To Midi Controller Or Not To Midi Controller

What midi controller do you use and why. I'm thinking of getting the Akai MPK mini MK2 fer $100. What are your thoughts, comments, cussings, phone no.'s, and or credit card no.'s? Thank you fer your support! 

Thanks for the input morgan. I like the Akai after comparing. I will wait a day or two before ordering just to make sure it's the best choice for the bucks.

Things have calmed down here so I figure I might as well take advantage and poke me head out for a delivery for me DAW! 

I'm partial to  the 49 key controllers.
I would be immediately claustrophobic on a 25 key controller. But I rarely wish I had more keys. I do use the full range of my PCR-M50(long out of production).
I'm sure the mini is a decent unit, but I would lean toward the Alesis Q49 or QX49 at that price point.

bayoubill

spacey
I have a Roland midi guitar ( and a midi keyboard that I don't use) but curious...
Now that an audio ( guitar part ) track can be dragged to a midi track what are
you needing the midi controller for?
 
 

One of the very few times I've seen an answer that's a question

It's an answer and a question...without an answer.

I have Jam Origins MIDI Guitar unit and give it a favorable rating. Tracking is on a par with my Axon after adjusting the sensitivity for some notes/strings. +1 for MIDI Guitar.
 
The only downside is no knobs. 
 
Regards,

I'm Keyboard free, despite my first purchase 20 years ago being a BassStation Keyboard, I never got on with Keyboards. Picking up my fathers flute about 12 years ago, changed things, so now I have a Midi Wind Controller (WX5) that I am please is in a parcel on the way from Wales to Vietnam as I type. I also have a Korg nanopad2 for percussion, it's not perfect, but I like it.
 
My bug bear with Melodyne, is needing the full studio version to get pitch bend/vibrato data in a Midi transfer, I've mentioned this too much on this forum, but it relevant here. Why, do we still need Midi Controllers, because you are more connected to what you play, when you play it in real-time.

Scoot
Midi Gloves anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci-yB6EgVW4

 

To go with a Crystal Ball?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yN9K9xS8DY
 

Hi,
 
Oxygen 61 by M-Audio into a 3030L Sound Card from M-Audio as well.
 
Works great on any program/VST, but no one has ever helped me get more out of this, and on top of it, even folks like Craig, have turned down getting paid to show a thing or two.
 
All in all, frustrating all around. In the case of Miroslav, it is a total mess and a pain in the wazoo, as no one here seems to know how to get different midi channels to do the different voices and instruments in that program, and their support staff is made up of idiots on crack and diapers! The place to make the choices is gray'd out, and no one knows why or how.
 
All in all, this is the side of the music business that really hurts ... all this crap and no one knows how to use it, and no one is comfortable enough to show others how to use it. Talk about wasting money on sheep dip!

Being a flute player, I feel I can get the expression with a wind synth, so no need to edit expression once it's performed. I've no idea what a midi guitar feels like to play, but with a wind synth I feel connected. Not in the same way with a flute, but connected to the synth, which the flute is not with melodyne.

jamesg1213
An ancient Roland D-20. Hey, it's full size and got 61 keys..

That's a lot of locks.
 
Do you keep the keys in order or do you randomly go though the lot each time you're trying to open the door?

Enigma is so aptly named. Had the triggerfinger and Enigma was a nightmare, now I've a the korg nanopad and the editor is so natural and intuative

Need at least  - Sustain and Expression (volume) for pedals (control).
That one does not have that that you listed. You get more if you pay more.
Look up the manual at the Akai website. It may have Expression (I am not sure I looked at several now), but the more expensive ones have both - Sustain and Expression (volume is what I use with my Roland).
Besides that, well, different things for different folks I guess.
 
I get more keys length on the keyboard also  - at least 61 keys (which also can get short after awhile.) I like to jump around, so my 76 Juno Stage is just about right - not full 88 keyboard - but enough to make it a bit smaller. Some people would want a full size piano keyboard - 88 keys. Until you hit those low notes and those very high notes without having to change the octave down or up on the keyboard, it may help. Not everything is midrange, but a full size keyboard probably is not needed.
Afterall most instruments do not play in that entire range either, and will sound like it if trying to place too high or too low a note on a keyboard. Afterall, it is all in the sense - pseudo instruments.