M-Audio

A
t fi rst glance, the
Hammer 88 is a
very simple and
rather elegant-
looking master
keyboard which
feels solid and
satisfyingly heavy, while still being a
simple one-person lift. The keyboard
itself is weighted but is certainly at
the lighter end of the scale – it’ll suit
anyone used to a piano, and synth
users won’t take long to adjust either.
Additional control on the front
panel is minimal: a volume slider,
some up/down buttons and pitch and
mod wheels. To the rear are
connections for sustain, soft and
expression pedals, plus a USB
connector and a standard MIDI out
port. There’s also a connector for an
external power supply, so you can
either bus power it if connected via
USB but also use it as a MIDI master
without a computer attached.
Once connected to a computer, the
full possibilities become clear, thanks
to the Hammer 88’s very useful
control software and some excellent
virtual instruments. Using the Preset
Editor, it’s possible to set up to four
zones, each with its own channel and
transpose settings. Further to this you
can map the controls – the fader and
expression pedal, the footswitches, the
buttons and the wheels – to other
functions, and save patches, building
up a library of settings which are then
simply transmitted to the Hammer 88
via USB – great for performances and
writing setups alike.
package. I really like the keyboard
– it’s comfortable to play and feels
very positive under the fi ngers. It’s a
shame that it doesn’t have any
onboard memory to store multiple
patches, especially as it’s so easy to
edit them with the supplied software.
I suspect that for some players this
would be a deal breaker.
As a Studio Master Keyboard, the
Hammer 88 is great, and the bundled
software puts a whole range of
high-quality traditional sounds under
your fi ngertips. A really solid product
at a very attractive price.
The included software takes in
plenty of piano and keyboard sounds.
To start with, there are three
instruments from Air. Velvet is a very
comprehensive set of electric pianos
based on Fender Rhodes suitcase,
MK1 and MK2 models, a Wulitzer
200A and Hohner Pianet-T. These are
highly playable and sound great. Next
up is the Mini Grand, a very simple
grand piano plugin with plenty of
tonal variation, and an instrument I
often choose over far more complex
multisampled piano instruments.
Next up, Air’s DB-33 is one of the
best Hammond emulations out there,
and one you’ll have heard on many
tracks (like the Mini-Grand, DB-33
has come bundled with Pro Tools for
many years.) Also included is the
Eighty Eight Ensemble from
SONiVOX. This is a beautifully
sampled nine-foot Steinway Grand,
with combination patches of layered
strings, synths and choirs, resulting in
some excellent textures all-round.
On top of all this, you also get
Ableton Live Lite and a three-month
subscription to Skoove, a very good
Virtual Piano Teaching course.
All in all, this is an excellent
THE PROS & CONS
+
A very playable
weighted keyboard,
although it’s at
the lighter end of
what some serious
players would
consider ‘piano-like’
Excellent bundled
software which gives
you a mini
production package
-
A limited amount of
front-panel control.
Some programmable
knobs would have
been welcome
U sing multiple
edited patches for
live work could prove
tricky, given that
there’s no onboard
memory – swapping
a controller patch
means sending it
from a computer
FM VERDICT
7.8
An solid, well-constructed
master keyboard with solid
bundled software. If you
need something simple that
plays really well, check it out
It’s comfortable to play
and feels very positive
under the fi ngers
M-Audio Hammer 88 | Reviews
95
FMU323.rev_maudio.indd 95 06/09/2017 11:52