Roland PC-300 MIDI Controller

E

East Villian

New member
Hi, I might be able to get my hands on one of these. I dont have any experience, Im not interested in recording. Im more into that instrumental stuff, Ill probably be using Reason 2 & Cool Edit Pro as my setup. A friend of mine told me its important to have the pitch, modulation stuff so maybe this will do for me. Im running all of this stuff on the PC, about 740 Mghz, 20 GB, 256 MB, Im not sure what soundcard Ive got but I know its not the best. Ill try to find out as soon as possible. But if you can suggest or help me out here, Id appreciate it.
 
Make sure the soundcard has midi in, if it does its most likely in form of a joystick port(especially if its soundblaster). To fix that you simply go to a site that sells a joystick -> midi cable like www.midi-store.com . Although then again the PC-300 may be a USB midi controller in which case forget all the aforementioned stuff =).

Also, your computer sounds like it would run Reason and CEP no problem, so you shouldn't have any problems there. Anything specific you want to know?
 
Okay..

How do I find out if my soundcard has MIDI in/out?

Well, Im into mellow r&b/hip-hop. I dont have a piano teacher, or any of that stuff. Im teaching myself how to play, and Im probably gonna take the classical approach. A friend of mine told me that it is good to have weighted keys, or semi-weighted. Im not sure if I read that the Roland has weighted/semi-weighted keys, I doubt that it does for the price.

Btw, Im pretty sure the Roland is a USB. So that would eliminate the part about the joystick tip? Thanks for the quick reply.
 
Yea, if the Roland is a USB(i'm too lazy to look it up). Then all you have to do is connect a USB cord from the Roland into a USB port on your computer and you should be set.

I myself am also teaching myself piano playing/keyboard, since I am a guitarist myself. I am getting a Roland XP-30, which I *believe* has spring loaded keys(correct me if im wrong). I played it at the store and fell in love with it, it had a nice overall feel to it. So that would be my advice, go down to a local music store and see if they have a weighted and a non-weighted keyboard and see which one you like more, and then act accordingly. Fatar makes weighted Midi Controllers, and a few other people as well i think.
 
I've mentioned this a few times before, and since you specifically mention pitch and modulation I'm chiming in again. ;)

I am no fan of Roland's pitch/modulation "padal" approach. I find that pushing the joystick up to modulate is limiting. The stick only travels a short distance, and the spring resets the modulation as soon as you let go of it.

I much prefer the more standard "wheel" approach. You get plenty of travel (for both pitch and modulation) and when you release the Mod wheel, it stays put until you decide to reset it.

Much better.

May I recommend one of Evolution's fine MIDI controllers?

Carl
 
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