Mar 22, 2010 09:00 am That little keyboard looks like a handy little bit o' kit.
Inner-gear-slut sated:
Posted on Mar 20, 2010 10:39 pm
J-bot
Byte-Mixer
Member Since: Dec 04, 2007
So, as I've mentioned in the past, I was wanting to get a small keyboard for potentially taking to coffee shops and the like to noodle around, and potentially work on ideas.
Eventually, I decided 25-keys was just too small for any kind of creative processing, and 49 keys is a little bulky to be hauling over to a cafe`. I was looking at 37-key controllers and the like, but I kinda wanted a hardware synth as well.
So, I started looking at korgs, alesis, roland, etc. Now, Korg makes a few mini-synths like the micro, microxl, ms1, and the R3. I was leaning toward the alesis micron, since I liked the sounds better, looking at demos, and the like, but didn't really like the chassis design. And then, on further browsing, I discovered the MINIAK, which on further reading seems to be the micron engine put in a new more user-friendly body (well, more friendly in my opinion)
The guitar center up in Cedar Rapids had it, so I made a trip up today, and bought it after trying it out for awhile. The keys are a little more springy than my xboard, but they're not too bad, and I can really fly through some glissandos on this thing. Good news was they discounted about 70 bucks off the original price, so great deal on it.
*cough* I also bought a Korg padKontrol, and a Roland EV5 expression pedal. It's funny since the last padKontrol they had was the demo unit, which was in pretty good condition, so I was like "gimme!"
www.zzounds.com...item--AKAMINIAK
www.zzounds.com...--KORPADKONTROL (the white one)
www.zzounds.com/item--ROLEV5
Gear-slut = sated.....for now >:-)
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Mar 22, 2010 09:00 am That little keyboard looks like a handy little bit o' kit.
Mar 22, 2010 12:26 pm Very nice. New Gear is always a GAS =).
Mar 22, 2010 04:01 pm Looks like a very functional portable electronic music setup. Now the next step is to book a flight to the heart of Africa and find some obscure tribe to study and tribute in musical context.
Don't forget your safari hat, finely waxed mustache, khaki clothes, and monocle.
Mar 22, 2010 06:49 pm *snoops around*
"is that a vocoder mic on the keyboard?"
*tries not to act jealous*
Oh hey Jbot congrats on the gear. looks good.
Mar 22, 2010 10:49 pm yep. the thing has a mess of presets, some better than others. I've been jammin around on it. Spent about 5 hours or so toying with it Sunday evening hehe. The thing's got some nice capabilities...Rhythms, Sequencing, Multi, and yes Coolo, that is indeed a vocoder. Though the Korg R3 probably has the better vocoder, I like the synth sounds of the miniak better. It's basically the Alesis micron in a new more friendly housing. Not that I do vocoding really, so I didn't mind, but it's a nice option to have, and very tweakable.
But yeah, perfect size, can be fed external audio, some really neat sounds, ability to create your own sequences/multi/rhythm/program, plus the 40-band vocoder = much fun. The only downside is the lack of USB, but it's a minor thing really, just means when I get a laptop, I'll be hauling my audiofire with me, which is a small guy, so no biggy :)
May 04, 2010 02:51 pm I call upon YOU! Thread of yore! RISE and give us feedback on the Korg Padkontrol!!
How 'bout it Mr. Bot? Are you happy with this padkontrol thingy? I just bought one partially because I figured every MIDI capable studio should have something like this...and partially bc it was 50 bucks. Any tips for me when I go about setting things up?
May 05, 2010 12:37 am Lol. Well I haven't had much time to play with it yet to be honest. Work was taking up way too much of my free time. But, with the contract ended now, i can get back to it.
I'm definitely glad I got the PK, so I can start working on setting up some core drum beats, and have the Jamstix AI use those as the base, and build the full pattern around it.
Also, the XY pad is great, since my Xboard doesn't have one hehe. You can also use the controller to set flam, and flam interval on a pad as well as rolls. So that's pretty handy, especially if your drum vst has an anti-machine-gun feature.
From what I've messed with so far, it's not too hard to set up. I think mapping the controls to something like Jamstix might be a little more complicated since there aren't really any "templates" for it that I know of. But yeah, once you have something mapped to specific software, you can save that as a template to use again, which is pretty handy. I believe the templates are called "Scenes"
The pads really are nice and responsive though, so I can see why people like them. They feel pretty sturdy too.
Did a quick google and came across a thread over on gearslutz for mapping it to BFD in pro-tools.
www.gearslutz.com/board/m...rol-issues.html
which the guy's using Protools 6.9, but anyway,
You can map individual pads to specific midi notes to trigger the drums in the VST, or change the maps of the drums themselves to fit the midi notes on the padkontrol. So it should be pretty easy to set up. Granted I have to download the manual since my purchase was the demo unit (and the last one they had in the store haha!)
