Keyboard Workstation question.

[theswiftone]

My midi keyboard has given up the ghost and i can't find one on the market that I want to get to replace it. But I've been looking at the Roland FA-06 workstation and was wondering if it will double up as a midi keyboard for use with Ableton? Does anyone own and use one?

[gaijin1717]

My midi keyboard has given up the ghost and i can't find one on the market that I want to get to replace it. But I've been looking at the Roland FA-06 workstation and was wondering if it will double up as a midi keyboard for use with Ableton? Does anyone own and use one?

I don't own or use one but it would certainly work as a midi controller with Ableton Live. I would make sure you like the features beyond midi control before shelling out that much $$$.

[mrdelurk]

For mainstream music styles, keyboards by the Big 3 (Yamaha, Korg, Roland) have flashier sounds/multisounds than the typical DAW. The big 3 synth manufacturers spend millions of $ to create the best sounds they can, while for DAW companies, sounds are more of an afterthought.

(Yes I know one can buy the whole sampled soundset of the latest Yamaha, Roland & Korg synth in Kontakt format, I bought those too. But that's no match for having the actual keyboard, only a stopgap for the occasional missing "latest Korg" patch one might need at times. A keyboard that one can turn on and get a sound out of is still king.)

[redglass]

Midi-Control

All 3 big companiees have different options when it comes to midi.
The Yamahas support Mackie Control (Motif), the MOXF series use a Yamaha Midi Protocol, not sure about the MOXF and Mackie Control. As far as I know Korg and Roland don't support Mackie Control, which is a no go concerning the KORG Kronos.

Mackie Control: You might look for an used Yamaha Motif ES or XS. The XS has 8 Volume faders compared to the ES (4 faders).
If you want more buttons to use, you might have a look for a used Korg X-50. You can adress 8 knobs to live, 8 split-zones, lots of useful sounds, light (3 kilo).

Don't know about the Rolands. I'm sure you can adres its buttons via midi-learn to AL.

Good luck,

Bastian

[theswiftone]

Thanks for the responses. I'm not overly concerned with having a plethora of knobs and faders. Just want something that sounds great, has nice keys and the ability to be used as a midi keyboard to play my VST synths. So any suggestions are appreciated.