NOTION Music Forum

I was just wondering how many of you tend to use a MIDI keyboard for note entry and, if you do, which keyboard is it?

Thanks.

GaryExo,

I use a very simple MIDI keyboard. My current model is M-Audio's KeyStudio, which is small enough to fit on my office desk. It has no internal sounds — it is simply a piano-style, USB entry keyboard with four octaves, a pitch bender, a mod wheel, and another couple of buttons. It also has a jack for a sustain pedal, but that is still irrelevant for Notion work. As I recall, it cost me about $80. For anything resembling the authentic feel of a piano, it fails as a miserable piece of junk, but as an input device it serves me just fine about 99% of the time.

Best wishes,
Thorrild

Oh, I forgot: This keyboard is also sufficient to test NTempo control of a score before I release it into the real world for "live" performance.

Making sense of MIDI is one of my current goals, and toward this goal I got a Behringer U-CONTROL UMA25S Ultra-Slim 25-Key USB/MIDI Controller Keyboard with Audio Interface; a pair of MIDI cables; and a laptop computer swivel "arm", which I use as a swivel stand for the MIDI keyboard, so that when I am not doing MIDI keyboard stuff I can swivel the MIDI keyboard out of the way, which works nicely and lets me position the MIDI keyboard at a convenient angle where I can see the controls and stuff . . .



Behringer U-CONTROL UMA25S Ultra-Slim 25-Key USB/MIDI Controller Keyboard with Audio Interface

At present, I have not connected the MIDI keyboard, but it should work nicely, and I selected this specific model because it has an LED indicator; a bunch of buttons and controls; and side pegs for attaching a guitar strap, which is intriguing for use in music videos, since I can use it to pretend that I actually am playing keyboard stuff . . .

The keys are a bit springy, but they have a range of motion and are velocity sensitive . . .

[NOTE: Amazon.com had the MIDI keyboard on sale for $125 (US), and the laptop computer swivel "arm" was on sale for $38 (US), so the entire package with the two Hosa MIDI cables cost approximately $200 (US). The laptop computer swivel "arm" is adjustable and very sturdy, and the metal platform has rubber "dots" that hold the MIDI keyboard firmly in place, where they key is to stick the rubber "dots" on top of the four screws that hold the metal platform to the adjustable swivel "arm" . . . ]


MonMount 332B Notebook/Laptop Extension Stand Desktop Clamp

Lots of FUN!

Thanks chaps.

I have a lovely Ensoniq ASR-10 (http://www.vintagesynth.com/ensoniq/asr10.php) but that requires a MIDI interface to work with sequencers so I looked around for something cheap and of a more modern ilk which would be simply "plug and play". I found a Alesis Photon X25 (http://www.alesis.com/photonx25) for a very good price so now have that too. It is, of course, a proper controller too compared with my other keyboards which can only really function as very basic input devices. It's a trade-off between a small 2 octave keyboard which plays OK but has lots of control functionality and a rather nice, playable, large 5 octave keyboard with no other fancy control options. It'll be interesting to see which one gets the most use with Notion!