E-Mu Xboard 49 Review Manual

T

raditionally better known for

making hardware that lives

inside your computer – and,

of course, for being pioneers

of the hardware sampler – 

E-mu has leapt into the crowded USB

MIDI keyboard market with its latest

offerings, the Xboard 49 and its smaller

sibling, the Xboard 25. The 25 is

designed for greater portability, and the

49 as more of a desktop controller,

although it’s still compact enough to

be carried in a bag. 

All in one

The concept is now very familiar. A

USB connection can carry both power

and MIDI data, and a MIDI Out port

can send data straight to an interface,

or be used to send MIDI to other

devices from a sequencer, having first

passed through the USB cable. The

Xboard can be powered by a regular

power adaptor or by batteries, which is

helpful when you’re in the field and

don’t want to drain your laptop battery.

There’s also a pedal port, which, of

course, is a must for any serious

keyboard playing. 

Cosmetically the Xboard is a 

little uninspiring and isn’t likely to be

much of a talking point, although

design isn’t important to everyone. 

The keys are full-sized with velocity

sensing and aftertouch, and are

perfectly adequate for a unit at this

price. The pitch bend and mod wheels

are solid, as are the 16 control knobs,

but the function buttons are a bit on

the wobbly side.

The variable control knobs have 

a silky smooth action, and their sheer

number is useful for the increasing

number of programs that offer 

real-time control as a feature. Reason

3.0 would be a good partner for the

Xboard, for example, because the

knobs would be automatically mapped

to instruments as you selected them.

The three-digit LED readout is quite

restrictive, but practically all other

keyboards of this kind use the same

type of system. 

It’s a snap

The Xboard’s function buttons give 

you access to a good selection of

tools, including patch select, quick

octave transpose, Latch mode for

triggering drum loops, and knob

bypass that temporarily stops the

knobs sending out any data. The 

idea is that you can set the controls

directly to the desired position 

without having to cycle through 

values. There’s also a snapshot button,

which captures and transmits all the

current settings. 

The keyboard can store patches 

in its 16 memory locations. Half of 

the keys are labelled with functions,

which makes getting around easier

and means you’re slightly less reliant

on the small screen. With Latch 

mode activated you can assign a

range of keys to act as triggers for

loops, while the rest remain playable

as normal, which is a handy feature 

for live performance. 

Bonus tracks

With so many competing keyboards 

at this price point, it’s often the added

extras that give one model the edge

over another. The Xboard is, of course,

dual-platform and will work with Mac

OSX and Windows 2000/XP, and

there’s a librarian/patch editor 

program supplied for both.

Unfortunately for Mac users, that’s

where the freebies end because the

rest of them are Windows-only. If 

you are working on a PC, you get the

Proteus X LE software sound module

and a version of Ableton’s Live Lite 4

to play with. This is slightly odd, given

that Live is available for the Mac as

well as Windows.  

The Xboard is a good controller

keyboard, and has everything you’d

expect, such as USB power and MIDI,

real-time controllers and full-sized

keys. The key action is good and 49 

of them is a decent number for general

MIDI use. That said, it doesn’t

particularly outshine any of its

competitors. There’s no killer feature

that stands out, especially for Mac

users. At least Windows users get the

additional software, which may be a

clincher. At similar prices there are

other near-identical products which all

do an equally good job, so in the end

the decision may come down to looks,

small price differences or whether you

prefer E-mu kit. 

MTM

KEY FEATURES

■

49 full-size

keys with

velocity and

aftertouch

■

Xboard Control

software 

■

16 real-time

control knobs

■

USB and MIDI

connections

■

Multiple power

sources

■

Additional

software for

Windows

SUMMARY

WHY BUY

■

Good key action

■

Can be powered in several ways

■

Portable, USB power and MIDI

■

16 real-time controller knobs

■

Attractive price

VERDICT

A capable keyboard, but uninspiring

compared to the competition. Let down

somewhat by bland looks.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

★ ★ ★

MusicTech

MAGAZINE  

October 2005  71

MEASURING UP

The USB MIDI

keyboard market is

very crowded and

there is a lot of

competition at this

price point. The

Roland PC300A has a

near-identical spec at

around £100, as has

the M-Audio Radium

49. The Edirol 

PCRM30 at around

£120 has fewer 

keys, but has sliders

as well as knobs for

real-time control.

XBOARD 49

Manufacturer E-mu

Price £110

Contact 0800 901 2168

Web www.emu.com

Minimum system requirements

PC Windows 2000 (SP4)/XP (SP1), spare

USB port

Mac Mac OSX 10.2, spare USB port

With more and more hands-on software out there, portable

USB MIDI keyboards are the order of the day. Hollin Jones

gets to grips with E-mu’s Xboard 49…

E-mu

Xboard 49

review

E-MU

XBO

ARD 49 

WALK ON BY

■

Design is unimaginative

■

Supplied software is Windows-only

■

Doesn’t particularly set itself apart

from the competition

■

Feels a bit plastic

BUY THIS PRODUCT AT WWW.MUSICTECHMAG.CO.UK/STORE

MTM31.Review xboard  8/25/05  5:06 PM  Page 1