Customer Reviews

Novation Nocturn 25 USB MIDI Interface Keyboard Controller, 25-Keys, NOCTURN 25

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

 

 

The general concept of the Novation Nocturn series is that you have a responsive MIDI controller that is less expensive because a lot of the display parts and intelligence are handled through Novation's AutoMap software. AutoMap can be great, but it can also be very frustrating if the mappings for different devices aren't up to date, and Novation has a poor reputation for keeping their mappings current (in particular with Reason).

I originally had an Akai MiniMPK, which worked great, but wanted something a little larger, so I figured that the Nocturn 25 was just the ticket and only a bit more expensive (and still less expensive than the MAudio Axiom Pro 25 or the Akai MPK25).

It showed up, I installed it, and everything seemed fine, until I tried to use the drum pads. The drum pads under Windows were sporadically responsive, sometimes they'd show up, sometimes they wouldn't. I tried calibrating them, and AutoMap never registered them. Hmm. This is on a Mac Pro 2008 running Win 7. On a hunch, I booted into OS X...and they work perfectly.

So it's not a hardware issue, it's software issue, and one with their drivers. According to another user on the Novation forums, he reported this a year ago and support claimed that they were aware of the problem and 'looking into it'. Non-functioning drum pads on Windows would seem to be a fairly significant issue.

Support hasn't responded to me in 3 days, so I'm guessing they're not going to address this, at which point I'll need to return this. Disappointing since I'll have to spend more money.

Overall I give it 2 stars. If you're solely an OS X user and can live with the Automap quirks, it's probably a 4 star product, but if you use Windows, one of its major features may or may not work for you at all.

I needed a smaller keyboard for my home studio and this "fits the bill". In combination with the Novation ZeR0 SL MkII I have COMPLETE control of the DAWs -I use Record & Live). By itself, it does a great job as a controller. I'm very familiar with Automap and the nocturn is designed with Automap in mind -it requires it. Construction is rock solid, I am impressed with the quality of the keys, they play nice. For the price, I was not expecting such a nice keyboard. The drum pads are OK, perfect for triggers, not so much for beats. If you use ProTools, I would go with M-Audio, but for Reason, Record or Live, this is a sweet compact keyboard controller. I give it a 4+, if the drum pads were better, it would be a 5.