CME MIDI CONTROLLER

Conqueror's Reign · Post by **Conqueror's Reign** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:58 am

Greetings Planet Dwellers, Is anyone using the CME UF series keyboard controller in their setup?

Post by **garyb** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:23 am

not me personally, but one of my clients. good feel, inexpensive, solid chassis. it's still chinese, so it was made to be cheap, but it's a capable controller.

cannonball · Post by **cannonball** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:46 am

hi

i have cme
i usa with creamware and sequencer
i have installed usb midi and midi at the same time
seem works well here i use B2003 in project for
a quickly keyboard approach to sound
but i'm not investigate in all the controllers parts with sx and scope

ciao

Conqueror's Reign · Post by **Conqueror's Reign** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:20 pm

Thanks Garyb and cannonball for the replies, is it a general rule of thumb as far as musical devices go, that products made in china are cheap? I have noticed a lot of opinions that lean that way.

Post by **garyb** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:14 pm

no, china's factories are among the newest and most capable in the world, but that is not why corporations contract out to them. it's because those companies want to make as cheap a product as possible. no one wants to pay for top-quality gear when a piece of poop will do. especially if the poop looks and smells pleasant and does the job very, very cheaply. this is what funds the manufacturing business and the hobbiest world, otherwise, there'd only be specialized professional gear that would cost a fortune and only the most wealthy and the most worthy would have any of it.

i'd rather see the middle road where things are moderatly priced and quality is the main concern otherwise, and that workers be paid nice wages, but that's just me. if you are going to buy this stuff in this price range, it's all going to be cheap stuff from china, but as far as cheap stuff from china goes, i think that cme is pretty good. i'm still seriously considering one.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 2:28 am

Thanks for the heads up on these keyboard controllers, I'd quite like to replace mine with something a bit better soon. Dolphin music are doing the 49-key unit for £115 (about 166 euros) which is pretty good VFM I reckon.

Although I'm still not sure as to exactly what an 'omnipotent' keboard is...can I use it to smite my enemies from afar?

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:39 pm

it probably strengthens your spell casting capabilities for a turn or two. hehe.
CME stuff looks promising, am considering one myself, but have no cash to spare.

but they should seriously consider taking that "self determined" video down.. That video just about made me "determined" not to want to have anything to do with CME. lol

midipixel · Post by **midipixel** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 4:52 pm

When I went shopping for a new keyboard, I stood between a CME (UF-6, I think) and my (used) Roland A-31. The salesman told me his customers were complaining that CME´s products weren´t that durable (he showed me an used CME and the stickers were starting to unglue).

So I went for the good and old Roland. My main reason, however, was the feel of the keys. CME´s keys are semi-weighted, but still it feels like soft keys.

One thing I canm say, though: The UF series is good looking for it´s price

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:02 pm

I can't believe that nobody here is using the M Audio KS88!!! This is an SFP Synth dream controller. Ask me any question you'd like about it. I use 2 x 88 Pros, and Oberheim MC3000, and the little cheesy ES 88, as it is perfect for the SFP synths as the action is like a Nord, or Fatar 76 note.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:07 am

That does look very nice, and is listed as Dolphin Music's #1 best seller.

However, is is nearly £300 which puts it low down on my "priority radar"

New tyres for the bike are currently top of the list... *sigh*

I am considering one of these for the future though:

"PreSonus FaderPort Music Production USB/MIDI Controller"

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop ... t_id/14211

OK, it's only got one fader, but I'm no magical mixing man so I can only control one at a time and it's motorised (which is pretty cool, no?)

Post by **hubird** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:15 am

rather expensive thingie compared to other more complete controllers!!

Conqueror's Reign · Post by **Conqueror's Reign** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 2:50 pm

hubrid, what are your recommendations of a more complete controller?

pling · Post by **pling** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:21 pm

i'm not hubird but i'd say m-audio axiom49.

