ESI NeON and A-ON: very interesting products!

raapie · Post by **raapie** » Tue May 04, 2004 11:06 am

http://esi-pro.com/upload/press/messe.pdf

The difference between both devices seems to be the interface. The NeON uses USB and the A-ON uses Firewire.

Might be a cool small interface for audio and MIDI!

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Tue May 04, 2004 12:41 pm

raapie wrote:http://esi-pro.com/upload/press/messe.pdf

The difference between both devices seems to be the interface. The NeON uses USB and the A-ON uses Firewire.

Might be a cool small interface for audio and MIDI!

Depending on the price, this would be a very competitive alternative to a Remote 25 and a Echo Indigo card... damn. I am quite impressed. I always was wary of those USB audio interfaces, and the firewire of the A-on is VERY attractive.

gaspode · Post by **gaspode** » Wed May 05, 2004 2:33 pm

Yeah... especially the highbred audio/midi controller usb stuff... I'd rather stick to firewire.

Those knobs looked pretty huge though... and kind of gave me a neat idea.

What if you had knobs, that were set in a fader track. Then you could control two parameters with one control. However this would probably be rather flimsy, and in practice the force of turning the knob may cause you to move the fader as well... it could still be neat though

At that point... you could just use a touch pad... one with x/y sensitivity and then surface area for z (like the minimoog voyager...) to get 3 controls... oh well.

Sickboy · Post by **Sickboy** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:16 pm

when would the A-on be available? i have no experience with ESI, but i also hear some less good things about it. Would it be 'safe' to buy an A-on, eventually?

serotoninsteve · Post by **serotoninsteve** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:08 pm

The only information they can give for the moment is Q4 2004!
The price for the N.EON is 299 euros and the A.on 399.
The difference is that the A.ON has aftertouch and 2ins/4 outs what you need for DJ use and the N.eon only has 2ins/2outs and no aftertouch.
But both have a line/mic in wich is switchable to Hi-Z for instrument in.
For me the A.ON is really what I was looking for a long time now, so just waiting for them!

Greetings

Steve

Vercengetorex · Post by **Vercengetorex** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:16 pm

I personally am a fan of the design concept applied in these controllers. Obviously motorized faders are a desired interface for many of use to avoid "jumps" in control positions when initally grabbing a control that does not match its position in software, however motorized faders are bulky and expensive... driving up both the size and cost of a controller. Rotary encoders are a good solution to this problem, but they lack the "four finger" capability that is so great about faders (ie you can grab four faders easily with one hand). However with these products, they have found an interesting solution to this problem. Putting a rotary encoder in the same control format as a mod wheel on a synth allows "jump free" operation with all the controlability benefits of a fader. A really great idea in my book!

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:50 pm

My experience with this company is that they have great ideas ( on paper) but they fail to apply them, make them EVER work. Very nice people, they founders are "retired" musicians ( they are young). I like them a lot and wish them the best, they were very cooperative, friendly and helpful. I wouldnt have time and patience to ever use they "prototypes" even if I would get paid for it.
Hope they got better and what I say does not apply anymore.

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 3:06 am

rikhyray wrote:My experience with this company is that they have great ideas ( on paper) but they fail to apply them, make them EVER work. Very nice people, they founders are "retired" musicians ( they are young). I like them a lot and wish them the best, they were very cooperative, friendly and helpful. I wouldnt have time and patience to ever use they "prototypes" even if I would get paid for it.
Hope they got better and what I say does not apply anymore.

Well, if they would get these damn products on the market, I would be a happy man indeed. They're pretty cooooool.

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:00 pm

They do get the products out just the drivers do not work, or whatever other problems

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:17 pm

thread resurection
ESI Neon

anyone tried one of these and got it working OK with live ... or even with asio4all, like I was thinking of doing?

I see the Neon is £139 http://www.nusystems.co.uk/buy.asp?product=ESI_Neon_25

iskandar · Post by **iskandar** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:40 am

i use Esi products and havent had any problems at all ..

mexique1 · Post by **mexique1** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:49 pm

thread resurrection again

i have some friend who own ESI products (wamirack and waveterminal), and they haven't experienced any problem

the only thing that frightens me with this keyboard is the USB1... will it be sufficient to play 8 audio tracks at least ?
the audio in doesn't interest me so much...

considering that almost all the audio/midi solutions are in usb1 (novation, edirol...), will this really be a problem ???

thanx, i really find this keyboard cuz it's the most compact i've ever seen...

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:05 pm

mexique1 wrote: thanx, i really find this keyboard cuz it's the most compact i've ever seen...

They're actually quite bulky, so, no it doesn't have much of a footprint, but it's not small at all.

Edirol make a tiny controller with audio interface, only a few cm high, which costs about the same as the ESI. But then I'd still rather have the ESI, because I really like the build quality and the choice of encoders as fader replacements.

mexique1 · Post by **mexique1** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:54 pm

They're actually quite bulky

ok, in fact i haven't seen them...

yes i know this is the PCR-1 from edirol, but i don't really trust edirol for the stability of their drivers

so you think this is a good choice for a mobile configuration ?
or should i buy an audio card + a controller ?

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:05 pm

I talked to a guy at my favourite audio toy store about the relative size of these keyboards compared to the Alesis x25 . He said they are pretty much the same size.

to get a handle on the horror ... check out the back shot and work out how that sits with your knowledge of how tall a midi port is.

It's huge!

Alesis is the same, they dont like to show a back shot as it is the most 'truthful' as regards whether it will fit in your laptop bag or not. Generally you see a nice photoshopped top shot.

These things are waaay to big for me - I will go with a M-audio02 (alias the 'finger breaker') for portable composing

I have an Echo Indigo to deal with basic audio duties on the road

ESI NeON and A-ON: very interesting products!

ESI NeON and A-ON: very interesting products!

Re: ESI NeON and A-ON: very interesting products!

Nice