Looking for cheap midi keyboard, any recommendations?

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

crinkleshoes

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Hey,

Starting to get in to making my own music with Ableton & looking to get a usb midi keyboard instead of using the pc keyboard (lol!).

Any recommendations?

Looking to spend around 100GBP, but if there was something special for 150, I could stretch to that.

Needs to be Win 7 x64 compatible... but I'm guessing that shouldn't be an issue.

Soundcard I'm using is an Asus Xonar D2, hooked up to a cambridge audio amp & kef speakers :)

Cheers!
 
Hi m8,are you planing to DJ with Ableton or just making beats,Novation Launchpad is a good buy for around £150 or the Novation SL Mk II midi keyboarda lthough way over price,i am using an M-audio oxygen 25 mainly for reason 4,but it does work with ableton.
 
There are a few question you need to ask yourself first:

How many keys do you need? (25, 37, 49 or more)?
Do you need full-size keys at all?
Do you need lots of knobs/sliders for controlling your DAW?

I've been using old Novation ReMote LE (49 semi-weight keys) for over 3 years now and I love. It used to cost £150 back in the days...I guess you could get a second hand one off eBay for about £60-£70.

If you want a new one, you have quite a few options but without knowing your exact need is difficult to recommend something.
 
Spook187 said:
Hi m8,are you planing to DJ with Ableton or just making beats,Novation Launchpad is a good buy for around £150 or the Novation SL Mk II midi keyboarda lthough way over price,i am using an M-audio oxygen 25 mainly for reason 4,but it does work with ableton.
Click to expand...

Just making beats to begin with - perhaps progressing on to DJing... up until now I've used VDJ for computer-based DJing... ableton's definitely more feature rich than vdj though!

I love the look of the launchpad, there are some great things you can do with it... I'm planning on getting one down the road, but for now I'm looking for a keyboard :)

The SL Mk II you mention, that came up in quite a few of my searches last night... I am VERY tempted to stretch my budget to get that... it looks fantastic... especially with the touch sensitive rotators/sliders that tell you what each one does when you touch it... could make the learning curve quite a bit easier. It's definitely pushing the boundaries of what I can spare, money wise, at the minute though...

Other than that... the others I've found are the M-Audio Axiom 25

And I'm tempted to just get a really cheap keyboard like the m-audio oxygen & get the launchpad at the same time instead of in a couple of months. Although... I do think the addition of sliders on the sl mkii could come in quite handy... plus the reviews are very good for it.

tenshin111 said:
There are a few question you need to ask yourself first:

How many keys do you need? (25, 37, 49 or more)?
Do you need full-size keys at all?
Do you need lots of knobs/sliders for controlling your DAW?

I've been using old Novation ReMote LE (49 semi-weight keys) for over 3 years now and I love. It used to cost £150 back in the days...I guess you could get a second hand one off eBay for about £60-£70.

If you want a new one, you have quite a few options but without knowing your exact need is difficult to recommend something.
Click to expand...

Keys... I think I would be fine with 25... more would be nice, but for space/simplicity 25 would be good for now... if I get really involved in this then I'll probably want to upgrade later, but I'm not much of a piano player at the minute... so it's really just for plucking away at, at the minute... I wouldn't get any advantage from using my second hand when I could just copy and paste the notes in ableton. Saying that, I do have some experience... so I'm not a complete noob... just never got round to pursuing it in the past (clarinet, grade 4... was going to change to piano, but that's when I got in to sixth form and priorities shifted... lol!)

Full size, semi-weighted keys are something I would like... but not necessary.

Again, knobs/sliders (especially the touch sensitive ones on the sl mkii) would be a welcome addon, but not a necessity as it can all be done with mouse/keyboard.

I'll have a look in to that novation :)

Cheers

EDIT: I see Novation do a 49 key version of the SL MKii... tempting... but over 300quid is really too much, especially when I don't yet know how committed I'll be able to make myself to this new hobby... argh, there's always ebay... lol
 
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Keys... I think I would be fine with 25... more would be nice, but for space/simplicity 25 would be good for now... if I get really involved in this then I'll probably want to upgrade later, but I'm not much of a piano player at the minute... so it's really just for plucking away at, at the minute... I wouldn't get any advantage from using my second hand when I could just copy and paste the notes in ableton. Saying that, I do have some experience... so I'm not a complete noob... just never got round to pursuing it in the past (clarinet, grade 4... was going to change to piano, but that's when I got in to sixth form and priorities shifted... lol!)

Full size, semi-weighted keys are something I would like... but not necessary.

