Alesis Photon X25

It seems pretty simple - it's well laid out at least. Haven't tested some of the deeper midi capability. Initial setup couldn't be easier though. I plugged the usb cable into my computer and changed the audio driver in fl studio and enable the midi capability and it was good to go.

It's really pretty good in this area. Very flexible. Switchable layers for each of the knobs and 10 control buttons. Quick octave switch that glows brighter with each press to show relative position. Liked that idea. LCD readout is cool. I would like a better manual of course but that's never a strong of any company nowadays it seems.

The audio interface is absolutely fantastic sounding... brought music to life. Surprising quality for this price in my opinion. The noise floor is dead quiet. The output is VERY VERY powerful at max volume with even very hard to drive headphones. Surpising that it provides that kind of output from only usb power...haven't had any problems with the usb bus yet either. I keep listening to cds and feeling I am hearing more depth than I'm used to hearing. I've owned some very decent headphone amps and interfaces too - which is why this surprises me. The transients in particular are very well preserved. The key action is nice as well.

This is also a very strong point. The comparable oxygen 8 feels like a cheap plastic toy (it wieghs next to nothing) compared to the alesis. The knobs are rock solid and the pitch bend and mod wheels are top-notch build quality. Its easy to tell that the construction is bar-none for this price range.

Don't know yet.

It's got tons of strong points. I beats the crap out of the competition. It's missing a data slider and a microphone input but that feels like overkill anyway in this scenario. I wouldn't normally rate anything a 10 but this is probably the best buying decision I've made in the past 4 years besides getting a copy of cakewalk's dimension pro.

I am using a mac. As usual with the mac there were no driver issues and it was recognised the first time. The preset wer OK ,but it would have been nice to have some Garagte band presets. Editing patches isn't to bad. The manual could be better, biut all in all not bad.

One big problem is that this device claims that it can be supported on the power from the USB connection. Unfortunately it requires a whopping 1000mAmp to opperate! I feel that few computers can handle this. Do not even attempt to operate this without an external power supply.

All in all the features are pretty good. It is what it is, a combination sound I/O along with a MIDI controler.

It is NOT a synth. so it is not relivant to talk of sounds

Again it is not a synth. so this is not really relivant.

This is the biggest weakness of the device. I think that it is so unreliable that I must recommend AGAINST anyone buying this. One of the biggest shortcommings is that it does not even have a reliable way to reset the machine to factory defaulrts. There is an extremely convoluted and complicated "test mode", that if you do everything right may, or may not reset things, but if you do something wrong, you just make the device completely inopperable.

I did not even try customers support. The generally held view is that with Alesis, attempting any kind of support is a pointles endeavoure.

I have been using Alesis products for years and will probably continue to use them. However, this device is the worst thing that I ever bought from Alesis. Don't waste your time with this. It is poorly designed and unreliable. The fact that it has a lot of features is pointless if it will only work a few weeks.

Photon X25 is simple to use as a MIDI controller. The layering option is nice and simplifies life a lot.

Keyboard action is as you would expect from a cheap thing like that. Maybe a bit better than Evolution and M-Audio controllers that I've tried or owned. The "eye" controller is great for some purposes, but tricky to master. You probably won't do any passable "theremin" stuff with that.
Rolling knobs are rubber and are nice to grip.
The lack of quality in audio path spoils otherwise good picture.

The sound quality is so bad that its input capabilities are practically useless. Noise, frequent pops and clicks, poor overall quality of spectrum presentation. Alesis shouldn't have even included audio options that ridiculously bad, because reputation suffers from decisions like these.

It is a decent MIDI controller, but its audio interface gives you nothing but some extra weight.

This appears to be the latest internal software of the Photon X25. As a controller it is fairly easy to use. However the instructions were not particularly helpful. They didn't provide much in the way of examples of how each of the features could be implemented and how, for example. So a newcomer might find it a bit daunting at first.

However, I was able to connect the unit, get it working as a controller and audio interface (eventually) without the need for anymore than 5 minutes or so, scrolling through menus on the display.

Everything is laid out on the unit pretty well. And does what it says.
Which is good, so it does score highly in the 'ease of use' stakes for me.

Main features
* 25-note, full-size, semi-weighted keyboard
* MIDI I/O
* 24-bit, 44.1/48kHz audio with balanced stereo I/O
* Full-size Pitch and Modulation wheels
* LCD screen with dedicated encoder for fast and easy setup
* 20 editable, storable configurations
* Complete MIDI control with 10 - 360? endless knobs, 10 buttons, and 3 active layers
* Axyz Controller Dome gives 3D control over audio effects and virtual instruments
* Sustain and Expression pedal inputs
* Operates on USB bus power, optional AC adapter, or 4 C batteries (not included)
* Windows XP/Mac OS X-ready

More specific technical stuff:

* Dimensions:: 18? x 9.5? x 3.5? (W x L x D)
* Max Gain:: 30 dB
* Max Input:: 19 dBu, 16.8 dBV
* Max Output:: 7 dBV, 9.2 dBu
* Min Gain:: 0 dB
* SNR:: > 94 dB (A-wtg) @ -1 dBFS
* THD+N:: < .005% @-1 dBFS
* Weight:: 4.0 lbs.

