M-audio Hammer

[Rubi Strycker]

EDITI just realized that the keyboard shown in the link is a newer version that DOES have the knobs and sliders. Mine is the original that only has the pitch/mod wheels. It also cost US$399, which was attractive to me.

I have used it as my primary 88-key controller since June 2018. I wanted a weighted keyboard to play piano parts, but had a limited budget, and was willing to accept the fact that it a very limited set of knobs and sliders. I just needed a controller that could be my piano and electric piano. (I have a 2nd keyboard for organ and synth parts.)

With that expectation set, I love it. I have never had any issues. To me, the keyboard feel is as good as any other weighted keyboard that I have tried (keeping in mind that I have only looked at keyboards under US$1000)

I broke down and bought one. A week later I sent it back.

I currently use a Kurzweil PC88, been using it for years. I think it has the absolute best piano feel ever, but it lacks the midi control options that I need. The m-audio hammer pro 88 has the midi control features, but the keys felt to spongie for me. The key return seemed slow (bounce back).

I had high hopes for that. Fatar keybeds are the best ones to my knowledge.

I am indeed using a powered hub. Like I sad, I think it depends as much on the receiving device as well, as I have noticed different behaviour using the same leads/lengths. My Helix is especially touch about cable length.

If I have an ipad set at say 128 samples. Using the, I guess latency free Audio4c. If the reciever ipad is say 1028 samples. Does a piano lose its 128 sample goodness ? The reciever ipad is for audio. The sender ipad would record midi.

I don't have a Hammer 88 or an SL88 Studio, but I will try to answer some of your questions. I do recall, several years ago, having played both in a music store. I preferred the keybed on the Hammer 88, didn't like keybed on SL88 Studio at all. But to some extent this is personal preference. Both keyboards seem to be generally well regarded as inexpensive hammer action midi keyboard controllers.

This is more a question about the faderfox pc12 than it is about the Hammer 88. The Hammer 88 can send midi out the MIDI DIN port, same as many other controllers. What happens to the midi after that depends on other devices, not on the keyboard that first sends the midi out MIDI DIN.

Not sure exactly what this question is asking. Hammer 88 is USB bus powered, so generally I'm sure most people power it that way, typically getting power from a host computer that it's send USB Midi to. It's compatible with iOS devices, but I suspect that you would want to use a powered hub if you're connecting to a non-USB C device (i.e., one using Lightning port and Apple CCK). There is an optional power supply available that feeds into a 9V input on the Hammer 88; I'm sure it works fine but I'm not sure in what situation you'd want to use it. Not sure what you mean by question re: "midi controller instead of audio instrument". Midi controllers don't send audio so don't add audio noise, if that's what you mean. But I don't see that as important. If you want a midi controller, buy a midi controller. If you want a device that sends audio, buy that. Or buy one device that can do both, if you want to send both midi and audio.

Not sure exactly what this question is asking. But the 128 in "an ipad set at say 128 [or 1024] samples" and the fact that "midi velocity has 128 different levels" are completely unrelated. One has to do with audio, one has to do with midi. The fact that you might see the number 128 in both contexts implies nothing. Midi performance will be the same regardless of what sample setting you have for audio on your iOS device.

Agreeing with @hes in that trying to find your personal best weighted keybed can only be done hands-on.

There is no such thing as "the best one", which I had to learn after trying out the Kawai MP-11SE myself, a keyboard controller hyped by many that felt awfully muddy when I actually played it, and my own favorites are the weighted keybeds used in some Yamaha and Kurzweil keyboards.

As for the audio buffer sizes (128 on the MIDI iPad vs 1024 on the Audio iPad), depending on the receiver app, most likely you are going to deal with additional processing latency from the second buffer if you are monitoring through the Audio iPad.

But can't you monitor low-latency audio from one single instrument that you run on the MIDI iPad via the Audio4c?

The idea is to have one reduced-workload instrument run on the MIDI iPad, for monitoring purposes.

Latency is relevant while playing live and recording, right?

@rs2000 said:

Agreeing with @hes in that trying to find your personal best weighted keybed can only be done hands-on.

There is no such thing as "the best one", which I had to learn after trying out the Kawai MP-11SE myself, a keyboard controller hyped by many that felt awfully muddy when I actually played it, and my own favorites are the weighted keybeds used in some Yamaha and Kurzweil keyboards.

Power Input: This input accepts an optional third party power supply. A power supplymust be connected when using Hammer 88 in stand-alone mode (when triggeringexternal hardware synths). Use a USB cable to power Hammer 88 when connecting to acomputer to trigger software synth

A synth, sample and voice ipad ( but perhaps bass ) If latency has to be different now ) It is Moog Mariana. I feel I need to sidechain bass to drums at least. So can route via audioc if not on same ipad.

Interesting - I was also investigating this topic more since the topic of weighted keys controllers came up yesterday, and stumbled across the Hammer 88 as a budget option with good potential. As rs2000 says, it really does seem that it might be worth going to a physical store to try different things out.

Some digital pianos with inbuilt sounds are also midi controllers. I'd assume most today work that way, but I really don't know. You'd need to double check all this when considering buying sth. For me, as much as I'd like one, I don't think I can have a piece of gear like this at the moment, sadly, as my life is too nomadic and it gets expensive and inconvenient to lug this kind of thing from one place to another.

And worth investigating whether you could add three continuous control pedals or whether pedal inputs would only work as switches. Pianoteq allows continuous control, so it would be a shame if you couldn't make use of that. You would probably at least want one continuous pedal for sustain, but might want more than one continuous pedal.

but maybe need sustain and expression for swam instruments ( even if using screen keyboard and an ec4 ) So mapped additionally the same cc numbers to each swam but shouldnt matter being mapped the same when switching tracks ( theres no recordable midi really at the mo ) Then as you say, also with piano tech. So maybe cant buy the Roland and now wondering about the m audio. Even if theres no editor for these switchnumbers, that pass through keyboards midi output. It should map when pointed to map? Iv got a blueboard but would keep for another ipad ( turntable fx and mute all other sound source apart from deck ) Another blueboard an option but more money.

Id need class compliant for a widi uhost and a widi uhost not damage keyboard. It works with an Akai lpd8 but not launchpad because launchpad is usbc to usbc. Non usbc cables are OTG. So should work for keyboard.

When using WIDI Uhost as a USB host, it supports most plug-and-play"class compliant" standard USB MIDI devices. It is important to understand thatUSB devices that need special drivers or are created as combined devices, willnot be compatible with WIDI Uhost. If your USB MIDI device falls into thefollowing conditions, it is not compatible with WIDI Uhost:1.USB devices that require the installation of special drivers are notsupported.2."Combined Device Class" products are not supported. For example:Audio + MIDI USB device.3.USB devices that include USB hub functions are not supported.4.USB devices with multiple MIDI ports will only function on the firstUSB MIDI port.Some USB MIDI devices have two modes of operation and can be set tooperate in Class Compliant mode even if this is not the default. The ClassCompliant mode might be called "generic driver", the other mode may becalled something like "advanced driver". Consult the device manual to see if themode can be set for Class Compliant.

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