# Dear M-Audio...

- Site: Analog Industries
- Author: Chris Randall
- Date: 2010-03-29
- URL: https://analogindustries.com/2010/03/dear-m-audio/

Hey, Guys At M-Audio! It's me, Chris. I just wanted to thank you for living up (or down, rather) to my expectations. You see, I was facing an emergency situation where I needed a MIDI controller with aftertouch, and I couldn't wait for shipping from a proper store of a proper controller.

So, after traveling around the various music stores of Portland, Oregon, and discovering that virtually the only 49-key controller available was the M-Audio Axiom 49, I bit the bullet and got one. At Guitar Center even. (I figure in for a penny, in for a pound, right?)

Here's what I said to myself: "self, they sell a fucking gazillion of these things. They can't be _that_ bad, can they?" Well, as it turns out, they can.

I bought this piece of poop in January. Here it is March, and it has had a catastrophic failure. About two weeks ago, the display started flickering, and it would stop sending MIDI over USB \_or\_ the MIDI port. If I unplugged it, killed whatever host I was running, plugged it back in, and restarted the host, it would work again for like 10 minutes. Needless to say, this had a bit of an effect on my workflow, but it was something I could deal with.

Today, however, the display has gone blank.

"Rebooting" it has no effect whatsoever. This happens on either buss power or adapter power. It sends no information of any sort out any port. To be clear, this unit never left my office, and was hardly used at all. When it came from Portland to here, it was in its original packaging, the same box it was shipped to Guitar Center PDX in.

I'm sure it's something simple or whatever, but my point is thus: despite being a low-end peice of kit, it should still work for more than **3 FUCKING MONTHS.** The M-Audio Axiom49: To Be Avoided At All Costs.

## Comments (10)

**synthetic** (2010-03-29):

Yeah, quality is not job 1 over there.

Time to pop it open and look for a blown power regulator or something. Actually, I think they use the same cheap ribbon cables that Alesis does with no locking mechanism -- they use an unlocking connector with a dab of hot glue. Of course hot glue doesn't stick well to plastic (duh), so it eventually chips loose and gets disconnected. So when I've had problems on Alesis and M-audio products this is a common fix. (I even had this problem on my $3000 Alesis Andromeda, and some of the Alesis engineers went to work for M-audio.)

Also check the power supply itself, can you power it over USB?

The sad thing is, even if you wanted to replace it with a professional, well-built MIDI controller, none exist! I can't name a single MIDI controller that's built as well as, say, a Korg Wavestation. If someone made a decent weighted MIDI controller I would buy it, today. But all manufacturing has been a race to the bottom for the last 10 years. Now I'm just rambling.

**noisetheorem** (2010-03-29):

Oddly, I had one of the original black ones that lasted for about 3 years. I sold it, however, because it didnt fit with new desktop setup.

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say something was probably loose inside from day one and finally wiggled completely out of socket. Thats just a wild guess though.

**Chris Randall** (2010-03-29):

@synthetic: someone does make a decent weighted MIDI controller. Kurzweil.

That said, I'm not gonna do all that shit either of you said. It would take the joy out of throwing this hunk of plastic out of my SUV while doing 80.

-CR

**bleen** (2010-03-29):

I still have one of the black 61-key versions. It's been fine for the 3+ years I've owned it. If I had to do it all over again, I'd either find a used Kawai K5000S (loved the feel of that keyboard), or possibly look at the current Novation offerings. Avid/M-Audio = Russian roulette...

**noisegeek** (2010-03-29):

Yeah, mine did/does this. I've put up with it for ages simply because I don't absolutely need a keyboard and couldn't afford a replacement. I'm curious about opinions of the Akai keyboards. If nothing else, they feel a hell of a lot more solid.

**spittingangels** (2010-03-29):

While it's nowhere near the weighting of a true piano keyboard (and I can't yet afford anything within that price range) I've been impressed with my Novation Remote midi controller. I've got this one:
http://us.novationmusic.com/product_image/normal/31.jpg

It's got that fancy Automap software that I haven't yet taken full advantage of but the weighting is pretty good (and I bet it's hands down better than _anything_ m-audio makes). Also, it's got aftertouch and it also has all those fiddly knobs and sliders plus a joystick and XY pad. About the only thing it's lacking for extra expressiveness is a ribbon controller and d-beam.

FYI, the first thing I did when I got this keyboard some months back was test it out with some AudioDamage plugins being controlled by the fiddly knobs.

**codedwire** (2010-03-29):

I bought an Axiom 25 some time ago. I used it for a couple weeks and then put it back in the box and stored it for several months. Not long after I set it up again I started having problems with a flickering display and a couple of the pads stopped working. I contacted M-Audio and they said I could send it in for repair, but the cost estimate was almost as much as a new unit. I told them I had barely used it, but that didn't seem to matter. That was my first, and last, purchase from last M-Audio.

**Chaosium** (2010-03-29):

Not quite relevant, but my onboard audio is driving me batty with glitches and pops, I need a new dedicated audio card that's not of the m-audio or creative labs gaming persuasion, is there a decent option in the forty to hundred buck range? Ideally 24/96, but i'll take what I can get. Or, should I just risk the 7 drivers for my m-audio delta 44 and drag it out of storage?

**neB** (2010-03-29):

If you think M-Audio MIDI devices are shitty, go ahead and assume their audio devices are cataclysmic.

**Chris Randall** (2010-03-29):

Yup. I'm with neB. I may have took one for the team with this controller, but I would _never_ ever, in a million years, put one of their audio drivers on my computer, never mind the hardware build quality (or lack thereof.)

-CR