Again, knobs/sliders (especially the touch sensitive ones on the sl mkii) would be a welcome addon, but not a necessity as it can all be done with mouse/keyboard.

I'll have a look in to that novation :)

Cheers

EDIT: I see Novation do a 49 key version of the SL MKii... tempting... but over 300quid is really too much, especially when I don't yet know how committed I'll be able to make myself to this new hobby... argh, there's always ebay... lol
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In this case you do not need semi-weighted keys. The current ReMote SL series by Novation is really expensive (and the build quality not so impressive). A better alternative IMHO is Novation Nocturn 25 keyobard:

http://uk.novationmusic.com/products/midi_controller/nocturn_keyboard

You get full-size 25 keys with really good synth-action mechanism (by Fatar) and enough controls (which can be used with Automap software which is pretty cool). There are drum pads as well! :) Well, the price is slightly over your budget (I found it for £164) but you will not be disappointed I think.
 
I just realised that some etailers are selling out the older generation of ReMote SL. You can get the 25 keyboard for about £130, i.e.

http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/novation-remote-25-sl-compact-midi-controller-keyboard--45050

You get 25 semi-weight keys (yeah!) + knobs + buttons + drum pads for a really good price. And its AutoMap capable as well :D

This AutoMap thing seems very interesting (my keyboard is not compatible so I haven't tried it personally). You can learn more about this here:

http://www.novationmusic.com/products/software/automap
 
It's a great bundle indeed. You'll get much more use (and fun) from it than from SL 49 mkii alone ;) (especially when your DAW of choice is Ableton Live).
 
One more thing - if you're just starting with music making on a PC be prepared to spend some time setting all these things up ;)

Remember that there is a dedicated forum for Ableton users. There's also a big computer audio community here:

http://www.kvraudio.com/

You might find lots of useful info there. In addition I can recommend a few good books:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dance-Music...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269112689&sr=1-1 (this one is about various genres of electronic, not only your typical dance music)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sample-This...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269112754&sr=1-1 (this one is good if you want to get into samples)

And obviously:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ableton-Live-8-Power-MARGULIES/dp/1598639757/ref=pd_sim_b_7

:D

Be also prepared to start saving money for a proper soundcard, new effects, virutal synths & samplers, loop libraries, constant upgrades and so on....you'll become an addict like me :P
 
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I'd spend the extra cash and get a keyboard that's at least 49 keys - for example it's only an extra £30 for the Remote 49 with the same bundle.

cheers
A
 
And said:
I'd spend the extra cash and get a keyboard that's at least 49 keys - for example it's only an extra £30 for the Remote 49 with the same bundle.

cheers
A
Click to expand...

Yeah - meant to post up on here... after various reading etc, I've decided to go for a 49 key piece of kit... still haven't made my mind up whether I want the mk i or mkii though... even if I get the mk ii, i'll still get a launchpad... just not quite as soon :S haha... from the reviews I've been reading, the keys themselves are roughly the same (and good)... however the transport controls on the mkii are a massive improvement + you have the touch sensitivity...

Especially when I've found a b-stock (slight mark on one of the keys, barely notceiable) for 250!
 
just to add I'd go for 49 keys...I've got several keyboards (erm 7, but that's another story) and I'm not actually a fan of the novation action. I'd see if you could go and play (literally) with some and see if you like the action etc. I'm sure there are music stores you can visit locally. just my 2p worth!
 
I've been looking around & none that stock novation locally that I can find :(

Plus with working nights atm, i'm usually getting home at 6-8am and getting out of bed at 4, so pain in the backside to get to a real-life store lately! lol

The benefits of the DSR, but hopefully I'll pick one I like first time :D
 
3dcandy said:
I'd see if you could go and play (literally) with some and see if you like the action etc. I'm sure there are music stores you can visit locally. just my 2p worth!
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Temptation on a stick, esp when they have things like a Virus Ti on display :D

cheers
A
 
Ahh well Virus Ti is alright..not my personal cup of tea however! Next thing for me I think, Use-Audio Plugiator, cos it's got a Prophet-5 emulation....love my Sequential Circuit synths!
 
crinkleshoes said:
I've been looking around & none that stock novation locally that I can find :(

Plus with working nights atm, i'm usually getting home at 6-8am and getting out of bed at 4, so pain in the backside to get to a real-life store lately! lol

The benefits of the DSR, but hopefully I'll pick one I like first time :D
Click to expand...

Of course, I reckon Novation are pretty solid. Quite liked a CME UF60 I played with other day but heard horror stories about long term useage.
 
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