Taxi Doll, a Los Angeles-based dance / electronica band, takes its name from those bouncy dolls you often encounter when taking a taxi ride. We are grateful they didn't choose a name from the myriad other things you might find in the back of a taxi.

Gregg Allen took some time to chat with Gearwire about his Novation X Station. He uses the X Station 49.

"The 25 was too small and the 61 was more than I needed so I went with the 49 key. It's the perfect size for the live show, traveling, etc." says Allen.

Allen says that he made the decision to buy the X Station because, at the time, no comparably priced produced had as many features.

"The synth is very versatile. I love the fact it can be powered from battery, usb, or adapter, the internal soundcard has been very reliable, and the internal sounds are amazing," he says. ". . . I love the internal sounds. There are loads of super fat bass sounds lots of great lead sounds, some really great arpeggiated sounds etc. I also really like the internal FX which allow you to give sounds even more bite then they already have."

The synth is also loaded with features to help interactivity.

"It actually comes loaded with loads of templates for software synths if you plan on using it as a controller and you can download updates or new templates from Novation," he says. "It even includes paper overlays that fit around the knobs, buttons, and sliders, with the software program's specific parameters labeled."

He also says the midi controller, a big selling point on the X Station, has worked well for him.

"Well when I'm not using the internal sounds I mainly use the keyboard via USB to the computer to control Logic and Ableton, but it does have two MIDI outs and a MIDI in for when I do need them. The drivers have been extremely stable for me." he says.

When we asked about the "learning curve" for the X station Allen said that the Novation is a dream.

"I think it's extremely user friendly and intuitive. I really haven't had to break out the manual much," says Allen. "When I buy a new piece of gear I just want to mess with it for while before reading the manual. With the X-station I was able to get going with what I needed to do pretty quickly."

As far as any problems or things he would change about the X-Station -- there were few.

"I like it pretty much as is, though I might want a tap tempo button for the arpeggiator and a numeric keypad for jumping to specific programs." he says.

Taxi Doll is currently in post production on a new video, has several remixes in the works and is writing new songs The band is constantly changing their live set and upcoming regional tours are in the works.