Need advice please

Naffaa01

New member
Hey guys, im new here, just wanted to ask couple of questions.

Now i want to start producing music on my own pc, got a bunch of home studio stuff and now i only have to get little things to have it done.

I was really confused about either getting a Midi with pads or to get a separated Midi keyboard and Midi Pads alone.

Im a **piano player** and i already own a YAMAHA YDP-143 which has a usb connection port.

so what should i do ?

Should i get a 25-key Midi with pads, or to get a 49 keyboard and a separated Pads Midi instead ?
 
For me a no brainer - I have an 88 key master keyboard and it has loads of pads. I have never, ever, used them for anything. If you are a pianist - how well will you play with half a keyboards? The questions though is what do you want to do. if you just want percussion and effects then a small one with pads could be fine and use your Yamaha for the real playing? If you ever buy Kontakt samplers and other similar ones that use keyswitches, bigger keyboards allow simpler and easier performances. If you need pads, and have your keyboard, then more keys seem a bit pointless?
 
Thank you for replying,
Well i thought that way but a friend of mine told me to get more keys since they have better sounds than the yamaha which will make me love it more and stuff.
Well, as im a noob let me ask this question,
Since i have the yamaha, can i change its sounds from the DAW? Or just the existing built in sounds?
And by that you think i should get a 25 with keys as the best option ?
 
I myself do not do much keyboard based music, so anything I say may not be on point.

As far as I know, unless purchasing a very high end keyboard, you are better off using your DAW for sounds and the keyboard as only a controller for software.

I am just going to leave this alone here, because I am not the right guy to answer...

Best to you! Sure someone will be back soon. Holiday weekend in US so it might be a few days..

Welcome Naffaa! :)
 
You have the Yamaha and all its sounds.

Once you record the midi that you play on the midi, you can then use that midi to play other sounds from within your DAW. In particular, you can down load hundreds of virtual instruments that will give you no shortage of variety.

If you have the Yamaha and are happy with its number of keys, stick with that.
 
Thank you so much guys, i appreciate your help. :)
So as i understood having my Yamaha is more than enough for the keyboard playing, so getting a small midi controller gonna be the best option ?
I need a pads midi for percussion, will it do the job?
I mean is the 25-key w/ pads worthy ? or waste of money and get a whole pads midi with no keys instead (such as Akai MDP128) ?
 
Are you a drummer? I have found that many cheap pad controllers are kind of shitty a the low price points.

I have the Akai MDP128 that you mentioned. Used it once.

You can have it if you close...
 
Nope im a pianist but would for sure include beats in my songs, and i have no clue how that works so thought pads would do the job.
but it is really my first time producing and i dont know what's necessary and what's not.
so i thought i necessarily needed pads to do beats and percussion stuff.
And im on a limited budget that's why im asking for the best option to get.
 
Are you a drummer? I have found that many cheap pad controllers are kind of shitty a the low price points.

I have the Akai MDP128 that you mentioned. Used it once.

You can have it if you close...

Btw how does the AKAI feel?
do you think it is worthy to have ? or just extra stuff ?
 
You can trigger 'pad sounds' from your Yammie via MIDI. Pad controllers are for those who just want a big trigger surface to hit (rather than just a piano key). If this is for live use,then a pad controller might be a good idea.
 
I do plenty of percussion tracks - played on the keyboard! I just don't find pads that expressive, or maybe it's me, but I can do my drums on the keys perfectly well, and if you get into drums with proper samplers, you'll find the constant remapping to make the right snare drum appear on the right pad a pain. So I can cope with a kick on a C, or B, or even Db, with the snare on one of three or four others around E. I tend to do multiple passes because I'm not a drummer and my coordination to play with four fingers at the same time is usually bad1 kick/snare first pass, then hats and cymbals second pass. then edit to fix the mistakes.

Now to my pet hate - the keyboard piano sound on the Yamahas, Rolands and others - these are tweaked to sound their best from the piano's sound system and once you get the audio into your DAW you start to hear small things, and this means for me, my piano sounds come from VSTi instruments, my favourite being the Dutch Pianoteq product I've used for years now. They'll knock socks off the Yamaha audio. They are great things to play live, but they lack body and resonance and to be honest in my opinion, realism when recorded. I suspect this is why Yamaha never put recording outputs on many of their piano range. The Yamaha has an excellent action and use the MIDI out to drive other sound producing devices and you will be very happy. I actually use two master keyboards, one with realistic action and the other without - and they work differently.
Not sure if we answered th question about controlling the piano from the computer - you can change patches, but that's pretty much it.
 
