Alesis Photon x25 on Windows 7
I’ve made a pretty firm commitment to not get too deep into buying gear before I’ve really figured out what it is that I want – but I had a chance to pick up an Alesis Photon x25 MIDI controller with Cubase LE for about $40 today. The controller was purchased new about 2 months ago, returned in favor of another model and has sat in the “Used Equipment” window since then. I’ve watch the price fall and fall and today sniped it for a fifth of it’s street price a few months ago.
But why?
Creating a home studio is as much about software as hardware – and testing what DAW I like requires two things:
- A DAW
- An input device to do something useful in said DAW
This unit comes with Cubase LE and Sonar 8 Producer is available for a 30 day trial … so there I go. I have the software and a crazy cheap way to test it out. And when I’ve made up my mind I’ve also got a nice little MIDI controller.
That’s how I rationalized it to myself. Did it work for you too?
My contented feeling was short lived though. After picking it up I went out to dinner with a few of my kids and got to spend a few hours fretting over whether or not this device would be compatible with Windows 7. The M-Audio KeyRig isn’t (more) – would this device be? It’s not the newest unit on the block – discontinued in fact.
But I plugged it in and …
Now … I haven’t done anything beyond this. So does it work? I’m installing Cubase LE now …
Hmmm.
Well. Plan has hit a kink. The previous owner claimed he never registered Cubase but apparently he took the registration code. So I have 30 days to decide if I want to keep this or not. Let’s see how Sonar likes it… (next time).
Tags: alesis, homestudio, music, photon
You got a good deal. Discontinued or not.
It doesnt work on my windows 7. Was fine on xp… any ideas?