Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)You are probably debating between the Roland A-500PRO and the M-Audio Axiom 2nd Gen. In spite of the M-Audio's inflated MSRP, both can be found within $50 of each other and they are street priced to compete with each other with similar features. So which one is for you?
Keys and controls: I like the feel of the A-500PRO keys and knobs. I took a slight gamble on the A-500PRO since no local store had it on display for me to play with. Fortunately, it has similar keys found on Roland's other small MIDI controllers, for example the legacy PCR-500 and Juno series. The keys are definitely "synth" style, no semi-weight or chunky feel at all, but a perfect amount of spring. I found the keys on the M-Audio Axiom and Axiom Pro to be a little clicky, especially the black keys. All of the knobs and sliders are smooth except the menu knob (notched). The knobs feel really good. The sliders feel okay, not awesome. I like the pitch controller, though others noticed the center spring loading prevents it from holding an off pitch setting. I haven't played with the dynamic pads but they are small compared to the M-Audio's pads. They feel okay but are audible when hitting them with your fingers (I suppose they all are). Compared to the Axiom, the controls feel better on the A-500PRO. Comparing the series, note that the M-Audio 25 has just two sliders, while the comparable A-300PRO does (+5" and 7 more keys). The 16x2 character display on the Roland is also easier to navigate.
Appearance: The Roland is all plastic but it looks good, much cleaner than the PCR-500 it apparently replaced. The backlight and buttons light up old school orange, but I much prefer that to the trendy blue you find everywhere. It's smaller and lighter than the Axiom but does not feel smaller. I prefer the overall "cooler" look of the Axiom but the A-500PRO looks like a professional piece of equipment as well, favoring function over trend.
Software and Drivers: The keyboard by default uses FPT, a proprietary low latency MIDI interface and driver. It works and I can only assume it's better than a standard driver but have no way to measure it. Enabling ACT allows it to auto-magically map the controls (knobs/sliders/etc) to Sonar's interface, which works really well and feels nice. The initial setup still requires you to manually specify the A-500PRO in the preferences, but you don't have to map all the controls - that is done for you in an intelligent way. If you use Sonar, you will probably want this keyboard over the Axiom just for the ACT feature. One minor complaint is that the driver lists MIDI in/out, A-PRO 1 in/out and A-PRO 2 in/out. A-PRO 2 is the bulk control set you need to select within your DAW, but with that non-descriptive name you need to read the manual carefully to figure that out. I didn't load the software that came with it as I already have Sonar X1. I did test the keyboard with other programs besides Sonar, and the keyboard works just fine using the FPT driver (it's transparent). However, a great feature of this keyboard is that you can bypass FPT to use a standard, non-proprietary MIDI driver, by turning off the advanced mode from the keyboard. This is great for Linux or other OS's for which an FPT driver isn't available. Note that even when using the FPT driver you are still limited by the latency of your synthesizer. Most hardware synthesizers will not have any noticeable latency, but the MS software synth you'll likely encounter does have significant latency.
Final thoughts: I wish the dynamic pads were larger, and more like pads instead of buttons like the Axiom's; this is an obvious compromise to retain the same layout for the A-300PRO. The LCD display could benefit from a size increase or better contrast. Ultimately when comparing against the Axiom, the decision comes down to your preferred feel of the keys. Overall I am pleased with the A-500PRO, even if not using the ACT feature.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Cakewalk A-500PRO USB/MIDI Keyboard Controller
If you're looking for a keyboard controller that you can use in the studio, on-stage, or anywhere you feel inspired, look no further than the A-500PRO. Combining the best of Roland engineering with Cakewalk's legendary ease-of-use, the A-5...
Click here for more information about Cakewalk A-500PRO USB/MIDI Keyboard Controller
0 comments:
Post a Comment