CME U-Key Mobiltone 49 > Reviews > Easily portable, playable and great value

Author's product rating:   

Usability	Excellent
Durability	Durable
Best suited for	Intermediate
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Very convenient and well - planned
Disadvantages:	Company not well - established (support?)

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Why bother buying a CME keyboard when there are plenty others, with more established names: Edirol, M-Audio, Korg, Novation - to name but a few? Well, there are a couple of reasons:
1) It is very compact and easily portable. Not an inch of space is wasted. It is probably the narrowest 49-key keyboard, as well as one of the slimmest. You can easily carry it with you, put it on your desk and even keep it on your lap!
2) Key action is quite good. Obviously, this is a matter of preference, but for me it is better than the Edirols, Yamahas and quite a few other keyboards and MIDI-controllers I have tried. The action is quite firm, but not hard. I usually do not fancy so called "weighed" keyboards. I don't know why, but they do not have the same action as a real grand piano. Sure, there is some "hammer-like" effect in these expensive keyboards, but it certainly does not compare to a real piano's hammer mechanism. So this keyboard is something in-between a "weighed" keyboard and an organ one. Which means you can play both organ-like style and piano style and it won't feel unnatural.
3) It has a built-in tone generator. Quality of the tones is uneven - some are good, some not-so-good, but none are an offence to the ear. For real work it is not enough, but for education, simple accompaniment etc. it is OK.
4) There are quite a few knobs to turn and they can be easily assigned different MIDI control codes. They work beautifully with my XG-compatible sound module, as well as with a VST Proteus instrument.
5) Even though this keyboard has only 4 octaves, the octave shift buttons are sensibly located right in the middle, so changing the keyboard play range is very comfortable. Unless you do some virtuoso stuff, you'll be able to pick a different range without stopping your performance.
6) There are three modes, which instantly change the use of pads and knobs. If this is not enough, you can save up to 8 different setups for a quick recall.

All in all this means you can take this keyboard to a classroom for a music lesson or a sing-along and your students won't laugh at you, but you can also use it at home for all serious MIDI jobs. Or if your chapel organ has just burnt, you can take this one and surprise everybody :)