Customer Reviews

Novation Remote 25 SL Compact USB MIDI Controller Keyboard with AutoMap Universal Technology, 25 Keys

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

 

 

This product is awesome! Automap is sweet, automatically maps controls of softsynths straight onto the unit so you can tweak away. Takes all of the hassle out of setting up individual templates and the automap templates are fully editable with the ability to set up preset arrangements for your softsynths and store it within the automap software. Very powerful indeed.

Running on a mac with os x running Logic.

Was a pain to install as the installer forgets to create a folder in the library called "MIDI Device Plug-ins" and place a file in it called "RemoteSL.bundle". Had to email Novation and get them to send the file, as soon as they did everything went perfectly.

Have seen a lot of criticism of this device and most of it I feel is unjustified as it is either the result of user misuse or a problem with the installer for the software. Plug it in to a main USB port and the display is good! Persevere with the software and it will be worth it.

Nothing is perfect however and I do find that the endless rotary controllers are a little inconsistent. It would be nice if they could be set up with no acceleration so that a half turn + a half turn regardless of how fast you turn it. For subtle changes it is very accurate though, maybe an OS update could sort this?

Overall a very good piece of kit especially as it can be picked up for little over £100 brand new if you shop around!

As a 15-year veteran of sound production, I found this Novation Remote 25SL Compact unit to be surprisingly unusable. The problem? The much-touted blue LCD display is virtually unreadable. I could not read it in the dark, nor in the light, nor by aiming various lights at it. Only at a certain angle can you even begin to make out the possibility of text on the screen. It's worse than an LCD calculator from 1982.

Without being able to see the screen, the rest of the features are irrelevant. Needless to say, I could not use the "Automap" features for any VST instruments and I couldn't get the MIDI to work in Cakewalk Sonar. This machine quickly became a $300 paperweight on my desk.

The hardware looks spiffy: Nice drum pads, pitch bender wheel, etc. But what good is the hardware if you can't see the interface and actually use the unit?

Is it possible that my unit was a fluke, and that other units have LCD screens that are readable? Certainly that's a possibility, but if this unit passed their quality control, and it's unreadable, I'm certainly not going to buy a second unit just to find out if the fluke theory is correct.

By the way, there is *no* setting to adjust LCD brightness or contrast. Astonishing. You just get whatever screen settings come from the factory, and you're stuck with that.

I recommend avoiding this unit and buying something with an LCD display that you can actually read.