Hi,

Unless you have a full keyboard, you will always have this problem. However, with the M25, you should be able to change octaves up and down quickly. This is useful for cases where there are special keys that are near the bottom octaves of the keyboard, like in Power Guitar, or drums in the lower octaves. You need to either set one of these keys with the on screen keyboard and then play the notes on your M25, or lower the octave on the keyboard to the appropriate location. Like I said, most of the drums are located in the lower octaves but are usually limited to about 1 octave in range, so you can easily use your M25 for these by switching to a lower octave on the M25.

To answer your question, there is no "best" midi controller. There are so many on the market that it would be an impossible task to decide. You have to determine what you need based on what you want to do, what you want to spend, your skill in playing and in using the program to link up the controls on the controller, etc. Do some research on other sites, especially the manufacturers' sites to see what others have to say about their keyboards/controllers.

I have a simple 76 key Casio keyboard with a midi-USB connection; no controls or pads like on your M25. I am missing 1 octave, but only a few of the songs that I play go down that low, so I don't really miss that octave. If I really need to go lower to pick up some of the keys in the instruments, I can simply lower the keyboard by 1 octave.

HTH