Published 15/8/08
UMA25S MIDI Keyboard + Audio Interface
Behringer have announced a new desktop device, the UMA25S, designed for home studio users. It’s a slim USB/MIDI keyboard with a stereo USB audio interface built in, which also features a useful array of assignable hands-on controls.
It has 25 velocity-sensitive keys, which can also be used to send MIDI CC data, and eight rotary encoders that can be assigned to control software parameters or external hardware. Modulation and pitch-bend wheels enable the user to play-in blinding keyboard solos without the need for post-performance tweaking, while octave cursors shift the range of the keys.
The device’s audio interface is built into the back of the keyboard casing. It has stereo line-level inputs and outputs on phono sockets, as well as quarter-inch jack sockets and dedicated level controls for a microphone input and a headphone output (the UMA25S ships with a set of headphones with built-in boom microphone).
Usefully, there’s a Direct Monitor control, which enables the user to crossfade the levels of the audio input and the returning signal from the computer: a function that would come in handy when recording vocalists, for example.
Further connections on the rear panel include sockets for expression and sustain foot pedals, a MIDI output on conventional five-pin DIN, and the USB port. The device can attain its power from batteries, a 9V DC power supply or can be bus-powered via USB.
The UMA25S costs an astonishingly low £80 including VAT (and $190 in the USA), so we’re guessing it’s been made using the “double the features, half the price” formula devised by Uli Behringer in the ’90s. It almost goes without saying that you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck.
www.behringer.com
Behringer have announced a new desktop device, the UMA25S, designed for home studio users. It’s a slim USB/MIDI keyboard with a stereo USB audio interface built in, which also features a useful array of assignable hands-on controls.
It has 25 velocity-sensitive keys, which can also be used to send MIDI CC data, and eight rotary encoders that can be assigned to control software parameters or external hardware. Modulation and pitch-bend wheels enable the user to play-in blinding keyboard solos without the need for post-performance tweaking, while octave cursors shift the range of the keys.
The device’s audio interface is built into the back of the keyboard casing. It has stereo line-level inputs and outputs on phono sockets, as well as quarter-inch jack sockets and dedicated level controls for a microphone input and a headphone output (the UMA25S ships with a set of headphones with built-in boom microphone).
Usefully, there’s a Direct Monitor control, which enables the user to crossfade the levels of the audio input and the returning signal from the computer: a function that would come in handy when recording vocalists, for example.
Further connections on the rear panel include sockets for expression and sustain foot pedals, a MIDI output on conventional five-pin DIN, and the USB port. The device can attain its power from batteries, a 9V DC power supply or can be bus-powered via USB.
The UMA25S costs an astonishingly low £80 including VAT (and $190 in the USA), so we’re guessing it’s been made using the “double the features, half the price” formula devised by Uli Behringer in the ’90s. It almost goes without saying that you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck.
www.behringer.com
