Stupid Questions about [Music] Keyboards

L

Lord Maelstrom

Registered
On the Garage Band Accessories page at apple.com, it shows two keyboards.
I'm looking at the $199 one. Its labeled as a MIDI keyboard controller, and I'm wondering if that is different than a synthesizer?
I was looking at keyboards where you choose from different instruments/sounds out of a mini-library.
Also how does a controller and/or synthesizer work with Garage Band? (I know it's not currently availaible, so this may not have an answer)

[Totally vague question, if you understood it pat yourself on the back]
[I really know nothing about any of this, but I'm planning on learnin about all this stuff soon]
 
I'm not 100% sure, but I think a synthesizer has built-in synthetic sounds, and is able to produce guitar, piano, drum, etc. sounds without any additional hardware or software.

A MIDI keyboard controller would have absolutely no use without software to synthesize a sound when you hit a key.

In short, I believe a MIDI keyboard needs software to produce different instrument or synthesized sounds. A synthesizer, on the other hand, has many synthesized sounds built-it, negating the need for an "interpreter" like GarageBand.

Again, this is a complete guess and I'd like to know the definitive answer as well...
 
A synthesizer actually creates sound. They can have speakers built it, or have outputs to connect to speakers.

A MIDI keyboard controller is just buttons, keys, and knobs. It is unable to produce any sounds, it is used purely as an input device for software to create the sounds. Basically the computer software is it's library of sounds.

Now, many synths also have MIDI support, and can be used as a MIDI controller, but tend not to be as versitle as dedicated MIDI controllers for it's MIDI input.

MIDI itself is Musical Instrument Digital Interface, basically, it's a protocol for controlling musical software. http://www.midi.com is a good site to go to for more information, and will go into as much detail as you'd like :)

Brian
 
Unless you have a lot of money to spend, get a midi controller keyboard. The synths for the same money don''t have any good sounds anyway, you'd have to spend several hundred dollars to get a decent synth (maybe a virus indigo or the ubiquitous jv 1080).
The midicontroller can be used to trigger a variety of types of sounds, such as sound fonts, software synthesizers, synths attached to soundcards, or even triggering samplers whether they be hardware or software ones.

good luck
 
Awesome.

So a midi-control makes no sound, and a synthesizer has all the sounds built in allowing it to produce sound.

With Garage Band or other software, I'd plug the MIDI controller in to my Mac. Would I then be able to select an instrument from the software (it has all the instruments and whatnot) and play it from the keyboard? (Using the software instrument to act as the sound for the mute controller)
 
Lord Maelstrom said:
With Garage Band or other software, I'd plug the MIDI controller in to my Mac. Would I then be able to select an instrument from the software (it has all the instruments and whatnot) and play it from the keyboard? (Using the software instrument to act as the sound for the mute controller)
Click to expand...

You hit the nail on the head :)

Brian
 
Lord, that's exactly what Steve Jobs and John Mayer did in the keynote presentation demoing GarageBand. Steve selected various tracks, and John played on the keyboard, and each track played a different instrument. It works the same with audio input tracks, like for a guitar.
 
Having a midi-controller keyboard will also be very useful if you move beyond garageband to much more serious music packages like logic (or cubase). Roland used to do some cheap ones for around $100 which my friends have, but i can't seem to find them right now.
 
Lord Maelstrom said:
On the Garage Band Accessories page at apple.com, it shows two keyboards.
I'm looking at the $199 one. Its labeled as a MIDI keyboard controller, and I'm wondering if that is different than a synthesizer?
I was looking at keyboards where you choose from different instruments/sounds out of a mini-library.
Also how does a controller and/or synthesizer work with Garage Band? (I know it's not currently availaible, so this may not have an answer)

[Totally vague question, if you understood it pat yourself on the back]
[I really know nothing about any of this, but I'm planning on learnin about all this stuff soon]
Click to expand...

Lord...see my post in this thread (Bossa Nova) http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40286

Maybe the info will help.
 
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