On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 1:01 PM, Arnold Krille <arnold@arnoldarts.de> wrote:

On Monday 17 January 2011 12:27:59 Louigi Verona wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Raffaele Morelli <
>
> raffaele.morelli@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am going to buy a master keyboardand I am wondering what's the best
> > choice to avoid compatibility issues (if any...) according to experienced
> > midi users/musicians on this list.
>
> Hello!
>
> I use M-Audio Oxygen series, Oxygen 8 and 65. Works really great, no
> compatibility problems. M-Audio is known to usually comply with standard
> MIDI and standard USB.

About three years back, when I bought mine I was told that the Axiom series is
of better quality then the Oxygen regarding the casing. And it turns out the
axiom 49 I bought is nice. And works out of the box without any firmware.

I'm also an M-Audio Axiom user -- I use the 61-key model (a generation behind the current version), which is perfectly sufficient for my needs. It's light-weight but sturdy, terrific for gigging or for playing in one's lap. The key/control assignments are simple, straightforward, and limitlessly customizable. I don't think I had to do anything special to make it work under ubuntu. It does not have active sensing.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it has no battery bay, which means I am dangerously tethered to my laptop via usb when I run around on stage playing the thing like a keytar (or in practice, I'm confined to a small space when I would greatly prefer to run around and play the thing like a keytar -- behind-the-head is still usually possible).

-----
Luke Peterson