KVR Audio

sramsay · Post by **sramsay** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:32 pm

I'm interested in high-quality midi controllers without all the bells and whistles (i.e. knobs and faders). I never play live, and I generally don't bother assigning parameters to the controller. What I really want is a keyboard, a pitch wheel, a mod wheel, and an octave adjustment (on, probably, a 49-key unit).

I know about the M-audio Keystations and the Alesis Qs, but it sounds like the build on these isn't very strong. I can easily find higher-quality controllers, but now it's got all this stuff I don't care about, and I feel like I'd be paying extra for what I don't need.

So: Is there such a thing as a bare-bones, high-end (maybe not too high end!) midi controller that's really just the basics? Maybe my google-fu is just not up to snuff, but I'm really having trouble locating one . . .

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 5:08 pm

IMHO the Roland A-49 has good build quality (for its price) better than m.audio, arturia, alesis and akai. All Roland controllers have better keys than all other controlller manufacturers except maybe Novation SL line.

The only problem is that the keys are a little bit shorter than other so if you have fat fingers it might be a problem.

sramsay · Post by **sramsay** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 5:14 pm

I did see the A-49 at one point. How do you get along with that combined pitch-wheel/mod-wheel joystick thing?

People seldom have bad things to say about Roland's build quality, and the price is certainly right.

sramsay · Post by **sramsay** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 5:31 pm

BTW, when I say "the price is certainly right," I mean, "Gee, that's cheap." I would happily pay Novation prices if they made a model that didn't have 56 (!) controls on it.

I understand that a lot of people (maybe most) work that way, but I really don't.

rod_zero · Post by **rod_zero** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 5:47 pm

a yeah the modwheel is akward, the main problem is that it goes back to default position unlike other keyboards.

sramsay · Post by **sramsay** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:41 pm

That was what I was afraid of. OTOH, I seldom use it. I'd be more likely to just automate whatever you'd do with a mod wheel (or sweep it with an LFO or whatever).

The main thing I use the mod wheel for is checking out presets, since those often have wheel mappings. In that case, the bounce back wouldn't matter so much. So I suppose that's yet another thing I don't really need.

Thanks, by the way, for your advice -- really useful.

high end, no frills midi controllers