MIDI Controller

Howdy,

I was planning to get a MIDI Controller for Logic 8 and Sibelius 5 or 6.

I know nothing about MIDI Controllers (except for that it can control the program and record/sound with the program only), and what's right for me. I've searched YC and the internet; so far I'm not getting any solid answers.

It's probably all relative and for the price I'm willing to spend ($300 before tax) there probably isn't much of difference between Controller A and Controller B.

But I was wondering if anyone had experiences using MIDI Controllers for Logic and Sibelius? If so, could you explain a little bit about the MIDI Controllers and which Controller is right for me?

I'm definitely not going be performing with it plugged into a laptop. I'm planning to compose, and layout ideas and pieces more efficiently. And of course to record.

Thanks.

Well, there are a huge amount of controllers out there that you can buy. How many keys do you want? Programmable controls, knobs, and sliders?

If you're just looking for something basic, I'd recommend the M-Audio Keystation. The Keystation line is pretty stripped down, no bells and whistles, just keys, volume, modulation, pitch bend, octave displacement, and something called advanced function (which I have never used). I have the 88-key version and I use it constantly with both Finale and Cubase.

Since you won't be performing live with it, you probably don't need all those extra features on your controller anyway. For your purposes, it seems like anything with keys, volume, mod wheel, and a pitch bend will probably do. Just break it down into how many keys you'd like, and how much you'd be willing to spend.

Andy, thanks for the reply.

I don't know what i want actually. But, I don't want to find out that i needed something and be stuck with something too simple. Then again, it does sound as if I'm thinking too ahead.

At most I would want 49 keys. I was wondering, if I can switch octave designations on the keys (for example, like assigning the last C as C2? or as lower or higher notes) when recording tracks on Logic or Sibelius? Is that called Octave displacement?

I'm looking to produce a reasonable quality sounding demo tracks using Logic and other fire-wire interfaces. I find that having a keyboard controller will save me a lot of time (looking/hearing through the sounds, playing/recording the figures). Additionally, i'm also planing to record my compositions on Sibelius.

I am looking at M-Audio, Edirol and Novation. So far, Novation Remote SL 49 looks very nice. Looks like Sibelius 6 and M-Audio have teamed up, does that mean other MIDI controllers are useless? no right?

Yes, the octave displacement will allow you to move the octaves around as you please. Most midi controllers have should have this, and definitely don't buy one less than 88 keys that doesn't have one, (it'll be a huge pain in the butt if you want to sequence really high or really low notes without the ability to move the octaves around.)

My simple MIDI keyboard has lasted me years and I've never found myself wanting, or needing new features. The one feature I left out of my earlier description is that my keyboard also has inputs for volume and sustain pedals as well. The sustain comes in handy when you're sequencing piano.

You definitely should still be able to use any midi keyboard with Sibelius 6.

Thanks for the input.

I did visit the M-Audio page and had a look at the Keystation. I like the simple design, and I would say that it's probably just the thing for me.

However, I'm wondering... The Keystation looks good enough for me for Sibelius 5-6 applications. But, I plan to compose more popular music styles on Logic (Dance, Hip-hop, R&B, Trance/Electronica, Rock-fusion).

I'm not very familiar with all the knobs and such, but would the M-Audio Keystation allow me to switch VST or sound patches quickly and test them out (demo them) on fly without painfully going through the mouse and click movements? or any other basic movements such as hit record and play? transpose? or changing the parameters of the patch (like put more mids or like put modulations).

Thanks again.

I have a Yamaha UX16 and M-Audio drivers, took a while finding where to find the UX16 driver but I found it in the end and it works perfectly^^