Midi keyboard advice

My wife wants to get a not-too-expensive Midi keyboard to hook up to our Intel iMac. She's keen to use it with GarageBand to make up musical pieces for school. She's a primary school teacher.
Although there are some of these things floating around the local school system, borrowing them for working on at home, (if you can get your hands on one, and then if it's working) is fraught with problems. Of course, the schools in our local authority are rooted to Windows, so for all we know there might be a compatibility issue with our kit.

We have looked at one review for the M-Audio Keystudio 49 USB MIDI Controller, on the online Apple Store, but would welcome any other comments/recommendations.

You'll be just fine with that but if your wife's a pianist she'll want the larger keystation 61 to be able to play all the notes at once. No drivers required, just plug on go with M-Audio stuff.

Thanks for your reply, bosie.

I'm doing this on the quiet, and might discuss the options with my wife prior to purchase - birthday coming up. This means I really want to get as much confidence under my belt before taking the plunge.

Since I'm not a pianist, could you tell me what "play all the notes at once refers to"? I get the idea, of course, that the Keystation 61 has more to offer than the Keystudio 49, but I'm really groping in the dark here.

Welcome, that will be a super present & very thoughtful.

The less notes (keys) there are on a keyboard the smaller the octave range that can be played simultaneously live. If you're wife is like me, she'll want to play/record bass and treble at the same time as you would a piano and have velocity sensitive (volume) keys. Obviously the larger 61 key is still no piano size keyboard but it's just about enough to rattle out a bit of Mozart without having to record treble and bass separately, the 61 key is also semi-weighted and would feel more natural to a pianist).

The 49 is good for someone who only wants to punch notes into a sequencer (such as Garage Band) and do all the editing (including velocity) within the software.

I have the 61 (and others), both will work perfectly with Garage Band; it just depends on how your wife will want to play and record.

http://store.apple.com/uk/reviews/TA097LL/A

Edited by deleted (Mon 02-Feb-09 16:00:43)

The more you spend the better the key action.

The ideal feel is that of a piano. Weighted keys.

I would go for as many octaves as possible and a good key feel.

Many thanks for the info. I feel quite confident that I'm looking at what she really wants here now. I tend to think she would get more out of the 61e. This based on what she spoke about, as in "What I could really do with is ..."

I'm quite gee-ed up about it. Will report back sometime. B'day some time off, so I'm ahead of the curve.

Cheers!

Thanks for the input, Giles. Great to have you folk ready to jump in and help!

Some more sites for you to look at:

61 notes
http://www.turnkey.co.uk/product.php?itemid=23054
http://www.thomann.de/gb/m-audio_keystation_61es.htm

88 notes (full size)
http://www.turnkey.co.uk/product.php?itemid=23053
http://www.thomann.de/gb/m-audio_keystation_88es.htm

Excellent, bosie. Thanks again.

The more I read about these machines, and the more I see what's available in terms of accessories (stands, bags), the less apprehensive I become it seems.

I shall, of course, expect to be entertained with the most spectacular compositions in due course.

lol, it's very easy to spend more than you need in this game so be careful not to get too carried away. If what you need is a keyboard to play the instruments of Garage Band then you're looking in the right direction. Composing a full score is something else, among other things it needs time and patience. Have fun choosing!

PS a sustain pedal would be the next accessory I'd want for a midi keyboard.

Edited by deleted (Tue 03-Feb-09 00:16:02)