Choosing a midi controller

[pennylink]

Could you make any recommendations on choosing a midi controller? My budget tops out at $100 (used is OK).

I record acoustic/electric guitar and bass via Aardvark Q10 interface into Sonar 2.2 on my PIII/800 PC with 512 RAM and dual hard drives, and use acidized drum and percussion loops.

I would like to start including other soft instruments/samples into my recordings, but I'm not a keyboard player, so I would like to keep it pretty basic! My Q10 has one midi in/out.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[tomb]

Hey, i know you said 100, but i just got a m-audio radium 61 key midi controller off ebay for 150. it in my mind, is perfect. i record acoustic stuff as well, and have been adding cello, violin and soft synths like mad. It is a 299.00 keyboard, but ebay rules. I looked at some of the other cheap ones, and none had the features i was wanting. So you really need to decide what it is your wanting to acomplish with it. Maybe for you, you dont need all the faders and knobs like i was wanting. Im sure this not the information you where wanting, but ive decided that all the times i tried to set a budget i ended up spending more then what i wanted to get the features i wanted. i bought an amp recently, i wanted to spend 800. i ened up spending 1300 getting a mesa boogie dual rect. so just keep in mind that somtimes its better to spend a bit more then planed to get what ya need, instead of spending less, and then havign to go back later and upgrade. good luck. just keep your eyes on ebay. tom

 

[pennylink]

Tomb, nice to see you helping out a fellow Tennessean... see you're in Memphis, home of a lot of music history! I'm up the road in Nashville.

I appreciate you're advice. I had started looking at various "low-end" controllers such as the Roland PC-200, and offerings by Studiologic and Evolution. I'll certainly take a closer look at Radium 61 now. I'm assuming I could simply connect it via midi cable to my interface, without having to use USB?

Thanks again.

 

[tomb]

yes, you can use the midi, but i use the usb. its pretty sweet. i do it that way because it allows me to not need a power cable. do you have any of your stuff online? i always love to hear local, or near local music.

 

[pennylink]

Nothing online yet, haven't really looked into how to do that and I don't have my own website...

 

[tomb]

whats your e-mail address, i can send ya just some rough cuts of stuff im doing now with my radium. i love it man. it is great.

 

[anppilot1]

I'm personnally inlove with my Roland JW-50 as a master controller for one reason. It has a "16 channel MIDI mixer"

I can do fade ins/outs, pan l/r, and alot more just by sliding a slider. No more drawing in fades for this guy !!!


used prices 150-400 dollars


Mike