I've been wanting to pick up more hobbies aside from programming, thinking about getting into midis and music production. I already have a background in film post processing. Anyone got any good tips / pointers on midi controllers, it's a market I know next to nothing about. I've worked with a lot of roland equipment for recording and I've heard that they're a well known brand for music production.
Is there a book or something that I should pick up that would help explain music more through math / logic or something like that? And what's a good Keyboard to pick up. Pic related, it's one I'm currently looking at.
If you ever want to play with both of your hands simultaneously you're going to need way more keys than that (I would say 49 are an absolute minimum). Your top priority should be making sure you have a nice set of keys, don't concern yourself with all those sliders, drum machine pads, etc. The keys should be large enough to play accurately, and should feel responsive to your touch. Something with weighted or semi-weighted keys would be preferable, since most music has dynamics. What worked the best for me was a digital piano with midi capabilities, but for someone who just wants to fuck around and make shitty rap beats this is overkill.
Jason Kelly
you can make a masterpiece with $50 controller off Ali express or absolute dogshit with a million dollar studio
Jonathan Wood
just trying to say, don't get hung up on equipment. sorry I don't have any suggestions for music theory
Charles Adams
Just start to learn to play piano. Its fun (but quite autistic).
Christian Jenkins
Any brands I should be looking for? How prevalent is support for stuff like LMMS? Got any books or something?
Luis Long
I care more about longevity and compatibility than anything else. I just want something that is gonna last. I've had family members drop 1-200 on an electric piano only to have it break / fail 1-2 years later. I don't want that!
Michael Carter
Look in to what is bundled with what hardware - I got Xpand! 2, a VST instrument, free with my Alesis VI25. You get great bass, string and synth sounds with just one VSTi, and the best part you can combine preset sounds to make brand new instrument sounds.
And since you said you had a programming background, try using Renoise as a sequencer/DAW.
I'm not gonna shill brands to you, go to a store and try them out until you find one thats comfortable. LMMS is shit though, if you're planning on using Linux to produce music your only sane option is Bitwig or Dual boot with windows.
Brayden Rodriguez
What's a good DAW that won't cost me an arm or a leg? I know FL Studio is popular, but even the limited version is 100$ I don't see why I'd need a super powerful DAW. So long as I can get VST/is to work then who cares what DAW you're using?
Luis Hall
Xpand2 is solid but don't base a purchase on it. It's for people who aren't great at sound design but want a lot of decent sounding patches to play around with. I got xpand2 on sale for a dollar a few months ago Novation keyboards are solid, native instruments makes good stuff but pricey, akai is cheap but works, alesis is solid too. There's a lot of decent brands. Reaper is "free" and very powerful, cheap if you wanna buy it too. It's a winrar type situation. I use ableton though. I suggest you "acquire" a few versions of different softwares and see what works best for you.
I'm an audio engineer, feel free to ask me more questions
Justin Thomas
While I personally use FL Studio (cheapest version), Reaper is another one that's apparently quite good. It's $60, but the trial is fully featured and never stops working, just like winrar. Haven't used it myself, so I can't give a fair review, but I know people like it.
Benjamin Rivera
Reaper has been amazing for me so far. I have a Nektar Impact LX49+ and it's okay for the price. Got it as a total beginner a year ago but I haven't used it super much yet. For learning to play keys I would not recommend the midi controller + vst way because it's too much hassle for that. Great for lots of different stuff though, including production.
Michael Gray
I was in a similar position about 2 years ago and decided the best thing would be to actually learn how to play piano, since that was my main interest. So I bought myself a good digital piano (pic), full size, weighted keys like the real thing, but it can also be used as a midi controller. Since learning classical piano was my main interest I haven't even connected it to my PC yet, but I will eventually
My digital piano has built in speakers, if you only plan on hooking it up to a PC and using external speakers then you could buy an even better digital piano that doesn't have built in speakers. Yamaha, Kawai and Roland all make great stage pianos
Luis Watson
I'm a little strapped for space. I think a 49 key piano is my limit on width.
Adrian Adams
a few years ago i bought a 20 year old Roland g800 daw for 200$
Electronics are outdated, but mechanically it's good. I could connect it to pc for midi and better sounds, but I didn't bother yet.
Buy a good but outdated keyboard to learn playing piano. You get much better quality mechanism for your buck.
Evan Moore
Don't bother then. Too small to do much.
Landon Nelson
Depends on how you want to play. For controlling a synth 25-49 keys could work great as you generally use your left hand to control other things like the mod wheel, knobs and faders. For learning to play piano and the like you definitely need more keys.
Ian Watson
Everybody and their mother has an Akai MPK Mini MKII. There's a good reason for that, too. It's a dirt-cheap controller that is extremely compact and can do basically everything, so it's pretty much a must-have for a beginner. It's got 6 velocity-sensitive backlit pads (with two banks), 25 velocity sensitive keys (tiny) and 6 knobs (all CC-assignable), as well as a few extra hardware features packed in there like an arp switch and note repeat. The joystick is also not bad. I thought it would be terrible because conceptually it would mean that you can't alter pitch without altering modulation or vice versa, but nope. It can also be configured to do other things like navigate menus or used as an XY formant. Native-Instruments also makes quality stuff, too. The Komplete Kontrol series is pretty much a first-choice for most people who are getting a bit more serious about music production. Lots of weighted keys are super-sensitive pads. I hear their stuff is really durable. I've personally never really cared for most of their products but they seem to be getting a lot of love, so I guess they're worth a mention. They make better software than hardware. Highly recommend the S49 if you're looking for something with more keys (25 can be cramped for a lot of people). If you want something with MPE compatibility so you can do everything live without having to go into your computer after the fact and edit things in, Roli makes a lot of products that are great for dealing with MPE midi. The only real issue is that software mostly hasn't caught up yet. A lot of really popular VSTs aren't MPE-compatible (yet.) But goddamn, everything they make is so expensive. You have to really want it.
