As more and more people make music using laptop and desktop computers, they realize that using a mouse to make changes is a pain. As soon as you try and change several soft synth parameters, or make a mix, you find that using a mouse is slow, cumbersome, and stands in the way of you and your music.

mAudio’s Oxygen 8 is one of the more popular tools for avoiding mouse fatigue when your making music with your computer. The Oxygen 8 lets you control any 8 MIDI-assignable parameters within your favorite software programs. It’s also a USB MIDI interface.

USB controllers to not have any sounds built-in. They rely on your computer to generate the sounds.

Using the Oxygen 8

The Oxygen 8 is great for use with software synthesizers, because it gives you instance access to 8 parameters. This gives you enough control to change synth settings on-the-fly. It won’t replace the need for using your mouse when programming new sounds, but it does the job when performing. Typically, you’ll want quick access to two or three synth parameters while playing, such as filter cut-off, resonance, and tuning. Doing this with a mouse would require that you stop playing, move to your computer, change a couple of settings, and then start playing again. With the Oxygen 8, you can play with one hand while you tweak with the other.

The keyboard itself is small. It’s a two-octave synth keyboard, which means it’s great for playing basslines and leads, or for pad backgrounds, but it’s not going to cut it if you’re looking for piano-style action, or if you want to play Rachmaninov. There’s a transpose switch, so you can quickly jump the keyboard up or down and octave to get to the range that you want.

The Oxygen 8 makes it easier to mix music with popular sequencers, too. It gives you immediate access to 8 track parameters, so you can adjust the volume of each track as you play through a mix.

Because of it’s small size and light weight, the Oxygen 8 makes a great portable keyboard controller for making laptop music. The Oxygen 8 has been popular with laptop techno artists since they came out. They are inexpensive, and give you enough controllers to work live. People that are looking for a controller for a home studio will find the Oxygen 8 a great tool, but may prefer a larger controller with more knobs and sliders.

Features:

• 8 MIDI assignable knobs, 1 assignable slider
• Inputs and outputs 16 channels of MIDI to and from your computer using the power and convenience of your USB port
• Fully functional, velocity sensitive 25 key MIDI controller keyboard. Capable of sending all MIDI messages, such as modulation, pitch-bend, MIDI volume, and more
• Power the Oxygen 8 with the USB port or 6 “AA” batteries for complete portability, or with included power supply

Other Controls:

• Pitch Bend Wheel: The Pitch Bend wheel is used for raising or lowering the pitch of a voice during performance.
• Modulation Wheel: The Modulation wheel produces a vibrato effect shortly after the sound is generated.
• Data Entry Slide: This slide controller allows you to adjust Volume, Velocity, Chorus, Reverb, and Pan pot, directly from your keyboard.
• MIDI/SELECT button: Use this button to select different MIDI commands on certain keys from your KEYSTATION keyboard.
• MIDI/SELECT Button and the MCH (MIDI Channel) Key: Allows you to select the transmitting channel for your keyboard.
• MIDI/SELECT, Function Key and Data Entry Slider: Allows you to select the transmitting value of the velocity, reverb depth, chorus depth, pan pot, volume, or CC data.
• MIDI/SELECT Button and the Octave Key: Allow you to shift the active keyboard range one octave higher, or lower.
• MIDI/SELECT button and the Reset key: Sends out a message to return all external MIDI instruments to their default setting.
• Control Change by Numeric Keypad: Oxygen 8 allows you to use the numeric keys to specify your Control Change DATA parameter instead of data entry slide.
• Program Change: The Oxygen 8 allows you use the Program key and numeric keys to select any patch number between 1 and 128.

Technical Description

PC Requirements
Available USB Port
Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP

Macintosh Requirements
Native USB Port
Mac OS 9.1 or later using OMS 2.3.7 or OMS 2.3.8, OS X

Dimensions: 16.5 x 9.35 x 3 in.