What To Look For In Keyboard MIDI Controllers

Are you in the market for a new keyboard midi controller? If so, you may have some serious decision making. Could be a major brain storm figuring out between all the major brands, models, pricing etc. Reading a few reviews is a good thing to do as well. The research may not be what you wanna be doing instead of playing music but it's something you have to do.

Save yourself some time and know what your specific needs are and away you go. Figure out what will you be using it mostly for and what features do you absolutely require. Some keyboard players need an 88 keyboard while some can lay down a bass or comp some chords easily on a 25 key model. Will the keyboard just stay in the home studio or will you use it on stage and take it touring. Do you need  semi-weighted action or regular synth type plastic keys? Get a clear list of what features you need and some that you don't need.

The other considering factor may be the controlloers cost. The controllers with multiple features will be in the $400 range but but you can get a slimmed down version for under a hundred bucks. Getting the keyboard that's right for you just comes down to what you can afford and what you need. The manufacturers you will be looking at will definitley include:

M-Audio, Akai, Korg, Behringer. They've all been around a while so you know they make some fairly decent stuff. There will be a few different models from them as well. The most obvious feature would be the number of keys, in other words how many octaves. Starting with 25 keys giving you 2 complete octaves, next is 49 which is 4 full octaves, then 61 which is 5 octaves and of course the 88 which over 7 octaves.

By the way, these USB Midi keyboard controllers do not go up in price very much because of the number of keys they have, well, there is a bit of a price hike there but where they really go up in price is in the number of features they have.

Keyboard midi controllers were very minimalistic when they first hit the market with things like just a volume control, mod wheel, pedal and midi inputs. Now you can have control over everything in your DAW if that's what you want. That's why not everybody needs every option, cause many virtual instruments just don't require that many programmable buttons and knobs... and yet, some do.

Read more keyboard midi controller reviews and check out more studio recording equipment.