The keyboard no, it is not a keyboard with its own technology, but a pure piano Midi keyboard with four octaves looks solid, has weight and the buttons are well made as a more expensive electric piano, but not expected to be weighted in the price. The wheels for the pitching (momentary change of pitch, eg for electric guitar sounds) and modulation (permanent change of key) act worked well, especially the continuous change of pitch is done with a gentle resistance and can be adjusted well characterized. In addition, you can raise or lower the octave, which makes sense, because a piano is usually six or more octaves covers. According to the enclosed list of predecessor still had a separate power supply and a power switch. This version is only connected via a USB cable. This is practical and more power efficient. Surprised my husband was on the MIDI port a five pole connector, one has not seen for years (we had known that this is still the standard for Midi, one might have ausmotten also the old electric piano ...). No idea how that connects to a PC today, a suitable cable is not in, only the USB cable is. A pedal can also be purchased separately to connect via minijack connector.
The real core of the software, requires good 9 GB on the hard disk, so the installation can take up to 45 minutes. As so often with Magix, it requires the registration, then the program starts. By pressing a button to get to extensive tutorials on the website that will help to get you started very. And yet, a breeze is not the whole. Even once you have loads one of the demo songs, you can see the complexity of a modern production. Nevertheless, the entry succeed: here select a radio Beat, there a guitar riff, after a few cycles sets the bass run one ... the baseline is Auuuu (as sung soul sound loop blares). However, there was at first with the input from the keyboard still some problems. The PC used provides with i5 processor and 8 GB of memory is actually enough reserves even a separate Sound Blaster card is present. Attempts einzuspielen piano live, have not worked right, with faster game coming signals delayed on the computer and swallowed rapidly, especially in polyphonic chords. After several attempts with the driver settings in the options that now seems a little better to be working, but really is not that. The velocity (volume depending on the dynamics of the key press) works well, but you get the feeling, having to press the keys quite low, but the exercise itself. The pedal from the old electric piano works beautifully on the keyboard.
The sounds are qualitatively different, there are several Soundpools with playable instruments and loops, the prefabricated short sounds, basslines and so on include of 1-4 bars in length. Especially the pool Vita offers good piano tuning, the wind, however, do not sound genuine. Witty also the Chords, Guitar chords for the rocker in you, and the acoustic guitars invite you to solo. The loops turn simply pulls on the track, determines the length, if necessary even influenced the volume and that was it. The possibilities are endless. Every sound loop can be changed once or can be blanked, the pitch adjust (where we have not yet discovered quite the input of a key), then tune the volume in the mixer, if required to pack to effects such as reverb, and the like. The also accompanying Music Studio you can mix and record as ... puh. What we have not yet managed, is to load the 1000 additional free sounds and loops. Registration with the media provider Catooh not worked so far.
Conclusion: A complete recording studio together with band gets you come here and on top of the piano gifted nor a MIDI / USB keyboard. That professional Producer and songwriter composed tracks from such programs in a few hours, is easy to imagine, for the beginners but it takes some discussion of the matter. Music is not as easy as many believe and here you get for a moderate price a really extensive set in order to confront a long time with his musical ideas. With the keyboard, the version aimed at people with clear gaming experience. Otherwise, it is also likely the Music Maker without a keyboard to do a lesser price. Because of us previously existing problems with lag when playing and the moderate wind sounds (as there is in the market really impressive material) there is a point deduction. Price / performance is still very good here. My husband will be spending a lot of time in his studio. Should we the problems yet to get a grip, we will report.
