i do hear complains about Edirol stuffs. coming from roland, I'm not really surprised. M-audio pro lines are way overpriced, and the budget lines have terrible quality and still overpriced. akai ? never tried it, but $400 and mixed reviews? difficult choice

get yourself a Yamaha KX61. quality you can trust. not enough knobs? add a korg nanokontrol.

because most new controllers out there are crap