Studio Keyboards.

[bassdrummer2333]

Now I love those little keyboards, I want to buy one, i've narrowed it down to these:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Oxygen8v2.html
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/KeyRig25.html

Which one of these would you recommend? And can someone please explain some of the features, i'm a total keyboard beginner. One of them says its a USB interface, like an audio interface or its just USB. What are triggers, and i'm assuming these are MIDI compatible right, probably stupid question haha.

[AgainstTheOcean]

I own the Oxygen 8 v2. This isn't necessarily a "keyboard" by common knowledge. It's a MIDI controller. It looks like a keyboard and plays like one (with a very small number of keys, mind you), but you have to create the sound yourself. No sound comes out of that keyboard, simply on/off messages from the device to the computer to let it know what you've pressed.

Generally, you'll simply set it up to a VST in your DAW (such as Nuendo, Cubase, Protools, Adobe Audition, etc). There are many other things you could do with it, since you're just sending in a message. You could technically use it to control the volume of a track, for example, by setting the higher keys to a higher velocity (volume) and the lower the key gets, the lower the velocity. The sky is the limit.

This plugs in through USB, although I'm pretty sure there's a MIDI port, as well.

[Tristan Needler]

Now I love those little keyboards, I want to buy one, i've narrowed it down to these:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Oxygen8v2.html
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/KeyRig25.html

Which one of these would you recommend? And can someone please explain some of the features, i'm a total keyboard beginner. One of them says its a USB interface, like an audio interface or its just USB. What are triggers, and i'm assuming these are MIDI compatible right, probably stupid question haha.
They're not MIDI compatible, they're MIDI only. Like he said, no sound comes out whatsoever.

If you plan on using your Casio keyboard like we were talking about in the other thread, then you have no use for one of these unless you specifically want a small set of keys to keep on your desk or something. These send MIDI data only, but they send it through USB since the MIDI interface is built in. They only extra things you're getting out of a keyboard like that over your Casio would be the knobs (which you can assign to anything, filters for synths, faders for mixing tracks) and a smaller size.

They don't even have aftertouch, which isn't really necessary, but it's cool to have.


If you really want one, I'd say at least get the Axiom (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Axiom25.html), a lot of people love it. I thought the keys felt really plasitcy, but I'm not a keyboardist haha.

I have the 61 key version of this (http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=863&ParentId=114). It's an awesome.

[sinktylersink]

Not to be off topic, but Tristan what is your full setup? I'm really interested.

[Tristan Needler]

My setup is pretty pathetic. I just know a bit about this stuff, because I'm always researching about what I'd like to have (and how to use it), even though I'll never be able to afford it. That keyboard is by far the nicest piece of equipment I have.

I have an IBM T42 laptop (512 MB ram, 1.6 GHz Pentium M), which works great, unless I want to use lots of plugins and virtual instruments. I have an EMU 0202 USB interface , which I would not recommend to anyone who is serious about recording. Only one crappy mic pre, and it doens't even have phantom power. I have an SM57 that I use for acoustic and singing. My acoustic is a fairly cheap Washburn, my electric is a very very cheap Yamaha, and my bass is a Fender MIM Jazz. The Edirol PCR 800 is pretty awesome though and despite my lack of knowledge when it comes to keyboards, I use pretty much all the features at some point or another. My sequencer is Cubase LE which came bundled with the 0202. I use Proteus VX, which was also bundled, for most keyboard-type instruments. A little drum VST that came with Cubase gets a fair amount of use too. As for synths, I downloaded this pretty nice free soft synth called Superwave. You can get tons and tons of sounds out of it, but I don't really know much about synths so I can only get a few.

On top of that, I have a whole bunch of free VST plugins that I can list for you alter if you want, but I have to go to class now.

All in all, excluding the instruments and computer, but including the keyboard, cables and whatnot, my setup is probably worth around $675 or so. The keyboard was about $400 of that though.

[bassdrummer2333]

So these things only record MIDI, that's kind of lame, but it could be useful for portability and just in the studio. What's aftertouch?

[Tristan Needler]

So these things only record MIDI, that's kind of lame, but it could be useful for portability and just in the studio. What's aftertouch?
It's not that lame when you can spend $400 on a nice controller or $1000 (or much more) on a decent synth haha.

Aftertouch is just a cool little feature where it transmits more data after you initially press the keys, if you press them down even harder, it sends another controller message, which you can make modulate whatever, like volume, pitch, filters, stuff like that. Lots of synths have it.

[bassdrummer2333]

Ok cool, thanks!