The Korg K25 is a unique 25-key, USB-powered MIDI controller keyboard; priced at $99, it offers some great features, but does it stack up to professional studio use? Let's take a look at the features of this value-priced controller.
Programmable Features
The K25 is a great value at $99; it's got 25 full-sized, velocity-sensitive keys, representing a three octave range. You can also fully program the features of the keyboard, using your own settings, or choosing between any of the 57 scene templates included.Included on the keyboard is a small clickpoint/joystick, two rotary knobs (assignable), and an array of fully-assignable wheels, knobs, and dials. Sounds impressive, doesn't it?
Performance
I picked up the K25 to help with a project I had in my studio; a client needed some Hammond B3-esque organ added as padding in the back of a few songs, and I figured I could play it easily enough myself, and I was eager to try out my new B4 MIDI plug-in.Plugging in the K25 to my USB port on my Mac, I was immediately surprised -- my trackpad quit working! Turns out, the (very slow-response and fairly useless) clickpoint on the K25 automatically became my default mouse; after poking around in the Mac's system settings, I was able to ignore the USB mouse easily, but it still gave me quite a bit of frustration.
Getting the K25 to work with my Pro Tools system wasn't a huge ordeal, but it continuously threw out HUI errors.
The controller worked fine -- 90% of the time. The other 10%, it would start sending mixed signals to the host program, and caused some really interesting-sounding arrangements to come out of my otherwise solid organ lines. And trying the K25 with other host programs, the same problem happened. Overall, I decided it wasn't for me -- and waited in line for an hour at Guitar Center to return it.
