MIDI Controller Help

[gabehwkns]

Hey guys! I am interested in using a MIDI controller in order to record some synth and piano parts for my songs since I'm into recording alternative rock tracks. I'm completely new to using MIDI, so I was wondering if any of you fine people had a recommendation for a nice MIDI controller that will produce some quality sound without breaking my wallet. I have an old CASIO keyboard that I really like (doesn't support MIDI unfortunately) but that is the only brand I currently have experience with when it comes to keyboards and such. Thanks in advance for any advice.

EDIT: Apologies if this is in the wrong place. While browsing after posting this, Keyboard and Sound Modules section may be a better fit.

 

[c7sus]

MIDI is essentially a digital piano roll. Most folks around here would consider a MIDI controller to just transmit or receive MIDI commands and not have internal sounds. Meaning, a MIDI controller would trigger samples either from a soft synth or an analog monosynth or drum machine or whatever MIDI-compatible sound source.

Yamaha, Roland, Korg, etc all make various keyboards with internal sounds to hit various price points. Another alternative is to use VST soft synths that can either be bundled with recording software or used standalone. There are literally tons of them, from analog synth emulators to sample programs that play back recorded samples as WAV or rex or .sfz files or other file types. There are also a bunch of freeware VST soft synths. Hammond organ emulators, various electronic keyboards, digital subtractive synths, drum emulators, etc.

I would try doing a search for software pianos and maybe check out Youtube to see if there are user videos of them in use. You are somewhat limited by the power of the host computer when using soft synths but there are ways of freezing soft synths so you can stack lots of them into any single recording.

Cakewalk (owned by Roland) has a couple pretty powerful synths in the Dimension Pro and ZETA+2. Dim Pro is sample based with software FX and ZETA+2 is digital emulation of analog subtractive synthesis.

Once you figure out if you want a MIDI controller or full-on workstation-type with internal sounds I would seriously look at Craigslist. There are a lot of really great deals available in the used market these days and you can save a ton of money on either a controller or synth if you shop around and know what you are looking for.

Good luck whichever way you decide to go.