MIDI controller or synth?

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WagTheDog

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I'm mostly a guitarist but can play keyboards slightly......I'm looking to buy either a synth or a MIDI controller.....my interface is a MOTU 828mkII, the software is Sonar. With my previous synth, I would plug in the headphones and work on melodies.....I know that MIDI itself is event data and carries no "sound".....my question....let's say I buy a MIDI controller.........I go into the studio, turn on the computer, MOTU, and controller. What do I do to be able to hear the notes I'm playing thru my reference monitors (Event PS5's)?

If I go the MIDI controller route, 3 of the ones I'm looking at are the M-Audio Keystation Pro 88, M-Audio Axiom 61, and CME UF-8

What does the term MIDI-assignable mean in regards to these controller keyboards?

I know this is a basic MIDI question, but I'm pretty MIDI-challenged, and what little I learned about it was several years ago.

Thanks!
 
WagTheDog said:
What do I do to be able to hear the notes I'm playing thru my reference monitors?
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Go into your keyboards 'midi' or 'global' page, and find the 'Local On/Off' switch. Set it to 'Off'. This will break the connection between the keyboard and the sounds inside, effectively turning any keyboard into a controller keyboard. If you have a more basic model that doesn't have access to the Local On/Off from the front panel use Midiox, a shareware midi utility that everyone who works with midi on computers should have, to send continuous controller number 122 which will perform the Local On/Off function too. Then select a midi track and play your keyboard, making sure that the audio outputs are bussed into a mixer or other device that is connected to the monitors.
What does the term MIDI-assignable mean in regards to these controller keyboards?
Click to expand...
That refers to the sliders and their control over the program, the track parameters and any softsynths or other virtual instruments. Find a complete chart of midi cc (continuous controllers) here. For example, cc 7 is commonly used to control volume, cc 10 is commonly used to control pan position and cc 74 is commonly used to control the frequency of one of the filters. The more siliders, knobs and buttons you have the better off you are --- within reason, of course.

Here are links to two good articles on midi basics - part one and part two.



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Thanks for the reply....so, someone would buy a synth only for the onboard sounds since both the synth and controller are sending MIDI data out to the DAW? I guess you'd need routing to your monitors either way, right? A controller wouldn't have a headphone jack then, right?

Where does a softsynth come into all this and how is it "mapped", just as an output device in your software?

Thanks again!
 
Newer synths will generally be able to serve both purposes. They will have their own sound engine but the synths hardware controls also send midi commands and can be freely assignable also to control software controls. So you can use your on board sounds via headphone mix and also plug it in as a controller where you are controlling soft synths and so forth. Soft synths work just like hardware synths, just route midi input to the synths in port and off you go.
 
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