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Hey DSF, I'm pretty new to producing and while I have made some songs, I drew the notes in. Getting bored of that I decided to buy a midi keyboard. This will be my first keyboard so I was wondering which one would be beneficial for me to buy as I have no experience with them.

budget? what features do you want? how many keys/octaves playable at same time?

Budget: Around $100-200.
Features: To be able to assign parameters. That's my main concern, anything else I wouldn't mind.
Just something to play chords. Around 49 keys?

get the m-audio oxygen series!

I'd definitely recommend an M-Audio Oxygen 49 then. It's got everything you want, for $200

oxygen 49

Akai LPK25. You can find it for around $50-70. Barebones, no frills, small footprint. Not 49 keys, but fits in a backpack.

djshiva wrote:Akai LPK25. You can find it for around $50-70. Barebones, no frills, small footprint. Not 49 keys, but fits in a backpack.

heh i wish, m audio still cheapest best value
akais are the best

m-audio oxygens or behringer umxs.

What about the E-mu 49 ? =X

Im not into all that knob turning on parameters so ive been using a korg nanokey for forever. I really havent found a reason to buy anything bigger.

deadly habit wrote:

djshiva wrote:Akai LPK25. You can find it for around $50-70. Barebones, no frills, small footprint. Not 49 keys, but fits in a backpack.

heh i wish, m audio still cheapest best value
akais are the best

Not sure what you meant to say, but I wasn't lying about the price. I am sitting here looking at my Akai LPK25 and LPD8 pad controller as we speak. Paid $100 USD for the both of them.

I love my ozone!!chea

djshiva wrote:

deadly habit wrote:

djshiva wrote:Akai LPK25. You can find it for around $50-70. Barebones, no frills, small footprint. Not 49 keys, but fits in a backpack.

heh i wish, m audio still cheapest best value
akais are the best

Not sure what you meant to say, but I wasn't lying about the price. I am sitting here looking at my Akai LPK25 and LPD8 pad controller as we speak. Paid $100 USD for the both of them.

ah yea the small ones

Thanks for all of the replies. I've been looking at a few listed.

the edirol pcr seiies are def worth a look too, just they've been discontinued. that and the ports are on the side rather than the back, but if you can find em they are cheap

One thing I think a lot of people do is think about their immediate needs. You say you have little experience with controllers, maybe you should go to a shop and play with a few. Sure a small board that's inexpensive with minimal features might be perfect today, but what about 3 months from now when you are more used to it? Aside from rare vintage stuff, gear loses value quickly, so you don't want to be kicking yourself later down the road if you realize you wish you had x or y features. What DAW and instruments are you using? If you're using a whole bunch of different plugins, something that can swap controller parameters or set quicly might be useful, or something that automaps. If you do a lot of knob twisting or sound design, you may want lots of non key controllers available for quick editing. Do you want to just play keys? Control the transport and maybe a virtual mixer? Things to think about, I'm a broke broke mofo, so I always spend a lot of time making sure that I'm going to be happy with spending my hard saved pennies. I also like to get a high quality product that is sure to last for a long time and not worry about constant upgrades or trading. But that's just me. I would rather save up and just drop a chunk on a Novation SL MKII (or MK I, but I don't like the notched knobs myself) and have an extensive control surface, and move on to another aspect of my workflow.

MimikOctopus wrote:One thing I think a lot of people do is think about their immediate needs. You say you have little experience with controllers, maybe you should go to a shop and play with a few. Sure a small board that's inexpensive with minimal features might be perfect today, but what about 3 months from now when you are more used to it? Aside from rare vintage stuff, gear loses value quickly, so you don't want to be kicking yourself later down the road if you realize you wish you had x or y features. What DAW and instruments are you using? If you're using a whole bunch of different plugins, something that can swap controller parameters or set quicly might be useful, or something that automaps. If you do a lot of knob twisting or sound design, you may want lots of non key controllers available for quick editing. Do you want to just play keys? Control the transport and maybe a virtual mixer? Things to think about, I'm a broke broke mofo, so I always spend a lot of time making sure that I'm going to be happy with spending my hard saved pennies. I also like to get a high quality product that is sure to last for a long time and not worry about constant upgrades or trading. But that's just me. I would rather save up and just drop a chunk on a Novation SL MKII (or MK I, but I don't like the notched knobs myself) and have an extensive control surface, and move on to another aspect of my workflow.

does it have beat repeat and an arpegiator though? if it doesnt for the same price (or in most cases a little bit cheaper) you might as well buy an akai mpk49 cos it's got all the same features and probably more. The pads on the mpk arnt great though granted but bun pating that little bit extra for a novation midi controller because of it's led lights!

double post