Dubstepforum.com

Easy all. Just getting in to production more and not sure what midi keyboard to go for. Nothing too expensive, about £140 tops. Have been looking at the M-Audio Axiom 25 but not sure yet. Any advice or recommendations please... Safe one.

get 49 keys if you have the room for it.
some brand called iCon is pretty cheap and seems to deliver pretty good stuff, though i don't have personal experience with those.

i have the behringer umx49, and besides behringer is not that famous for it's audio gear this midi keyboard is just perfect. Goes for around $130!

mpk49 is a pretty good keyboard, it has 12 pads and other interesting stuff, its about 300 $ but you can buy it second hand. No use of buyng something with 25 keys

save up about £20 more and get a novation nocturn 25.

Roland PCR-300.

the edirol pcr series has been discontinued and is going for pretty cheap now and are quality controls if you can get past the plugs being on the side instead of the back

Novation Remote SL mkI
got this a few months ago (37 key) and could not be happier..
plenty of faders, pads, knobs.. an x/y pad, mod wheel, & great key response..
but the routing capabilities really seal the deal..
2 Midi Out ports and an A and B port through the USB.. each fader, pad, knob, etc. can be individually routed to any of the four ports (and any combination of ports).. also the keyboard can be divided into four sections for routing as well..
it also supports any midi message i can think of and a few i can't..
i think they discontinued the 37-key but still have 25, 49, and 61..
love it..

presher - you mention the novation mk2 but the pic you posted is a mk1. i don't like the mk2 because they took away the display above the faders for some reason, so you only get one display over the pots on the left.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Novation-Remote-S ... 500wt_1182 this has got like 10mins left on ebay at £150 plus £25 postage

symmetricalsounds wrote:presher - you mention the novation mk2 but the pic you posted is a mk1. i don't like the mk2 because they took away the display above the faders for some reason, so you only get one display over the pots on the left.

oops.. thanks! fixed..

so you got the mk1 version then, good choice

went round to someones house for a session a while ago that had one of these and was just using it as a standard midi keyboard and not taking advantage of all the features it has. after bout 10mins of setting it up in ableton i showed him what it was really capable of, pissed me off a little that he had such nice toys+didn't know how to use it.

symmetricalsounds wrote:so you got the mk1 version then, good choice

for sure. the dual screens is nice.. not sure why they got rid of that.. what are other differences?
& once i realized i could send SysEx messages to control parameters on my Virus Snow i went from to

symmetricalsounds wrote: went round to someones house for a session a while ago that had one of these and was just using it as a standard midi keyboard and not taking advantage of all the features it has. after bout 10mins of setting it up in ableton i showed him what it was really capable of, pissed me off a little that he had such nice toys+didn't know how to use it.

i hear that! i can only imagine all the gear that's barely being used or not being used at all out there..

not sure about any other differences between the mk1+mk2, the loss of the screen is enough to make me not like it. i'd love a mk1 atm but no spare cash at all to invest in music stuff atm.

that same guy also had a couple of rack synths he hardly used plus a valve compressor, although to be fair he did use that fairly regularly.

symmetricalsounds wrote:not sure about any other differences between the mk1+mk2, the loss of the screen is enough to make me not like it. i'd love a mk1 atm but no spare cash at all to invest in music stuff atm.

that same guy also had a couple of rack synths he hardly used plus a valve compressor, although to be fair he did use that fairly regularly.

I've been eyeing the novation midi controllers for a bit, and can't decide between them. It's definitely a plus that the mk I has 2 screens, but is that totally necessary when the gui is so amazing? Also I think the fact that all of the buttons on the mk II are touch-sensitive (meaning you touch one knob/fader/button and it shows you the parameter you're working with before you tweak it) is sort a dealbreaker. might go for the keyless version and just get a separate midi keyboard.

I've got the novation 49SL MKII, tbh, i don't really use the 1 screen, so 2 screens isn't really a clincher, I just use the Automap GUI
Awesome keyboards btw

Axiom is nice but the knobs arent so good and in 25 there is no faders so I recomenned axiom 49 or another 25 keyboard

Thanks for the advice......i ended getting an Axiom 61 off ebay for £120 which i thought was a pretty good price!! . Thanks again....and now i await for my first tune to take shape.

Jah bless rastafah.

One difference between the MKI and MKII is that the pots on the MKI are detented. I personally do not like them. Also there is no LED lighting around the knobs, and I am not sure, but I don't think the MKI has touch sensitive controls.

I'm working on a M-Audio Axiom 49, very happy with it.

Love the drum pads, sliders and other controls.

this bad boy lol


sorry i had too lol