Lo and behold, another midi controller shows up for sale locally. And, like the rabid equipment fiend that I am, I snap it up. Even though I don’t really need this, I got it at a heavily discounted price from someone who was leaving the country in two days.

The keyboard is CME UF-6, evidently made in Beijing in the early 2000’s. It’s a straight midi controller and there are no internal sounds, despite the appearance – it looks much more like a hardware synth than any midi controller I’ve ever seen. The design of the device looks very much inspired by theĀ Virus C, but the good news is that this is a heavy and super solid piece of gear, which means it has a long life ahead of it. It has a few scuffs but included a stand – and although no power adapter was included, it’s USB bus-powered. Unfortunately I don’t really have a place to set it up at the moment, so it’s sitting on top of one turntable and my MPC 2000XL. I’m thinking about selling the Yamaha digital piano (which I’ve been using as a midi controller) that’s served me well for three years now, but I haven’t acted on that impulse yet.