Novation XioSynth

Mine came with an owner's manual on CD Rom, and a "user guide" on hard copy. Editing patches is about as easy as it gets for a synth with a full pallette of editing parameters. Most everything pertinent to the tweaking of a sound is found in knobs on the front panel which even makes tweaking very easy on the fly.

Polyphony is 10 voices on the 49 key version and 8 on the 25 key version. They both have very useful effects if not spectacular. You'll find delay, reverb, chorus, distortion, eq, panning among others. You can download new patches from novation's website, but you must backup your custom patches or lose them. Feel of the keyboard is surprisingly nice for a synth in this price range, but no aftertouch (you can't have it all i guess). Their is a sequencer of sorts onboard, and it's called X-Gator which allows you to gate up to 32 notes in sequence for creating your own arp rhythms. I haven't used X-gator, and may never have a need for it, so i cannot give you a play by play on this feature.

IMHO, there aren't alot of useful preset patches for 70's or 80's pop, but more for techno, rave, trsnce etc, however, that's not to say that this synth isn't capable of creating moog-like leads/pads/brass, because if you take just a little time to tweak, you can come up with some uncanny replicas of a Moog/ARP type sounds, and they can be as phat as you need them to be with the 3 oscillators at your disposal. There are 17 different waveforms to go with the 3 oscillators, so you can come up with any synthesized sound you need.

The build quality is just Ok, which is probabky why you can get this synth so cheap. My biggest beef with this synth are the labelings above and underneath the various buttons. You can barely make out what they say, so yo9u must memorize what each function each button performs, because on a dark stage...forget it, yu'll never be able to read what the functions are. Novation could have chosen a much better contrasting color to label their function buttons with.

Novation's website seems good.

OS 1.0.7

The presets are great - Out of the 200 there are only 30-50 that I'd even consider overwriting (which is a bit of a dilemma but, more on that later).

Overall the ease of use is not too bad but anytime there is so much crammed under such a small surface the ease of use won't be as good as it could be.

This is pretty well covered in the other reviews but I don't think there can be much argument against the fact that there are a lot of features in a very small footprint here. I would have like a MIDI In port but that's not a deal-breaker.

The X/Y touch pad is a very nice extra that I use a lot and the X-Gator gives instant motion to sounds (If a classic synth from the 80's would have had the X-Gator feature it probably would have been an automatic ticket to classic/cult status today!)

The casing is plastic (and, frankly, not very sturdy feeling) and has with a finish that looks metallic. If I were gigging with it then I would have definitely preferred metal but the plastic does keep the weight down and the thought of putting th Xio in a backpack for when I travel makes me like it even more. The key-action is better than that of most of my other synths but the lowest "C" key on mine has noticeably more resistance than the other keys and it doesn't always spring all the way back up. If I tap/hit the key 2 or 3 times with fairly high velocity when I first start a playing session then it solves that issue but then after it has sat idle for a while the problem returns. I'm sure it's just an issue with mine and, again, not a deal-breaker nor enough of an annoyance to bother sending it in for repair.

I know the Xio traces its lineage back to the A-station/K-Station and
I'm sure it's probably more similar to the KS4/KS5 (which I've never
used) but sound-wise, I think it sounds a lot different than the
A-Station. E.g. When oscillators are detuned on the Xiosynth the
beating is far more pronounced. The Xiosynth seems to be able to get
not only grittier but also smoother as well E.g. there's a pad called
"The Mellow One" that is the basic 80's warm pad sound done very well.
I tried and tried but could never quite get a similar pad to sound
just right on my A-Station. That might be partially due to my
programming deficiencies but I can also tell there can be a soft/floaty/chorusy sound quality on the Xio that just doesn't seem to be there on the A-Station.

The presets include great sounds in all categories: Leads, basses, pads, and SFX. Thanks to some of the odd-ball LFO shapes and one-shot mode there are SFX that the Xiosynth can make that you'd normally think came from a synth with more of a modular architecture.

Some other standout presets (off the top of my head) are floaty pad, Roots Manueva's two string patches, and...the list could go on and on.

