which MIDI controllers cover your needs ?

[gort11112]

I thought about MIDI keyboard + pads... currently planning to buy Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A61+ Maschine Mikro MK3... those 2 look promising


what MIDI controllers do u use ? are u happy with them ? :)

[DJ Warmonger]

Cover needs... it's hard to tell. As I don't need tons of controllers for my workflow and have trouble stacking them in reachable manner anyway.

However, messing with controllers instead of mouse can bea source of fun, inspiration and yield interetsing results.

[Pictus]

If you are not into Native Instruments stuff, check the Novation SL MKIII.
viewtopic.php?t=512420&start=15

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electro ... k3-11.html

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I use a Roland System-8 for VA and most synths. Maps pretty well to great on most things (if they have two envelopes, one filter, an LFO, and some Oscs, with effects....that's a lot of VSTi ground covered). Then I use a Novation Remote Zero SL for controlling effects in Studio One (I have custom templates setup for compression, reverb, etc.). A Steinberg CMC-QC for Cubase's awful Quick Controls system and for basic navigation. And an Avid Artist Mix control surface for mixing. Don't really use drum and pads but one day I hope to add a Roland Handsonic to the mix.

[JCJR]

I'm not really in market for more controllers. As was mentioned there is the ergonomic problem where to put them where they can be effectively used.

I have (not currently set up) a midi drum kit I used to keep set up for drummers, I never could play the kit well enough and it was set up too far away from my "cockpit" so I acted as engineer dubbing a real drummer.

But they make several 8 or 9 pad controllers, smaller but you can play them with sticks rather than fingers.

For finger drumming I will just use a keyboard but I could probably get use out of a sticked pad controller better than a "spread out" drum kit. OTOH for use by a real drummer he would probably tend to grumble about playing something like an octapad as drum kit replacement even if I was to plug in kick and hat pads to the controller.

I would also maybe be tempted by something like Linnstrument except it would probably take more time than the heat death of the universe for me to play it half ass properly.

[Tj Shredder]

For me its the Linnstrument, its easier to learn as you might think. The heat death of the universe isn‘t just some months away...

[chk071]

I have a Novation Impulse 49, and a Arturia MiniLab mk2 keyboard. Due to lack of space on my table (and because i'm lazy... ), i use the MiniLab most of the time, TBH, i rarely use the knobs now, i rather use the mouse, because i'd use it for most parameter changes anyway, so, it's just the keyboard, and, the MiniLab actually has remarkably good keys for the size (same keys as on the Keystep controller). It's OK. If i had more space on the table, i think i'd rather use the Impulse.

[thecontrolcentre]

I use Push 2 & a Novation Remote SL (the original one). I also have a Keystep to trigger/ sequence some hardware synths. I'm more than happy with all of them.

[JCJR]

For me its the Linnstrument, its easier to learn as you might think. The heat death of the universe isn‘t just some months away...

Thanks Tj

Can you run the Linnstrument without needing a PC or USB midi, just DIN midi out like a keyboard controller?

I had thought so when researching it but afterward saw some messages making me wonder.

Maybe I'll get one sometime but in the past played with a whole tone multilevel keyboard that was easy enough to understand and fingering for some things was easier, but fingering for even more things was a bitch tying fingers in knots to do stuff simple to do on black'n'whites.

Then got charmed by the elegant theory of multi row minor third layouts and got a chromatic button accordion. I completely understand the theory but to me the fingering is a bitch and I never got expert enough to actually play the thing in public.

OK the crowning injustice is guitar. I have known how to make any guitar chord or scale since the 1960's. The theory is very simple but I never could play the dern thangs. I will hit the correct frets with left hand and then pick the wrong strings with right hand. I will finger chords and either have too little pressure and choke strings, or put the grip of death on a chord and pull it out of tune even with the guitar perfect in tune. Etc.

So I could set the Linnstrument to use whole tone or minor thirds or guitar tunings and completely understand the principle, but whether I could actually play the dang thing is an open question.

I did a lot of YouTube viewing of Linnstrument user demos.
There were maybe three guys who actually could play recognizably proficient songs. There were more fellas who have fast hands playing flash licks. But not doing music. Just trying to flash and pretend they are nailing avant garde bass, horn, violin or guitar solo riffs for 20 minutes all on the same damn chord.

I just kinda figured, given my previous track record of failure on anything except black'n'whites, and the apparent rarity of folks who actually know how to make music on a Linnstrument, my odds of learning how to actually play the thang seemed rather slim.

[Jace-BeOS]

Interesting title. My MIDI controllers aren’t serving my desires. My basic needs, maybe, but where do we draw the line between needs and wants in a music context?

