Controller Keyboards

[thesoundsmith]

Oh, yeah... On my B4 ii setup, the knobs contol drive, keyclick and master vume, the zone/group bttons control percussion and vibrato, and the drum pads are patch changes - if you do a lot of patch changes, the drum pads are da kine - (assuming you can get away with just 8 patches per setup...) I even have the 'record' button on the transport buttons acting as a sustain switch - no more sticking matchbooks in between the keys (though a sosenuto function would be even better, but that's up to the B4...)

[philosorhymes]

Great thanks for that Peterfs & Soundsmith

[XDVarenkor]

CME breath controller almost caused me to purche it, but I have played them and don't like the feel of the controls, plus there appear to be issues (check their forums, lots of frustrated users.) I was really hoping that would be the one, because of the extra controller options, but the Axiom won me over...

There certainly do seem to be a lot of people on the CME forums with issues, but look at many support forums for all sorts of products and you see the same pattern (why post on a support forum unless you have an issue?) Mine required a long(ish) playing-in period to free up some sticky hammers that weren't sending note-off messages, but it's brilliant now.

[thesoundsmith]

Your point is well-taken, but note the TYPE of support issue on the various forums, it will tell you a lot about the odds you're in good hands or not - CME has core issues with the OS and the same complaints were voiced over a long time with no answers. NI seems to be the same way - cry for help and they either ignore you or try to say it's your fault. Muse has responded promptly and helpfully, and the tech issues don't take months or years to resolve. Digital Performer's tech support is very slow and frequently of the blame-the-user type - if I wasn't a long time DP user, I'd have abandoned them ears ago. M-Audio is generally helpful, but rather slow, and they still try to put it on the user first (which is understandable, I suppose, one of the problems with supplying manuals only in PDF is you don't read it as thoroughly, or as often, so you can miss key things...)

In the end, its not how much it costs, or how cool the unit is, it's whether it will do the job you have purchased it for...

[peterfs]

FYI, it looks like M-Audio released a new version of their manual:

http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/ma ... G_EN01.pdf

- peter

[thesoundsmith]

And I jjust printed the old one...

But it is a better read. Thanks for the post.

[bernie9]

Thanks Peter and Soundsmith. I downloaded the PDF to my hard drive. Thanks Soundsmith for your reports on the Axiom. I can't take a chance on the new CME model. Too many issues, and I think this will do all I want it to do.

Bernie

[thesoundsmith]

he only thing I haven't been able to make it do so far is breath control- it would be a VERY nice addition (along with a second cc pedal (sustain, volume filter). But I am very happy with this board, especially for the proce.

Now if they would just add a cuple hundred to the price and use full waterfall keys with fully-calibrated keysboard velocities, properly (for B3/B4) color-coded drawbar sliders and maybe some more presets, i'd even be happier.

[LanceOng]

Has anyone been using the Axiom controller to play piano?

How does the keyboard feel? Is the velocity response even between the white and black keys?

Thanks.

Lance

[thesoundsmith]

I don't play piano on the Axiom, ti's only 61 notes - but the 88sx is the same mechanism. It is a lightweight, synth=-action keyboard, (and an inexpensive one to boot) but for the money it fells ok, no worse than most. Evenness between black and white has not been an issue for me, but there are irreguarities in the linearity of veloity response, occasionally notes will play lodly for no apparent reason. I have not tried different velocity curves to see if it hels, but I would not actully expect it to...

All in all, it's what you pay for. very powerful, but the key action is where the money was saved.

[LanceOng]

Velocity irregularities, particularly between the black and white keys *is* what I'm talking about... there were many complaints of this on the CME forum about that product. I had also heard of similar complaints about the M-Audio products, but was wondering if this was handled specifically with the Axiom line of kbds.

Thanks.

Lance

[philosorhymes]

Does anyone find that their Axiom controller works intimittently with the muse box when connected via USB? Sometimes I connect my axiom (49) to the muse box via USB and none of the MIDI controls work not even the keys. It (the axiom) powers up fine and if I use a MIDI cable all MIDI signals are sent over that but USB just won't work. Any thoughts?

[bernie9]

Mine seems fine with USB, using Axiom 61.

[thesoundsmith]

Philosorhyme, once it is connected and the Receptor is powered up, you can't disconnect the USB cable, and shouldn't turn it off. this causes Receptor to lose the connection. You will have to reboot. But don't disconnect or power down and you should be fine, my 61 has never lost a byte under 'normal' conditions.

[controlphr33k]

CME breath controller almost caused me to purche it, but I have played them and don't like the feel of the controls, plus there appear to be issues (check their forums, lots of frustrated users.) I was really hoping that would be the one, because of the extra controller options, but the Axiom won me over...

Enigma sux, BTW - it needs real cut/copy/paste functions, not the way they are implemented. It is a great start, but desparately needs work.

I'm working on setting up my Axiom as I write this. I have to agree that Enigma needs work; not nearly as convenient as I'd like. But I'm enjoying the keyboard, it's very flexible and it has a pretty good feel (as these types of keyboards go).

One thing I found useful was to hook the Axiom to my Receptor over Midi, and to my PC over USB. I could monitor the Axiom output using MidiOX and watch what happens on the Receptor remote console.

I've been trying to figure out how best to lay out the controls. I'm going to try using Axiom presets to control snapshot channels on the Receptor. I'm using the front panel mappings to plugin parameters and setting the Axiom controller values accordingly. Anybody have other suggestions?

- peter

I run an Engima user group:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/M-Audio_Enigma/

The app works great for me, it just has a few undocumented quirks that take some getting used to. As far as free Sysex editors go, it's amazing (and I've used my fair share of Sysex librarians over the years).

Stop by the group and drop us a line if you're having issues with Enigma, It works like a charm for all my needs,

cheers,

-cF