The Xiosynth's sound is punchy and that's why I think the Xio compliments the Ion/Micron very well. I think a 2 VA + 1 ROMpler set-up of a Xiosynth, Ion, and Roland JV/XP or Kurzweil ROMpler would cover nearly any sound I'd ever need. (Other VAs I own are: Waldorf Micro-Q, Yamaha AN200, Nord Micro Modular, Roland SH32, RedSound DarkStar XP, Alesis Ion, Alesis Micron, Novation Nova, Novation A-Station. I also own the following analogs/digilogs: Ensoniq ESQ-M, Roland Juno 60 and JX3P, Dave Smith Instruments Evolver)

It seems reliable - I haven't noticed anything yet that would make me hesitant to use it live but then again I've only had it for a few weeks and it has led a nice safe life just sitting in my room - I don't gig and it has not been taken on the road. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt with a 9 because I've never had a bit of trouble with my A-Station in 5+ years of use.

Oli and the crew at Novation/Focusrite have always been responsive to my emails and friendly.

I know there are people out there that will not like any synth that's not analog (and some that take it a step further and won't even like a synth unless all of its analog components have discreet circuitry) and there are also people that won't look at any VA other than something like a Virus TI but personally I'd be very satisfied to use the Xiosynth as one of my main sources for synth based music.


...and so, back in April of 2002 I got a pretty good deal on my A-Station for $515 new; now, just a little over 5 years later, to get a new Xiosynth for $299 sure seems like progress to me - It's a great time to be into the synth hobby!

Today I went out to my favourite music shop in a mission to buy a Xiosynth 25. I was really looking forward to it and finally in the shop I spent quite a bit of time for a final test of the Xiosynth.
This is what I found out:
Yes it's easy to use and you have all those control knobs and an expression pad to shape the sounds, It's all there. Editing patches though turned out not to be as convenient as I had expected. First most of the interesting parameters for sound shaping are hidden deeply somewhere inside the menus. All buttons and knobs have multiple functions. Second your left hand spends most of the time on tha data encoder knob. Doing so and probing what you are doing with your right hand on the keys you find the display hidden underneath your left hand most of the time. Summing up I can't say that I experienced perfectly intuitive handling. Finding out which parameters really affect the sound and tweeking them to the desired values takes much longer than the attractive layout would suggest. The Manual could also be more detailed.
The rest is straight forward - nothing to complain.

You have three things in a compact package.
1. A versatile midi controller which is not controllable itself by another midi controller due to the lack of a midi in. It offers 11 freely assignable control knobs which is absolutely okay.
2. A usb audio interface that offers mono input only and which is routed perfectly into you computer with minimal latency - very good. Synth output works in stereo.
3. The synth deserves to be dealt with in detail.
Besides that you have perfect mobility and the XGator which is really cool . The Xio also looks beautiful.

The synth was the main reason for me to go for the Xio and I am a bit disappointed with it.
First of all I'd like to point out that you can set a big variety of parameters to shape your sound and there are all waveforms you need - even a handful of digitally sampled instruments. Three OSCs, two LFOs, ring mod, noise generator and six effects suggest that everything should be possible with this synth. And indeed you can even hear from the presets that the Xio does definately not belong to the crap category. But when compared to a VA synth with a real good DSP engine you will find that there is a big difference.
Novation advertise that some of the presets result from the work of top producers. Still my opinion is that many of these sound too edgy and similar to one another. Half of the presets suck big time.
I owned a Korg EA-1 MK2 Groovebox before and I got rid of it because its sound capabilities are so limited. The Xio sounds much better of course but not good enough to play it for keeps. It simply lacks warmth and that certain something. Ever heard a Virus? Or even the Alesis Ion or Micron? Then you know what I'm talking about.

Finally I decided to leave the Xio in the shop as I discovered the Alesis Micron which until that day nobody advertised to me. The price is the same. And believe me, the Xio does not compare to that one in terms of sound and DSP power - it doesn't even come close.
All in all the Xio is a fresh, feature-rich, cool and versatile synth which one must like. Nevertheless in terms of VA synthesis and in-depth sound richness there are better choices.

Very easy to use. You take it out of the parcel, you put batteries into it, (AA Size, Mignon, 6x) you switch it on, there comes life into the display and several leds, you tap on: play/synth, you choose a preset (with poti "program/data" and you begin to play. When I did that for the first time, I was using headphones, a pair of good ones. And I can tell you: The Sounds are mostly good ones. You will recognize that suddenly.
On the touch pad you can change the sound from the beginning in a fascinating way. This Board is easy to use. Really.

8 Tones Polyphony. Absolutely enough for my needs. Delay, reverb, chorus, distortion, EQ, Vol, panning. Pressure sensitive keys. Feel is OK. It has an arpeggiator and an x-gator, which you can both set on and off with one fingertip. I still did not use the keyboard with my PC. I use it als a stand alone synth.