And good ol' KVR has a thread on editing an existing mapping as well: www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=225076
Hope that helps! :D Seriously, the padKontrol is a fun drum pad controller. They had one of the smaller Akai MPC controllers as well, but I opted for the Korg since it was cheaper.
Oh, and for the record, my new laptop is quite nice as well. I bought a cooling platform and a new wireless mouse to go with it as well :D Next time my wife needs to hit a coffee shop to go work on writing papers, I'll tag along with my new lappy, and the Miniak, and see how that goes.
May 05, 2010 06:33 am I ended up buying a padKontrol for my midi controller. Although I haven't used it yet to its full potential (anything other than drums), I love it. BTW, it fits just great in a snare drum stand as to get it off your desk. Looks cool there too. Like it belongs :)
Jovhato
May 05, 2010 03:38 pm Cool! Thanks so much for your input. Glad to hear the XY controller is particularly handy.
The very first thing I'm going to do is set up each pad with saw synths in a specific key, making sure the lowest note dips to the limit of my monitoring ability. I'm going to set the XY parameters to cutoff and resonance and noodle with that for a bit. I also bought the Soniccouture Gamelan package in a promo offer a while back. Its basically a big set of ethnic drums sampled au naturale and also in a 'tuned' variety. Playing with alternative percussion instruments on a keyboard is kind of lame for my creativity. I'm sure I could get used to it but that xy touchpad makes the pad worth it I think. I don't have any plans to record any "real" sounding drums with this thing; just samples synths and oddball percussion stuff. Who knows though.
a beat pad AND autotune...I'll be Justin Bieber in no time, lol
Thanks for the snare stand tip Jov, I'll keep that in mind.
May 07, 2010 03:51 pm Hey Bot/Jov, another quick padkontrol question.
As far as I understand it...the MIDI control messages assigned to each pad/knob on the padkontrol can be manipulated either in the plugin by right clicking on a plugin control parameter and choosing to 'learn' a hardware controller or they can be set on the padkontrol itself somehow. I'm trying to get things to work via plugin 'learning' right now; I guess that method seems a little more intuitive to me. I'm trying out a synth plugin like I said I would (Vaccuum).
I was able to get Vaccuum to 'learn' the x axis of the touch pad but I can't seem to get the y axis to associate with a plugin control. As it is I have both resonance and cutoff assigned to the x axis...still sounds cool, but not nearly as useful as if they were separately controllable.
May 07, 2010 04:11 pm Quote:
I'll be Justin Bieber in no time
Ha, so was he!
May 08, 2010 12:38 am Hmmm, well, the way I managed to do it in FL Studio was to browse all parameters in the VST, locate the filter's Cut and Resonance, and assign them manually by tracing on the X and Y axes. For reference, I was using Rez as the synth VST of choice. It sorta works. The downpoint is that doing it that way, both values set to 0 as soon as I remove my finger. It doesn't seem to track where the value last was, which is kind of a pain. I'm not sure if that's a limitation of Rez, or FL Studio.
Gotta be an easier way to do it though. Unfortunately, in certain VST there's no auto-learn midi function. I'll see how it behaves in Reaper, since I've got the demo for that still. I'm curious to see how it behaves in a different DAW.
Edit: Yeah, even in reaper, I can browse the parameters/controls in a VST, and assign them individually by learning the control. (It seems it treats the X-Y pad values as CC2 and CC3 for X and Y respectively)
Maybe that will help.
May 10, 2010 01:38 pm Hmm that may be similar to what I'm doing in ProTools but I'll see if I can find a setup mode where all the CC messages are lined up to be associated with my controller...My MIDI Learn just notices the x axis.
In order to get the hold function to work there should be a button by the touch pad, if you engage that thingy and press on something it should hold out for you. That part works in PT at least...ha.
I've never had to mess with MIDI CC messages before...this is kind of a chore but will be worth it. I am so very much in like with those two assignable knobs and the XY pad.
Thanks! If I figure out how to get the pads working without using the MIDI learn function I'll let you know...
Jun 25, 2010 11:22 pm Okay, minor necro to my own thread here, but I just added a Korg R3 to my setup. (yeah, I know I said I wouldn't get anything new for awhile but....it's been a few months at least?)
Wanted to grab one at the guitar center, but they only carry it in the larger stores, so I ordered online, and got a nice deal on it for $100 off. (warehouse resealed) so got it for the same price as my Miniak.
I also ordered a little table-top dual-tier laptop stand to put the new keyboard on. The stand holds up to 20 lbs.which should be more than enough for the R3. Er, think it's one of the Jamstands from Ultimate Support. www.ultimatesupport.com/product/JS-LPT200
Just got the stuff in today. I'll take a piccy once the camera (along with my wife) gets back from L.A. Sunday night. I just hope the Miniak and the R3 don't decide to fight it out after I go to sleep. :) Play nice, kids!
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