Some Basic Midi Questions

[Aled_King]

This is about midi, but I am a newbie to it; so I thought this may be the most appropriate place to post this.

I am looking to get a Midi Keyboard and was basically hoping to get some helpful advice from you fine people. This will be my first midi item, and I was just wondering what I need to look for.

I think I will only need 25 - 49 keys. I will mostly be using it for laying down drum, bass, piano and eventually strings on my songs in Reaper.
Will I need more keys than that for these sort of functions?
Will I have to run them through a sequencer, or do midi keyboards come with their own onboard sounds, which should be sufficient for a beginner?

Any help or advise from you lot would be greatly appreciated.

Aled

 

[Norris Shepherd]

Heya.. I'm no MIDI pro, but i'll give ya what i know. And let anyone who knows better correct me/set me straight. lol

I have a M-Audio Axiom 49 key. Use it for drums, piano, and hopefully strings someday.

There is a transpose (+ or -) key, so if i need higher or lower ranges, i can still get them.

There are no 'internal sounds' for MIDI controllers. They just send out data, to be interpreted by .. um.. whatever. Mostly interpreted by computers, DAW's, sequencers, etc.

Once the MIDI 'notes' (data or codes) are in the DAW, you can easily change it from organ sounds, piano, flute, or whatever. Virtual instruments also make use of this data.

I use jamstix as a vst for drums, so basically it takes the data and triggers drum samples in Cubase.

For myself, i wanted a controller with a few 'pads' on it to be able to use for drums. You can use the keys for drums, but with the 'travel' of they keys, it's not quite the same as playing 'finger drums' with the pads. That could just be me though.

 

[gecko zzed]

Will I need more keys than that for these sort of functions?

You could get by with 25 keys, but you will find it a lot easier having a greater range, and I'd be inclined to look at 49 keys. Later on, you will probably find this is not enough . . . but that's for another day.

Will I have to run them through a sequencer, or do midi keyboards come with their own onboard sounds, which should be sufficient for a beginner?

There are two main types of keyboards you can get; those with onboard sounds and those without.

The quality of onboard sounds depends on the quality of the keyboard, which in turn determines the price. However, there are reasonably cheap Yamahas and Casios which have got workable sounds on them, and will get you going. Once you have become more familiar with midi, you are likely to be dissatisfied with the sounds, at which time you can start thinking about hardware sound modules or computer VST instruments.

Keyboards without sounds are intended to be used with modules or VST. Your computer is likely to have a general midi wavetable in it, and you can use a 'dumb' keyboard to drive this. However, these midi sounds are generally not very good, and you can also experience considerable latency when you use them.

 

[Nick98338]

I have an Edirol PCR-300 with 32 keys. I've never needed more keys. It does have the +/- function to increase/change the octave range. I can even "split" the keyboard and have half be very low and half very hi. I use a synth named Independence Free (VST) for drum tracks. It's, well.. it's free! It does make some very good drum sounds. For keys, bass, strings I use Sample Tank (VST). That has some very nice sounds also. And, I use some "synthesized" sounds with various VST synthesizers.

 

[Aled_King]

Thanks for you help so far.

Well I was looking for one on a budget of around £100. I was looking at getting the M-Audio 61es Keystation. I think I'd like to get one with slightly more keys, so I don't outgrow it too quickly.

With regards to on-board sounds or not- I think I would rather have them if possible; as I am assuming that decent VST's for Piano and Bass etc will be expensive.

Could any of you recommend one for me?

Thanks