Manufacturer	M-audio
Website	M-audio Evolution UC-33
Price	£
Rating	Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (2 votes)

Bought a brand-new Evolution UC-33 controller last week...
I paid US$225 for it. I printed out the ad for it from audiomidi.com and took that to Guitar Center. They let me have it for audiomidi's price Tested it out with Ableton Live and Propellerhead's Reason on 800MHz WinXP machine with MAudio 2496 card.

Initial reaction: seems a little flimsy, but so far the best combo of controls and price i've seen yet. I've had an Evolution mk249c for a year or so now and it sends out inconsistent midi CC data...weird spikes in what should be a smooth knob sweep and knobs don't always send a full 0-127 sweep also the 249c really started freaking out in near freezing temperatures at the Crown Chakra in Colorado mountains. So i was really hesitant to get the UC-33, hence the buying from a physical location with no restocking/reshipping fees!

Performance: We put it in the freezer for 20 minutes to simulate freezing weather. After 20 min. knobs a little stiff, but still send accurate data, UC-33 seems to be holding up fine! All knobs consistently send out full 0-127 CC data with no spikes! Faders smooth and accurate as well. I did notice that there is a bit of lag when making a quick sweep of the knob/fader. Quickly turn a knob/fader from 0 to 127 and it takes maybe 100 ms to catch up. This problem persists whether MIDI out is used or USB out, standard WinXP drivers or the Evolution drivers. My mk249C didn't do this. This has not been a problem during performance, but could be a source of distress for some...Evolution never got back with me on this, but i found a post on the Ableton Live Tips&Tricks forum. Apparently this is Evolution's "anti-jitter" function built in to the controller. So no erratic CC, but lazy CC instead. It really is unnoticeable 99% of the time, unlike "jitter". The knobs are rather close together, but this shouldn't be much of a problem. You might want to try one out before buying.

There are 14 assignable buttons that are real handy for triggering samples, FX on/off, etc. i read on another that post that sometimes you have to push the buttons more than once to get anything to happen. Each button can be assigned a variety of functions such as note on, note off, or note on/off. Some of the presets have these buttons assigned so that the first push is note on, the second push is note off. Thus only every other push will giv you what you want. If the button is assigned to send "note on" when pushed and "note off" when released, it will function just like a key on a on keyboard. very cool!
Overall: A good quality MIDI controller for the price. Excelent combination of knobs/faders/buttons. Treat it nice on the road and it should hold up well.

Bottom Line : Try before you buy.