The Logic Off Topic list

I have used the Oxygen 8 for a week (demoing Logic, so it was most likely
exactly what you'd use it for) any my advice would be NOT to get it.
While M-Audio/Midiman certainly is doing great audio cards, this thing just
seems to be not worth it.
The drivers were crappy, causing lots of system reboots (no way to get them
back without a reboot under Win2k) and hardware quality was less than what
I'd call acceptable (and I'm not even a true keyboard player by myself).
Pitchbend data for whatever reason was thinned out (most likely to take some
burden off the USB bus, but it seems you can't change that when using it as
a plain MIDI controller), causing some bad stepping effects when using
higher bendrange settings, the PB wheel itself started to hang a notch below
zero position on day No.3 every now and then, so there was often some PB
data being sent out continuosly.
And while it might be nice to have all those pots on it, they don't make use
of the 270\ufffd range they offer, but you loose a good amount in the end and the
beginning of the knob range, so the actually usable amount is more like 180\ufffd
or so.

Personally I can add that 2 octaves defenitely are not enough for me, not
even in an "occasional keyboarder" context. With 2 octaves it's impossible
to play any common chord voicings and add a bass with your left hand -
something I'm doing all the time.

Regarding the MIDI interface: Right now I'm using an MT4 which is working at
least OK, but there have been some problems installing it properly as
Emagics installer CDs seem to have recently changed and apparently the
installer is still looking for the older CDs file structure. I wasn't that
amazed but Emagic is aware of the problem and I'm sure they will fix it soon
or add at least some notes to the package.
No noticeable timing or whatsoever problems caused by USB, btw.

Regards,
Sascha