A full-size, 88-key MIDI keyboard controller built around a graded hammer-action keybed with Channel Aftertouch, plus a complete control surface: 16 RGB velocity-sensitive pads, nine faders, eight knobs, transport, an OLED, Smart Chord/Scale, an arpeggiator, and a generous multi-DAW-plus-instruments software bundle. Launched at $799 and now listed around $800–$900. Reviewers broadly agree the strengths are the hammer-action keybed (praised for a piano-like, expressive feel), the deep set of hands-on controls, the software bundle, and the overall value — it's widely called the cheapest credible 88-key weighted controller with pads. Two things split opinion. Build: the metal-topped chassis is called first-class by every editor, yet a real cluster of owners across separate units and years report serious defects — hanging or sticking notes, pitch-wheel and octave-shift glitches, even rogue keypresses to the computer — so long-term reliability is a genuine question, not settled praise. And DAW integration: some find the auto-mapping 'extremely easy' with the major DAWs, while others see it as generic, do-it-yourself control (not the deep, plugin-aware integration of an NI board) and a few hit non-working transport buttons. Pads (no polyphonic aftertouch, a two-rows-of-eight layout some dislike for finger-drumming) and connectivity (5-pin MIDI in/out, sustain plus three footswitch and one expression jack, USB-B bus power — but no USB-C and no CV) are solid with caveats. At 18.5 kg and 142 cm it is emphatically a desk or road-case instrument, not a portable.
About this product
The 'Pro' model in M-Audio's Hammer 88 line — the 88-key graded hammer-action keybed of the original 2017 Hammer 88, now with Channel Aftertouch and assignable zones, wrapped in an Oxygen-Pro-style control surface: 16 RGB pads, nine faders, eight knobs, transport, an OLED, Smart Chord/Scale and an arpeggiator. Not the controls-free original Hammer 88 (still sold), and not the semi-weighted Oxygen Pro keyboards it shares that control surface with.
M-Audio's Hammer 88 Pro is the 2021 upgrade of the Hammer 88, a controller people bought for one thing: 88 full-size, graded hammer-action keys that feel close to a real piano, at a fraction of stage-piano money. The Pro keeps that keybed, adds Channel Aftertouch, and bolts on the control surface the original lacked — 16 RGB pads, nine faders, eight knobs, transport, an OLED, and M-Audio's Smart Chord and Smart Scale modes — so it doubles as a full production keyboard. It launched at $799; US retailers now list it around $800–$900.
Reviewers are close to unanimous on the two things that matter most here — the action and the value: it's routinely called the most affordable way to get a fully-weighted 88 with pads and faders. Where opinion splits is on how reliable it is and how deep its DAW control goes. A real thread of owners have hit sticking notes and pitch-wheel glitches, and its auto-mapping is a universal, do-it-yourself affair rather than the tight, plugin-aware integration of a Native Instruments board. Plenty of agreement on the feel; genuine disagreement on the reliability and the depth.
