X-Tremely Cheap (Novation X-Station 61 Controller Keyboard)

Member Name: brunocrosier

Product:	Novation X-Station 61 Controller Keyboard
Date:	02/07/08 (169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of sounds and knobs, has a mixer inside it

Disadvantages: Software synthesizers look to swallow synths like this whole within the next few years!

The Novation X-Station is bursting with a large variety of functions and features well suited to any avid bedroom musician. It is ready to use straight out of the box, and relatively easy to understand.

I highly recommend looking in to this product - especially for less experienced musicians interested in the Electronica/Dance genre. However i also strongly urge you to look in to software synthesizers that run off PC or Macs (see below). This is partly due to the synthesizer's lack of grand piano sounds. I would also say that the price is one of the X-Station's greatest assets. At an RRP of around £270, it is several times cheaper than its market competitors.

Another advantage of using the X-Station is that it has a mixer incoroporated in its design; a feature that will have all bedroom musicians laughing. It has all the necessary inputs and outputs that one would expect from a synthesizer, as well as space for one IN/OUT phantom powered microphone. To add to this, the X-Station runs off your PC or Laptop's USB power.

However there are a few negative points to the X-Station. As mentioned before, it lacks the essential grand piano sounds that one would expect in a keyboard. To add to this, there are only 200 presets, and quite a few of these are pads/strings. But to be fair it is possible to create your own sound - a feature i could not find in the microKORG or any of the other synthesizers on the market. Also, i was disappointed to see that there was no Record feature or drum machine.

I have to say that before buying an x-station, i would consider looking in to software synthesizers and sequencers such as FL Studio 8 XXL Edition by Imageline or Massive by Native Instruments. I can guarantee that these will give you stronger sounds if you learn to use them properly - hardly any songs on the market nowadays are written without them! Yet, if you are just looking to have a mess about with your band and need a good quality synthesizer on the cheap, then this is for you!

Summary: Great for jamming with the band - not so great for writing a number 1 hit single!