midi keyboard or midi controller

[paranoid666]

I'm new to this game of trying to make music.At the moment I'm using reason 2.5 and when I get the hang of that I am going to purchase a copy of Sonar.
I just want to know what would be better suited to my needs.A midi keyboard or midi controller.I was thinking of getting a edirol pcr 30.

[Mika Silo]

Hey i'm quite new too, and since i dont have a lot of money i'd have to carefully choose what im gonna buy next. Im not such a melodic :eh: man, so i'd rather be turning knobs and drawing notes in my sequencer. Offcourse its possible to control midi with the pcr 30, but i would rather buy a better midi controller with more knobs etc.. but thats just my opinion :lol:

mika

[EmotionComplex]

Hey i'm quite new too, and since i dont have a lot of money i'd have to carefully choose what im gonna buy next. Im not such a melodic :eh: man, so i'd rather be turning knobs and drawing notes in my sequencer. Offcourse its possible to control midi with the pcr 30, but i would rather buy a better midi controller with more knobs etc.. but thats just my opinion :lol:

mika

i think its a good idea to find something that caters for control and keys, even if your not playing a lot of melodies etc i use my keyboard a lot of tapping in rhythms in realtime.

Im using a 4 octave controller with 12 assignable knobs, suits me fine but i suppose it depends on how you want to work, the novation control looks very good for lots of control options

[Mika Silo]

i like that rhythm tapping thing you mentioned :), im gonna think it over again. And that pcr 30 does look cool! I've read it's price is below 250 (euro that is offcourse ;)) So even I could afford it! Cheers!

[paranoid666]

I think I'm gonna go for the edirol pcr 30.You can pick one up from digital village for £125 which isn't to bad and then maybe in a years time I'll pick up a midi controller.

[DJZeMig_L]

Check out the evolution controller range they r preatty reasonably priced!!

If it was me I would save some more and get me a Remote 25 by Novation!! I have 1 and it rocks... If u don't have a resonable soundcard u can even save up some more and get a Remote audio 25!! ;)

Z

[paranoid666]

I was thinking of getting the remote 25 but I came across this on a forum and it put me off.

If you're planning to buy one of these and use the accompanying windows usb drivers, i.e. use it as a usb midi interface, think again.

Novation have completely failed to write a decent driver or provide any useful customer support. The problems are detailed fairly extensively on steinberg.net. After restling with it for a while I took it back to the shop where I bought it and exchanged it for something that worked.

I quite like the look of the evolution uc 33 controller as well.

decisions,decisions.

[DJZeMig_L]

Fair enought .. I only use mine as a remote midi controler not as a Midi interface so ?!...

Z

[jake]

get both

[paranoid666]

whats the difference from using it as a midi interface and using it as a midi controller.

[DJZeMig_L]

A midi interface is just a little gadget that adds hardware midi ports 2 yer PC/ MAC... in order 2 comunicate with yer Hardware machines!

A midi controler is generally a "little" piece of hardware that gives ya Knobs/Sliders/ keys 2 play/ control/ edit yer software or your hardware... it's basically a way 2 give fisical control over a "knobless"/ "Keyless" instrument (be it hardware or software).

Now the new midi controlers made more objectivelly for PC use, generally r also a midi interface (tipically with 1 or 2 midi I/O ports), but the gadget in itself comunicates with yer PC/Mac via usb cable, this turns out to b it's aquiles cause it make it's midi interfacing with hardware machines a bit faulty, mainly timming issues. But the midi controlling of software suffers nothing from this.

Z

[paranoid666]

cheers for the info.Got no hardware anyway so it looks like I may get a novation remote now.

[kROKar]

I went first with something cheep and worthy, like Oxygen 8, after using it I noticed that I dont need keys that much so i bought UC-33 for that.

http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/thoiw2_topsellers_7.html hint ;)

[scienceofuse]

Yeah, but even though it's small, the Oxygen 8 is quite a beast in terms of functionality, and I'm not just saying that 'cos I use one :) If you need a MIDI keyboard AND a MIDI controller it's the perfect solution, as it's really cheap and easy to use and it almost fits in your pocket... Well, almost.