Features wise, it's pretty good. I didn't round to using the AXYZ controller though, which some say is it's best feature. I just wanted it to function as an external Audio interface for my Laptop and a controller for my soft-synths/soft-samplers plugins etc.

It failed to work very well as an Audio Interface at all. And I had some problems storing MIDI controller settings into the unit, but having access to 30 controller knobs is pretty cool all the same, if the buggy way of storing them was ironed out, it would be near perfect as a compact controller.

Being able to turn the touch sensitivity of the keys on the keyboard was useful for me.

Otherwise, the knobs expressiveness was spot on for the software synths I was using them for.

NO WAY! It's basically why I wanted to write this review. This unit promises so much, but I've experienced nothing but problems with it's audio interface. DO NOT BUY THIS for it's audio features. They've clearly been added on as an after thought.

It's really made me re-consider buying Alesis products ever again. I hear they have made some great reverbs and external effects processors in the past, but this is a DUD machine from them as far as I'm concerned!

I've emailed Alesis and had one reply (within around 48 hours) telling me: "We have had very good success with these and also the ASIO drivers. I
believe there is a power issue that is being experienced with this unit that
needs servicing."

I'm not calling them liars, but I do find the ASIO drivers success hard to believe from what I've experienced.

They then gave me a contact for a repair centre in Cork.

I appreciate that they got back to me, but I don't feel they were particularly helpful.

Also the support page for the Photon X 25 is pretty much impossible to find from the Alesis website. You kinda have to find it by googling it first then get to it from there.

I'm really disappointed with this unit so far.
I bought it around 3 months ago and have had a lot of problems with it's drivers and stability. I have been using it in a live environment.

Having dealt with midi controllers before, I found this very easy to use. The LCD screen made setting this thing up a snap compared to the Oxygen 8.

Again, coming from the Oxygen 8, this thing is loaded in comparison.

The #1 reason to get this is the AXYZ Dome. Although the range is limited, it's a very expressive and innovative method of control.

The built-in audio card was something I was really looking forward to, since I planned on using this live with a laptop. However, I'll get to the drawbacks of this in the following sections.

Having 3 layers of 10 knobs with a easy method of switching between layers is another major plus. You can set up just control of just about anything in a single setup.

I personally haven't used the 10 buttons much, but they're a nice added bonus.

I also am pleased to see an expression pedal input included.

Back to the AXYZ Dome, I find the expressiveness decent on this, for a midi controller.

Unfortunately, this thing has a mind of it's own. The Windows drivers are absolutely atrocious. Several times while in use, the keyboard has decided that it should be transposed several semitones or octaves, depending on how it's feeling. Then it decided that the pitch and Mod wheels shouldn't work anymore. It will randomly turn on buttons or activate the octave buttons up or down. Fortunately, there has been nothing permanent, thusfar.

To anyone out there who owns this and has had the Pitch Mod Wheel anomaly, Alesis FINALLY released the document for a built-in recalibration technique.

http://www.alesis.com/downloads/manuals/PHOTONx25_Controller_Recalibration.pdf

This is where Alesis really fails, as last year when my keyboard experienced this random malfunction I emailed Alesis to which I received the reply "There is no factory reset." I considered sending it in for repair, but since I'd purchased it off eBay, it wasn't under warranty and would have cost at least $80. I have no idea why the racalibration instructions were not included in the original manual, nor why it took over a year to get them posted online.

Overall, I'm still giving this thing a high score, because I think the features and ideas are there and it works most of the time. They just really need to work out the drivers for windows and include a higher quality aduo interface, or leave it out all together. I put off writing this review for a while since I had looked forward to this keyboard for so long and then ran into some serious problems when the Pitch and Mod wheel stopped working. Now that it is fixed, however, I feel it is still a good buy and anyone interested in the AXYZ dome should pick it up for that alone.

Not too hard to get it running, considering that Mac OSX recognizes it natively. Just plug it in and play.

There are a few of what I'd call "quirky" design decisions though. A good example is having an execute button to recall a patch from memory, but no write button to execute a save to memory. As a result, any edits you make to a patch automatically write to memory. And since I keep selecting a new user patch (but for some reason always forget to hit recall) my patch at location #1 is always a mess. I'm always inadvertently writing in new controller information before I realize the wrong patch is up. D'oh!

Extra points on the way the illumination is set up though. It's pretty easy to see the state of the Octave buttons or the Mod Wheel by simply making note of how brightly they're illuminated. The knobs/wheels feel pretty good too.

