CME Xkey USB-MIDI Controller Great For Experimental Music, As A Food Tray & For Eating Ice Cream

Felix from The Tuesday Night Machines let us know about his ‘not-so-serious demo’ video for the CME Xkey USB-MIDI controller – an inexpensive control keyboard that offers polyphonic aftertouch. 

“S-u-p-e-r-n-o-v-a…….” says Felix.

You can find out more about the CME XKey at their site.

23 thoughts on “CME Xkey USB-MIDI Controller Great For Experimental Music, As A Food Tray & For Eating Ice Cream”

  4. Now that was just silly.

    As much as I would love to have a poly-AT keyboard. That one would not be it for me. Just looking at the keys makes me think I’d not like the feel of it, and buttons for pitch and mod seems like a sad choice, especially when small ribbons would have MADE it.

  8. Okay, how much is it? I just wasted 5 minutes or more navigating through CME’s and Virgin Musical Instruments’ web sites. Nowhere is a price listed. It looks interesting, but if it’s being promoted as an inexpensive device, why can’t one simply post a price?

    2. google bro. so hard. “CME xkey” hundreds of sale results. hell i even misspelled it “CME ckey” and had 15 different vendors.
      damn i feel trolled…

  9. Clearly you didn’t watch the entire video. At 2:22 He states the street price: $99. Also, he states the price of the SUPERNOVA case: $25.

    Also, a quick google search for “xkey”, brought me results: an Amazon page where they have it listed for $99.

    Good luck with developing your powers of perception. I’m sorry to say, but at the moment, they appear less than adequate.

  11. Cme have interesting keyboards, but they are farcical as often theiyere shit don’t work food. They had a massive keyboard ears ago with built in prodyssey synth but to make it work one needed to go to China and speak to Mao Zedong himself.

    1/5 on the Tweakyboo scale

  12. Cute, but let’s get more real-world for a minute. I’ve used one of these for several months and my verdict is that its a great controller. The keys seem odd at first, but aside from their clackiness, which is not so severe as to be a deal-breaker, they rock. It didn’t take long to adapt my existing technique to them. They’re extremely sensitive and the poly pressure works like a dream. The modulation control and pitch benders seem like on-off switches to me and are not very expressive. The octave shift & hold buttons, however, function well. You can also run up to four Xkeys from a single hub. I normally play the usual AGO-type synth keyboard, but this is turning into a convenient and expressive find. That’s saying a lot, coming from an alternate-controller skeptic. When I am casually writing more layered stuff, its convenience really shines. There’s talk of one with 37 keys and I’d go for that. I don’t at all mind octave shifting, but those added keys would be welcomed. It won’t appeal to everyone, but if it convinced a hard-sell like me, it may ring a bell for you as well.

    1. While I see your point, I still think that on an “How Alternative is Your Controller?” scale, this thing would be one step to the right of “Not at all”

  13. I don’t care about its popular image. I care about it functioning so well that I don’t want to fling my poo at the manufacturer. I’m just pleased that its novelty is backed up by good musical function.

  16. I believe that Animoog and SynthX both accept poly pressure, as does ES2 in Logic…… and so does the Prophet ’08. Welcome to the polyphonic aftertouch renaissance!

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