Review of Novation Impulse 25, 49 and 61 MIDI keyboards

MIDI keyboard Novation Impulse 49
MIDI keyboard Novation Impulse 49

Today in audio part we will look on professional MIDI keyboards Novation Impulse 25, 49 and 61, which are modifications of the same keyboard with according velocity-sensitive keys amounts. Besides them they have : 8 knobs, which can be rotated any amount of times in any direction; 8 velocity-sensitive drumpads with backlight; 9 sliders ( on 49 and 61 models ) or 1 slider ( on 25 model ); 6 transport control buttons; pitch-bend and modulation wheels; 2 octaves control buttons; LCD display; 6 programmable buttons, 4 of which has backlight; 4 control change buttons ( 49 and 61 ) or 3 such buttons ( 25 ); 9 mute and solo buttons; and arpreggiator. They have following ports : USB connector ( through which they are powered and communicate with computer ); MIDI input and output; power adapter input, which is needed only in MIDI connection case; 1/4” ( 6.3 mm ) TRS jack inputs for sustain and expression pedals; and Kensington slot. Keyboards support High Rate Scan ( HRS ) technology, with which they scan their state 10000 times per second and acquire all nuances of musician play. They are tightly integrated with modern DAWs, their instruments and VST plugins : FL Studio, Cackewalk Sonar, REAPER, Avid Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Steinberg Cubase and others. MIDI keyboards are supplied with DAW Ableton Live Lite 9.

MIDI keyboard Novation Impulse 25 ( rear view )
MIDI keyboard Novation Impulse 25 ( rear view )

They are compatible with Windows 7, 8 and newer and Mac OSX 10.8 and newer operating systems. Keyboards sizes are : 25 : 525 ( width ) x 332 ( depth ) x 100 ( height ) mm; 49 : 864 ( width ) x 332 ( depth ) x 100 ( height ) mm; и 61 : 1022 ( width ) x 332 ( depth ) x 100 ( height ) mm. Their package contains : Novation Impulse 25, 49 and 61 MIDI keyboards, USB cable, optical disks with software and user’s guide. They are good and functional keyboards with full spectrum of controls and adequate price for their functionality.

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