Post by **hubird** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:44 pm

@ CR,
this one

3 oct. keys (easy access to 7 oct), 16(vel. sens.) pads for any type of info transmission,
9 dials, 8 faders, 1 vector mod. Support of hex/exclusive ,
scenes for software, 9 two-colour displays (following fader/dial touching),
Midi and USB, soft editor (usb, XP and OSX), robust, looks (alumnium).
want more??

It's the only controller that offers all possible controller types in combination with keys...and I want keys in front of my nose just right 'above' my pen tablet...for me it's exactly what I was looking for

Two buttons allow key octave up or down 2 octaves, so you have 7 compact octaves in front of you.

One disadventage: no min/max settings for the faders...very stupid!

Conqueror's Reign · Post by **Conqueror's Reign** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 7:07 pm

Thanks Guys all of you,

all this feedback is what i really dig about PlanetZ.

. Scope4live could you give some insight into why you love your controller and its usefulness in SFP? I have some other forums and noticed you gig with SFP. I think thats awesome and shows the strength of SFP, it is stunning to think this was developed a decade ago, if i am correct and is still years ahead of so many others.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 7:42 pm

An excellant choice also. I forgot how cheap that ebay in USA is sorry. 250 USD is the going rate. It has the perfect amount of B3, Piano, EP, clav, and synth for the money. It weighs very little as most people could easily lift it. The ES 88 is just a key surface only, but is crackin' fast for MIDI channel changes for 100 USD. I have a spare KS 88, I felt that they were cheap enough, turns out my paranoia of returning to the road touring scene was amiss. The shipping is 48 bucks, but M Audio is owned by Avid right? These should be all over Europe and UK you'd think.

ARCADIOS · Post by **ARCADIOS** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:20 am

i use cmu uf7.

very nice touch.
has problem with slightly higher velocity on black keys.
cme says that it is a matter of time to release a fix update for the rom.
i believe though that the higher "boing boing" of the black keys is a matter of distruction and accurate placement of plastics, and not electronically false.
it is noticable that black keys have different hit than white ones.
it also happens to other non wheighted keyboards(the feeling not the velocity).
unfortunatelly with this prob the keybord is not good for pianos.
anyway. i like it and i will wait for the "rom" fix. (i doubt it................... hope there will be one

)

Conqueror's Reign · Post by **Conqueror's Reign** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:29 am

Arcadios, how well does the control surface part of the UF7 work with the CW mixers? This is one of the areas that caught my attention about it, what are your experiences using it.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:10 am

I also have the UF7. Generally it's awesome and does exactly what I wanted it to do, but I've had a couple of weird problems, the biggest one being that the rewind and jog backwards buttons in the Sequencer Control section send out different controller messages each time I press them, making them unusable. All the other control buttons work fine. I haven't yet determined if that's a firmware problem or something wrong with my specific unit. I posted a message on the CME forum, but nobody was able to answer my question.

Also, the PC USB driver seems to have a problem with late notes under high CPU loads...the Mac driver works fine. The MIDI output of the keyboard works just fine, however, and I've hooked it up to a MIDIMan USB MIDi gizmo which works great.

Basically, it's 95% incredible. I just wish the last 5% were fixed.

Shayne

ARCADIOS · Post by **ARCADIOS** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:34 pm

i wouldn't say that it is good to control cw mixers from uf7, except than assigning a few bottons.

about the sequenser buttons, they work ok for me. i use nuendo and i suppose it is ok for cubase as well.
you have to have connected via usb for them.
there is a download file in cme forum about it.
it must be loaded in device setup of nuendo.
you have to choose generic controller and at the import file section just import this file from cme forum.
it works very well.
the combination of midi out for controlling scopes synths and usb out for sequenser controlling via seq buttons of uf7 works fine for me, except a few stops that might happen if you unplug or turn off the keyboard

PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

CME MIDI CONTROLLER

CME MIDI CONTROLLER

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