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How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:21 pm
by meow meow
I've been tempted to purchase a MIDI keyboard for a while now, because I was under the impression it eases beat making and placements of basslines as it's much easier to play them out. Is this really the case? :<

I have been having troubles with mapping out my wobbles.

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:23 pm
by Eridu
yes, its a whole lot easier with a midi keyboard.

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:26 pm
by jrisreal
It's really just different...I like the fact that it involves playing a real instrument rather than buttons, though

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 9:43 pm
by meow meow
jrisreal wrote:It's really just different...I like the fact that it involves playing a real instrument rather than buttons, though
While I can't actually play the keyboard, I agree.

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:51 am
by mikeyp
It helps tons.

Much easier to play out a melody than on a computer keyboard, and if you get one with assignable knobs it really makes it easy to explore different sounds at once rather than clicking around with a mouse one at a time.

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:15 pm
by secret door
You don't need to know how to play the keyboard to run with a MIDI keyboard. In fact, you'll probably learn a lot about playing scales yourself just through pattern and repetition.

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:21 am
by victor w
Yes it makes a big difference imo. If you can't afford a full blown midi controller just find a keyboard with midi for the time being...IDK how many times I've been messing around playing with random chords and it's turned into a song...and it's easier while browsing patches to test a melody or w/e

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:50 am
by Genevieve
Depends on your workflow. I'm saving up for a guitar MIDI pick-up to control all my instruments because MIDI keyboards just don't do the trick for me. However, I'm probably a minority.

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:47 pm
by hutyluty
its loads easier to mess about on a keyboard until you hit a decent melody than it is messing about drawing in dots on the piano roll

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 1:23 pm
by s3f
depends on how you're using it, i'd say... don't limit your choice of product to only keyboards. knobs faders, pads etc. can give you a LOT of possibilities to experiment, too. but that doesn't mean that you'll automatically get better at producing imho. for me it's just a lot of fun so i have one

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 1:26 pm
by bRRRz
It just helped me personally sooo much!

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 10:57 am
by RandoRando
i make much more complex sounds now, loading different parameters in massive to my faders on my mpk, then just fucking with them while the song is playing and recording what sounds good, you can mess with different paramters at once with a mouse. :h:

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 11:14 am
by steeze
I find it a big help myself, especially for auditioning sounds and such. However I still find I come up with most of my musical ideas on my guitar, having a play on the keyboard every now and then is a good way to get different ideas down that I wouldn't normally come up with on the guitar :)

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 11:19 am
by wizeguy
yea it helped me a lot, i cant play keyboard or piano at all. check out the akai lpk25 the size of its jokes but the built quality is sick

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 3:15 pm
by bRRRz
wizeguy wrote:yea it helped me a lot, i cant play keyboard or piano at all. check out the akai lpk25 the size of its jokes but the built quality is sick
agreed. I have the LPK25 as well and it's awesome.

Re: How much does a MIDI keyboard help?

Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 10:53 pm
by meow meow
steeze wrote:I find it a big help myself, especially for auditioning sounds and such. However I still find I come up with most of my musical ideas on my guitar, having a play on the keyboard every now and then is a good way to get different ideas down that I wouldn't normally come up with on the guitar :)
Oooooooooh shit. That's the one I wanted, and the pad, haha (:

As long as it helps me lay out basslines and experiment, then I'm sold.