1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Evengy
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Evengy » Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:10 am

i have a Roland a-800 pro and a mpk49. mpk Trigger pads are REALLY crap. keys are to string IMHO.
i tried the Impulse a few month ago and it had a light and cheapy Feeling. a800 was the best, especially the keys!

Ser_Yo
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Ser_Yo » Thu Sep 06, 2012 10:17 am

Evengy wrote:i have a Roland a-800 pro and a mpk49. mpk Trigger pads are REALLY crap. keys are to string IMHO.
i tried the Impulse a few month ago and it had a light and cheapy Feeling. a800 was the best, especially the keys!
Sorry, I am not native english so some terms are a mistery for me. What does it mean "keys are to string"?
Thanks for the suggestion for the Roland. I will have a look.
The Impulse should be like the SL, talking of keys, right? Cheap means that you feel that you cannot get it to modulate a synth sound very well with its aftertouch for example?
As said, I am not a keyboardist, I am more concerned about playing simple things with a synth, and having a good aftertouch, good weight, good velocity sensitive, to be able to control well the nuances of a synth sound.
I would not ask so much but unfortunately it is not so easy for me to buy and resell if I do not like. :)
I am pretty confident that all these keyboard would be good enough.
Just trying to figure out which can be the best choise now.
If I will have to change that will be much later, so I would like to be relatively sure that I will be enough happy since the beginning.

Ser_Yo
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Ser_Yo » Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:27 am

Evengy, could you please make a direct comparison of the Roland and the Akai?
-Keys: which is better to have more control over the synth sounds (aftertouch, velocity, weight)?
-mapping: which makes the life easier at the moment of having everything mapped, manually and/or automatically?
-quick use: I will do 90% use in live performances, so I need easy of use, fast access to functions, and more functions available. In a live-looping context it is vital.
-pads: which has got better pads?

I also wonder if the Roland has got some kind of note repeat/swing like the Akai, and the arpeggiator.
If not, would you say that the Akai is a good choice for who would like to be able to have those functions available without the help of a PC (in a direct keyboard-to-hardware Synth scenario)?
Or would you rather organize the setup so to use the arpeggiator of the synth? I suppose that if Akai did an integrated arpeggiator in a midi controller must be useful for something...

Thanks!

Ser_Yo
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Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:10 pm

Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Ser_Yo » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:53 pm

Nice.
QUestion: do you consider the Impulse superior to the Remote SL? (talking of all those things, keys, aftertouch, sound nuances, mapping, etc)?
I see it has got arpeggiator and swing!!! Wow. Am I wrong or the Remote has NOT got them?
DId you ever had the chance to compare the arpeggiator and swing function of the Akai with the one of the Impulse?

I have found this: http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 08cc79a1b4
Strange, they talk of the akai keys in the exact opposite way I was immagining them.
I thought an harder key would make it easier to control the nuances of a synth sound with aftertouch by opposing a certain resistance, while a softer key could have been too "all or nothing", difficult to reach intermediate points.
THey say the opposite!

:)

Let me understand, which keyboard did you personally tried?

Ser_Yo
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Ser_Yo » Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:56 pm

Hey, I have to thank you, I am now 90% sure that I will buy the Impulse.
It has got apparently all what the Akai has got, plus better pads, and better keyboard (then it is subjective, because it seems that people who did not try it connected think that its keyboard is very good, but when they connect it they realize that the velocity response curve is too bad, no nuances, black or white.
Its after-touch is very good but it seems that also the one of Impulse is good.

If somebody know of some reason why I should absolutely not buy the Impulse and rather buy the MPK, tell it now, or I will buy the impulse! :)

Thanks a lot for the nice assistance, conversation, support and inputs.

Great community, thanks!

glitchrock-buddha
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:05 pm

I'd get the SL. Better display, 8 more knobs and 16 more buttons. You can make device templates with way less page scrolling, which is the only bummer with automap - you have to page up and down on page at a time. They should have buttons representing pages and banks of them. Big plug-ins are too much of a pain. Funny enough buttons can be used to go directly to different midi templates, but for some reason not different automap pages, where you really need it.
Last edited by glitchrock-buddha on Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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yur2die4
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by yur2die4 » Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:19 pm

I really do love my sl mkii. Especially because of te display :P mmmm parameters! Yeah, I rarely actually USE Automap. I always intend to implement it, but I have everything covered haha

Aside from Maschine in Mackie mode (which is limited in what it displays in some cases), it is one of the only midi controllers that lets you actually SEE the name of each knob without glancing at the screen. Especially nice when you go through 8 banks.

DM1000
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by DM1000 » Mon Oct 01, 2012 12:21 am

Hey guys, was just reading this post. I'm a keys player in the Downtown Toronto area and I use akai all the time.
I also play by ear. I do a lot of session work for my producer friends helping them hammer out their ideas and expand on their melodies.

Just thought I'd extend my services to any producers on here looking to get more melodies into their music.

holla if you're interested in working on some of your beats

allmatisse@gmail.com

rakim87
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by rakim87 » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:35 am

I don't know about the other ones but I had an MPK and have played with other MPK's at guitar center (which would be a good idea for you to do yourself) and I hate them. On my MPK mini I found the keys to be too slim which throws me off because I play a real piano, you might not have that problem, and the pads are very insensitive and occasionally they double hit and I have to edit out the extra note. The more expensive MPK's I saw at guitar center didn't seem much better. The keys don't feel good to me.

Playing with an Arturia at the store I found I liked it but I don't own one and use it regularly.
ImageImage

Ser_Yo
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Ser_Yo » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:47 am

Thanks to everybody, I finally went for an Impulse 49 because I need the arpeggiator and good pads (with note repeat and swing like the Akai). The Impulse has got them, with better keys then the Akai, so...
Anyway I also bought a used Zero Remote SL and a BCR2000 because I also have an Octatrack (which needs a controller which can send datas on different channels). So I think I am vastly covered.
I will try to remember to post my impressions of the Impulse when I get it.
This will not be soon, because I am new to midi, so, before I can really say what I think, I need to be sure.

Bye

Ser_Yo
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Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Ser_Yo » Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:09 am

Unfortunately mine is not yet arrived.
Worst ebay seller ever.
Ok, not worst, I saw much worse.
:)

But please let me know what you find out.

And if you keep the Impulse, of course we will help each other ;)

Ser_Yo
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Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2012 8:10 pm

Re: 1 more VS thread. Midi Keyboard: Akai, Novation or Arturia?

Post by Ser_Yo » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:09 am

mmm, pity.
Well, then, good job!
Sorry that I cannot help you :(

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