It was also nice to find that the Xboards — even
the larger of the two — weigh less than my Toshiba
laptop. I never thought twice about tossing an
Xboard in the car along with my computer for some
off-site music creation. Feeling inspired by the
redwoods to sequence some fat beats? As long as
you’ve got your USB cable, you’re good to go.
While I was playing and tweaking away, I
did notice that the knobs each gave me slightly
different tactile resistance. For my uses in MIDI
sequencing, composing using notation software, and
even playing and tweaking soft synths in real time,
this didn’t bother me. It might be something to think
about for folks like Matt, though — DJs, remixers,
and mashers who depend more on buttons, knobs,
and sliders in live, real-time settings.
The mod and pitch wheels felt solid and gave
me nothing to complain about, and the blinky-
light-guided editing proved smooth throughout. I
did have a rough spot with the buttons at the
beginning of the testing process — the first
Xboard 49 E-mu provided seemed to have several
faulty switches. They assured me it was an isolated
incident, though, and hooked me up with a new one,
which worked perfectly, even after rigorous use.
CONCLUSIONS
If you’re in the market for an inexpensive and
super-portable MIDI controller, the Xboards are
well worth looking at, and the easy, intuitive
editing features also make the Xboards particularly
attractive. The Xboards are knob-centric machines,
so if you prefer to tweak with sliders, M-Audio’s
Radium49 could be good to check out. M-Audio’s
Oxygen 8 is a comparable competitor to the
Xboard 25, though in a side-by-side comparison, I
prefer the Xboard’s keyboard action and greater
amount of knobs. Interestingly enough, the closest
thing I found to the Xboard’s wedding of quality
keyboard feel and portability was the M-Audio
Ozonic, an axe that doubles as a Firewire audio
interface and resides in a higher price bracket.
With the sounds from the Proteus and the
sequencing abilities of Live, E-mu offers quite a
tasty all-in-one package with their Xboards. If
you’re a beginner looking to dive into the world of
MIDI, a pro shopping for a versatile featherweight
controller, or a mad scientist looking to create the
wildest Frankensynth ever to walk the earth, E-mu’s
latest definitely deserve to be checked out.
64
keyboard
09-2005
AUDITION
DISPLAY
Not only is the Xboard’s blue LED display easy
enough to see even in the darkest club setting,
it also indicates whenever MIDI parameters are
being shifted — twirl a knob, for example, and
the display will show the exact values you’re
scrolling through, 0-127. And after you’ve
tweaked whatever you’re tweaking, the display
proceeds to flash in quick succession the
relevant continuous control value, MIDI
channel, and internal patch.
Michael Gallant plays and composes
in northern California.
VITAL STATS
KEYBOARD ACTION
Synth action, 25 (Xboard 25) or 49 (Xboard 49) full
size keys with aftertouch.
MIDI CONTROLLERS
16 knobs, pitch and mod wheels, one master slider.
PROGRAMMABLE PATCHES
16.
POWER SOURCE
USB, battery, or AC adapter.
BUNDLED SOFTWARE
Xboard Control, Proteux X LE (Windows only), Ableton
Live Lite 4 (Windows only).
DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT
Xboard 49, 3.12" H x 9.5" D x 31.12" L; 8.5 lbs.; Xboard
25, 3.12" H x 9.5" D x 18" L; 4.9 lbs.