This is where this little keyboard shines: Wonderful synthesizer sounds.
You can change Modulation and Pitch with kinda joy stick, and in addition you have a touch pad for other parameters. I enjoy it very much to change sounds and give them a special character. Effects are not top, but absolutely useful. This Board is so small (I have the 25 Keys Version!) you can easily take it everywhere. And you can play, play, play. And the sounds are professional quality. Don't believe it, when someboy says, they are cheesy. The sounds are mostly very impressiv.
Very much "synthesizer kind" of sounds. Good dynamic. They have a character of their own. I own also the Korg TR61, which is a very fine synthesizer, but this little beast Xiosynth is really challeging me,
to create sounds.

No problem.

Bought it over ebay from a professional dealer with guarantee. Should be no problems.

This is a fine, a characterful little synthesizer. Makes you wanna play all the time and fiddle with the potentiometers and create sounds. I was studying tests and reviews for a long time, and the decided for the Xio.
Its not multitimbral thats right. But it has fresh an energetic sounds, wonderful pads, etc. You can play up to 8 Tones same time. It is small, it has character, it has normal keys with a good feeling, (made me decide against the microkorg) it sounds very, very good, and the price is a steal. Only two octaves? You can switch between the octaves in a moment! Really easy. I would buy it again. I enjoy it very much. You can put batteries into it, you can take it with you everywhere, you can play sitting in your bed, its a piece af transportable modern music. Best bang for the buck! Without any doubt.

The Xio is quite simple to use... with one caveat: If you have a webcam installed you may encounter conflicts, including BSOD's when installing the drivers. Try disabling or uninstalling any webcams on your system if you have issues...
Beyond that, it interfaces great with Cubase, it's easy to tweak up the sounds, and it combines three useful devices in one...
I personally find the internal sounds too 'edgy'; perhaps I'm comparing too much with my real analog synths... I find myself turning down the filter frequency on a lot of sounds to make them fit into a mix... Abrasive leads sell synths, but a good mix do not make!
The manual is pretty good, and Novation is publishing more resources by the day on their website.

8 note poly, monotimbral
The built in effects are good, except for the reverb which I find rather nasty...
The fact that all LFO's and FX will sync to MIDI is amazing, and works great.
The Xgator is another great addition, and makes it simple to create complex rythmic gating... cool.

As mentioned earlier, I think the sounds are all too bright and edgy.
Maybe I'm just old. I'd say it's targeted at trance/electro type music more than anything else, but it's a good excuse for me to reprogram, so no complaints.
The keyboard, joystick, and X/Y pad are all good controllers, quite responsive... and fun.
The keyboard is a bit 'clacky' and light... so we'll have to see how it stands up to time.

Well, I'll let you know in a while, it's my hotel rig so will be travelling lots... if it fails I'll post comments, but I suspect it's going to be pretty reliable (my other Novation gear has never failed...)

Hmmm.... sent a couple emails to Novation about driver issues (webcam conflict, BSOD), no reply after a week. Not good.
Other than that, no opinion...

Does just what I need, and assuming it holds up, I'd replace it if I lost it... but it stays pretty close to me these days so that's unlikely.

Some of the presets are amazing and will definitely find their way into my music. Most of them are unusable for the genre of music I am into (industrial), but most of them I can see being used in other genres.
Editing patches is great. I love it. I can make an amazing sounding patch in no time and I'm amazed at how simple it was when I'm done. I can even name them, too! That gives my sounds more personality than a bank and a number. You can create any sound for any electronic music genre on this keyboard. The interface is slightly cramped up (a lot of the parameters were shoved into sub-menus, which isn't that much a problem once you get the hang of it).
There is no physical manual included. The XioSynth is intended to work along with a computer, so the manual is a PDF file on the included DVD. The DVD contains video tuitorials and tons of other stuff. It is possible to use the XioSynth without a computer, though, a computer just makes things easier. The manual itself is pretty straightforward, it has many lists and tells you what each parameter does and how to access sub-menus.

