Fatar Studiologic SL-880 PRO HELP!!!

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ssejeel

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:confused: Ok, I play the piano and don't have one, so my husband wanted to do something nice for me and bought me a keyboard. He doesn't know anything about keyboards and neither do I and he bought the FATAR SL-880 PRO 88 KEY CONTROLLER KEYBOARD. I have no idea how to use this. I guess it needs to be hooked up to the computer to be used, but for now, the only thing I want to be able to do with it is play it and hear the music.

I guess this is a midi device and know nothing about them. Can someone give me a simplified explenation as to what this keyboard is and how can I use it to just play music at home. Does it need to be hooked up to the computer? Can I buy speakers for it? Does it need some kind of special software other than what it comes with to be able to use it?

Thanks for any help!!! :o
 
This is a midi controller. It does not output any sound at all, it outputs midi commands.

You would use this either with other midi-capable keyboards or a computer.

For us to help you set it up, we would need to know what gear you want to use this with. Do you have any synths or samplers? Modules? Computer with soft synths?

ssejeel said:
:confused: Ok, I play the piano and don't have one, so my husband wanted to do something nice for me and bought me a keyboard. He doesn't know anything about keyboards and neither do I and he bought the FATAR SL-880 PRO 88 KEY CONTROLLER KEYBOARD. I have no idea how to use this. I guess it needs to be hooked up to the computer to be used, but for now, the only thing I want to be able to do with it is play it and hear the music.

I guess this is a midi device and know nothing about them. Can someone give me a simplified explenation as to what this keyboard is and how can I use it to just play music at home. Does it need to be hooked up to the computer? Can I buy speakers for it? Does it need some kind of special software other than what it comes with to be able to use it?

Thanks for any help!!! :o
Click to expand...
 
Basicly, the easiest way to get you going is getting a cheap midi module. This is a box that can be seen as the part of a keyboard that holds all the sounds. The fatar is a very good midi controller, which is the keys part of a keyboard.

If you only want a piano sound, this is a quick quality list, from best to worst:
1 - Grand Piano
2 - Upright Piano
3 - Software Piano plugins (you need a computer for this)
4 - Electric Piano ("stage" piano)
5 - Midi module + Controller (the latter you just got)
6 - Keyboard

So if you already have a real piano or an electric piano, you will only get a cheaper sound, that's a bit easier to carry. The real power of a product like the fatar is the ability to have some decent keys below your fingers, that can produce any kind of instrument (using a good midi module or even better, a computer) at any time. That's where midi shines. A controller on it's own, does nothing. You must connect to something that holds the sounds using a midi cable (aka. DIN cable).
 
I have a computer that I could hook up to this system. Do you have any suggestions as to what type of program I could use to play with it? Thanks for all of your help!
 
Cool :)
You'll need this:
http://www.musicmall.com/cmp/TutorialImages/sbmid.jpg
This cable connects your fatar to your computer. You can read this page to gain a bit of insight:
http://www.musicmall.com/cmp/article6.htm

Your fatar sends only midi data, which is basicly the musical data played, instead of the actual audio you want to year. So when you press the C note, it sends information like "Note C, so and so loud, for so and so long". This is information that computer programs can use to play back corresponding audio files.

There are many, many good "Virtual Instruments" (aka VSTi) out there, that sound like anything between here and the end of the universe. A good start is the Edirol SuperQuarted package. This package lets you play all kinds of pianos (acoustical, rhodes, whurlitzer etc.), as well as guitars, basses and drums. It sound good to great.

Then you will need a program to "host" the VSTi. There are free ones out there, like this one:
http://www.tobybear.de/p_minihost.html
Minihost is a small freeware VSTi host. You can load up 1 instrument and select a midi input signal that will control the VSTi. You can't record anything, like with more expensive hosts (like Cubase, Logic, ProTools), but it works great for simple playing.
 
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