What an Amazing Little Synth !!! 
by Marcus from Germany, January 2007
Music Background:  12 Years playing

Totally blown away, maybe because its a new little beast in my collection of synths. But i have to say that this thing sounds massive, and in my opinion its the best sounding synth after the Virus Ti. I swapped out some of the presets for the X station ones, but some of the Xio presets are great starting points for even greater sounds and complex patches. I love the basics of the synth layout and panel. Its so simple to operate for playing use, and you can dig deeper for the real stuff. Plenty of real time knobs for the size of synth. The sound is bigger than the previous Novations, and i say this from experience. I use to own the A Staion rack for 3 years, and sold it to buy this. The sound difference is worth every penny that the Xio costs. I would describe the sound as gritty and fat, as well as liquid sounding, boyond my old A Station. The pads are awesome with that compex evolving sound with the various filters doing pure damage. The key bed is of high quality and does not feel spongy or toyish like some of the cheaper midi controllers. I cannot believe the range of features this thing carries for the price. I was considering the smaller X Station, but decided to go for the Xio due to the enhanced KS sound engine. The new X Gator and Shape filter makes the Xio a step above the previous Novation synths. Truely amazing.

  Amazing Piece of Equipment 
by Nikolai from RVA, September 2006
Music Background:  Amateur industrial musician

My first synth was a microKorg, and while it is a good synth in its own right, it is not a good stand alone synth. I needed more capabilities in a synth. I looked at options like getting an ION or a microX, but in the end I decided to go ahead and get the XioSynth, because of it's lower price and the sheer amount of features. I'm glad I did, because this was the piece of equipment I needed.
I not only use it as a synth, but as an audio interface as well. It is like an X-Station, only you can't run external audio singals through effects like you could on the X-Station. I like how there are three oscillators, each having the same waveforms and individual controls instead of the limiting oscillator set-up on the microKorg. There's even a filter overdrive that can create some really harsh sounds or just make your sound louder and thicker. The arpeggiator, which can be combined with the gator for slicer-like effects, is very flexible. The effects are okay, they can all be used at the same time if you so choose (not one at a time like the microKorg) and they can be individually edited (very flexibly, I might add, the sub menus help out a lot in that regard). To me, the phaser is a tad weak compared to the one on the microKorg. Since I can use plug-ins on my recorded sound, I'm not too overly concerned about it. You can also assign any effects to the joystick, so whan you move it up and down the effect depth changes. Really advanced stuff!
The audio interface feature is amazing. The included USB cable is all you need to literally plug and play. Novation wasn't lying! I used to use a Griffin iMic to hook up my stuff to my laptop, but that produced a terrible hiss that ruined my recording quality. Now all I need is that cable and I can hook up other keyboards, guitars, and microphones to the XioSynth, and I can record them all directly into my computer. There is barely any noticable hiss at all, either. You can control the gain and USB send levels on the XioSynth itself to prevent clipping. The audio interface feature was half the reason I got the XioSynth, and I am very satisfied. This thing is like a studio rather than just a keyboard.
All in all, the XioSynth is a huge bang for your buck deal. A lot of the controls are cramped together and the sub menus are sometimes confusing to access, but you get the hang of it in a few days. If that bothers you and you can give up the gator feature, get an X-Station, it has a more laid out interface. This keyboard does everything my microKorg can't do, and then some. They complement and complete each other in almost every aspect.
I would highly recommend this synth to anyone looking for an affordable Swiss Army Knife of a keyboard or a beginner to synthesizers in general.

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