Midi keyboards?

[Sharp]

Lookin at you producer bitches

I actually have semi professional uses so I can justify that and a setup to a computer. Any recommendations on models/input jawns?

@uh-oh @kannon @boof @2tripple0 @anyone but Genocide

[uh-oh]

no need to justify the need. its cool to play with in general lol

it all comes down to what you are trying to do really, and your price range.

are you looking for it to come with preloaded sounds? (not necessarry and i would advise against it. there are literally thousands of virtual instruments that you can get for free or torrent.)

as for pure controllers, if you're looking to spend as little money as possible, look at the alesis series

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keybo...board&index=14

i've got the 25 in my closet. since i got the mpc i don't use it, and i never really got the hang of playing keys enough for them to be in my workflow. still cool to play with though.

also m-audio is decent, the only reason i recommend alesis is its the same shit. neither have weighted keys, both function exactly the same, the alesis is just cheaper in each tier, usually. (25, 49, 61, 88) i've had m-audio controllers and alesis. the only two i've had.

now if you know how to play keys, like in the both hands sense i'd recommend at least a 61 key model. the 49 is serviceable as well for alot of stuff but if you want the piano experience the more the better. i have the 25 now because i'm a one chord at a time + key poker type dude, i don't need to be playing chords with one hand WHILE poking. all these keyboards will come with the octave switch thing, so the 25, represents 25 keys at a time, you hit the + sign and it makes it the next 25 keys and so on.

now if you're willing to drop more than 200 and want it to be DOPE

you gotta look into weighted keys. at least semi weighted make a huge difference, espescially when playing rhodes sounds and organs and shit. with pianos you can find the velocities easier but if you want real milky smooth shit your gonna need real feel keys. well not NEED but it makes it easier.

as far as that goes i have no personal experience outside of messing with them at guitar center lol. so i can't really help there

but yea

basically just make sure what you get has full size keys, semi weighted and fully weighted keys are better than regular keyboard keys but also those keyboards are more expensive, and don't worry about it coming with sounds. i can point you in the direction of more sounds than you will ever use at a professional level

[uh-oh]

if i was to have any keyboard out there it would be

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keybo...ard-controller

the only problem with that is if you're dropping 1000 on that keyboard, you should drop 1000 on KOMPLETE, which it syncs too completely. you basically control the whole software with the keyboard, similair to native instruments maschine, just with keys not pads. that said you can find versions of KOMPLETE on torrent sites, its just hundreds of GB's, so you basically need to set aside an entire hard drive for it, and i'm not sure if its compatible with older versions of komplete, you might need the newest one. either way it still functions as a regular midi controller so you don't need komplete but if you have that and don't have komplete its a waste of a few hundred bucks

that said, if i was to get just a regular keyboard, with my own software and sounds provided, and i wanted 88 keys with dope action

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keybo...Oxygen&index=4

the keys feel great on that^ thats the one i messed with last time at guitar center, just lightly hitting a chord on the stock rhodes sample it was hooked up too was like whatttttttttt. the keys felt great. so thats 600.

so in summary if i was you, and i was looking to spend a smaller amount of money assuming you want a giant keyboard i'd get the alesis q88 or the m-audio keystation 88 or whatever there cheap versions called now. both have full sized velocity sensitive keys. both function exactly the same, both around 200 dollars.

if i wanted to go all out mid range i'd get the m-audio oxygen 88. only the 88 key version has the dope hammer action keys though. the oxygen 25/49/61 try to make up for it with janky pads that make no sense. only the 88 is worth it, otherwise get one of the cheaper options. but word for 600 gets you as good of a midi keyboard as money can buy

now if you want the top of the line type shit, there are other high end midi keyboards, but they will be that, midi keyboards, like controllers, that you will have to manually assign knobs and sliders and etc too, OR you can get that native instruments komplete kontrol 88 key for 1000, and i think komplete is somewhere between 600 and 1000, depending on the version. so 1600-2000.

so after another long winded post, if i was to buy one today i'd go mid range and grab the m-audio oxygen 88 for 600. (if i didnt have the 600, i'd get one of the 200 dollar models mentioned above.)

then buy another desk or stand to put the giant thing on lol

[Finnydot]

Yeah, uh oh is right. It's not nearly about what the midi controller is and more about what you're trying to use it with.

Reason has a built in midi controller so I can use my computer keyboard as a keyboard. Sometimes I miss not having an actual midi controller but, meh... I'm not musically trained so it's whatever.

https://soundcloud.com/isaac-meyer-3/the-return

All sounds except for the drums and bass were original. I started with a stock loop from Reason i'd heard a thousand times but was high enough to build something completely original around it.

Even the vocals that I was doing I was able to bend and pitch them with my regular computer keyboard.

