OXI Instruments is the Spanish manufacturer behind the OXI One, a popular and versatile sequencer that received a MKII update earlier this year.
This week, OXI announced the latest addition to its product lineup: E16, a portable and lightweight controller that OXI promises will allow you to "control your entire set-up from one compact interface". (It's a busy week in the controller world – Serato just launched a dedicated controller for its Serato Studio DAW.)
OXI One is a powerhouse sequencer with an extensive set of features, and while E16's design looks a little more stripped-back at first glance, there's a similarly comprehensive level of functionality under the hood.
E16's aluminium unibody chassis features 16 endless encoders encircled by LED rings that display parameter values, joined by a single shift button in the top-left corner next to its OLED screen. Each knob has two assignable destinations and the LED colours can be customized to your liking.
Each of E16's 16 scenes stores 12 pages of controls with 16 per page, giving the user 192 controls per scene that can be mapped directly from the hardware or through OXI's companion app. Customized layouts and banks of parameter values can be saved to each scene as presets for instant recall.
"We didn't want to make just another controller – we wanted to bring the OXI philosophy to the MIDI world," OXI says of the E16 in the demo video embedded above, pointing to a handful of features that expand its capabilities in a live performance context.
E16 offers a neat grouping function that allows the user to link multiple controls together to be controlled via one macro encoder – useful for executing complex transitions that involve a number of different parameters or instruments. E16's snapshot feature goes even further by letting the user morph, Octatrack-style, between two sets of 16 saved parameters across an entire page of controls with a single knob twist.
There's also a knob recording function onboard that allows the user to capture the movement of a given encoder, which is played back on an unsynchronized loop – each encoder has its own loop buffer and length, so you'll be able to dial in evolving, polyrhythmic modulation with ease.
On the I/O front, E16 has two 3.5mm MIDI outputs, a MIDI input and wireless Bluetooth MIDI, alongside its USB-C connection and two virtual USB ports. It's available in two editions, a standard edition with smooth, non-detented encoders, and a limited edition with "clicky" encoders that give tactile feedback as they're turned.
Priced at £339/€409/$499, OXI E16 is available for preorder now – first units will ship at the end of December. Find out more on OXI Instruments' website.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.