Review of The Edirol UM-1EX

As I've posted before, I would post a review of my new "toy" when I got the chance to play around with it. Well thanks to my good friend Lam, I did get a chance to go test this baby out. And to cut the story short, it was everything I dreamed it would be.

First things first,

The specifications:

("stolen" from Roland's website)

• Fast and stable MIDI data transmission realized by FPT (Fast Processing Technology)
  
• 1 MIDI in, 1 MIDI out
  
• MIDI Thru switch
  
• MIDI signal indicators
  
• Complete cable-style body from PC end to MIDI ends
  
• OS native driver support
  
• USB bus powered
  
• Plug and play!

You can see Roland's page of it here

What it Does:

Well basically its a USB to MIDI converter. So the MIDI part plugs into any standard keyboard out there or any MIDI controller. There are two MIDI plugs (one for input and one to output) so you can plug it into any MIDI sequencer and get the sequencer to play the sounds from your computer as well. The USB port plugs into your computer (obviously) and is truly plug and play, as in you don't need any fancy drivers though I can't speak for windows users since I've only tried this out on my mac. It supports Core Audio and Core MIDI so its Mac friendly : ) For those who are paranoid or who want to utilize their "high-quality", FPT Technology, you can install drivers which are available for Win 98/ME/XP/Vista and Mac OS 9/X. Frankly I've been using the thing as a plug and play module and I can say it rocks!

Ok so on to how I use it. Macs come with this fantastic program called Garage Band which I used to think was only good for making techno/trance like music or for playing around and not for doing anything serious. Boy was I wrong. After watching an online seminar showcasing the power of Garage Band I was impressed. Not only can you record you stuff into Garage Band and create and arrange music and all but there is one thing that they didn't mention which I thought about. Which is, you can actually use Garage Band as your synthesiser. That is super cool! Now no matter what keyboard I'm given to use, I can always rely on Garage Band to produce superb sounding instruments. This also means that what was once just Piano and Strings is no more! I am no more limited by the keyboard and its meagre bank of sounds/instruments. And the cool thing is that I can add more software instruments through the use of Jam Packs.

So now, with this means is that the keyboard itself is just a "controller" to my computer which is my synth. I tested it out on two keyboards one August night and I have to say, it rocks! It was exactly as I had imagined it to be. I just plugged it in, launched Garage Band and there it was, I could change the instruments to sound like a 12 String Guitar or a Violin or even a Saxophone. Cool I tell ya! And there's also organ sounds, cool effected sounds. And I even managed to match the organ sound that Matt Bellamy used on the song Feeling Good. I am totally stoked haha.

My Rating:

Well I give it a 4 out of 5. Why? Because out of all the nice things that it allows me to do, I still can't find a way to store it properly because of its "cable" design. So for now, it still sits in its original packaging but I will have to do something about that soon.