49 is something you should get - it fits on an average desk. If you want more keys than that you should consider a proper stand for it.
25 key controllers are mainly intended for programming, I started off with a 49 key m-audio but my dumbass cat managed to kick it off a table and it broke. I moved to Alesis VI25 and I haven't really looked back since most of the stuff is just programming, and sorting out melodies and beats. But if I wanted to become "better" playing piano I would invest in 49 (or more) again.
Matthew Sanders
Get a proper 88-key with a sustain pedal, I've had to deal with a 61 and very often I have to use the transpose because sheets keep getting out of range.
Ableton is pretty good for MIDIs and Focusrite audio interfaces come with a lite version. It's limited to 10 tracks but you aren't going to be doing full mixes are you?
Brody Richardson
I had the 61 key version of your pic related. Very solid keyboard with a nice action (for a non full weighted) If it has the features that you want, buy it. Don't get some cheap piece of shit.
Joshua Hernandez
I already own some high-end roland stuff from a prior job. I have a full-on interface from them and a lot of extra patch cables. I've even got a few mics. I'm really hardpressed to go larger than 49 keys. I only have roughly 40inches of space and I don't want to max that so I'm hoping to stay around 35.
Ryan Cooper
Just get a standard cheap 49 or 61 key midi keyboard. You can find tons of good videos on music theory and production on youtube. Only thing you need is the actual willpower to follow trough and there's no substitute or magic tricks for that. But doing research in music is close to what you've been doing already studying programming. Programs like Captain Chords and Scaler might help you start learning how chords work music theory wise.
Jayden Harris
Ardour costs nothing and is on GNU/Linux.
Aiden Thompson
>only sane option is bitwig What about Tracktion and Mixbus and Renoise and Ardour?
Austin Adams
did you ever get the 'could not create session" loading error?
Using bitwig 8 track currently its alright but kinda pointless if you cant save bigger projects
Luis Lewis
did you actually pay for butwig or are you running a cracked version?
Juan Stewart
these sort of things are shit. 2 octaves is more than laughable, and if its usefull for you then you might as well just daw your notes in to your daw
Noah Stewart
That's not too much of a biggie for me. I actually really love taking notes and improving using new bits of theory. It's hobby so I'm planning on making it too important, but learning and improving is fun even if it is tedious at times.
I tried to start doing something like that in LMMS, but it just isn't that fun to do it. I figured that an actual controller would help make the experience feel a lot less "mechanical". It's boring just plotting stuff one note at a time. Even if it's just playing something at one octave and moving it up or down, I think I'd find that much more fun than just plotting notes in a piano roll.
As far as books that help with music production, I suggest you check out the Welsh's synthesizer cookbook, and the keyboard grimoire.
Also FYI the type of keyboard you posted is a midi controller; it does not product any sounds on its own, you need to hook it up to a computer or rack synth (and audio output obviously)
I am aware of this. I have a DAW up and running and figured that since I'm going to play next to my computer anyway, I'd rather just get a controller that I can use in a program, rather than an actual digital piano.
Henry Wood
i mean i couldnt see a 25 key thing being enjoyable consindering the sheer melodic restriction. if anything fuck around on a proper synth and then transpose onto your daw.
Nolan Sanchez
also you might want a few more octaves. 3 is doable but you should go for at least a 4 octave keyboard.
you don't need to have it out all the time. just get a fold up stand for it and put it away when you're not using it
Caleb Price
Thanks everyone for helping out, I think that I'm going to get a Roland GO:PIANO. It's the smallest 61 key piano that fits my desk, looks like it can be used as a midi controller, and also doubles as an actual digital piano. Not too many knobs but I'm fine with that. And from what I can read it has a very "real" piano feel compared to other options.
keystation mini 32 m-audio axiom 25/49 thank me later midi controllers wont be your problem, it will be DAWs and VSTs/VSTis
Bentley Rivera
Seconding the importance of the software over the hardware. Unfortunately, people like charging an arm and a leg for plugins. There are quite a few decent free VSTs which helps a fair bit. Also piracy, although I have yet to resort to it.
John Nelson
- midi controller - good speakers - good asio-enabled sound card - fast cpu - large storage for sample banks, etc.
Bentley Miller
>looks like it can be used as a midi controller Make sure if it can before you buy
Easton Green
>not making your own samples never gonna make it
Caleb Ward
You still have to store them somewhere...
Benjamin Robinson
I'm just giving advice from when I was attempting music production. It lasted 2 years, and I gave up. I'm not autistic enough...
Isaac Jackson
yeah I store the parameters in a notebook. cost me about $0.50 cents for ~150 patches
