18 votes
Accepted

Is the number of keys on a controller keyboard important in music production?

An instrument is a set of easy-to-do vs. hard-to-do factors. The instruments and tools you use for composing and arranging - just like your personal skills as well - are bound to affect the actual ...
piiperi Reinstate Monica's user avatar
11 votes
Accepted

Recording with midi/synth vs actual instrument?

[are there] any guidelines as far as recording a mechanical instrument versus using a midi controller or synth? No, only pros and cons. It all depends on what you want the finished product to sound ...
ibonyun's user avatar
  • 2,420
9 votes

Recording with midi/synth vs actual instrument?

The real instrument will sound more real, but as you note, there are many challenges to recording acoustic instruments or anything with a microphone that are completely bypassed when using a virtual ...
Todd Wilcox's user avatar
  • 56.1k
8 votes

Cheap way to make sound from a MIDI keyboard, without PC

If you're willing to do it DIY, single board computers like a Raspberry Pi have enough processing oomph to act as (simple) synthesizers. They come with a USB and sound ports, it's just a matter of ...
Dave's user avatar
  • 17.8k
8 votes

Cheap way to make sound from a MIDI keyboard, without PC

Firstly, does your USB keyboard have MIDI out (DIN) sockets as well... ...or is it USB only? If it is USB only, then it is possible to get a hardware converter (from USB to traditional 'DIN' MIDI) ...
Нет войне's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

Cheap way to make sound from a MIDI keyboard, without PC

If you want to go really cheap, I found this little sound module on Amazon that costs only £50. Haven't tried it, but it should get the job done. Accepts both USB and MIDI as an input and in the ...
m.spyratos's user avatar
7 votes

Pedalled sounds disappear if many are played

You're probably running out of voices of polyphony. You haven't clarified what virtual instrument or synthesizer is the sound source, but most of them have some sort of voice limit, ranging from 1 to ...
Todd Wilcox's user avatar
  • 56.1k
7 votes
Accepted

Does using a portable keyboard with slim or mini keys mess with muscle memory, as a pianist?

can you switch easily between normal and mini key sizes like it was two different instruments, or do you feel that your playing on a real piano is badly impacted with the bad habits you constructed ...
piiperi Reinstate Monica's user avatar
6 votes

Yamaha P45 Digital Piano - Can it be made MIDI compatible?

Yes You have to download the USB MIDI drivers and then you can connect the P-45 to a computer to control software synthesizers and/or record and play back MIDI data. If you want to control other ...
Todd Wilcox's user avatar
  • 56.1k
6 votes

Do Virtual Synth Softwares need any physical buttons? Do I need to have any extra buttons on my MIDI keyboard?

TL;DR Extra knobs and buttons are not absolutely necessary, but then again a MIDI keyboard is not absolutely necessary either, because you can just use a mouse. But since you're buying a MIDI keyboard,...
piiperi Reinstate Monica's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Pedalled sounds disappear if many are played

Hardware instruments (e.g. digital pianos) have a limit on the number of simultaneous notes that they can produce - this part of their spec is called "polyphony". As Todd explained, once you exceed ...
Нет войне's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

At what rate does the volume (velocity) of a note decay?

You needn't calculate or estimate or do fancy math. Others have measured piano string decay rates, and they're messy: Measurements have been made on a high‐quality spinet piano to determine the ...
Camille Goudeseune's user avatar
6 votes

Is the number of keys on a controller keyboard important in music production?

Regardless of the genre of music you’re interested in or your proficiency level on keyboard the difference between the two is 163mm or less than 7” in length. I’m pretty sure you will at some point ...
John Belzaguy's user avatar
6 votes

Is the number of keys on a controller keyboard important in music production?

As an erstwhile pianist, you will probably regret not having a full size keyboard for when you decide to be a pianist again. Trouble is, there aren't that many controllers that have weighted keys, ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 190k
5 votes
Accepted

Is a 32-key midi controller enough to aide in learning music theory?