Btw how does the AKAI feel?
do you think it is worthy to have ? or just extra stuff ?

Being a drummer and not a piano player, the pads you would think do seem to make more sense.

That being said, I used it a few times and just didn't like it. I also had Maschine for a while and those pads were really good as far as attack levels being appropriate. But I really was not in to going the way of crating beats for rap guys, so I sold it.

The Akai I spoke of, I would give you for free. The shipping may be the issue to where you are in the world.
 
And I just found that shipping to you would be almost $100. That isn't worth the cost of the Akai to get to you. I think you are best just using a keyboard as a midi controller.
 
Sorry, I added up there for clarity and link. :)

I wonder however of they actually ship to his location. He didn't give it, but I have a vague idea of where he is. It might be tough.
 
I do plenty of percussion tracks - played on the keyboard! I just don't find pads that expressive, or maybe it's me, but I can do my drums on the keys perfectly well, and if you get into drums with proper samplers, you'll find the constant remapping to make the right snare drum appear on the right pad a pain. So I can cope with a kick on a C, or B, or even Db, with the snare on one of three or four others around E...

I agree about playing drums on the keyboard. You can get VST software that has sampled orchestra sounds and most of them have a plethora of different drum sounds. They are mapped out on the keyboard for you and depending on how hard you hit the key, the drum sound corresponds to the impact.

I have a drummer friend who played "keyboard drums" on a song and he said it wasn't too bad. That coming from an actual drummer, isn't too bad of a review for this practice.

My midi keyboard has over 100 of it's own internal sounds. But, 99% of the time, I just use midi VSTs. I have various piano VSTs and can tweak them to my liking. One is pretty elaborate with how it has amtient pedal sounds, internal ambient soundboard sounds, along with reverb, different microphones and placement sounds, reverb, echo, flange...you name it. It allows me to save samples that sound like a piano as well as getting a bit out there, with different options.

Your Yamaha seems OK or a piano and a few other of the internal sounds...but the strings sound is a bit lame, in my opinion. This is where VSTs would be good. I don't know much about your keyboard. I know it has a USB connection, but don't know if it can be a midi keyboard or not.

You would be good to get familiar with midi, as that will allow you to be quite versatile.
 
I agree about playing drums on the keyboard. You can get VST software that has sampled orchestra sounds and most of them have a plethora of different drum sounds. They are mapped out on the keyboard for you and depending on how hard you hit the key, the drum sound corresponds to the impact.

I have a drummer friend who played "keyboard drums" on a song and he said it wasn't too bad. That coming from an actual drummer, isn't too bad of a review for this practice.

My midi keyboard has over 100 of it's own internal sounds. But, 99% of the time, I just use midi VSTs. I have various piano VSTs and can tweak them to my liking. One is pretty elaborate with how it has amtient pedal sounds, internal ambient soundboard sounds, along with reverb, different microphones and placement sounds, reverb, echo, flange...you name it. It allows me to save samples that sound like a piano as well as getting a bit out there, with different options.

Your Yamaha seems OK or a piano and a few other of the internal sounds...but the strings sound is a bit lame, in my opinion. This is where VSTs would be good. I don't know much about your keyboard. I know it has a USB connection, but don't know if it can be a midi keyboard or not.

You would be good to get familiar with midi, as that will allow you to be quite versatile.

Well i just want the Yamaha to do the piano stuff no less no more.
Wouldn’t that do the job?
Also aint im able to edit the sound from the DAW?

---------- Update ----------

i think the nektar lx 25+ would be perfect for you

Nektar Impact LX25+ Keyboard Controller | Sweetwater

Can you read this and help me ?
Best midi to get?
 
Sorry, I added up there for clarity and link. :)

I wonder however of they actually ship to his location. He didn't give it, but I have a vague idea of where he is. It might be tough.

Yes it might cost a lot to get it to here unfortunately thats why i cant choose the best midi since the shipping from amazon to here literally cost more than the midi itself.
Btw how much you need for the Akai?
 
