From k2mojo@groovedaddies.com Sat Jan 28 15:44:31 2006
Subject:Re: M-Audio/CME/Roland's 'Golden Age' of controllers

Depending on whether or not you need a USB connection, you might search eBay for any of the old Roland "A" series controllers. Many
of them are quite good, have decent action and probably were ahead of their time features-wise. I own an A-37 that's not too bad
for a pre-USB controller. Here's a website to read up on them:
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/plank/Roland%20A-Series%20Controllers%20Home%20Page.html
I just ordered a CME UF7 yesterday because while they're not really quite 'omnipotent', I thought they looked pretty good in the
features vs. dollars department, but two things concern me. (1) the lack of preset memory, and (2) the lack of aux jacks on the
back panel for additional foot switches. With only one 'sustain' jack and one 'volume' jack, if you want to use the CME to control
a PC running B4 you won't have an extra jack for Leslie F/S switching, which to me is a huge oversight considering that CME
advertises it's combat to this software and sports nine sliders for drawbar use. I believe there is a possible workaround though,
and I should know pretty soon if it will work out. CME offers a triple pedal called the gpp3 and all three pedals are programmable,
so I believe that I can program one for sustain, one for rotary F/S, and the third for program bank change, or whatever. We'll see.
Nice thing is that these are snatched up pretty fast on eBay if it winds up not working out as well as they say it will.
Other lightweight synths/stage pianos I've used in the past as controllers only are the Roland RS-9 (88 keys, non-weighted) and the
Kurzweil SP88 (semi-weighted), and both of these had their good points, mainly 88 keys in a lightweight package and cheap on eBay.
Neither one was very good if you had a fairly complex MIDI rig, but worked just fine for controlling a single sound module.
I don't think that Bruce Wahler has chimed in yet on this thread, but he knows a thing or two about both the CME and M-audio and has
written about them fairly recently in this group - check the archives.

Ed Fliege
k2mojo@groovedaddies.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "funkyhammond"
> couple of comments on harmony central that the CME UF8 has weird
> velocity, which worried me. Some people were also questioning its
> build quality and how well it would hold up for gigging. And I just
> read this off musicplayer.com regarding the UF8:
>
> "The dealer said that one issue appears to be that every time you turn
> it on, the controllers reset (sliders reset to vol #7). Very stupid if
> true. It has no preset memory. There were also quality control issues:
> the pitch bend wheel scrapped against the side, some keys made too
> much noise, etc. If you buy one, buy it local and open it up before
> taking it home. Check it out completely. The USER is quality control."
>
> Ugh.
>
> If the M-Audio also has a weird velocity, that's really killing the
> options. I'm not crazy about the action but I think I can live with
> it. But if the velocity is also odd, that would suck. I was hoping
> with the different velocity maps it has, at least a couple would work
> well.
>
> I'm willing to go 76-keys as long as it's weighted (but hopefully a
> bit lighter than the Yamaha boards), but I want it to have at least a
> few knobs or sliders that can be programmed.
>
> Are there any other options?