FYI, Icon iKEY is disappointing

[Lunatique]

I finally got my paws on one and tested it for a few hours, and it fell short of my expectations. I expected it to be at least as good as the Korg NanoKEY, but in terms of velocity sensitivity, the NanoKEY walked all over the iKEY. The iKEY has a very hard time playing consistently low to mid velocity, and the mid velocity is more or less absent--you either end up playing too hard or too soft. It's also very spongy--one of the most spongy actions I've ever played. The miniature keys that actually has raised black keys and don't have the tops of white keys chopped off like the NanoKEY should have been a real blessing, but due to the spongy action, I'd rather play on the NanoKEY, even if fingering certain chords can be very awkward and would require reinventing the fingering with both hands.

The mod and pitch strips were also features I really looked forward to with the iKEY, and they kind of disappoint too. When they work, they are fine, but they don't consistently work, and often the tracking would get confused, or the mod and pitch would get swapped for no reason, or other weird things.

Build quality seems fine, although mine came with a non-working USB cable. The iMAP software is very simple and not nearly as deep as Korg's software for the Nano series.

The iKEY is slightly longer than the NanoKEY, and about twice as thick. It's still quite portable compared to full-sized 25-key controllers, but you really should try it in person to see if you can live with its lackluster velocity sensitivity and ribbon controls.

For those of you who never liked the Novation ReMOTE SL key action, the iKEY's action is similar, but even more so. The main problem with the ReMOTE SL action is that it's too easy to have the low velocity notes not register at all, and with the iKEY, that happens to, but what's worse is that light touches often register as hard hits, so it's very hard to play dynamically and control a wide range of velocities. For those who makes very hard-hitting music without much dynamics anyway, you probably wouldn't care.

[mrpeer]

totally agree with you icon ikey is worthless. Touch sensivity is totally random, some keys work only sometimes . The keyboard becomes unresponsive every half an hour.

[DeepFiber]

Hmm strange I had imagined this being as good or better than the current top of the line Fatar keybeds, with real ivory keys.

[knockman]

Thanks for the reviews Lunatique & mrpeer.

Sounds like they've created the first truly successful hardware emulations of software demo limitations!

I'd been wondering about these icon products. They've released a usb2.0 audio interface (4in 4out) that's going for around 17,000jpy (US$180) in some stores here. Seems a questionable investment...probably produces a burst of white noise every 30 seconds.

Hmm strange I had imagined this being as good or better than the current top of the line Fatar keybeds, with real ivory keys.

classic

[nix808]

My NanoKey isn't that great either. Lots of times it doesn't register note ons. I haven't bothered to take it back yet.

[Lunatique]

Hmm strange I had imagined this being as good or better than the current top of the line Fatar keybeds, with real ivory keys.

No, the iKey is the small portable one--the really tiny one that can fit into a laptop bag. It's the cheapest one in their product range I think.

[pc999]

That is real bad news as this

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/mus ... con-242005

Looked so interesting, at least it does not have a the cheap look of iKey and those other first i-controlers. It seems like they invested a litle but that info makes one go to wait and see mode.

Thanks.

[stikygum]

The iKey looks better than a lot of other controllers out there. Even though it sounds like it's not up to par for playing well, it seems like this or the Akai lpk25 are probably the best bets for mini keys.

Where can you buy a Icon iKey?

[Goldigin]

aww if you were from italy, a shop near my home has it (infact i am using that now, plus with an icontrol)

i agree with the very very and totally bad velocity sensivity. it also has a problem (?): pitch and modulation seem not to work good together: if i change pitch and modulation, it seems that only modulation cc is sent... i also can't use daisy-chain, but i think it's a reaper issue

[vanmorrison]

I agree that there are some prblems with keys and pitch, but it's quite good for its price, also the nano keys had problems, even if (when it worked) was quite pleasant to play and very good for playing drums. The nano is very portable, but has no pitch bend... the mod on ikey has not the possibility to fix the value to the point you reach and return always to zero, so this is another fact that I don't like too much... but for so tiny stuff, I wonder what can you aspect?

[function]

icon istage - 1/4 of the time the pads won't trigger - no response from manufacturer