, at last, I can review my brand-new keyboard, I had to pay a price for it, I paid it gladly and here I am (well, as gladly as a human being can, installing all again is not “that” fun). Now I’m making some music! I was begging to play it for too many days already so I am eager to go through all the details and keep playing.So far, my first impression is: I’m loving it! It is a GREAT midi controller overall and I will explain you why.
I’ve tried several midi controllers out there, I would say better brands than Nektar it’s true, like Novation, who’s quality is pretty good, Roland, even better, Korg, very good, and Native Instruments, with very good quality midi controllers and keyboard feel in general, but…, they all fall short in what I truly want: INTEGRATION.
Let’s talk about DAW integration now, that is something quite different to having a good playable keyboard, it is a whole other matter to consider which, for me, it is essential an most wanted. I am a home-studio composer, my needs are very specific to that.
First of all, if you want a really, really good weighted keyboard, you have to pay for it…, and they are very expensive for my pocket, in the other hand, they don’t offer me what I want and need.
I don’t want a great keyboard with great keys just to play, with poor connectivity and poor DAW integration, I want an instrument to control efficiently what I do while composing, in a fast and EASY way, I want to interact with Cubase without reaching that much the writing keyboard and the hideous mouse that brakes your hand after many ours of use. The Nektar LX 49+ does just that, truly! Nektar Tech did not lie about it in their advertisement, it is not an exaggeration to say that it really controls your DAW in a very fast, efficient and intelligent way. In that regard, it is so far, the best midi controller brand in the market, if you are a home studio musician.
I did not realize how much programing power you have here, because you have all the knobs, the faders, the pads, but you also have a dedicated middle section that let you toggle between “Mixer”, “Instruments” and “Presets”, and with a “Shift” key you can access many other extra parameters with useful assignations that fly in your fingers, no need for complex programs installed in your PC, they are in Nektar keyboard itself.
When you want to control a VSTi or a VST, faders and knobs are automatically assigned to your plugins which is a dream for any home studio. Great time saving feature really! Then you press “Mixer” and there you go, faders and knobs are automatically assigned to the mixer mode in a second, and with the press of a single button. Press “Preset” and get into the presets of your VSTi or VST, (as long as they are into the programing language of your DAW, if they are independent, they would not be recognized). Of course, you also have the transport bar which works great too, I like to have it in the keyboard itself without reaching the mouse or the pc keyboard. There is also a very smart secondary level of programing with the keys of your musical keyboard itself, so you can assign controls to midi messages, it is funny to see the "Enter" key in the top key at your right in the key bed. So…
, this little friend gives you much more that you could expect at first glance, that is where the power of this controller rests, IN A PERFECT DAW INTEGRATION not found in any other midi controller of the market.Many plugins, a few hundreds, are already pre-mapped so you go straight to control them with the LX, then you can try to apply an automatic programming, if the plugins is not into the list of pre-mapped plugins, it works 80% of the time, then you fix what is not mapped. Then you have weird plugins, those with an strange morphology, strange knobs, those experimental ones you know, in these cases, you can map them manually, which is very easy, and you do it ONCE, that's it, you save it and the next time you load it, it is already mapped.
Pads are assignable too, which is great, because you can use them to toggle between articulations in Kontakt, it is like having 8 more keys after the 49 you have in front of you, so kind of 57 keys in fact. You don’t need to use the pads exclusively to play drums, you can do whatever you like with them.
I use the Nektar LX 49+ with Cubase mostly, and I’m starting to use it in Bitwig as well. With Cubase the interaction it is of about 80%, with Bitwig it is of 100%! There are many unique controls that are dedicated to Bitwig only, they works very fast like real time, your software becomes hardware.
The pitch and mod wheels works great, no lag at all, like with other brands happens. The pitch wheel it is a little bit stiff for me, slightly harder what I would like, but it’s ok, I can see I will get use to it. Overall quality for the price, ufff, superb, cannot complain or ask for more, that would be so egoist. The key bed is more than acceptable, it is better than the M-Audio Keyrig I used to have anyway. Overall, I am very happy with it really, I only hope it lasts.
Conclusion: The Nektar LX 49+ it is ideal for home studio guys like me, you have more than you expect, very good quality for the price, DAW integration is second to none like nothing else in the market, and I want to remark this point, the programming behind it is GREAT, you can have several presets, if I remember well, up to 5 of them, for different DAWs, but if you switch DAW, you switch format too, of course. What I mean is that you are paying for a good midi controller overall, as hardware, which is already in a competitive price, but you get kind of for free, all these amazing integration, which, we all know, it represents a lot of work from the side of Nektar Tech. I would easily give this keyboard a price of 400 USD because of the flowless integration.
I recommend it 100% to anyone of you looking for a fantastic way to control your DAW, as long as your DAW is in the list of supported DAWs, otherwise, you should look elsewhere.
Yes, I'm very satisfied and happy, very happy!
