Keith McMilen Qunexus Red

The Lounge Other Gear
1

Anyone use a qunexus red?

I’m interested because of the MPE part and small size formfactor.
dislike the color though haha.

curious to hear your opinions or potential alternatives!

2

I have one. The colour is a little over the top. I decided that while note and velocity work fine, aftertouch is not all that usable. It is definitely portable, though you may also need to tote various cables. Some of the ways of setting things up without a screen work well, some are a bit annoying, as one might expect.

3

thanks. I think there are just too much ‘mehs’ for me to really go for it.

as a small keyboard for my laptop/DAW when on the road, I can use my:

  1. op-1 field; no cables, BLE, velocity, but no aftertouch/MPE
  2. oxi one sequencer, also BLE or usb-c
  3. keystep 37: a bit larger, but functional.

so I already have quite a few options and should stop gassing I figure haha

4

I have the original & I’m not much of a fan of it, except for when intensively synth sound designing, which is why I bought it. It’s very small and so handy to have in a comfortable position under my left hand for triggering whilst using a mouse. I used to get shoulder ache reaching for larger keyboards.

As for the side 2 side pitch feature, I couldn’t get along with that at all and just had it set up with AT.

I also got an xkey for poly AT & much prefer using that for actual playing even though it’s more like an apple keyboard than a keybed, but it’s much much bigger.

But for general use in smallish keys, the Keystep wins for me.

If you want MPE the best option really is the seaboard block, which is a good size. You need a computer to change settings on it, & Roli are a frustrating company, but it’s the real deal.

I would like to install the red firmware on the QN though at some point & have a play around, it’s nice that they made it backward compatible.

5

It fit a niche for me, very small but usable. I stopped looking for a second-hand Keystep 37 after getting the QnR (I have a Digitone Keys when I want full-sized). I think functional aftertouch would be a miracle on something that small, especially at that price point.

6

if it was battery powered with BLE it would be perfect

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