Alesis VI49-49 Key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller with, 16 Drum Pads, 12 Assignable Knobs, 36 Buttons and 5-Pin MIDI Out, Production Software Included

This is a day one review. If however I find any cons, I'll add them later. As of now, this keyboard is FANTASTIC to say the least. Great feeling keys, nice and bright backlights, and solid yet smooth mod and pitch wheels. As for the wheels, they've got medium resistance with little to no inertia. Feels amazing when soloing. My biggest concern was the 25 key limit. As I'm working on a budget, I couldn't afford the 49 key, and the 61 would be too big for my desk. It was either the V49 or VI25 for me. I am SO glad I went with the VI series. If you're wondering if 25 keys is enough, ask yourself this question: what am I going to be playing? If you're just using it to put in simple chords into your DAW, this'll work great. As I already mentioned, soloing is what this thing is designed for. I've included a short video demonstrating a solo that requires the use of multiple octaves, to give you a good impression what it'll look and feel like switching between them. Sorry in advance for the quality, I was using my webcam as the camera and mic. As for the drum pad, the buttons are very sensitive. Good detection, and it's cool that you can trigger them just by pressing, not striking. This is where my only "con" is. If you're getting into your music while using the pitch and/or mod wheel, it's quite easy to trigger the pads and screw up your sound. I hope there is a setting within the Alesis software that I'm unaware of that will fix this. If not, it'll be something I just get used to. Either way, not really a con, just a heads up. The nobs and buttons can all be mapped to various functions within your favorite DAW. I'm using Mixcraft 7 Pro Studios and everything seems to work wonderfully. That is, after I configured the play, stop, loop, etc. buttons. Aftertouch is an amazing feature. For those who don't know, aftertouch is the ability to press into key after it's been struck and at it's lowest point. This can trigger different effects to your favorite synths. Think of it like 3D Touch for your keyboard. It's cool, but I haven't used it much. I am VERY pleased with this product and am glad I bought it. If you're on the fence and have the money, get it. **Update** After using this product for over two years, my only issue is the USB port. As I was playing, if the cable was moved slightly, it'd stop sending midi data to my DAW. At first I thought (and hoped) it was a bad cable, but I was wrong. I put up with it for a while, but it seemed to get worse. I was about ready to purchase a new, different controller. As a last resort, I took it apart to look for any problems. After examining the port, I found three out of the six solder points were separated very slightly. After a few minutes of soldering and hot gluing, I finally have it back to it's original functionality. While I still love this controller, this issue reflects poorly on the build quality and longevity of this product. If you're not a geek like me, you'd be spending $100+ on a new controller. Without a doubt this thing is great for the money, but don't expect it to last forever. :)

I've owned this keyboard for over 3 years, and so I thought I'd offer some insight on this controller for anyone on the fence. First off, do yourself a favor and download the Alesis VI editor so you don't have to deal with the onboard LCD to reprogram your buttons, knobs and keybed. It makes reprogramming every button a breeze. The (free) editor alone is almost worth 5 stars on its own. PROS: -Keys feel nice -Drumpads feel VERY nice - usually keyboards with drum pads usually have a feeling that the drum pads were added as an afterthought. These drum pads, on the other hand, are very responsive and durable. My MPD218 - a dedicated drumpad midi controller - only feels slightly better than these. Almost every control is reprogrammable on the keyboard within reason. You can't send CC commands from the keybed, but pretty much everything else is fair game. I can have each individual button mapped to different commands. For instance, button 1 might be a momentary CC, button 2 a program change, button 3, on/off CC, etc. Same with the drum pads, which can send CC commands and notes. In Ableton, the keyboard has the appropriate LED feedback. -Preset slots make using this keyboard for different uses/setups a breeze. Again, DOWNLOAD THE ALESIS VI EDITOR to make your life easy for modifying presets. -Reliable - this keyboard has been with me through 2 moves, a couple drops, and 3 years. Hasn't missed a beat . - It even has a 5 pin midi out port if you want to use it to control other 5 pin midi devices. CONS: - Some of the knobs have a slight jitter that appeared about a year ago. For example, say I turn knob 1 to have a CC value of 120. The keyboard might send 119, 120, 121, 120, etc. all in succession, several messages a second. Not the biggest deal in the world as it hold the value within 1 or 2 CC values, but kind of annoying when you want to set a knob and be done with it. I also don't like the constant moving on certain knobs as it can cause a little more strain on my computer if I'm already pushing it to the limits. That being said, setting each knob at 0 or 127 fixes the issue so it's not a constant thing when I have the midi controller plugged in. - This is really nitpicky one, but I'm unable to control the LED feedback on the controller no matter what I've tried. Sending midi out messages to the computer doesn't seem to do anything visually with the LEDs. Again, this is very nitpicky, and the LED feedback is automatic with Ableton, but I like more custom control. And one of the DAWs I use, Gig Performer from Deskew, doesn't automatically incorporate the LED feedback on this keyboard. Overall, this is a buy and I highly recommend this keyboard. It was a steal back when I purchased in March 2019, and even now the price is a little higher, it's still a great value. Durable, reliable, customizable. Good on Alesis for the quality product.