For example: I’m intested in higher resolution control, which doesn’t exist in any practical sense in the MIDI control realm (yes, I know about 14-bit MIDI and automation; see my thread “do I ‘need’ analog synths?”). I’m now looking at buying some analog synths just to bypass the digital controls and menu diving in the first place for at least ONE part of my music hobby.

Then there’s a lack of dimensions of expression: keys and digitally-controlled knobs aren’t doing it for me (even with mono-aftertouch, keys are just not performant enough). I would have possibly bought a Roli Seaboard by now, if it didn’t require a computer, and if the users reporting on it hadn’t showcased so many inconsistencies and flaws. Well, and it’s also super expensive for that level of inconsistency.

While the Linnstrument is a complete standalone MIDI controller, it is even more expensive. That’s like buying a new computer kind of cost. I’m also not sure I dig the layout. Can you do linear pitch slides from note to note?

I own several controllers that I barely use because nothing *feels* great to play, aside from PianoTeq with my weighted keyboard (and that experience is still inauthentic, too; my Alesis Fusion 8HD has uniformly weighted keys).

Despite a small collection of MIDI controllers, I end up using a crappy and buggy 25-key/8-knob M-Audio Oxygen controller most often, only because it’s the easiest thing to move out of my way right now. I don’t like it at all, yet I use it the most. I hate not knowing what the knobs are configured to use at any given moment, so I barely use them (and then there’s the low resolution of MIDI CC again). It also has transport controls but...

...I prefer my Behringer XTouch for that. The irony there is that I bought the thing to replace the control surface that M-Audio/Avid abandoned (ProjectMix I/O), and I really mostly only use the transport controls, not the bank of sliders. Most of the space it takes up is unnecessary for me. Ultimate irony: Behringer recently came out with the smaller XTouch One that’s just the transport controls. Sigh. Had I waited a bit longer...

I have a Korg PadKontrol for occasional drumming, but its pads are inconsistent in their sensitivity (I wish I’d noticed and returned it before my Sweetwater warranty ran out). It usually sits in a bag under the desk because I feel like there’s just no room on my desk.

I’ve a Korg Kontrol49 attached to a Korg M3m because it’s the closest I could get to the native controls missing there without the M3’s own native keyboard... but that requires remapping controls per patch, which is a PITA, so it really was a mistake to not buy the keyboard with the M3. Also, its joystick is so loose that any precision is impossible (as is any ease at auto-mapping, because you can’t move just one axis at a time).

TL;DR?

Ultimately, I’ll say that nothing is meeting my needs, because I need to be doing less fiddling and menu diving to make things work. I want immediate hands-on control and none of my equipment (generic or dedicated) has such usability. It seems that still only exists in analog synths with one control per function, and there’s zero “instant recall” of settings when using them.

I didn’t “grow up” being amazed at all the problems MIDI & VST solved, so I’m frustrated that controls have not progressed at all since MIDI 1.0.

[Deep Purple]

I use multiple controllers - the MIDI out from my piano, a 61 key Yamaha workstation, a Novation Launchpad, an Arturia Keystep, and an iPad. They all have their uses, so I don’t ever feel that any one is better than the others.

[rod_zero]

1. Casio Privia px160 as master keyboard, the one I play almost all "keys" and "synths" instruments.

2. Push 2, for controlling Live and programming drums.

3. Roland System 8 for VA, mostly Diva.

[Tj Shredder]

For me its the Linnstrument, its easier to learn as you might think. The heat death of the universe isn‘t just some months away...

Can you run the Linnstrument without needing a PC or USB midi, just DIN midi out like a keyboard controller?

Absolutely, it does need some power though, either via USB or via a standard power supply...

And in terms of learning it, its the heaven for any noodling - really expressive. Of course we still wait for a Chick Corea or Parisi, that might take a little longer, but that is true for any instrument.
Expressive playing in general isn‘t fashionable yet, but it will come back when people are too bored about the ever same sounding „produced“, I call it constructed, music...

[Tj Shredder]

While the Linnstrument is a complete standalone MIDI controller, it is even more expensive. That’s like buying a new computer kind of cost. I’m also not sure I dig the layout. Can you do linear pitch slides from note to note?

Of course you can, that is the whole point of MPE...
Ask Roger Linn for someone close to where you live to get hands on it. For what it is it was worth twice as much as I payed for it, and I got the big one. It brought me back to synthesizers...
And even with the small one you get 5 octaves, and its cheaper than the 4 octave Seaboard...
Its as well the best finger drumming fun controller I know of...

[Tony Ostinato]

they don't cover them at all, ever, on kvr so you have to go here:

http://www.patchmanmusic.com/forum/


heres me playin mine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt2TkhQLPhs