Keyboards

An amazing new string-modelling synth is added to Korg's flagship workstation.

Novation's Remote LE range offers a healthy selection of features from their popular Remote controller keyboards at a cut-down price.

Controller keyboards are fitting ever more control facilities into progressively smaller units costing less and less. Is the semi-weighted Axiom 25 M-Audio's best deal yet?

Looking to create a more affordable keyboard version of their Motif range of workstations, Yamaha have pared back the spec of the Motif ES a little — though not much — to create the M06 and M08.

In these days of fast, flexible computers and powerful virtual instruments, has the hardware workstation synth had its day? Alesis's Fusion mounts the case for the defence, offering four synthesis types, sampling, sequencing and hard disk recording — for under £1000.

M-Audio have applied the same economies of scale to this digital piano that they have to their controller keyboards, with the result that the Prokeys 88 retails for well under £500, with the cut-down Prokeys 88SX costing far less.

The Evolver began as a mono desktop unit, then became polyphonic, and now there's a polyphonic keyboard version. It's almost as if Dave Smith's latest synth is steadily evolving back into his earlier Prophet 5... We check it out.

Combining several types of sound generation in one instrument, Clavia's Nord Stage harks back to the multi-keyboards of the 1970s. Is it a funky revivalist, or should it be considered a thing of the past?

Novation have an elegant solution to the tedium of configuring hardware controllers — the Remote 25SL can read your sequencer and automatically map plug-in instrument parameters to its controls. Is this the first 'intelligent' hardware control surface? We find out...

The Virus TI promises to bridge the divide between hardware and software instruments, and create a world of Total Integration, while still offering the classic Virus sound. Is it a hard reality, or have Access gone totally soft?

We finish our in-depth examination of Korg's new mega-workstation, taking in the remaining synth engines, the sampler, the KARMA algorithms and the onboard sequencer, and draw our conclusions about it...

Kawai's last few digital pianos have been finely wrought things of beauty: solidly built keyboards with an amazingly realistic playing action and beautifully sampled piano timbres. But their latest claims to surpass all of those. Can it possibly be true?

For over 15 years, Korg have produced the world's most successful workstation synths, and the OASYS is their new £5400 flagship, their attempt to take the concept to the next level. In the first instalment of our two-part in-depth test, we assess how they have fared...

Note: this is a genuine product, not an April Fool hoax!

The price of controller keyboards has fallen sharply over the past few years, but whoever thought that we would see an 88-note weighted-action keyboard with aftertouch for under £500? Enter CME's UF8...

M-Audio have been producing impressive, inexpensive controller keyboards for some time, and have recently moved seriously into Firewire interfacing. The new Ozonic seeks to combine both capabilities in one product — and all for less money than you'd think...

Hammond's 'New B3' was the best-ever digital emulation of an electro-mechanical organ, but at over £15,000 it didn't come cheap. Fortunately, the XK3 puts the New B3's sound engine into a much more affordable package...

Korg's Microkontrol was a highly versatile, yet compact MIDI controller — but perhaps, with its three octaves of miniature keys, it was too compact. The Kontrol 49 looks set to put that right with its four-octave, full-size keyboard.

At £1099, the Xa is the most affordable keyboard in the Fantom range. But, inevitably, features have been removed to make it such a bargain. Have Roland thrown out the works from the workstation?

No-one can doubt Fatar's long-established record for making quality MIDI controller keyboards, but that market has become highly competitive over the past couple of years. Can the VMK188 hold its own against all the budget alternatives?

Long before its debut this Spring, the new keyboard workstation from Korg was already the subject of much speculation. We find out what's really going on inside the OASYS's sleek metal case.