The build quality seems good, and I love the look and feel of the keyboard. It makes a nice addition to my setup. However, I had big plans for it and it ended up not being able to deliver on everything I wanted to use it for. First of all, you cannot program the pad colors in any useful way. Many product shots seem to show the pads with what looks like individual color assignments that could be used to map them to parts of a song visually, but this is just not possible currently as far as I can tell. The pads only light up and change color according to how hard you press, and I think that's it. Second, the toggle buttons (or switches). There are a lot of them, which is really cool. But there's no way to set their initial state. You can't load up a song or an instrument preset or whatever and have the right toggles already turned on. The lights on the buttons can't be externally controlled as far as I can tell, they start off and they turn on the first time you press them, period. I've tried to contact Alesis support to find out if there is any way to remotely program them or toggle the initial state using CC or sysex messages, but they never got back to me. So what it comes down to, is I hardly make use of the pads because I have better ones that I can visually map, and I don't ever use the myriad of toggle buttons because it doesn't make sense to always have their initial state be "off". The buttons feel nice and clicky, however. And the knobs have quite a bit of resistance, making them feel very good (although it can actually be kind of difficult to make quick and large adjustments to the knobs because the resistance is so much higher than my other keyboards). The keybed feels great. The keys are slightly weighted and feel substantial, but still quite easy to press. The pads feel decent. They are about 50 times better than my AKAI MPK49 pads, which are terrible. But they are not as good as the pads on my Nektar LX25+, nor are they even in the same ballpark as the pads on my Launchpad Pro or my Maschine.

Alesis has really outdone itself with the VI series! The keyboard itself is beautifully built and the full face keys are really weighted--finally! The velocity of the keys are very easily controlled and your key velocity is shown for each note in the LED display. The pads are also more sensitive and respond to both light and heavy strikes and their velocity is also shown in the display. They also light up and the color indicates whether it is a light or heavy strike. The pitch and modulation wheels are very heavy duty and have a great feel as do the other controls. The keyboard also has an awesome aftertouch! Most virtual instruments do not respond to aftertouch but ME80, Memorymoon, Messiah, and Minimogue do very nicely and they might be installed in your DAW(they can also be purchased separately). This keyboard has an on/off switch in the back and you need to turn it on even if you are just using the usual USB connection, so don't forget to turn it on! A great additional feature of the VI series is a drum roll setting. You can roll drum sounds, notes or any other sounds from the pads at a choice of speeds, creating some nice effects easily. The other amazing aspect of the VI series is the editor(there is a separate editor for each keyboard in the VI series). Unlike some other editors, this one actually functions without the keyboard connected. There are two main functions of this editor: to create and manage preset files(no keyboard connection needed for that) and to upload and download preset files to the keyboard(requiring connection, of course). You can also download the editor and see what it looks like and to see if you like it before you purchase the keyboard. The editor is much more user-friendly than most. Every aspect of the keyboard can be edited. The keyboard can store 25 presets so you don't need to use the editor all that much. Having sixteen great pads and fantastic feeling keys with aftertouch is worth paying a bit extra for this keyboard.

So I upgraded from the Arturia Minilab, which broke on me in about over a year. The USB port kept pushing in. Arturia offered me no help, saying I would have to pay, but took weeks to even reply to ONE email or response. So I threw it out and just bought a new keyboard, but one that would LAST. I didn't know the quality of MIDI's actually mattered. So I looked up good quality MIDI's and choose this one. I love it. It's solid. The keys are solid. Buttons are solid. The build is solid. I love the color MPC buttons, the screen and all. 5/5. Setting up with FL STUDIO: So I finally figured it out after looking all around the internet, Youtube videos, asking people who posted the videos, etc. I'm using the Vi25. Presets: Rew CC: 114 FF CC: 115 Stop CC: 116 Play CC: 117 Loop CC (you're using FL unused) Rec CC: 118 Now, what happened to me was a "Midi communication unsuccessful. Verify MIDI connection and device settings. Verify no other applications are using the MIDI port". I couldn't figure out HOW to fix it. I closed out FL Studio, the editor, restarted my PC, restarted my life, smashed my keyboard over my head, nothing worked. What you have to do is go to Options > Device Setup. Choose The V125 (Or your keyboard) as the input/output and hit "Apply". NOW send the present to your keyboard. It should work. When you open up FL Studio, you choose your IN/OUT on the MIDI and Oxygen 25 as the controller. NOW, hit play/pause/FF/RW and it should work. For the knobs, you just left click > override generic link > Turn the knob you want it to be controlled with. I HOPE THIS HAS HELPED EVERYONE. If I left anything out, let me know.

