Novation ReMote 25 SL
Twenty-five keys, fifty-six assignable controls, and a pitch-and-mod joystick. The idea was that the keyboard should figure out your software for you.
Overview
The ReMote 25 SL is the smallest keyboard in Novation's ReMote SL line, and it packs a lot onto a desktop footprint. You get 25 aftertouch- and velocity-sensitive keys, 8 velocity-sensitive trigger pads, and 56 assignable controls split across 32 buttons, 8 knobs, 8 sliders, and 8 rotary encoders. It also has dedicated transport and octave-transpose buttons, two backlit 144-character displays, a pitch-bend and modulation joystick, and an assignable x-y touch pad. This is a controller that expects to run a software rig, not just sit there as a keyboard you play and forget.
The big feature is Novation's Automap system. The company describes it as automatically reconfiguring the assignable controls to conform to whichever software or MIDI hardware is in focus. Switch from sampling in a plug-in to sequencing in a DAW, and Automap recognizes the application and swaps templates. A button press or a mouse click moves ReMote control between applications and instruments. Dozens of preinstalled Automap templates ship with the unit, and users can program their own. The period press seized on that auto-mapping premise. Sound On Sound (February 2006, p.109) noted that with the 25SL working with a Subtractor synth in Propellerhead's Reason, many of the most useful parameters had already mapped themselves, and the controller recognized that a sawtooth wave had been selected for Oscillator 1. The same magazine's review (February 2006, p.110) observed that the unit is plug-and-play, with no drivers required, and Mac OS X or Windows recognizes it immediately. It did flag one anomaly: Windows lists the controller as a USB audio device. The reviewer noted that this happens with similar products from other manufacturers.
Novation's own promotional material for the range leaned hard on the Automap pitch, and the quotes it gathered from the trade press reflect that emphasis rather than an independent verdict. Sound On Sound (July 2006, p.141) called the automapping "light years ahead" of other MIDI controllers, and its review framed Automap as the answer to the frustration of configuring controllers and software. Sound On Sound (February 2006, p.109) put it more measuredly: the Automap function is what really sets the ReMOTE 25SL apart from other controllers, and anyone who has fought through controller configuration will welcome it. The 10/10 comes from a single title, not a consensus.
UK press put the Remote 25SL at £329 (Sound On Sound, February 2006, p.109). In the US, Electronic Musician's 2007 Editors' Choice coverage listed the 25 SL at $599 and gave it the Instrument Controller award, describing it as having everything needed to control software instruments and sequencers. The same coverage laid out the rest of the family for buyers who needed a different footprint. The 37 SL was $749 and the 61 SL was $899 for more keys. The ReMote Zero SL was $499 for the control surface alone, which forgoes the keyboard, touch pad, and joystick but supplies everything else.
The layout suits the desktop composer who wants pads, faders, encoders, and keys within arm's reach and doesn't want to page through menus to reach a filter cutoff. The two backlit 144-character displays show what each knob is doing at a glance. The x-y touch pad and joystick add performance gestures beyond the keys, and the trigger pads suit drum programming and clip launching as readily as note entry.
The 25SL asks for patience in the same place it promises convenience. Automap is only as good as its templates, and users who work with software outside the preinstalled set will spend time building their own mappings, which is the very task the system is meant to reduce. The plug-and-play claim holds for basic recognition, but the Windows USB-audio-device listing is a small bit of friction that marks this as a 2006-era USB controller, not a class-compliant device from a later generation. It is also busy. There are a lot of small controls in a small space, and the 25-key span is compact. That is fine for programming and two-handed chord work, and limiting for anything that wants real keyboard range.
Collectors and working musicians chasing one today should expect a controller that has aged into a niche: beloved by people who learned Automap and built their workflow around it, and merely adequate for anyone who wants a generic MIDI keyboard. The 25SL's value is tied to the software ecosystem it was built to serve, so condition of the encoders, sliders, and pads matters more than cosmetics — these are the parts that wear. It is not a synth and shouldn't be bought as one; it makes no sound of its own. What it offers is a dense, display-driven control surface with a genuine auto-mapping idea at its center, and for the right desktop rig that remains a compelling combination.
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