How are you using your X-Station?

Last night was all about getting the X-Station up and running as an audio interface/MIDI controller ... (previously, I had been using it just as a synth with the A-Station) ...

ALSO ... There's a new OS 3.03 or something like that ... adds a preview and a compare preview function and a couple of other things ...

... also, don't know how old this is, but there's also new USB Novation Audio drivers (which is maybe why my X-Station finally worked as an audio device ... I've been trying to use it on my PC laptop, and I read it had a problematic chipset or something ... )

Latency was very low ... if present at all ... with nary a pop or crackle ... and mind you ... this is USB 1.0.

It's good to see Novation is still going somewhere with this thing ...

So how are YOU Using the X-STATION ... ?

Are you finding any limitations with this serious synth audio dilettante?

For me, the X-Station 25 seems like a great way to control softsynths ... for one thing, it's small form factor makes it easy to get it next to a laptop ...

Controller for softies/Doepfer/G2. Not used for sounds.

Have you mapped the knobs and sliders? Or are you just using keybed/xy/wheels?

I map the knobs/sliders individually to certain soft controls. Just the 9 sliders alone can do a LOT of damage on the main parameters of many Reaktor ensembles.

One of my ALL-TIME FAVORITES! Every song a classic ... proto disco funk and roll with some synths, sonic and lyrical weirdness, classic rock, tenderness.

This was around the time when Bowie was convinced his pool in Arizona -- when filming the Man Who Fell to Earth -- was possessed, and had a large crack in it exorcised as it resembled something demonic.

You still like that thing ... ? Reaktor, I mean.

It's my main controller (49 keys). Midiboard plugged into it via MIDI at home. Playing out, it's my keyboard controlling Pianoteq and B4 from within GarageBand; both fully and carefully mapped to the x-station's controls. So far I only use the audio inputs for recording audio and digitizing LPs but I could see using it to give me local control over my vocal mic or an instument mic for guitar or percussion.

HINT: once you've got a VST/AU set up in template mode, you can switch the x-station into synth mode so you get the x-station's subtractive synth sound and your VST/AU layered. For some reason, the expression pedal works the opposite way on the synth and computer, so you can fade between the two sounds using the pedal. Useful.

Limits: not many that can't be explained as reasonable design choices but two that bug me.

1) the sustain pedal input is on/off rather than continuously variable--if you plug in a 0-127 control it will filter that to 0 or 127.

2) the xy pad changes in increments of 5 or 6 rather than 1.

I understand that the SLs don't have these limitations.

I'm naming my imaginary children "Reaktors."