I got this to use with Ableton Live, but I didn't want the "8 track launchers with faders" layout that so many keyboards have right now. The huge bank of 36 buttons really helps with what I need in my setup. So far (after a day of use) everything is great. But I will note a few quirks: 1) Dimensions are listed incorrectly - Description says something like 24" wide. I got this for a travel gig so I was concerned about size. The actual dimensions are 33.75" long, by 10" wide (power switch sticks out by 1/4"), by just under 3" tall including feet and knobs. 2) There was a strip of adhesive plastic across all the keys - A nice feature to protect them in shipping... But I felt I was going to yank all the keys out of alignment unless I took extreme care. Perhaps warming it with a hair dryer would have helped. 3) The free editor software works, BUT, you really have to make sure certain options are selected in order for it to communicate with the keyboard. This took me two hours to figure out. Options -> Device Setup will open a menu for connecting to the device. See attached screenshot. Before you try to Send or Get a preset to/from the connected keyboard, open this and select VI49 EDITOR Out and VI49EDITOR In and click Apply. You might even have to do this every single time, it seems to forget easily. At first I felt like this dialog does nothing at all but it makes all the difference when you get the MIDI Communication error. It did not work for me to just select VI49 Out and VI49 In, it has to be the "EDITOR" option for sending and receiving presets.

I've played keys for several years, but always on technically borrowed equipment. This is the first large keyboard I've ever owned, and so far I love it! Pros: - Dimensions are PERFECT for me (shoutout to the absolute GODSEND in the reviews who provided accurate dimensions, I'll repeat them: 40¼" x 10" x 2¼" (3" with knobs) or 1023mm x 253mm x 58mm (75mm with knobs), as you can see it slots beautifully onto my desk! - Love the semi-weighted keys, it hits the balance of feeling sturdy while staying agile - Mod and pitch wheels feel SUPERB; just the right amount of resistance to aid precision without compromising speed, and the material is just.... Mmmm yes - Drum pads feel great, perfect material and just the right amount of travel (almost none but just enough for a bit of passive haptic feedback) - Aftertouch!!! It's not poly, and the range is kinda small (i.e. it goes 0-127 quickly) but definitely usable and better than nothing! - The lights OOF just gorgeous! My whole aesthetic mostly consists of black body with dark blue lights, and as you can see this fits perfectly. Love it! Cons: - Knobs have too much resistance for my taste. They feel great and can be super precise, but forget about any really quick adjustments. - Button clicks are INSANELY loud. Not sure who in their right mind would put that anywhere but especially on a MUSIC controller where sound (or lack thereof) really matters. Wouldn't want to use them in performances or anywhere near live mics. - Lights as far as I know are one-way, non programmable. I was hoping this could replace the NanoKontrol 2 I use with MainStage, where each patch can send updates to the button lights and keep them in sync, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Same goes for drum pads, those lights seem to be hard-coded to reflect velocity, in both brightness and color. That's all fine, but seems like something that wouldn't be too hard to add. - Bootup animation is fun but a bit long... Takes almost 7 seconds every time from powerup to ready. Not awful but not preferable. - The controller software... Oh boy. What a mess. Didn't work at all on my MacBook Pro (kept crashing when I select preset) and even when it did work on my PC it's still a clunky design. Gets the job done eventually. Conclusion: Despite the cons I love this keyboard! Not to mention how (relatively) inexpensive it was! I've only been using it for a couple weeks, so if anything happens I'll update this review. Overall highly recommend, especially for home studio!

Dope controller, I got this over a year and a half ago and I still love it, the controls feel nice, nice weight, good resistance, easy to setup and use, I use this with FL studio (Windows 11) and it's great. Setup was easy, downloaded the driver, restart, go into midi devices in FL and enabled it in the bottom window, and that was it. Now everything is assignable. To link something you just right click the thing you want to link and click "link to controller" move or click the part of the controller you want mapped and click accept, DONE. I HIGHLY recommend setting yourself a base save file template with everything mapped the way you like, and back the save file up on your email/cloud/whatever. Now you just open the save file instead of the app and now it opens straight into your favorite experience, accidentally override it? Download it again from your backup.

