Cakewalk A-500S

A-500S description:

The Cakewalk A-500S is an inexpensive 49-key USB MIDI keyboard that shares many of the same design elements as the A-PRO series keyboards.

The Cakewalk A-500S is perfect for anyone making music at home or in a project studio with a computer, academic settings needing great sound at low cost, or live performances and mobile recording applications.

The A-500S is the perfect musical keyboard for use with a wide variety of software on Mac or PC including SONAR, Music Creator, Garage Band, FL Studio, Ableton Live, Sequel, Cubase, Reason, ACID, and others.

For Windows customers just getting started the A-500S includes the Cakewalk Production Plus Pack. Best of all, the A-500S is easy to set up — if you can plug-in a USB Cable, you will be making music in no time at all.

With a newly designed key mechanism — taken from Roland's 30 years of synthesizer development — players can control a wide dynamic range with incredible subtlety. The new key assemblies have a rounded shape for better reaction to the player's touch and more comfortable glissando, plus enhancements have been made to reduce the already low mechanical noise of the A-500S and eliminate vertical shake on the key strokes.

The newly developed pitch bend and modulation design offers you easier and more expressive control. All these features add up to a keyboard that even the most discerning player can appreciate.

The A-500S cleanly provides connections on the side panel so that you can easily have a computer monitor or laptop in the ideal position behind the keyboard — a must for educational use. All connections are located on the side — USB, MIDI OUT plus separate Hold and Expression pedal ports.

MIDI control on the A-500S is provided via a rotary encoder, which is both easier and faster than using the notes for numerical values. With this knob you can set up MIDI channel, Program Change, Control Change and more and instantly see the values on the LED. When working with virtual instruments, you can set this knob for quick control of your favorite LFO, Filter, or other controls.

The Production Plus Pack is a powerful suite of music creation software that ships with the A-500S. It includes SONAR 8.5 LE recording software (PC only) and three high-quality and versatile virtual instruments for Mac and PC: Rapture LE, Cakewalk Sound Center, and Studio Instruments Drums.

Cakewalk A-500S main features include:

49-note, velocity-sensitive, standard keyboard
Quality feel & response for serious players
Match your playing style with 12 velocity curves & fixed velocity mode
Sure grip, rubber-coated Pitch Bend/Modulation Lever
Rotary encoder and 3 digit 7-segment LED Display
Side panel connections for streamlined routing
MIDI Out port with low latency FPT transmission
Choose your power: USB Bus/AA Battery/AC (Optional)
Ready to play with 3 included virtual instruments
Works with any DAW on Mac or PC
Includes the Production Plus Pack music creation software
Dimensions: 833 (W) × 183.8 (D) × 84 (H) mm
Weight: 2.3 kg