My Ignorance is not Bliss

[SilverDragonSoun]

I'm treading above water as my journey into soft synths continues. I do have a question about digital pianos versus a controller. I am specifically wondering how the M Audio Keystation 88 Pro compares against the M Audio Pro Keys 88. The pro keys 88 is a digital piano that is supposed to double as a midi controller. I know the Keystation 88 Pro has more knobs and sliders to control more functions.

 

The things I want the controller to do are:

 

Store sounds of a specific sound synth/s

a velocity curve control that has enough or even half way decent dynamic range

Has good piano like weighted keybed action

 

I am still in a love/hate relationship with the keystation pro 88. The velocity curve control and the keybed action are real issues when I use this. I go back and forth about this just about every day.

[Joe P]

Chris,

Glad to see you haven't done a Ted Nugent number on the Pro 88 yet. Would creating four zones with different volume settings help even out the dynamics a bit (i.e. is the problem specific to an area of the keyboard, highs too bright, lows too low etc.)? You could do this and save it as a preset. Might take some tweaking, just a thought.

Regards,

Joe

[cg1155]

Controllers cannot store sounds for synths. They may be able to store midi commands to change the patch of the synth, and they may be able to store a setup to control the synth, but you will always need a computer/module attached to make the sounds.

 

BTW the prokeys still wouldn't do what you would want I don't think. Without your computer/laptop you would only be able to use the sounds preinstalled in the Prokeys. Do take the sounds you use in a module/laptop elsewhere without the original you would have to sample them into a sampler and re-program the patches. A lot of work.

[resigned]

Controllers on the whole haven't really become smart enough yet. I think the missing link is something like Brainspawn Forte\' , which adds the kind of functionality and workstation-like memory over softsynths that controllers lack.

 

As to finding good keyboard action, that's something only your hands can tell you. There's no controller made that people can agree on.

[midinut]

Chainer is worth looking into as well. Forté is way cooler but the demo keeps quitting and kicking me out to my desktop (just to be fair ... so does Chainer) after a few minutes. My interface (M-Audio Transit USB) also seems to have more latency than my desktop PC does. Steinberg has V-Stack too I believe but I haven't tried it or looked into it yet. I'm dying to get a rig working like Learjeff is using - but I need to see more stability before I trust it onstage. I'm really looking forward to using VST's live. Just my $.02

[SilverDragonSoun]

Glad to see you haven't done a Ted Nugent number on the Pro 88 yet. Would creating four zones with different volume settings help even out the dynamics a bit (i.e. is the problem specific to an area of the keyboard, highs too bright, lows too low etc.)? You could do this and save it as a preset. Might take some tweaking, just a thought.

 

This is worth a try. In theory this sounds like it has a chance to improve the dynamics. Good thinking Joe

 

 

Do take the sounds you use in a module/laptop elsewhere without the original you would have to sample them into a sampler and re-program the patches. A lot of work.

 

Yep found this one out the hard way a few weeks ago. Man was I fuming. I wanted to blame the keystation pro, my dog, cat, basically anything or anyone but this was totally my fault.

 

I have will look at brainspawn forte. Someone on another forum scared me away from using chainer.