Midi keyboards .. which do you use, which are good?

[Giaguara]

iLife with the Garage Band will be out 16th Jan. So it feels like a good time to review some musical equipment .. especailly keyboards.

Which do you use? Which do think are good / really good? And which is your relation to music .. hobby, just like it, professional etc? If you have experience in many keyboards, more suggestions are welcome of course (something that isn't very expensive, and something that you like a lot).Of course, the keyboard (and other equipment) should be OS X compatible.

In the keynote presentation they used a M-Audio 49e USB Midi Keystation. At Apple Store the price is 99 $ (+ tax); bobw showed me today ecost.com having the exact same model for less (65$). Very hard to resist ... even though I haven't played with it yet. Does anyone have that model yet (or have played with it in the Apple Store)? Is it nice with touch? .. I might get one for a birthday present for someone .. or just for fun

 

[nixgeek]

Well, the keyboard that I have at home is a Kawai K4 synth. It's not the latest and greatest, but it was the best bang for the buck I could afford in 1994. :-D It does have MIDI in/out/thru, and it does have attack velocity sensitivity. But what I thought was kind of cool (especially back when I bought it) was that the K4 had release velocity, which means that depending on how quickly your fingers lifted off the keys, there would be a different degree of decay/release. You could also map the release velocity to the DCF, and vary the degree of Q on the DCF.

I still use it for most everyday sequencing, but once my PowerBook G4 12" order comes in from work, GarageBand will be the first thing I test with it. ;-)

BTW, here's a link to information on the Kawai K4 synth.

 

[bossa nova]

I have an el cheapo Roland with touch sensitivity. It doesn't have a lot of keys but it does allow me to transpose so I can work around range issues.

There are a lot of really neat products that now have midi that you may want to check out. I saw this drum pad thing a couple of months ago that was a toy and almost fell down when I saw that it included a midi output jack.

You will probably laugh but try going to a toy store and seeing what they have there. Also quite a few of the new pianos' for home/consumer use now have some all-in-one's (with sequencing and speakers built-in) that have really nice feeling keyboards...and they are incredibly cheap.

 

[Giaguara]

Hmm.. maybe worth having a look on toysrus too then.
I think though if that m-audio thing has a nice touch it will be good - as far as I've seen even the toy ones start at 50 $ ..

nixgeek, you have an awesome avatar.

 

[bossa nova]

Hmm.. maybe worth having a look on toysrus too then.
I think though if that m-audio thing has a nice touch it will be good - as far as I've seen even the toy ones start at 50 $ ..

nixgeek, you have an awesome avatar.

the m-audio stuff looks really good. seems like they are trying to do good work for low prices. i like that.

 

[nixgeek]

Hmm.. maybe worth having a look on toysrus too then.
I think though if that m-audio thing has a nice touch it will be good - as far as I've seen even the toy ones start at 50 $ ..

nixgeek, you have an awesome avatar.

Why, thank you. Actually, I should give credit to the Slackintosh project. I figured the avatar would fit since I love Linux, I love the Mac, I love Slackware, and I love running Linux on the Mac as well. I haven't tried Slackintosh just yet, but maybe once that PowerBook comes in, I will play a bit with it.

Yes, OS X is great, but the geek in me can't help but tinker with such great hardware.

The K4 does have it's cons, though. One is that the pitch wheel does step if the pitch is made to bend too high. Another is that MIDI transmits are a bit slow, but they are only noticeable if you do glissandos. Your hand will already be completing the glissando while the sound follows right behind it for about a fraction-of-a-second enough to notice it. I've found ways to work around this, but it does get to you after a while.

Regardless, I do love this synth, and if you can pick it up used it's a great axe. In it's day, it was a welcome change from the dry sampled sounds of the korg M1 (although they were great too). It also does some simple AM synthesis with the samples, allowing you to generate some interesting sounds.

BTW, I've also played around with the K5, which is a bit older than the K4. The K5 was a true additive synth, as opposed to analog synths and most sample-playback synths which used subtractive synthesis through filters. Here's a link to the K5. A very cool synth, and a wonderful keyboard feel.

 

[boi]

if you're getting into recording/composing and will be using something like garageband, i suggest the roland PC-70 midi controller and a midi-USB converter. that's roughly $120 in stuff, and should be quite enough. if you don't already have a good set of speakers, those would be a great investment as well. i'm no speaker, expert, though... i use headphones (i live with other people =P).

 

[monktus]

My flatmate has Evolution and m-audio Oxygen controller keyboards (the m-audio is a small portable one). They're both pretty decent and not too expensive - full size keys, USB and MIDI out, assignable knobs and fader. Anything with MIDI out or USB will do, although as boi says, if your keyboard doesn't have USB you'll need a MIDI interface.

I agree about the speakers too, although the trick is to get your mix sounding as good as possible with speakers that suck, then your mix will sound good on anything. Having said that though, it's useful to have something that will give you a good representation of what you've done so if you've got a decent hifi, use it. Just don't get lulled into a false sense of security

 

[nixgeek]

if you're getting into recording/composing and will be using something like garageband, i suggest the roland PC-70 midi controller and a midi-USB converter. that's roughly $120 in stuff, and should be quite enough. if you don't already have a good set of speakers, those would be a great investment as well. i'm no speaker, expert, though... i use headphones (i live with other people =P).

I do agree. The Roland PC series of MIDI keyboard controllers are great, and they are thin enough to fit in small spaces. I remember when I was taking some classes in MIDI how good they were. Mind you, the feel leaves something to be desired, but I've been spoiled by the pro synths out there. But I would get one in a heartbeat only because it's a spacesaver, and if you have a software synth, especially like GarageBand has (which is what I gathered from the keynote), then you're sound as a pound.