Okay, let's state up front that the only reason to buy this thing is the AXYZ controller (which is exactly why I got it). Otherwise, just about every other USB MIDI controller on the market beats it.

In regard to the AXYZ controller, it takes quite a bit of getting used to for it to become useful. You usually have to spend time working with it before you get the hang of making sure your hand has the proper angle and distance for best control. Also, if you have larger hands, you may have to experiment with the shape in which you're holding your hand for best technique (I find a somewhat cupped hand shape with only two or three fingers extended works best for me). YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO DEVOTE SOME TIME TO PRACTICE. But then again, you'd have to do the same thing with a Theremin.

Alesis advertise the knobs as "360 degree endless". In many cases (i.e. the Doepfer pocket controllers) this means that the knob sends relative increment/decrement information. Not so here. Rather the Photon sends normal absolute 0-127 values, but the knob merely stops sending and spins pointlessly after you get to one of the extremes. For example, this means that if you manipulate a knob to take filter cutoff down to, say, 14 on one preset then call up a preset where the filter is up around 110, the cutoff will now suddenly jump the moment you touch the knob. And sense they're unmarked, there's no easy way to keep up with the state in which a given knob is left. I'd much rather they merely used normal "non-endless" knobs, since that would at least let see if a parameter were going to suddenly jump.

The buttons are a bit iffy too, in that there is no "normalized" position soyou have to remember how they were programmed. In other words, in use it really easy to get to a state where the button you thought turned a function "on" will turn that function "off" in actuality, and vice versa.

Also, the Photon only deals with Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, and normal CC information. I would have scored extra points if they'd at least thrown in some way to manipulate Aftertouch (and don't even mention SysEx). No such luck, as there's no way to assign that to anything anywhere.

Crappy! No question about it.

I didn't need another audio interface, but since the Photon has one built in I thought I'd see if I could make use of it. The sound quality is, for whatever reason, somewhat harsh and piercing, with the high-mids unnecessarily overemphasized -- not unlike some of Alesis' lower end studio monitors (I can't stand the sound of the Alesis near-fields, BTW). Definitely not the sort of transparent linearity you'd want to hear out of an audio interface.

So, I decided that since the audio quality was so bad, I'd use the output as an extra live 'Cue' out for auditioning sounds or loops through headphones before committing them to the main out. No such luck there either.

The audio interface will randomly decide to suddenly vomit full-blown white noise static out at top(!!!) volume. This is entirely random with no warning, and there is no obvious cause. Sometimes the computer will merely be sitting at rest when it decides to blast away. Using headphones, this frickin' thing almost made me deaf a few times. It would definitely blow a studio monitor had it been run through my mains at a decent volume. The noise won't stop until the Photon and computer are rebooted. Beware!

I wouldn't use this live, period.

In addition to the above quirkiness, the driver will randomly forget that the AXYZ controller exists. It takes about ten minutes of de-installing and re-installing the Photon in the Audio Devices panel to find the right combination of installation and restart order before it will find it again. The weirdest thing is that every other function on the Photon continues to work when this happens; only the AXYZ ceases functioning entirely.

This is definitely a studio piece, for use in a completely controlled environment.

Never had to deal with them...

As for the AXYZ controller, there isn't much (anything?) out on the market besides this controller that will allow you manipulate MIDI data in the same manner as a Theremin. So, if you want to experiment with this sort of interface, the Photon X25 is pretty close to the only game in town.

Like I said before, the AXYZ is the *only* reason to get this thing, and keep in mind you're going to have to put in quite a few hours of practice to achieve decent results.

If you're considering it for any other reason, keep in mind how utterly flaky it is. There are much better generic controllers out there from Novation, Korg, M-Audio, and Edirol.

If Alesis ever released a product that was only the AXYZ (or if they merely added a MIDI Out jack to their "Air FX" series), I'd replace this in a millisecond. For the time being, I'm stuck...

I use mostly the Photon X25 with Reason 3.0, witch works fine as long as i dont use the reason Persets that came with the machine, Reason's own preset is great, just select a device and tun those knobs and push those buttons.

Editing the patches is a breeze. The little LCD is just big enough to give you the possibillity to edit everything within roughly 6 button presses.

The manual is simple, almost everythig you need, not superb but oke.

The AUDIO DRIVER is absolute CRAP! i recommend using a third party ASIO driver as ASIO4ALL. The driver often fails and even managed to crash Reason, witch never happens. The sample rate or latency is not ajustable and there is NO control panel, this is a horror.

The keyboard on this thing is GREAT, really, this could be a huge reason to buy this device, all of the keys feel great and have the right weight. I always thought this wouldnt matter, but it does! I LOVE IT.