Even though it's monotimbral (only one layer, it is NOT monophonic), 3 independent oscillators with 17 waveforms each is more than enough to create complex sounds such as leads, pads, and basses. It has eight voices of polyphony, and in unison mode, you can choose how many voices of unison there are (2-8). There's also a VCO drift option to emulate a pitch drift old analogs used to have when they got really hot. The XioSynth also has ring and sync modulation for oscillators 1 and 2, frequency modulation for oscillators 2 and 3, and an extensive pulse width modulation sub-menu. There are 2 LFO's, each with 32 waveforms each.
The keyboard action is far better than some keyboards I've played *cough* MicroKorg *cough*, but the keys aren't weighted.
The effects are awesome. You can run them all at once, and I love that feature. The effects are Delay, Reverb, Chorus/ Phaser, Distortion, EQ, and Panning. There are many parameters for these effects in their respective sub-menus. Chorus and Phaser are molded into the same effect and you choose which one you want in the "effect type." You can also pull off a Flagner effect by increasing the chorus feedback. All the effects are wonderful and useful, but the Phaser is kind of weak. It's good for a background swirly effect, but if you want a very deep strong phaser sound I suggest using a plug-in or an effects pedal. I love how you can adjust the level of distortion (the level of distortion on the microkorg is dependent on the oscillator levels, there was no independent adjusting).
There's also two new features for the filter; the filter shape and the filter overdrive. Both of these can be used to create beefed up sounds. I use them religiously.
There are no expansion capabilities that I know of. You can upgrade the OS from the Novation website with the included USB cable.
This keyboard was meant for MIDI. It does not require any drivers. It is truly plug and play. You can also split the keyboard in Hybrid mode so you can use the onboard synth and MIDI for an external device at the same time.
There is no onboard sequencer in the traditional sense. The only sequencer is the new "X-Gator" feature, which acts as a 32 step sequencer for gating your sound. It is completely independent from the arpeggiator, but it is still slaved to the tempo. You can choose the level each step is gated and the order in which the bars are played.
The arpeggiator itself is flexible, offering many patterns. You have your 6 traditional ones (up, down, up-down 1, up-down 2, random, played), along with many others (such as chord). There are also 32 seperate patterns independent from the traditional ones.

There is no aftertouch on the actual keyboard itself. You can program it to react to velocity. I like the filter velocity the best, you can radically change your sound by the level of the force you hit the keys with.
You can create semi-realistic instruments. It is possible to create realistic distorted guitar sounds, organ sounds, electric piano sounds, and bass sounds.
This keyboard is a synthesizer. It is meant for electronic music or for music incorporating an electronic sound. It is not intended to have realistic or sampled instruments, though it is possible to create somewhat realistic sounds. It works great for what I got it for. If you want a keyboard with truly realistic sounds you will have to spend a tad more money.
The X-Y pad helps out a whole lot with expressiveness. You can program the X and Y axis to do different things, such as cutoff and resonance. The joystick (a fusion of the pitch and mod wheels) can also be programmed too. You can even assign effects to the joystick (up and down), to add or subtract any of the onboard effects if you wish.

I have only had this keyboard for 2 weeks (first shipment). So far it has been good to me, but I have not taken it anywhere. I bought a carrying case for it, in case I decide to. But right now it is my main studio keyboard. I use it for everything - its onboard synth, its MIDI capabilities, and its ability as an audio interface for XLR and 1/4" cables. I rely on it for virtually everything I do. The USB cable just hooks right up to my computer and I don't have to worry about drivers or anything. That's what I love the most. I sure hope I can rely on this product.

Novation has a lot of stuff on their website (upgrades, programs, manuals, etc.), but I have not contacted them directly. I cannot comment on customer support.

If this were lost or stolen I would definitely get a new one. I love this keyboard a whole lot. It is actually worth more than its retail price, in my opinion.
I have been playing keyboards for about a year and a half now. I own a microKorg and I would choose this keyboard over the microKorg any day. The microKorg is a good compliment to the XioSynth, and has a better phaser, but that's about it.
There are two things I wish the XioSynth had.
1.) Pitch and mod wheels. I like the old fashioned pitch and mod wheels a lot more than the contemporary joysticks. Sometimes joysticks can mess up what you're trying to do, and I just seem to have less of a problem with pitch and mod wheels than joysticks.
2.) More patch memory. You can only save 200 programs on the XioSynth (same with the X-Station). Still more than the microKorg (128), but at the same time I would rather have more room. You can do a sysex data dump and store programs on your computer, but I would still much prefer more than 200 spaces of memory.
This keyboard definitely does not get in the way of my music making. It helps me out a lot. I would've bought it just for the synth engine, since I don't use MIDI a whole lot. But the fact that it doubles as an audio interface for other instruments (guitars or other keyboards) and for microphones is what got me to buy it.
This 25 key version of this keyboard is currently $70 less than the microKorg and the Alesis Micron, and can do so much more. The 49 key version is currently $400 on the nose. Trust me, this keyboard is a hidden jewel and a step above the rest.
Email me if you have any questions that my review did not answer. I know information on this board is very sparse right now and I'll be happy to help you.