Unfortunately, I'm probably not the one to ask what to get. All of my stuff is old and I'm sure there are new devices out there that will work better for you. The Yamaha sounds good as a piano, and if you can connect it to a DAW and record that sound, I'd say that is a good start. But, using it as a midi keyboard requires another box called an interface and a driver. I wonder if it was intended to be used as that.

I'm basing this solely on the review I watched on the Internet. Sadly, this review showed no connections at all on the back of the piano. My interface (the unit that connects to the midi keyboard and plays all of the VST sounds is connected to my computer via USB. My keyboard is connected to the interface via midi cables. Yep, I'm old school.

You'd need an interface that talks to the keyboard via a driver and produces the VST sounds when played on the keyboard. So, when you play a note, the keyboard would send midi info (note on and off and velocity) to the VST sound though the interface and its driver. That output then goes to your DAW. My interface is made by Tascam. It's so old, it's no longer made.

My guess is if your Yamaha can be a midi keyboard, you could get a pretty good interface without a lot of cash, as long as you aren't looking for too many bells and whistles. I've got another cheap Tascam interface that only has one stereo in and out. It would allow you to record one stereo track at a time. Sorry, it's also no longer made, but I'm sure there are others out there.

There are a lot of freebee VSTs out on the Internet, and you can also buy some really nice VST software that has orchestra, drums, organs, choirs, you name it.

Something to keep in mind with midi. You are just using your keyboard as a playing device. Everything else is in the interface, its driver and the VST sound module. And if your setup would be like mine, my internal sounds have to be sent to the DAW via a totally different path than the midi sounds are, because they are internal to the keyboard and not part of midi.

I hope I didn't confuse you. This was posted on a minimum of sleep. I'll quit rambling, and let someone who knows more about the current devices that are out.
 
Unfortunately, I'm probably not the one to ask what to get. All of my stuff is old and I'm sure there are new devices out there that will work better for you. The Yamaha sounds good as a piano, and if you can connect it to a DAW and record that sound, I'd say that is a good start. But, using it as a midi keyboard requires another box called an interface and a driver. I wonder if it was intended to be used as that.

I'm basing this solely on the review I watched on the Internet. Sadly, this review showed no connections at all on the back of the piano. My interface (the unit that connects to the midi keyboard and plays all of the VST sounds is connected to my computer via USB. My keyboard is connected to the interface via midi cables. Yep, I'm old school.

You'd need an interface that talks to the keyboard via a driver and produces the VST sounds when played on the keyboard. So, when you play a note, the keyboard would send midi info (note on and off and velocity) to the VST sound though the interface and its driver. That output then goes to your DAW. My interface is made by Tascam. It's so old, it's no longer made.

My guess is if your Yamaha can be a midi keyboard, you could get a pretty good interface without a lot of cash, as long as you aren't looking for too many bells and whistles. I've got another cheap Tascam interface that only has one stereo in and out. It would allow you to record one stereo track at a time. Sorry, it's also no longer made, but I'm sure there are others out there.

There are a lot of freebee VSTs out on the Internet, and you can also buy some really nice VST software that has orchestra, drums, organs, choirs, you name it.

Something to keep in mind with midi. You are just using your keyboard as a playing device. Everything else is in the interface, its driver and the VST sound module. And if your setup would be like mine, my internal sounds have to be sent to the DAW via a totally different path than the midi sounds are, because they are internal to the keyboard and not part of midi.

I hope I didn't confuse you. This was posted on a minimum of sleep. I'll quit rambling, and let someone who knows more about the current devices that are out.


Well yeah it doesn't have any connections on the back of it but it does under the piano (USB/Midi Port) which i guess is right to connect it with a pc, also i used to go to a studio with my friends that had the exact same piano and used to edit its note from his DAW (Pro Tools 10), and he also once changed the piano sound to bells sound and he indicated thatt he can do whatever with the sound.
Anyway if you by interface mean something like the Focusrite Scarlett Solo, i have one, what should it do with the piano ? would it be better connecting it to the Scarlett or directly to the pc?
And if it connects, will i be able to change the piano sound on my pc? I dont want any bells or something i just want to switch between Grand Piano sounds, will i be able?
For sounds and whistles and other instruments i will be getting a midi controller like the nektar or AKAI APK midi.
.
 
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