Need Help Deciding Midi!
Need Help Deciding Midi! Posted on: 11.11.2011 by Karoline Benisch Hey guys,Anyways I wanted to get started with DJ'ing and just writing my own music. Anyways, I've come down to three choices of midi keyboards. I only want a 25 key, portable (Occasional drag from school to home and vice versa) and is pretty good. I've come down to the Korg NanoKey2 M-Audio Axiom 25 Akai MPK 25 If you can, please rate the keyboards and if possible, please suggest which one I should go with and why? | |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by uanaka
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| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by uanaka
Kind of unrelated, but I've gone through 4 Korg NanoPads. I LOVE the response and feel of them. There's essentially no travel when they're hit, and they can be played very quickly because of it. HOWEVER, pretty much anybody that's owned a NanoPad can tell you that the general construction is $H!T. They don't take abuse, which is obviously bad for DJs that toss them in a backpack, beat on them at the club, and generally....abuse it. haha. |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by uanaka
No matter what you decide, you should definitely go and play with it a bit in a store first. Go somewhere that has a handful of them lined up on display and play with each one to find the features you like the most. I'd want to feel the fader response/stiffness, see how the pads respond, how the general construction feels, and if the knobs and encoders are easy to grab at quickly. Chances are you're not going to get exactly what you're looking for out of one controller, so decide which aspects are the most important and which ones can be a little more lacking (for example, the pads don't have to be spot on if you plan on an additional controller just for quality pads). |
| Karoline Benisch 13.11.2011 | I get the didfference. It was only a thought. The korgs are portable such as I could take it around. But if not the nanopad.. how about the akai lpd 25 I believe? I forgot to write the name.. but its a portable drum pad from akai. the mpk25 is nice.. but the reason I have those two choices is I am still debating the issue of portrabilty..of just leaving it at home or make the commute to school more often. |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by uanaka
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| Roselee Jasnoch 13.11.2011 | I like the pads on my axiom and its a nice keyboard too. I dont believe the arp. is too important though as most soft synths have them build in so its not really worth paying for. Korg do a few nice pad controllers you can pick up for next to nothing off ebay. |
| Karoline Benisch 13.11.2011 | I just came back from guitar center. Anyways I've decided between an AKAI MPK 25 or a Korgnanokey/Nanopad (both of them) Any advice? |
| Karoline Benisch 13.11.2011 | Ah I see. Once again I'll just test and see. Whichever to me has the best response. |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 | Again, it's what you need it for. Knobs and faders are indispensable for DJing (at least for me). For producing, most programs allow you to map them to effect parameters for automation, which is super useful. |
| Karoline Benisch 13.11.2011 | Yea. I know.. I'm actually going to go to guitar center to try them out. But thank you so much for your help. I've been trying to figure that out.. the order of importance. Like honestly.. are knobs and faders really that useful. I'm just really looking for the basic keyboard functions and pads. |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 | Really the best advice I can give is to try them all. Make a list of what you want included, in order of importance, and go try a dozen different controllers. Nothing beats hands on. |
| Karoline Benisch 13.11.2011 | Well I plan to keep mine at home for production. And occasionally to school when I collab a beat. So normally no abuse there. I just plan to use the pads for drums and samples when needeed. |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by uanaka
Kind of unrelated, but I've gone through 4 Korg NanoPads. I LOVE the response and feel of them. There's essentially no travel when they're hit, and they can be played very quickly because of it. HOWEVER, pretty much anybody that's owned a NanoPad can tell you that the general construction is $H!T. They don't take abuse, which is obviously bad for DJs that toss them in a backpack, beat on them at the club, and generally....abuse it. haha. |
| Karoline Benisch 13.11.2011 | So you believe the akai woud have better pads than the axiom? |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by uanaka
No matter what you decide, you should definitely go and play with it a bit in a store first. Go somewhere that has a handful of them lined up on display and play with each one to find the features you like the most. I'd want to feel the fader response/stiffness, see how the pads respond, how the general construction feels, and if the knobs and encoders are easy to grab at quickly. Chances are you're not going to get exactly what you're looking for out of one controller, so decide which aspects are the most important and which ones can be a little more lacking (for example, the pads don't have to be spot on if you plan on an additional controller just for quality pads). |
| Karoline Benisch 14.11.2011 | Oh really? The akai mpk mini has one. I'm only looking for beginner intermediate leveled controllers. Not only that but id rather get an all in one. But if two are necessary its fine.. id just rather have an arpregiator instead of playing them all. |
| Samual Ogura 14.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by uanaka
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| Karoline Benisch 13.11.2011 | In that case, I don't believe I'll be using faders alot. I'm looking for a keyboard with the octaves, modulations, arpregiators. And a controller for dedicated pads. |
| Samual Ogura 13.11.2011 |
Originally Posted by Bassline Brine
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| Audrey Pinda 13.11.2011 | Honestly, believe about being modular with your setup. Get a keyboard to be a keyboard, a thing for drum pads to be that thing, and then get something with buttons/faders/knobs for doing that, at least from a production standpoint IMO. While I can appreciate the all-in-ones I feel like something is lacking in one aspect or another from all of them. Unless size is the big issue, but even then. |
| Glennis Cartin 12.11.2011 | Check out this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oq1G-IUNfg That should give you a good idea og what you might need. |
| Karoline Benisch 12.11.2011 | Any suggestions though? Id really like the pads.. only reason why I'm including nanokey2 is because of its portability |
| Samual Ogura 12.11.2011 | Oxygen doesn't have pads. :/ |
| Karoline Benisch 12.11.2011 | What's the difference between the oxygen and axiom series? I'm looking for a midi controller that has keys, a few rotaries, octave up and down, modulators, faders, appregiators and at leasy 6 drum pads. So please help me decide. Korg nanokey2 , axiom 25 and akai mpk mini. What's the difference between the axiom 25.v1 and v2? |
| Roselee Jasnoch 11.11.2011 | How about an m-audio oxegen? There cheep and have 8 rotaries that you can assign. There is also a sweet djtt mapping for use with traktor. It'd be able to do both and you can pick them up off ebay for under |
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