Nektar Impact LX88+ USB MIDI Keyboard Controller with DAW Integration

I was pleasantly surprised by this purchase. At such a reasonable price for such a large feature set I was a little wary about quality but I need not have been. This is a fully featured midi keyboard with a full 88 note manual and is every bit as good as some costing twice the price. I bought it as a replacement for an M Audio keyboard and it matches it for build quality and features. The semi weighted key action is very good and all controls are very responsive to modulation and midi changes etc. There is no perceptible latency when playing straight out of the box. It integrated very easily with my Cubase DAW and the on-keyboard DAW controls for Play, F.Forward & rewind etc work perfectly - much less reaching for the mouse. I've heard several reports of a disparity of velocity sensitivity between sharps and flats. I've not noticed this one bit. It's all good on my example. It's a great keyboard. Buy it!

Bought this to replace a smaller keyboard I had that I was running out of keys on. Really happy with the product. Keys are from size and feel natural to play on (haven't noticed the velocity issues described by others here in past models). Good range of faders and encoders and the use of presets comes in useful too. Nice to have transpose functions. I use it to practice Piano on running through mainstage and it works perfectly, or in my studio setup for composition. Light enough that I could easily take it to a rehearsal room too though when I need to.

A fantastic piece of kit and well worth the money. My only advice would be, if you have a stand with bolts to screw in securing the KB to the stand be carefull not to screw in long bolts too far! I found I had two keys that didn't work and was all set to send the KB back and await a new one. Turns out the RH bolt was directly under the affected keys and on loosening the bolt the keys worked fine. I now have a fully functional and enjoyable keyboard. Confering with Nektar technical support (extremely helpfull and very prompt) bolts that are too long can affect the key operation... so take care with your bolts!

I wanted a full size keyboard to replace my ageing Korg M1, I decided to go for a weighted version this time. I have had the Keyboard for about a year now and absolutely love it, it's improved my playing and I love being able to access control functions on the fly. I bought it partly for the drum pads but to be honest rarely use that function.In conclusion I would highly recommend this product, it is simple to operate and a great buy for someone who needs a full size piano that's light weight but delivers.

I ordered the LX88+ to use for orchestral programming with Cubase. I am a piano player used to a fully weighted keyboard, but wanted something lightweight, portable, and with sliders for Instrument control and DAW transport functions.The unit is packaged very well, and for something that is nearly all plastic, is robustly built, though I would get a hard case if I wanted to move it regularly as it wouldn't stand up to hard road use without one. Mine will be remaining mostly stationary in a studio, so should hold up well to daily use.Playing-wise the keyboard feels mostly quite nice with 2 notable exceptions. Firstly, although the unit is fairly solidly built, the same cannot be said of the action, which is really very light, and feels a bit plastic-y and cheap, but there is no question they have solved the previous issue of black notes having a different velocity response to the white notes - in my tests they are perfectly matched and play evenly and well across the whole 88 note range.The second problem though is more practically serious. If you are an experienced player, used to large stretches you will find that you will initially scratch your thumbs and maybe forefingers on the sharp undersides of the white key rims whilst doing those stretches, where the keys are not finished to a degree where that wouldn't be a problem, like it isn't on more expensive machines where the corners have more rounding and are made with more care. I have since adapted my style to minimise the issue (less flat, curvier fingers), and now it only happens occasionally.But, having set a suitable keyboard velocity response curve, I was able to play very expressively quite quickly, and my regular feel adapted to that of the keyboard very easily to the point where I could make all my Virtual pianos sound very convincing. The Yamaha half-damping sustain pedal I have worked (despite the keyboard not responding to half damp signals) as its polarity was detected correctly at power up.There is also a little inconsistency in fader and rotary stiffness making these also feel a bit on the cheap side, but they are perfectly serviceable in practice, and I am able to input very smooth CC curves using them whilst recording. The drum pads feel much more professional and solid, but have a pathetically quiet response by default until you change it to a better curve.Talking of which, DAW control is 90% fine, though for some reason the cycle function , which initially works in both on and off commands when you first start Cubase will sometimes lose the ability to turn cycle on during the session, and only a program restart will bring it back.The manual provided is large format and clear, and has answered all the questions I had about the unit including custom assignments of sliders and pads, which was quick and easy.9/10 from me then for a very competent keyboard for the price, but with a few quality corners cut which is why it drops a point mainly because of the sharp corners on keys. Otherwise, generally excellent.

...but ultimately let down by 2 things I simply was not willing to let slide.Firstly let me say that this controller is, at least on paper, superbly made! USB bus powered, works with a several DAWs out of the box, semi weighted keys are all features that made me order this in the first place.However, where it let met down is the following - velocity of the black keys; Nektar say the fixed this from the previous LX88 iteration but the 88+ still exhibits the same behaviour in that black keys are just way louder than the white keys if played at the relatively same manner (when using piano sounds). I tried adjusting the velocity settings but simply couldn't find a good middle ground so you are forced to consciously mind your playing when using sharps/flats and ensuring you apply much less pressure.The other thing, even more serious than the above, is the random freezing where no sound would come out the DAW. It just looked like the lights were on but nobody was home. I wanted to keep it but after much contemplation I decided to return it and to keep looking.