Product: Creative Labs Blasterkey MP3 Keyboard
Price Paid: US $100
Submitted
04/16/2001
at
02:23am
by
WorknMan
Ease of Use
:
No Opinion
Fairly easy to hook up .. it requires one MIDI cable (included with the keyboard) and that's all. The Blasterkey gets its power from the sound card, so no power cord is necessary.
Features
:
No Opinion
49 keys that feel very cheap (though in all fairness, this controller is only $100.) The keyboard has it's own software that you install on your PC, though I have never used it. The buttons on the keyboard are directly associated with functions of its software package .. they don't seem to work anywhere else (like in Cubase).
Expressiveness/Sounds
:
No Opinion
This is only a controller so it has no built-in sounds. Quality is determined by the soundfonts/softsynths you use.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Solid so far.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Never dealt with.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
This is where I really wanted to comment on the Blasterkey. It is a 49-key controller specifically made for a PC and you need an SB Live card to run it.
It comes with its own software, but works with pretty much anything (assuming you have an SB Live). I'd highly recommend this if you only plan on using the soundfonts built into the Live card .. for that, it works great.
However, a problem arises when you try to use it with softsynths like Fruity Loops, Reason, and Cubase VST instruments. That problem is latency (the amount of time in between when you press a key on the keyboard and when you hear the sound). The SB Live has a massive problem with latency. Though this is more of a problem with the soundcard than the keyboard, since you need an SB Live to use this thing, it's pretty much unusable with anything except sound fonts.
