Best midi keyboard in the $100-$200 price range

[elyhess]

Hey everyone im looking for a small portable midi keyboard that would fit nicely on my desk in the price range anywhere from say $80 to $200
preferably one on the cheaper side, but still good quality

what im REALLY looking for is a 2 octave midi keyboard with anywhere from 1 to 5 nobs which i set to control the LFO rate, etc..

any suggestions?
(sorry if this thread already exsists, i just assumed nobody would have the specifications i request)

[drooka]

m-audio oxygen25.. im at university working in a tight space on a budget and it does the job for me

[elyhess]

m-audio oxygen25.. im at university working in a tight space on a budget and it does the job for me

fucking beautiful thank you!

[drooka]

no worries.. hope it works out for you too.
best of luck man

[Bx3]

I have the same. It is a decent, cheap board.

[cloak and dagger]

I have the original model Oxygen 8 (I think the 25 is the 4th version?), and it still is holding up after having traveled through different countries, getting battered, and most recently getting thrown off a table in an earthquake (although the mod wheel was acting weird after that, it seems to be fine again recently). I would definitely go with it again (and was about to, until the mod wheel kicked in again).

[VirtualMark]

i have the oxygen 49 and its pretty good. loads of sliders/knobs. i imagine the smaller one is just as good, i'm thinking of getting one for portable use too.

[elyhess]

yeah the 2 octave keyboard just seems perfect for the size of my desk

[Nokturn]

there's a few out there you might want to look at though, before making your choice. Look at a few of them and see if any of them catch your attention over the others.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--AKAMPKMINI
Akai MPK Mini - a really nice little keyboard for 100 bucks. The only issue with it is the pads are a bit clunky. There is an easy modification you can make to them though using a bike tire innertube that is very easy to do and make the pads 100x better.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--AKALPK25
Akai LPK25 - nice if all you want is the keyboard. It's got no extra knobs or sliders, but it's actually a pretty nice little keyboard for 70 bucks. A friend of mine got one when he first started and I was quite surprised with how nice the keys were. Good action on the keys and it feels very comfortable.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHUMX250
Behringer U-Control UMX25 - I don't much about it but from what I've read it's not a bad option for the price. It's got a fader, some knobs/switches and 2 wheels which can be assigned to different parameters, so that's always a nice plus for a midi controller. However, it says it has full size keys but the keys are apparently kinda smaller than what most would consider full size and make it difficult to play if you have larger hands/fingers.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--ALEQX49
Alesis QX49 - You mentioned that the smaller keyboard was more what you were looking for but if you're willing to go for a 49 key controller this one isn't bad. I've owned a few Alesis products and they've worked out pretty well for me. It's got a moderate amount of buttons/knobs/faders/sliders for you to play with. If the keys are the same as their smaller version that I had then they are nice, pretty good size and have a nice feel while playing. The only worry I would have on it is that just by looking at it it seems you are getting much more than what the price would suggest, which makes me wonder if they had to cut some corners in developing it to keep the cost down.

Anyway, there's a few different options for the price range to consider along with the M-Audio Oxygen. I would suggest to keep looking around and weigh your options, check out some reviews and stuff. This is probably something you'll end up using for awhile, so take the time to make the best choice for you.

[krimson]

M-Audio Axiom 25 is kind of in the upper of your range but should also be considered. I love that it has 8 knobs & pads on a 25 key, making it more well rounded then the Oxygen.

[Nokturn]

M-Audio Axiom 25 is kind of in the upper of your range but should also be considered. I love that it has 8 knobs & pads on a 25 key, making it more well rounded then the Oxygen.

I heard the Axiom is really nice, but if you use FL there seems to be heaps of people that have had problems getting it to work with FL for some reason.

[3rdeye]

The Behringer UMX series is actually really solid for bog-standard entry level MIDI controllers.

Good build quality - way better than the flimsy M-Audio Oxygen 8 I had for a few years, though the knobs are a bit stiff (more tea vicar?)

[Hashbang]

+1 for the Oxygen 49. I have one and I'm definitely not disappointed.