Looking for keyboard

[sodapopinski]

Ok, let me say that I have played piano for a long time, and own a few keyboards. Hey, I have an SK-1 even. Didn't realize they were that cool until I started reading through this forum. Mines not pink, though.

Anyway...

Can you all answer a few questions.

I want to use it for Sonar 2. (Haven't quit gotten enough scratch for 3 yet) Basically, I want to use it just at home, to run the midi device in Sonar. I'm tired of point at click notation. How do you do this? With a midi controller? And what's the difference between a midi controller and a key board that has midi out on it. By the way, I'm using an Audigy 2 Platinum ex. (please, don't flame the sound card, I've already gotten enough of that on other boards)

I am looking for something between 100-250.

I really know nothing about using midi on the computer, so if you could even recommend a web site that will get me started, that would be great. Or, if you have time, maybe you could lay down some basic concepts of midi, and how to use an external midi device to input music into Sonar.

Thanks!

[tedluk]

Ok, Sodapop...

Let's start at the beginning-
MIDI was developed in the 1980s as a way to allow products from different manufacturers to communicate with one another. Prior to its introduction, each manufacturer used their own poprietary protocol. It was a dark and lonely time...

Truly, the big problem, which some manufaturers probably thought was an advantage, was that you were locked in to one manufaturers products if you wanted things to interface. Someone came to the realization that EVERYONE would probably sell more if we all were able to integrate everything together...but I digress.

MIDI is simply a means of describing all the "gestures" of a performance. Go HERE for a much better explanation than I could ever give of what MIDI is and why it's useful.

In answer to your controller question- a controller is simply that. It sends out MIDI messages to other devices. A controller can be a MIDI keyboard or it could be a box that only has faders or knobs or it could be as simple as a breath controller. A dedicated controller doesn't make any of it's own sounds. Of course, it's possible to use any device that sends MIDI messages to control other devices that have MIDI inputs on them. But different devices may have different levels of MIDI implementation. If you look in the back of the manual for any MIDI device you own, you will find a MIDI implementation chart that shows exactly which messages are sent and received by that device.

I'll leave it to someone else to help with the nuts and bolts of your situation as I haven't ever used either your soundcard or that version of SONAR. The basic concept is that you'll need to make sure the drivers are installed for your soundcard and configure SONAR to see and access it. Once that's done and your cables are hooked up, you should be able to record and playback MIDI through your sound card with SONAR.

I hope that helps.

Good luck,

Ted

[sodapopinski]

Actually, that helps a lot. Thanks!