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The 49-note keyboard is a good compromise between portability and playability.

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The Blofeld Keyboard is a playable version of the excellent Blofeld module. It's a stunner, looking like a perfectly stretched out version of its little brother.

It's the same colour, is built out of the same tough metal, has the same high-quality-throughout design ethos and feels every bit as solid. In fact, the display, dials and layout are pretty much identical, except for the additional performance controls.

These include pitch and mod wheels that feel superb, with nicely raised ridges that are great for accurate modding and bending (much easier to control than the indented type found on most boards).

There's also a protruding lip on the edge of the keyboard case that's great for holding onto while you are using the new wheels.

Also included are octave up and down switches (which should have been included on the Blofeld module originally) and a button labelled 'free' which, according to the manual, was added 'just for fun!'.

In reality, it's a potentially useful extra control that can be assigned to many functions (currently including output mute, sustain, sustain toggle, and a variety of other controller/MIDI assignments).

Also new is a MIDI Out, so you can easily control other MIDI gear.

Keys

The keyboard itself is a 49-note four-octave affair (with aftertouch), which is a good compromise for a small and transportable synth (those octave controls extend its range further).

Too many synths we review don't have aftertouch, so its great to see it included at this price point. It's a godsend for controlling pretty much any parameter you can think of, without even having to take your hands off the keyboard.

Talking of hands-free, there's a sustain pedal socket, too.

We're pleased to be able to report that the keybed/board feels great. It's semi-weighted and we'd describe it as precise, quiet, fast to play and cushioned, yet positive feeling on the down-stroke, with a not-too-springy bounce back on the up-stroke.

It's definitely not one of those horribly plasticky and cheap feeling keyboards that all too often feel like you're hitting bare metal on the down-stroke of the keys and give your repetitive strain injury.

The Blofeld Keyboard is reassuringly heavy and weighs in at 8kg (17lbs approx). This is mainly due to the solid metal enclosure and onboard power supply (no wall-wart – other manufacturers please take note).

It's light enough to throw in the back of your car for gigs but well-built enough to reassure it's going to last a while, though maybe the paint might start chipping off with heavy gigging. Only time will tell.

The only real hardware-related gripe I have is that the headphone socket is mounted slap bang in the centre of the back panel, which means you often find the wire trailing over the front-panel and keyboard

We wish all keyboard manufacturers would make front-panel headphone sockets standard. Even the first DX7 got that one right. Also an audio input would have been nice.