Customer Reviews

Novation 25 SL MkII USB Midi Controller Keyboard 25 Keys

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These other reviews are not giving the praise this product deserves. I have owned it for over 3 years, hauled it, used it, (lightly abused it,) and it is still %100 since the day I bought. Poster above says too complex? Too many functions? I beg to differ. Look at it this way, you can go spend a $100 + on just a midi keyboard, then maybe you want some faders and knobs later, another 100+, then maybe a drum pad..keeps adding up. You wanna talk about complex? By 3 or even just 2 seperate midi products and get them functioning properly with Reason, FL Studio, Ableton Live, Garage band ect. Talk about complex and frustrating. Trust me, I've done it.

I use this with my laptop, FL Studio (fruity loops), and Adobe Audition. It is flawless. It will do whatever I want it to do. I can link knobs/faders/samples in my software and assign them to a knob/fader/drum pad with literally 2 clicks of the mouse. Oh yeah, and when I save and reopen the midi links are remembered. If you are just beginning making beats or mixes, or want something to do some live work as well, or you've been in the game for a while and looking for a nice little midi rig. Man I cannot highly recommend this product more. Like I said, until your mixin for Lil Weezy or something and want to have more equipment to look cool, you will not need anything else. Hell, I'll show up any hiphop/dubstep producer any day with this product and my laptop alone. Don't go blow a bunch of cash on a bunch of equipment, get this product because it has everything you will ever need, 1 cable, 1 plug, 1 piece of equipment.

- College Kid

I am just getting the hang of this device, but very satisfied with the experience so far. The physical feel of the unit is of medium quality. Solid enough to take gigging, but you'll want to be gentle to its faders and knobs. The synth-piano-key action itself is very good (in my subjective opinion)

The device's main differentiating point, its LCD works as advertised. It's very useful not having to glance at that part of the Ableton interface. It does seem to flicker oddly, but nothing to interrupt your usage.

I do find the device's interface to Ableton Live a bit clunky, especially the setup (be SURE to follow the instructions. You'll never guess it). That said, it's extremely usable. Perhaps when I dig more into programming the unit the clunky-feel will be smoothed out - it seems the device is totally customizable.

It's very good, by all means. The response time is instant, and is has SO many functions. But for me, a more intuitive interface would be better. The autodump function on Live 8 didn't work on this board, and you need the additional software for the board to work at all. Logic gives me all these "error" messages every time I disconnect the board or open Logic without the Novation board connected. Too much fuzz for me.

Length:: 0:47 Mins

Keyboard is not very responsive for a Fatar, almost returned it because of how bad it is.

The velocity curves are horrible, none of the presets are to my liking and you can't make your own but even if you could...

Some of the keys respond a lot easier and some a lot harder. So if you play same pressure up the keyboard you will get different velocity responses...you have to play some really hard and some really soft to get same velocity sound... pain in the rear to make music with this hardware.

Drum pads are not worth using, why even include them? I think I read you can't even map them but I've not tried because they are so bad.

Software is also a pain in the rear - does not sync or play well with most of my programs. Programming it is a real pain in the rear too - maybe I should have made "pain in the rear" the title for my review. Over all easier to turn off the software auto-map and program it in logic. Definitely not plug and play.

Very disappointed... paid top dollar and got flimsy gimmick.

Don't even bother trying to contact Novation Tech support... there is none, just search internet and you will see lots of horror stories.

If I had to do over I would have bought a different brand.

Novation is on my avoid list now, this is cheap and poorly made. Software is buggy, crashes Logic, and a pain in the rear.

3 Stars because it has more buttons than most and it can be programed (concept is good but software and hardware are horrible), even if it is a pain to make all your own maps. Fix the software Novation for another star.... and yes I downloaded the most recent updates.