William Bagley from Ashland, OR, October 2006
Music Background:  Hobbyist and Student, Uses Basic Tones for Sound Healing work

I have both the 25 key and 49 key versions of this unit. I use it to run my Reason software and as a stand alone synth. They took the KS synth and subtracted some of the lesser used features, like the vocoder, but kept the core engines which are great. The controls are more intuitive in terms of creating sounds and tweaking them compared to what I had previously (Micro Korg, Alesis ION, and MS-2000, within a short time I could predict how a sound was going to change and felt I actually had a palette to work with. The XY controller works very well to create very rich sounds that change over time. My favorite is to take TRANCE ATTACK, latch ON, appegiator ON, and input the C and G notes, and then very slowly move my finger nail across the XY pad. After a while, you get subtle variations of the basic trance sound constantly changing over time. If a sound is satisfying, then you can simply pull your finger off and it will hold the sound. It has a sustain pedal and battery power. It lasts a long time on batteries. I let go of my Korg KAOS pad since the little XY controller is easier and more precise. A Palm Pilot stylus works well on it.

  The Total Package for Reason headz and computer musicians 
by Ahmad W. aka Mouf Pieceof God 1/2 of FLOW from Hewitt, TX, July 2006
Music Background:  Emcee (Recording Artist) and Producer of Holy hip hop

What can you say about the X-Station 25? It is the perfect midi controler for those who desire more handz on approach to working with your DAW. It is a two channel mixer with phantom power for condenser mics with stereo and mono recording as well as effects. It is synth that has some dope soundz that can be tweaked to perfection. I primarily use it for controling Reason 3. This controler works perfectly for most of the sound modules in Reason. Some of the settings may need tweaking when working with the NN-XT sampler, but other than that it is a dream to work with as a controler. I also use this as my main mixer when recording vocals into Cubase SX. I've had no problems with latency or anything. Recording with the effects in the X-Station is off tha chain. The chorus effects really sound tight when used in hooks or chorus sections. If you use Reason 3 this is a must have. If you want to have an all in one controller, interface, and synth this is a must have, especially for those who are "computer musicians" or do a lot of things on the go.

 
by Jon Gee , February 2005

This is a wonderful piece of gear, and I wanted to leave a review so that I can tell others just how wonderful it is:
Ah, where to begin? Novation really put a strong effort into making an all around killer piece for the home studio.
I made a beat in Reason, imported the .aiff into Live and then switched over to the KS synth and recorded some deep bass and layered pads. On top of that I recorded vocals, adding in some of the dsp effects (which are brilliant!) and nearly had a completed track all in less than 5 hours. And did it all with no mixer...just the x-station and a powerbook.
The included sound presets (200) are really cool and really fun to tweak. I find that the touchpad adds a hightened sense of creativity and enjoyment to making music, and for possible live performance sound filtering ease! The mic pre's are nice n warm, and after adding in some verb, some delay, hmm, and some chorus...yeah and compression...wow! you get some seriously cool sounds from your source.
It controls reason like a dream...and with Reason 3 coming out March 10th, it makes this the most wonderful reason controller out there...(reason 3 will support the X-station in it's new "remote" system).
And yes it controls all the best DAWs...whew!

If you want to turn up the inspiration and find a very portable AI/controller/synth...this is it.

Click here to Read the inSync Review for the X-Station 25

Write Your Own Review!
We all love gear, and we all love talking about gear with our friends and bandmates. Why not share your thoughts with the hundreds of thousands of customers who regularly visit Sweetwater.com? Write your own customer review on this product! To begin, just Click Here!