Patrick Burnett Projects Blog: G.A.S. Report — ACQUIRED: Akai SynthStation 25 for iPhone

I picked this up on a lark. Truly! I don't even remember how I found it. I was actually buying some Elvis Costello sheet music and ended up on Buy.com. I guess it was listed as a suggestion...Well, it worked! I bought it.

It was a "discount" house that had this one for a much lower price that is listed elsewhere, PLUS Akai is running a $20 rebate right now! It looks like the only reason this one was "discount" was due to some of the screen printed words were smeared. No biggie and doesn't affect operation = DEAL.

Now for what this "toy-ish" looking bit of kit can do, well that's actually quite a lot! It features 25 mini keys, velocity sensitive, a docking bay for iPhone3 & 4, iPod Touch, several different low cost App choices, including the SynthStation by Akai and, my personal favorite, 50in1 Piano. It has a Pitchbend wheel and a Mod wheel, volume, power, DC adapter (optional), phones out, RCA left and right out, and USB connectivity. It doesn't even require a driver to be used as a USB MIDI keyboard controller with your Mac desktop or laptop and works seamlessly with Garageband so far.

Upon plugging in your phone, turning the device on, it automatically launches the Akai SynthStation App (if installed) which works seamlessly with the device it was designed for. There you can use three different synth sounds via the dedicated buttons, or drums via it's dedicated button, octave up or down, and patch up or down.

The whole unit is as small as a small laptop and fits in my messenger bag easily. I travelled to work today with it and plan to take on future trips for entertainment and song idea tracking!

The 50in1 Piano app has over 100 instruments of every variety, has built in drum tracks, piano lessons, song recorder and even can record vocals via the headset microphone (only when used without the keyboard), perfect for scratch vocals!

All in all, this is a quality made unit, light weight, inexpensive addition to your iPhone that any musician would love to have around! Take a chance on it!