There are two reasons you should choose this keyboard over others at this price. so what do
you get when you take just the best features of the Oxygen Pro keyboard and make a more affordable
version? well you get this. this is the brand new M-Audio Oxygen line of keyboards. Oxygen Pro...
Oxygen. this is the 25 key version of the Oxygen and it costs $129. here's the 49 key version which
is $179 and there's also a 61 key version for $229. that's pretty affordable and it puts the
25 key version in mini keyboard price territory! but this keyboard has two key benefits over
the others. watch until the end because i'm gonna compare it to other popular keyboards so you have
all the pros and cons. if you're new around here i'm Sanjay C. i have lots of keyboard reviews,
music production tutorials, and a Saturday music year news report series on my channel. consider
subscribing if you haven't already. i always get to the good stuff first to help you make your
home production journey smoother. all right let's get to the first good thing - the key bed. there are
two reasons you should choose this keyboard over others at this price and this is the first. i'll
get to the second later in the video. the keys are full size. they feel fine and velocity is good too.
this is not a premium key bed, but i'm still easily able to be expressive and it feels natural. the
keys do feel like cheap plastic compared to the Oxygen Pro. the quality difference is very
evident. if you don't like mini keys, this is a great value. of course it's not going to be
as portable as a Minilab or M32 which have impressive keys as well even though they're
mini. by the way if you're interested in buying one of the new Oxygen keyboards, I'll put links
to the best prices in the video description below. now since we're talking about the key bed, given
the larger size of this keyboard, i have to say that the 25 key version feels a little limited.
since you're already choosing full size keys I highly suggest you get the 49 key version.
you're going to be much more comfortable not having to raise and lower the octave all the time.
the 49 key version only costs 50 dollars more and and you get faders with it. nine faders in addition
to the eight knobs. i'll talk more about the knobs and faders later. i want to talk a little bit about
the pads and the build quality right now. the pads feel fine in their default setting. they're not
very sensitive. you have to hit them pretty hard to get it loud. but you can adjust the velocity easily.
there is one thing i miss on other keyboards and it may sound kind of silly, but i really prefer
the lights on the pads on pretty much every other keyboard out there. this kind of just looks like
they added a single LED behind each pad and it makes this keyboard look pretty cheap. the Pro has
beautiful colored pads - 16 of them. and even other $100 keyboards have nicer looking pads. but
yeah let's talk about the build quality next. now keep your expectations in check here and remember
the price. the look is on par with the previous version of the Oxygen series and i really wish
they had updated it - even if just getting rid of the rounded edges. it would have been more modern
looking. now design is subjective so maybe you'll like it. the rest of the keyboard kind of matches
the quality level. the pitch and mod wheels as well. aside from the plasticky look and feel, everything
is pretty tight and sturdy on this keyboard. other modern mini keyboards just look a whole lot
sleeker than this. but hey many of those keyboards don't cover DAW control the way the Oxygen does.
let's get to the next key benefit of this keyboard over the competitors. before we do
if you're sharing your music on Instagram or Youtube, you're probably using music visualizers.
if you aren't maybe you should consider Videobolt, the sponsor of today's video. they've got some
great options for creating unique visualizers. the interface is super easy, no need to understand
video editing at all. and they're updating their interface to make it even better. look for that
soon. Videobolt offers some cool features including SoundCloud integration, and you can download the
finished video to repost it wherever you like. I'll add links to Videobolt in the video description.
use the discount code "Sanjay C" to get a discount on the service. so let's talk DAW control. this is the
second winning feature of this keyboard. remember this is a midi controller keyboard, meaning there
are no internal sounds, no speakers. connect this to your computer, play software instruments, and
control your DAW. that's how the Oxygen keyboards are meant to be used. and the great DAW control
of this keyboard works the same on all sizes of this keyboard. i tested it with FL Studio
and it worked really well - play, stop, record, volume control - all good. i also tested it with Studio One
and it worked really well again. even Logic worked well using the Mackie Universal setting. it can also
control Reason by the way. since this keyboard uses the Mackie HUI integration standard, you
can use it with pretty much any DAW. the more expensive Oxygen Pro is advertised with auto
DAW mapping on the Pro screen but i didn't miss that feature at all. in Ableton Live, you'll be
able to control the transport, volume, pan and devices. but clip triggering isn't available.
by the way i have an early release of the keyboard so i couldn't actually test device
control. but M-Audio says it'll be available soon i should also mention that the Oxygen keyboards
are fully compatible with the new MPC Beats software. oh by the way the knobs are not endless.
would have been nice to have those. so let's talk about the performance features - the arpeggiator,
chords, and scales. i want to know if you actually use these built-in features on your keyboard or
do you just use your DAW? comment below. the performance features are where the Oxygen
keyboards have really been updated from the previous version. you cycle through performance
features by pressing shift plus the mode button. you can set the arpeggiator up, down, random,
and it also has settings for gate and swing. not as granular as the settings on the Oxygen Pro
but good enough for most needs. let's check out the chord mode next. select a voicing,
a key, and choose either major or minor and now you've got full chords with single keys.
and as you play they actually record the full chords to your DAW.
i actually had fun with the random setting in chord mode. just keep pressing one key and
it keeps generating new chords. this may be useful for some inspiration. nothing
revolutionary here but if you don't know music theory there are some cool cheats. scale mode
is useful too, if you need help playing melodies in the right scale. no mistakes when you use it.
these features are kind of on par with some of the latest modern midi controllers out there like
the Akai MPK Mini, the Novation Launchkey Mini and others. so how do the new oxygen keyboards compare
with other keyboards around the same price? well around $130 or less, most keyboards with all of
these kind of features are mini keyboards. so yeah, if you want full size keys the Oxygen 25 is a
really great buy. it's just ten dollars more than the AKAI MPK Mini and the Arturia Minilab and 20
more than the Novation Launchkey mini and the Nektar Impact LX25 by the way the Nektar LX25+
does actually have full size keys as well and it's probably the closest in size and performance
but the Oxygen does have more chord and arp features than the Nektar. honestly, if you use
Ableton Session view, there are some better options for clip triggering like Novation
gear or even the Oxygen Pro model. this keyboard includes Ableton Live Lite, MPC Beats, the Hybrid 3
synth plugin, and Mini Grand. now virtual instrument control is not its strongest feature.
you're going to get better virtual instrument compatibility and integration with Arturia and
Native Instruments keyboards. those keyboards integrate really well with their own software
packages. so the Oxygen fits well in the price range that it sits. and if you get the 49 key version
i think it's an excellent value for a full size key keyboard. if you have any questions about the
Oxygen keyboards, leave them in the comments below. keep making the music you love and if
you want to check out more keyboard reviews on my channel check out one of these videos next.