May 02, 2004 11:50 am dunno mate, but welcome!
someone'll know for sure :-)
88key Synth vs 88key Midi Controller
Posted on May 02, 2004 11:37 am
Sam
Member Since: May 02, 2004
I have recently just sold my Yamaha Motif 7 keyboard. I still own a pair of Yamaha P5 Active Monitors and a phonic mixer. I never used any of the advanced features such as sampling or the step recording etc and now require a fully weighted keyboard. I also wish to begin recording audio and midi with a computer as I used to.
Out of the new equipment to be purchased I need fully weighted keys, sequencer, piano sounds and a hefty voice bank like the motif 7 would be nice. Hence I'm torn between either purchasing a Yamaha Motif 8 (although I dont need even half its functionality), or a Midi Weighted controller like the Studiologic SL990XP and a laptop. Though I am concerned about the laptops ability to give some decent sound quality.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
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May 02, 2004 11:50 am dunno mate, but welcome!
someone'll know for sure :-)
May 02, 2004 12:04 pm Personally, I would go with the Yamaha Motif 8. Being a keyboard player myself, the samples on the keyboard sound much better to me. It most likly have midi on the keyboard, so you'll have both worlds here. Plus, you will have internal sounds be able to take it anywhere to play.
May 02, 2004 01:08 pm Quote:
It most likly have midi on the keyboard, so you'll have both worlds here.
My thoughts exactly. If you get a synth, it can be a controller as well as long as it has MIDI ins and outs.
May 02, 2004 01:39 pm Thanks for the prompt responses.
If I were to go for the Studiologic and a laptop, how would I get the sounds out from the studiologic, through a motif rack, a certain sound card?
Cheers
May 02, 2004 01:45 pm I can recommend the Yamaha s90 it has the sounds of the Motif 8 and the same 88 weighted keys but not the sequencer and sampling options but then again I don't fully understand if you want to sequence on your computer or on you keyboard
May 02, 2004 01:49 pm In that case, what's the advantage of an S90 over a Motif 8?
May 02, 2004 01:59 pm You would need a sound card that has MIDI ports (as well as audio to capture the resulting audio if you want to record it as audio rather than MIDI is the final track). The typical sound card doubles the joystick port as a MIDI port as well...both in and out. Otherwise, there are a few USB and Firewire external sound devices in our "Gear Bag" section that might be worth a look.
May 02, 2004 02:13 pm Apologies, I understand the concept of using an external sound card device. I meant more, how the samples go from the sound card to the midi keyboard...
May 02, 2004 03:01 pm The sound samples would not be moving, only the MIDI data would be moving the devices it is told to in order to play the sounds. Then the audio would come out of the respective device(s) and be run into a mixer or back into your sound device to capture the audio samples.
Does that make any sense?
May 03, 2004 12:30 am I would assume the advantage of the s90 over the motif8 would be price. But I haven't checked into it.
May 03, 2004 02:41 am yes the price is about a 1000$ less than a Motif at Least it's a 1000 Euro's less here in Holland
and since I don't need the sequencer on board of my synth i got the s90 cuz it has the same sounds same action for a much lower price
and I record on to my computer (when I get it to work properly)
May 04, 2004 12:49 pm Any comments from others about using a laptop to produce sound from a midi Studiologic SL990XP keyboard?
Steinberg Grand etc?
Which laptop sound card gives best sound quality?
Cheers
May 04, 2004 05:25 pm well the Triton LE 88
the difference between Motif 8/S90 and the triton is the acoustic sounds (piano in particular) from yamaha are just way better than those from Korg IMO and The feel of Yamaha's weighted keys are better too IMO
May 15, 2004 12:03 am Sam, there is a big differance between a controller and an actual keyboard synth like the Motif and Triton. I use a Fatar Studio Logic controller with all my softsynths and hardware synths through Sonar and Project 5. It is only for sending midi note and control messages, it makes no sound of its own. That is left to the hardware and software. You can indeed via midi interface hook into your laptop to send the midi messages there, and in turn through an Audio interface send audio from a softsynth out or through midi out to another hardware synth.
The benifit of the TRiton or Motif or S90 is that it will act as both a controller and a synth producing sounds. Hope this explains it a bit, if not let me know and i ca get into more detail.
If you go to my prfile and then music section you can hear the results of using nothing but software synths and drums in a tune called gotta. The only real instrument is the guitar, this should givve you an idea of what a computer can do synth wise.
Feb 15, 2005 11:35 am I have a question similar to Sam's
In my case, I am not a keyboard player, but I do play some and would like to play better. I also use the keyboard for midi. Currently I have a Roland pc300 controller, but I am thinking about adding to that a nice feeling 88 key weighted keyboard. I am looking for suggestions of things to look at. I guess I can either get a nice electric piano or controller and buy a separate rack for sounds, or I can get a synth with sounds already in it. Ideally, I would like something that will be usable for recording, but also just a lot of fun to sit down and play around with (with the caveat that I am not particularly familiar with these things and would prefer not to get massively frustrated by difficulty of use). Is there a benefit to getting a controller only? More flexibility?
In short, I am not locking myself to any particular configuration (hardware only, hardware and software combos, etc) or price limit at this point and would just like to get as many opinions and experiences as I can so I can start the hunt. I guess I should also mention that I am generally into classic and contemporary jazz and pop music -- not typically dance, techno, hip hop, etc.
One other issue I would appreciate someone addressing is whether there is any advantage to buying a full synth workstation vs. using the the computer for sequencing all the time. As I note from previous responses, there is about a $900 - $1000 difference between the Yamaha S90 and the Motif ES, for example. Mobility is not an issue as this will be for a home studio.
Thanks.
Feb 15, 2005 12:02 pm Well, you only need one controller that you are satisfied with. So, if you are only going to be using one synth unit, it doesn't really make much difference to have it be onboard the keyboard, or if it is a stand alone rack unit controlled by an external controller keyboard, except that maybe it is just less confusing (less wires) to have it onboard. But if you are planning on getting multiple synth units, after you have the all in one unit, then each subsequent synth I would get the rack version (cheaper), and use my original keyboard as the controller. As for an all in sequencer/sampler/workstation, vs a computer for sequencing/sampling, I have heard many stories of the little screen on the keyboards being hard to read and being user unfriendly. My friend had a triton and couldn't use it during certain times of the day because the sunlight would reflect off the screen, and he couldn't read the display at all. Conversely, computer user interfaces are generally easy to use and easier to read.
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