One way to think about it is: a single staff spans about an octave and a fifth, i.e. about 20 notes, so if your exercises/experiments fit within a single staff (treble or bass) 32 keys should be ...
Dave's user avatar
  • 17.8k
5 votes

Midi keyboard problem: some notes trigger two different notes

The solution to this problem is to send your Midi keyboard back and buy a new one. It is faulty. The common denominator here is your keyboard's hardware. Not the settings, not the DAW. The keyboard.
wizzwizz4's user avatar
  • 347
5 votes
Accepted

Tuning a keyboard

I can't speak to the logistics of connecting your particular keyboard. But one piece of software that is useful for this (and has been around forever) is Scala. Depending on the abilities of your ...
Athanasius's user avatar
  • 12.4k
5 votes

aux line in as midi controller

There IS software that claims to generate MIDI from audio input. 'Imperfect' would be too kind :-) Use a keyboard that DOES have a MIDI output. Life's too short to do it the hard way.
Laurence's user avatar
  • 90.4k
5 votes
Accepted

What do shorter-than-thirty-two-note MIDI pedalboards bar you from playing?

One octave keyboards make smooth voice leading impossible. Sure, you can play any chord, but if you want to go from F to Dm, you can't just move the high C up to a D because you don't have that key. ...
tiniuclx's user avatar
  • 176
4 votes

Live Midi Controller Setup

MainStage is the standard, especially in musical theater pits. Another option, if you don't have a MacBook, is Ableton Live, though it's expensive and I think it's hard to use. I personally prefer ...
MattPutnam's user avatar
  • 22.3k
4 votes

What does mod wheel on MIDI keyboard do?

It does whatever the patch is designed to interpret it as. For '80s style synths, it's usually controlling the frequency or amplitude of the LFO, or perhaps the distortion amount. For an organ patch ...
MattPutnam's user avatar
  • 22.3k
4 votes
Accepted

It's possible to connect a usb midi controller into a midi synthesizer?

I run a Akai EWI-USB into a Yamaha vlm-70 sound module using a raspberry pi and a usb-to-midi converter cable. The linux aconnect utility connects the usb midi input from the EWI-USB to the usb side ...
james b.hatcher's user avatar
4 votes

It's possible to connect a usb midi controller into a midi synthesizer?

Yes there is, it's called a computer :-) Like you said, you have an USB MIDI controller. This type of device is designed to be connected to a USB host, i.e. (in general) a computer and used with a ...
José David's user avatar
  • 4,224
4 votes
Accepted

MIDI keyboard action for harpsichord practice

Harpsichords pluck the string with a (now) plastic plectrum, as opposed to hitting the string with a hammer. The physical nature of feeling the space between pressing the key down and hitting the ...
TangledUpInBlue's user avatar
4 votes

Are there keyboards that you can import sounds into for each key?

It's called Sampling. I think the very first was the Akai, or possibly the Bel BD80, but they had no keyboard. The Emulator was the first widely available keyboard sampler. They cost about 5 grand ...
Tetsujin's user avatar
  • 27.6k
4 votes
Accepted

Can I play other digital sounds (e.g. flute, trumpet) off a digital piano? How?

The answer is no. The reason is that the two keyboards you have mentioned (Casio AP10 or Casio Privia 110) have no audio in. They can still be useful of course. First you need to get a midi interface ...
ghellquist's user avatar
  • 2,052
4 votes

Recording with midi/synth vs actual instrument?

For most instruments (apart from piano), if you have access to the real instrument and a real player, and cost isn't a factor, and realism is seen as a plus point, then you'd probably go for the real ...
Нет войне's user avatar
4 votes
Accepted

Is there a difference between non-weighted and semi-weighted MIDI keyboards?

They are different. Non-weighted keyboards are based on springs, so the feel is very different from the keys of a piano. Weighted keyboards have counterweights or resistance on the spring to mimic ...
NPN328's user avatar
  • 16.2k

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