CME Xkey
A rapid-ire round-up of sample libraries, ROMplers and more
mini reviews
Web www.cme-xkey.com
Format PC/Mac/iOS/Android
Right from picking up the box, CME’s new
compact Xkey MIDI keyboard makes a great
impression. It’s clear that they’re angling for a
spot in the Apple Store, with that minimalist
white packaging, aluminium frame (concealing
a black plastic base underneath) and quirky
orange USB cable, and in terms of fulilling
the aesthetic requirement, we’d say they
deserve some shelf space.
Compatible with Mac, PC, iOS and Android,
class-compliant (so no drivers required) and
USB bus-powered, the Xkey manages to be very
low-proile (a mere 16mm deep) yet still
retaining a decent amount of key travel, making
it surprisingly playable. The keys themselves are
standard size and you get two octaves of them.
The black keys are very slightly raised above the
white ones, and all of them trigger consistently
along their entire length – again, this can only
help in terms of playability.
Perhaps the biggest selling point of the Xkey
is its ability to transmit polyphonic aftertouch.
While this particular function isn’t the rarity it
once was, it is still pretty impressive on a
keyboard in this price range. And it works
well, too, introducing an extra layer of per-key
expression when triggering aftertouch-
compatible instruments.
A series of rather oddly labeled buttons
arranged down the left-hand end of the ’board
handle octave up/down, modulation, pitchbend
and sustain on/of. The octave shift and sustain
toggle buttons do exactly what you’d expect,
but the pressure-sensitive pitchbend and
modulation buttons are a little less
straightforward. They all work, certainly, with
increased inger pressure deepening the up/
down bend or modulation, but achieving any
real degree of accuracy is pretty much
impossible, since maintaining an intermediate
level of inger pressure between ‘none’ and ‘full’
is a haphazard exercise at best.
That aside, the Xkey is a stylish, full-featured
MIDI keyboard that plays very well, its in a
(large) laptop bag and comes in at a price that
can only be described as very reasonable.
n9/10n
Web www.native-instruments.com
Format Mac/PC, Kontakt 5/Kontakt 5 Player
Adding to their already extensive range of drum
ROMplers, Drumlab has NI bringing together
acoustic and electronic sounds in an instrument
library that prides itself on being “mix-ready”.
Presented in a tile-based layout, each of the
main kit pieces (kick, snare, hi-hats and three
toms) features an acoustic layer and an
electronic layer, while peripheral to these are
tiles holding various single-layer acoustic
cymbals and percussion. The bottom panel
gives access to various sound-shaping
parameters, including the acoustic/electronic
mix. The acoustic layers of the main pieces also
feed to an overhead/room mic channel by a
user-adjustable amount, while the kick and
snare feature Top/Bottom and Out/Sub balance
and a Trash control, which dials in a lo-i close
mic channel. The electronic layers, meanwhile,
feature a combination low/high-pass ilter and
up to 50ms of ofset from the acoustic layer
(although only in one direction). Volume
shaping is on hand for all layers of all pieces via
AHD envelopes, and although there’s no
dedicated mixer page,
each tile hosts solo, mute,
level and pan controls –
although the fact that you
have to select the tile,
rather than just roll over
it, to make them visible
is annoying.
The now standard
array of high-quality NI
efects are on board –
reverb, transient shaper,
compressor, EQ and
saturation – available to
each drum and mic
channel, as well as the
master output.
The sounds themselves add up to 58
multisampled acoustic instruments and 80
electronic layers, and a library of 60 kit presets
is included to get things moving. Handily, you
also get over 100 single drum presets, which
load as individual Kontakt instruments.
While you can of course trigger Drumlab via
keyboard or e-drums, it ships with a library of
900 excellent MIDI grooves that, although not
editable within Drumlab, can be dragged out to
your DAW or desktop.
Drumlab squarely hits the sweet spot
between sonic lexibility and ease of use, and
the source sounds, though low in number, are
superb. Obviously, we would like to be able to
import our own samples, but even without that,
Drumlab’s well-realised concept is a success.
n8/10n
Native Instruments
Drumlab €99
CME
Xkey £89
106 / COMPUTER MUSIC November 2013
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CMU197.rev_mini.indd 106 9/25/13 7:03 PM