The knob's are not endless, witch is a shame and the buttons' lights start acting weird with normal reason use. The Pitch and Mod wheel are great and feel like they should. An absolute Plus. Also do the wheels light up to the amount of mod you give them witch is great for visual feedback.

The AWYXDome or "Aircontroller" is a nice gimmick, as long as it works, mine was faulty on dilivery and still needs to be repaired, so i cannot tell you a lot about it. Reason also seems to act strange on the AWYX' imput.

A nice feature is the possibility to configure your velocity curve.

Again, the keyboard is great for expressiveness and feels almost like an piano.

The sound of this thing is cool, exept the fact that it's latency is quite high, one VST is ok but a large reason song will require about 20ms of latency.

Works ok, but has a hanging note here and there (once every two hours, witch is a lot i think). The audio driver is crap. furthermore it seems reliable, it is very well build and i currently use it as a backup at gigs.

The has not been an Asio driver update or the possibility to update the firmware to ich out the few bugs it has. Shame on alesis.

I used an M-Audio keyboard before this and this certainly brought back the fun in making music again, it is a nice unit, exept for some stability issues and the horrible look. I think it is it;s own category, there is no matchable audio-midi controller availabe and at such low cost is a nice buy, but not great for live... great for the starting producer.

With mac osx this unit requires neither audio nor midi drivers. Plug and play with the audio softwares I've used it for. (Live, Plogue Bidule & Reason) Moreover the midi presets are a breeze to edit - a plus over some other controllers. Not much more to be said here.

The previous review details the features very well. I dearly appreciate the direct monitoring for live sound processing. Only complain is that the input volume will not cut the input sound then set to minimum.

Now, I have to disagree with the previous reviewer with regards to the AXYZ dome. I've been using it extensively to control effect parameters in the last weeks. With some minor training, the unit is quite easy to control. (I've found that using visual feedback for the 3 axes helps understanding how it works and gaining some control. E.g. using an XY position display to track the XY parameters as well as a slider to track the Z parameter.) Moreover the dome tracks movement quite precisely. Unless one moves vey fast it should sense even very subtle movements.

Overall I am pleased with this controller - though it is very small, it is portable enough for the use I make of it.

Finally, I am pleased with the keyboard action compatered to other units in the price range. I also dig the 3 layers of control for the endless encoders.

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I hope alesis releases software update for the unit: I've found that the presets sometimes fail to load or load with errors, i.e. all controllers are assigned to a single value instead of what I set them up for. Restarting the unit cures the problem. I nonetheless have to hope for it to not happen while playing live.

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I have been looking at controllers for a while before I settled on this one. Considering the sturdy build and the various features, this is the best value with regards to the use I make of it.

With relatively little MIDI experience in the past I figured this one out quickly. (Though, to be fair, I do have a background in developing multimedia software.)

The basic features are relatively straightforward, connections are easy to set up. You can figure out the few controls that are concerned with program changes and editing presets relatively easily. It's just 6 buttons and a knob you can turn and press.

I did hit a snag installing the ASIO drivers (they conflict, for reasons that I don't understand, with my USB hard disk).

The manual, relative to most technical writing, provides reasonably good coverage of the features and is generally well written.

The most obvious check-list style features don't show this keyboard matching up to the M-Audio Oxygen or the (Roland) Edriol PCR-A30. The audio I/O is at 48 KHz rather than 96, it has less inputs (two in, two out, no digital), etc.

The construction is what convinced me to pay more for this controller despite the slightly higher cost.

The rear-panel connections are professional style and more cleanly laid out than the competing products. The front panel controls are less flimsy feeling. The keys generally feel more stable than the keys on most other low priced keyboards.

It seems that a fair bit of thought went into its ability to pass MIDI through, do direct monitoring of the inputs, etc.

The only kind of flop of a feature is the AXYZ spatial controller. Basically it's a motion detector that senses how you move your hand above it and generates MIDI output from that. Unfortunately while it looks cool, it's not very useful as it's difficult to reliably generate anything even semi-controlled with it.

The other annoyance, though this is somewhat implicit, is the limited range. I'm considering buying a 61 key keyboard to go along side this one that allows for working in more than two octaves. I mostly picked this one up because it combined keyboard input with high-quality sound I/O, MIDI I/O and assignable knobs and buttons.

I'm primarily working with Ableton Live and there the keys, buttons and knobs are all very easy to assign to various elements of the program.

Well, it's a controller, not a synth, so there really isn't much to say about the "sounds".

As far as the keys go they play fairly well for this class of keyboard and you can assign them to linear, logorithmic, exponential or maximum output; I primarily stick with the default -- linear.

Again, the construction seems pretty solid, but I've only had it for a month.

Yeah, I'd probably pick up another one if this one were stolen. Again, I picked it over the M-Audio Oxygen or the (Roland) Edriol PCR-A30 mostly based on the solid construction and more professional feel.