I bought this Vi61 to replace an ageing Alesis QX keyboard. I've had it a week but so far all is well and I'm very happy. On turn on it was immediately recognised by Windows 10 so it's plug and play without problem. Fit and finish is pretty much perfect and all the buttons, pads and knobs are functioning as they should. The knobs have a nice weight to them, the switches are a hard plastic, perhaps not the best quality but they work. My reason for choosing this keyboard was to gain more tactile control over the most used functions in my DAW, in front of which I spend my working days. Reviews had already assured me that the semi weighted action was OK and indeed it is for a 61 key controller at this price point. I've spent some time already using the editor program to make changes I want. The editor program itself is not well written, somewhat unfriendly and confusing. Each time you start it you have to re-choose your device midi in and out for some reason. There is no file drag and drop, Neither is there any visual feedback on the keyboard display when sending or receiving to the program. It's not nice to use at all. However it is versatile enough and you can make all the changes you need. Once all is finally setup as you want, you'll probably not use it again so it's no big deal. You can save setups to disc, and to any any of the keyboard's 24 on-board presets. I shall most likely only ever use one or two. For midi, each switch can be changed to either toggle, momentary or program change control, each knob to controller or aftertouch and each drum pad to note, toggle, momentary and program change controllers. You can choose from 8 keyboard velocity curves and if needed the keyboard can be split into zones. The transport controllers come set as you'd expect to momentary, but can be changed to toggle if wanted. The mod and pitch bend wheels' midi channels can also be changed as can the sustain pedal. I will not use the gimicky drum roll function (which can also be edited). Overall I'm really pleased with control available. The drum pads light up, 3 different colours according to how hard you hit them (completely unnecessary but some may like it)! The preset window, all the switches and tops of the knobs, and even the mod and pitch wheels light up blue, which is a great visual aid in a dark room. Out of the box, and value for money wise, I think this is an excellent controller keyboard. The keyboard action is better than my old device and I can see myself using this for years to come. I'll amend my review if anything nasty pops up over time, but so far I'd say if the specs fit your needs, buy without hesitation :)

Fully programmable CC's. Good bonus software samples. I got mine from Amazon already opened stock. New, just a tatty box. Well worth the discount. Who pays nearly 50% more for a box you're just gonna throw away? Nice feel to the keys. Little LED readout can be helpful. The mod and pitch wheels are above the pads. Personally, I would have preferred them the other way round. Wrist leaning COULD accidentally activate pads. But, with use, that's not the case. Solid, quality, weighty construction.

Tenía en mi estudio un kurzweil maravilloso pero que es muy pesado y ocupa toda la mesa. Mi uso con el midi se limita a transcripción y poca cosa más, así que decidi comprar este controlador. Me gusta porque me ha dejado muchísimo espacio en la mesa y trabajo más cómodo. Aunque las teclas no son de gran calidad, tienen el tamaño normal. No ha sido fácil configurarlo con cubase aunque seguro que es culpa mía por no estar muy familiarizado con este tipo de aparatos. Ya le estoy sacando partido porque el trabajo es mucho más fluido y, quién sabe, igual hasta me adentro más en el uso de los instrumentos virtuales.

La Keyboard sembra perfetta nuova di zecca. Lo scatolo , originale e' rammendato con dello scotch ma devo dire in modo molto accurato cosi da proteggere bene il contenuto. Con questa tipologia di vendita ho potuto risparmiare un po' di euro. Precisi nella consegna ( se ricordo bene con qualche giorno di anticipo). Per quanto riguarda il modello in se per se' ..beh... dopo mi sono accorto che con quella cifra esistono altre controller MIDI simili ma con funzioni avanzate e e molte caratteristiche utili. ( dipende dalle esigenze di ognuno ) . Ritengo cmq. la qualita' di fabbricazione molto buona, robusta, tasti solidi e precisi in esecuzione. La consiglio dopo aver valutate le propie necessita'. :-)

so this midi keyboard is pretty sweet. As for the actual product its everything it says it is! Nothing feels cheap i was looking for a midrange midi keyboard with enough features to last me for awhile if i really get into music production and this defiantly fits! Its pretty thick, heavy and soild feeling which i wasn't expecting so not the most portable thing in the world but i didnt buy it for that as thats not what its advertised for. its also long because the drum pads are on the left instead of above the keys but its perfect that way for a keyboard tray so you don't have to reach over it. also the pitch and mod wheel is what really sold me on this initially, because they often leave them off most keyboards in this price range and they feel really nice! aesthetic as **** this whole thing lights up blue and looks beautiful the semi weighted keys are really nice feeling and the drum pads are a little stiff feeling but its nice to help you fully take advantage of the velocity sensitivity. This is a truly great product for the price and obviously a brand that really cares about quality and usability im very new to music producing so setting up this thing was pretty tough considering i dont know what im doing. Turns out you just install ableton and plug it in then it automaps.... the actual downloads from the alesis website are basically a bunch of optional freeware execpt for the program that allows you to remap the board but thats pretty much just for standalone use (not usb plugged in). but just use ableton if you dont already have a DAW.