Midi Controller Vs. Keyboard!!?!?!?!?!?

[J-malice]

aight my friend wants to buy a midi controller. and i wanted to tell him that a keyboard with midi ports is basicly the same thing but ima check wit yall first...whats the advantages of gettin an actul midi controller over a keyboard with midi ports?? the only thing i can think of is the a midi controll mite have some knobs to tweak the sound maybe, im not sure. holla back.

 

[vitaminman]

Hey,

The BIG difference is that the keyboard will have sounds on it! You can get keyboards that have knobs and sliders on them as well as a synth engine...if you get a simple controller, it will only have the keys and knobs/sliders.

Take care,

Nick

 

[bigdmakintrax]

I have the Radium 49 by M-audio, this is perfect...it has usb and midi plus 9 sliders, modulation and pitch bender with all of the standard buttons for assignable fx......with the availability of sounds, samples and software this baby kicks ass....I had keyboards but had to liquidate all of the hardware I had now I am building it back up....but I think I will stay with the controller......back in the day I used one of those older quick shot controllers that came with cakewalk home studio but I used to use pro audio 9 with it to control all of my gear then........anyhow I think the keyboard might be limited with the soundset, I grew tired of my Motif and Triton LE sounds.....working with a controller gives you access to a lot more sounds and samples because it is only limited by what you have on your computer.....like samples, soundfont collections, VST and dxi plugins...

 

[Deez]

The worst investment you can make is a keyboard, not to triton... oooups I meant to say mention any names. If you buy a fat controller.. ex: "Radium 49 by M-audio" like my man Big, or the lower Evolution MK series like myself. You see Keyboard sounds tend to sound... uuuum how can I say it... bubble gum like (if you know what I mean), great for performance such as doing neat Beach Boy covers and such(no pun intended). My friend bought himself a Triton workstation (almost $5000can) and only uses it as a controller these days. It was fun while it lasted, but soon got played out by 94,157 other beat makers. If your friend is/was willing to spend a couple thousand dollars the fattest setup would be a an Evolution MK-225C (two octaves... expandable to 81 keys) and plug that in to an MPC 4000(go to www.ebay.com, you can find one relatively new for under two g'z).

Keep it Mont Real baybee...
Dz

 

[dacalion]

Like Nick said " the big difference is the keyboard will have sounds built in" or something to that nature. Just as the sounds on keyboards get played out, so does software programs. I suggest that he evaluates his system and figure out which would be more beneficial to it and to his needs. The trick isn't staying away from whats "played out" or not, the trick is taking those sounds and having the ability to modify them to something new and fresh.

--dac

 

[Deez]

If you'd know what a Triton is, you'd probably understand what I meant.
Quoting myself:
"You see Keyboard sounds tend to sound... uuuum how can I say it... bubble gum like (if you know what I mean), great for performance such as doing neat Beach Boy covers and such(no pun intended)."

 

[J-malice]

yea i know tritons, i just got one last month, i think its tite, well im makin some tite shit wit it so that all that matters i guess. but yea i think the controller would probably serve him more justice, cuz he's more of a software person, so thanks fo da n-fo.

 

[Ash Holmz]

i say go wit da midi controller unless ur gonna get a real dope sythn like a v sythn or mini mooog or vintage gear.. just a worksatation like a triton is not a very sound investment wwhe there is all these new software and hardware modules coming out every day... for price of new triton u can get a nice conteoller with a crapload of vst or a few harware ound modules that can kick tritons ass with the "out the box" sounds