AWS DeepComposer – a machine learning-enabled musical keyboard for developers

The positive:The midi controller/keys are working great so far. Lots of buttons: four knob inputs, a pitch bend wheel, a mod wheel, volume control slider, velocity measurements on the keys, built-in ARP and chord generators, keys to adjust parameters for chords and stuff, octave up/down buttons. Overall a very functional controller. This is my first actual midi controller, so I appreciate how simple and clean the interface is. I also like that it has real wheels for mod and pitch bend. It works seamlessly in the DAWs I tried it with.The meh:AWS's pre-trained GAN for composition generation is pretty bad at music right now. I have not spent the time to dive into their data format and network architectures and train something myself, but the current model's output is worse than randomly generating notes in the key you are composing.More positive:The website in AWS for playing with ML is pretty easy to use. There are a lot of tutorial videos, and they have datasets pre-prepared for you. I am really looking forward to going through the material and trying to train a network that is not awful at music generation. If you appreciate a good challenge and have a DIY spirit, this product could be for you.

Shipped this thing all the way to Australia to find out device serial number not recognised when registering to AWS DeepComposer service. Tried to get AWS support, no luck without a plan, told to try Amazon.com support. Tried Amazon support, deferred back to AWS. I give up. Returning the product as it doesn't work and now I am out of pocket as Amazon caps the refund on shipping for int'l returns to A$22 for an approx A$70 return shipping cost! Disgraceful! DO NOT BUY THIS

I had high hopes for this keyboard. As it stands, I can't record for more than 8 seconds. Also, "AI" sound added is kind of lame. I expected a lot more. Going to return this.

You have to have it connected to a PC (and to AWS) for it to work... I wish it also worked like standalone like a Casiotone... Other than that, it's fantastic keyboard to learn AI/ML.

See all of those cool controls on the piano? They are hooked to nothing, apparently there is a new version of the site that eliminates a lot of functionality, and they offer no link to the old version. The AI GAN training is garbage, less pleasant than Sid Meier's CPU Bach.The serial number registration comes up as "INVALID" even though it's a simple 8 digit number.Worse yet, if you buy the piano here and then go to the AWS site, after giving away your credit card number to God knows what subscription terms, you'll see a message that says "don't have a piano? Order here for $20 off"

I have a video of the keys not working. Will wait before review gets approved before it will allow me to add the video.

A product for advanced music performers, not really intuitive.

Returned because one of the keys didn’t work.