Hi there!
I've decided to take that exciting step of buying my first ever MIDI controller / keyboard. (!!)
The one that's caught my eye is the Edirol PCR-A30. It has lots of knobs and sliders, a small (32-key) keyboard (but I'm not a pianist - I'll be using it to articulate chords, and not much more) and 24bit/96khz USB Audio. It seems pretty damn cool.
The other brand I've been pointed towards is Evolution - and I suppose the model I'd be going for would be the MK-425C. It's not as featureful (just knobs, and 28 keys), but is a lot cheaper.
If anybody has any opinions on either of these keyboard / knob / slider MIDI controllers, I would greatly appreciate hearing them!
Thanks for your time.
Cheers,
Nick! - budding electro-muso **
Hi, Nick Morrison nickm@internode.com.au wrote:
I've decided to take that exciting step of buying my first ever MIDI controller / keyboard. (!!)
The one that's caught my eye is the Edirol PCR-A30. It has lots of knobs and sliders, a small (32-key) keyboard (but I'm not a pianist - I'll be using it to articulate chords, and not much more) and 24bit/96khz USB Audio. It seems pretty damn cool.
The other brand I've been pointed towards is Evolution - and I suppose the model I'd be going for would be the MK-425C. It's not as featureful (just knobs, and 28 keys), but is a lot cheaper.
If anybody has any opinions on either of these keyboard / knob / slider MIDI controllers, I would greatly appreciate hearing them!
I cannot really comment on the keyboards, but personally I would not buy one with audio inside but use a dedicated audio device. I don't think, USB1 audio has a big future. Sooner or later you will want to replace the audio part with something more powerful like Firewire, USB-2.0 or a real card. Then you cannot sell the audio part of your device, because it's built in. Built-in USB-midi is great, though.
You didn't say which operatin system you use, BTW.
Ciao -- Frank Barknecht _ ___footils.org_
Frank Barknecht wrote:
I cannot really comment on the keyboards, but personally I would not buy one with audio inside but use a dedicated audio device. I don't think, USB1 audio has a big future. Sooner or later you will want to replace the audio part with something more powerful like Firewire, USB-2.0 or a real card. Then you cannot sell the audio part of your device, because it's built in. Built-in USB-midi is great, though.
You didn't say which operatin system you use, BTW.
Thanks for your comments!
The most useful thing I can see about the USB1.0 Audio part is that it will easily act as a second sound device, meaning I can mix two audio streams from one machine - good for playing a quiet ambient track where quality isn't necessarily tantamount. But you you make a good point. I will be using my existing sound card (SB Live for now) for dsp sound output, assuming it has better quality.
I'm using Windows XP and Linux/FreeBSD, with a view to moving to MacOSX in the not-too-distant future.
Nick