Posts Tagged: Casio Midi

by Knothole eyes

Midi Keyboards

MIDI keyboards are a sort of missing link in the modern day world of laptop or computer generated audio. A excellent many music hobbyists and professionals working in the field of electronic music are generating their sounds and music from within their computers. The sounds themselves are synthesized by the laptop or computer in a virtual atmosphere, and it is the job of a MIDI controller or MIDI keyboard to manage these sounds and make them playable just like a classic musical instrument.

It is a tiny a lot more complicated than that and MIDI controller keyboards can come in several varieties, differing in price and in functions between diverse models. Piano keyboards will normally attempt and imitate a piano playing experience with sampled piano sounds and familiar hardware like foot pedals. A MIDI keyboard controller on the other hand either consists of a hardware synthesizer on board in which case it is probably best called a synthesizer, or it acts as an interface to a personal computer running virtual synthesizer programs.

The models that do not incorporate their own synthesis engine are much cheaper but can nonetheless be complicated pieces of gear due to the controller functions that they consist of. Yamaha MIDI keyboards and Roland MIDI keyboards are two well-liked brands but other organizations have created innovative models in current years. The remote midi keyboard by novation has become a standard in several music circles, and they have many varieties of this model accessible. Korg MIDI keyboards and casio MIDI keyboards are also common with various attributes and models accessible.

One particular function that effects the price is weather the model has a weighted action in the keyboard, several cheap MIDI keyboards do not and have a plastic kind of feel when they are played. Much more pricey MIDI keyboards will have either a full or a semi weighted action and will feel a lot much more responsive to touch. Aftertouch is another characteristic often left out on low-cost MIDI keyboards, but most skilled keyboard players find this to be a essential function. The third impact on price tag is just the number and top quality of the knobs and sliders that manage the MIDI information along with the piano style keys.

Most keyboards today are USB MIDI keyboards and connect via the USB port to a host personal computer. Some nonetheless do need a MIDI interface that will need to be installed on the personal computer ahead of they will operate. MIDI keyboard controllers connect through the MIDI data protocol and effect and alter how the synthesizer engine creates sound, no matter whether that engine lies in the MIDI keyboard itself or on a host computer running virtual instruments. There are a lot of different models and brands readily available, it is best to do your homework just before you get, and probably much better to not get the cheaper models as you can develop out of them rather speedily.

Here we are in the next Millennium! The music industry continues to evolve and musicians are being afforded more opportunities to create music.

What’s definitely here to stay is the marriage of traditional acoustic music and computers. Whether you’re performing music with a combination of acoustic instruments and electronic instruments (such as samplers and sequencers), solely electronic, or just using the computer to write your acoustic music scores, MIDI (that’s Musical Instrument Digital Interface for those who’ve still shied away from electronics) continues to play an integral role in all of this.

In the electronic perspective, as synthesizers are for pianos, electronic wind instruments are for wind instruments. Over the years there have been many instruments that have sprung up to meet the challenge with varying degrees of success. Starting from the low-cost “toys” like the Casio MIDI sax, to more professional models like the AKAI EWI, Yamaha WX7, WX11 and WX5, and the seldom used or heard of Synthophone from the Swiss saxophonist and computer specialist Martin Hurni.

We’ve come a long way from the first electronically amplified saxophone using a wah-wah pedal or other effects to fully electronic instruments that use saxophone-like fingerings (like the EWI and WX-models) to actual saxophones jam-packed with electronics, such as the Synthophone.

Many saxophonists have experimented with this new challenge in different ways. Greg Osby and Gary Thomas electronically amplified their horns and used Pitch-to-MIDI converters in order to drive synthesizers and sequencers on various recordings with Jack De Johnette’s band “Special Edition” and their own recordings.

Michael and Randy Brecker used a wah-wah pedal in earlier recordings of the “Brecker Bros”, and Mike later picked up the EWI with “Steps Ahead” and his own recordings. Concert saxophonist John Sampen has used the WX-7 in specially hired works for the instrument. Saxophonist Chico Freeman used a Synthophone on a live recording while on tour in Germany. Steve Coleman has also used the Synthophone although solely in his home studio for sequencing purposes. I’ve even heard that Branford Marsalis has experimented with it.

Whether you’re considering using one on stage, in the studio or just for fun, there are a few obstacles connected with these instruments, but may be well worth the effort to investigate them.

The Yamaha and AKAI models are what I call “new animals”. They are intended to use saxophone-like fingers but they are not saxophones in any sense. That may please you in the way that you will treat it like a new, unfamiliar instrument. It may bother you because you have to learn to play another instrument and not just let loose and play as you do a sax.

The Synthophone is an actually saxophone stuffed with electronics but mind you, it generates no acoustic sounds at all, just like the other instruments. You may like that because the learning curve is a lot smaller. Again, that may bother you that it is a sax because it doesn’t really respond the sax way as a sax does. All in all it is a matter of personal preference which electronic wind instrument may be worth your time and money.  They can be expensive.

If you use music software such as Steinberg’s CUBASE, Elogic or CODA’s Finale, you can hook up your “e-sax” to your computer to enter notes into your scores the same way you would do with a MIDI keyboard. Instead of struggling to play a piano solo for your sequencing project, maybe you want to play it with your “e-sax” instead.

I personally have experimented along this direction. I’ve used a Roland VP-70 Digital Voice Processor (in Pitch-to-MIDI mode) with Korg Poly 800 (Monophonic/Analog sounds) and Yamaha TX81-Z (Polyphonic/FM-Snythesis) synthesizers with a contact microphone on my sax bell.

This worked very neatly in the studio, but it was a catastrophe on the stage. The problem there was that a Pitch-to-MIDI converter can only process one note at a time. This was fine in the secluded cabin of a recording studio. But on stage you get “spill over” from the guitar, the drums, the bass, etc. – too many signals – the VP would just shut down. I had to change programs in order to get it to kick in again. I should have used a built-in microphone, but really didn’t want to have a hole drilled into the neck and I really didn’t want to change necks in the middle of gig.

Anyway, while using an “e-sax” many things have to be learned and taken into consideration. Sounds are the biggest issue in my opinion. I’ve heard many failed attempts at it. The most common mistake of the “newbie” is to use synthesizer sounds that are really made for a keyboard instrument in mind. If you try to play the sound as though it’s a wind instrument, it really sounds terrible. One really has to pick sounds that are more adept for a wind instrumentalist’s technique.

Evan Tate is a Faculty member at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, a Julius Keilwerth saxophones endorser, podcaster and author of the book “250 Jazz Patterns” and more. You can contact Mr. Tate at http://www.evantatemusic.com/.