M-Audio Prokeys Sono 61 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I got the ProKeys Sono to use during a temp, out-of-town work stint and wanted something I could play by itself (that has its own on-board sounds) and also use to drive the Reason and Sonar software synths on my laptop.
Well, after many months of testing (through real use) I have to say it passed with flying colors (or 'colours' for our 'Commonwealth' friends).
Keyboard features include:
- 61 note keyboard with a very playable semi-weighted action somewhere between synth and hammer keyboards (well, based on the synth and hammer action keyboards I've played)
- 5 higher quality built-in sounds (grand piano, bright piano, electric piano, organ, clav)
- A set of lower quality (but still fairly usable in my book) General MIDI sounds
- 3 Adjustable settings for how the keyboard responds to velocity
- 2 stereo line-ins (RCA jacks) for getting audio into your computer to record
- 1 XLR jack for plugging in a mic
- 1 quarter inch instrument jack
- 2 quarter inch headphone jacks
- 2 quarter inch outs for monitoring the sounds coming out of the computer as well as the built-in sounds from the keyboard
I've mostly used ASIO4ALL drivers prior to buying this keyboard, which gave pretty decent performance and acceptably low latency (the delay between hitting a key on the hardware keyboard controller and hearing any software synth sounds from the computer) for playing. Happily, the ASIO driver for the ProKeys Sono delivered even LOWER latency than the ASIO4ALL drivers I had been using.
So, with the decent construction quality, the playability of the keyboard, and the better driver performance, I admit I'm quite happy with the thing. I also occasionally used the line inputs to record from an external hardware synth module, and had no problems. Some people might whine as the resolution is only 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, but having worked with way-noisy cassette 4-tracks as a teen, CD quality is still fine by me.
The one thing I didn't ever test was plugging a microphone into the thing. I had a Samson G Track USB Microphone (which I've also reviewed on Amazon) and used that exclusively for vocals while I was on the road. Therefore I can't comment on the amp quality.
Lastly, when I just felt like playing a bit, it was nice to tinkle around on the piano without having to turn on the laptop. The piano sound quality is VERY playable, with the only drawback being the 20-note polyphony for the 5 high-quality sounds (the General MIDI sounds have 40 note polyphony).
Negatives? No LCD or LED display for helping change/configure MIDI settings, or selecting the General MIDI sounds. It's workable without the display, but it would definitely help to see the values you've entered. And because of that drawback, the ProKeys Sono really is best mostly for playing soft synths, not controlling a whole soft recording environment
Summary:
Great option for driving soft syths with the added bonus of some on-board sounds and also serving as a PC/laptop audio interface. If you want more hands-on sliders and buttons for controlling your software synths and recording software, I'd go with a different option, but for the niche this keyboard is trying to fill, it does a pretty good job. Though it's probably only a 4-star rating for overall performance, the fact I had ZERO problems using it with my computer (which is RARE nowadays) bumps it up to "barely a 5".


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