[Sharp]

dope, thanks guys

personally I play keys alright. I gave piano lessons for a few years to make a little cash but I was always just a few lessons ahead of my best students lol. I learned on a crappy electric organ from the 70s without weighted keys so I'm actually a little more comfortable with that... I know weighted is better but if all other parts are equal I'll save the cash

but what I'm looking at doing is generally for rough recording of arrangements to send to people and some actual music making, the most extreme would be making simple dub beats to get to a few local reggae guys (making that jamacian radio scrilla) (its literally nothing)

I'll check out those brands you mentioned, and programs, right now I'm working with audacity and a line 6 toneport w/ quarter inch inputs lol

probably gonna cop a 49 key controller and run it through Reason. thanks bros @uh-oh @Infinity Tha rellik

[uh-oh]

word reason and a midi is a safe bet. reason has tons of dope sounds too, through "refills" which i assume are just vst plugins made for reason. i think you have to buy refills though? but im sure you could torrent some as well. it comes with a base set of sounds though, so you would just get refills for variety

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keybo...ard-controller

80 bucks^. can't go wrong, like i said i've got the 25 its literally the same thing with just less keys, and i've used the m-audio keystations before too which are the same thing, just different brand and aesthetics

if you need any help just holla. finny uses reason and knows it in and out, but if you need any general help i'm around

[The Dead Poet]

I use the mpk 49. pretty affordable and solid. I've been getting the itch to buy native instruments komplete controller, even though I swore I wouldn't because of the price.

[Finnydot]

Reason is cool, but like uh oh said, it doesn't use the standard vst format that everyone else does. They do have plug-ins now with reason 8, but I can't verify if those are cross format.

If I ever upgrade to reason 8 then I'll let you know.

[Sharp]

tried an alesis without weighted keys and it felt like ass

sprung for the v125

http://alesis.com/products/legacy/vi25


I'll try to torrent reason after I screw around a bit and then i'll nag @uh-oh til you hate music

thanks for the input gents

[TeckNeek]

Axiom 49 is dope as fuck..
try that one.

[uh-oh]

word bro looks pretty dope. i don't know the ins and outs of reason like i'm sure finny does but i'll help where i can

i know FL studio isnt pretty or ILLUSTRIOUS, but i do know the ins and outs of that, and could teach you how to assign the pads to the fpc, and how to assign the knobs to mixer tracks and other parameters in FL as well but admittedly reason is a little more friendly to compositions. at least thats what i hear, i'm trash at it either way lol

also another program, that that comes with, ableton, is pretty big now. when i was getting started all there was, was like FL studio 6 and some early archaic form of reason lol. but nowadays more people probably use ableton, and other programs too.

but word, just try em all, and whichever one you end up liking the most stick with it

[Finnydot]

Thing about uh oh is he's done a lot of sampling, but not a whole lot of original beats.

You may think I'm the worst person on the planet, but I've made a shit ton of original beats.

https://soundcloud.com/isaac-meyer-3/before-i-get-rich

original

https://soundcloud.com/isaac-meyer-3/lay-you-down

original

and then i've done a lot of sampling, with original layers

https://soundcloud.com/isaac-meyer-3/when-you-leave

I'm not saying anything against uh oh. That's my guy right there, but when it comes to keys that man is retarded. Even tho i've told him several times it wouldn't be that hard for him to do what i do.

He does what he does better than I do, that's for sure. That man can program the fuck outta some drums and has a way better idea of what to do and where to go for old soul music.

But if you're gonna do originals, reason is my favorite since it's all inclusive and shit.

There was a torrent of reason 5 going around, now that kat.cr is gone I dunno if you're gonna be able to find one with a working CD key.

[TeckNeek]

https://www.demonoid.pw/top_torrents.php

[TeckNeek]

https://www.demonoid.pw/top_torrents.php

demonoid is a good spot for torrents

[Sharp]

Originally Posted by uh-oh

word bro looks pretty dope. i don't know the ins and outs of reason like i'm sure finny does but i'll help where i can

i know FL studio isnt pretty or ILLUSTRIOUS, but i do know the ins and outs of that, and could teach you how to assign the pads to the fpc, and how to assign the knobs to mixer tracks and other parameters in FL as well but admittedly reason is a little more friendly to compositions. at least thats what i hear, i'm trash at it either way lol

also another program, that that comes with, ableton, is pretty big now. when i was getting started all there was, was like FL studio 6 and some early archaic form of reason lol. but nowadays more people probably use ableton, and other programs too.

but word, just try em all, and whichever one you end up liking the most stick with it

I actually been using a producer edition of FL one of my college buddies hooked me up with years ago from time to time. What you just described is fucking perfect cause thats exactly what I want to do


@Infinity Tha rellik for original shit I'm a decent keyboard player and I'm really trying to learn the connecting to computer/technology/sampling part of this. I generally fuck around with guitar and the result is something like this

https://soundcloud.com/alex-dragonet...-rough/s-BPteR

my ongoing 'creative' goals really work well with audacity - I can play around with beat/rhythm in subdivisions that aren't really measurable (the drums are literally just being placed but it kind of gives you the idea) which sucks for most hip hop and dance beats lol

but yeah, I'll dig around the internet really quick so I'm not way too far behind then try getting this into fl


unless it turns out @TeckNeek has his shit down and I'll try reason

[Finnydot]

Yo that shit you just linked me was actually pretty dope for a rough start. I like the chord progression. That's where I usually get fucked up is progressing my shit more than a 2 chord beat. I'm not musically trained but if I got 2 chords that usually gives me a scale I can work with that gives me room to play in.

Like I said, I liked the first 4 chords and then you progressed it even further, but those were more like a bridge to me. If you made that shit available to DL i can try fucking with it, but I don't have any headphones right now so I can't guarantee anything.

[Sharp]

it's downloadable now

and I'm tryna shake conventions... the length of chord progressions, the actual chord changes (it starts out really basic so I can screw with it), a bunch of shit within rhythm, form, etc

I'm a bit of a musical burnout lol

[Finnydot]

i'll see if i can fuck with it

[Finnydot]

ldksflgjsdf

[Amen]

Stfu, your material is barsuda.