Author: Crash (cpe-66-8-208-249.hawaii.res.rr.com)
Date: 05-31-2006 15:07
Basically, any MIDI keyboard, aside from the very, very early ones will be fine with an ST. The very early ones only support OMNI ON (MIDI information on any MIDI channel is heard) and may malfunction with anything that is not a note signal. A program/patch or bank change, for example can cause one of my Crumar Bit One keyboards to malfunction.
Instruments are very specific to the type of music that you would like to make. Some are better at making electronic sounds, while some attempt to simulate acoustic instruments. It all depends on what your preference is.
If you can, go to a local music store and play with their keyboards, especially if they have some older or used models around. Look around on the net and you can find examples of how some different instruments and their synthesis types sound. This ends up being a matter of taste. If there is a specific group or style of music that you want to make, you can probably find out what instruments that those groups use, which may help steer you in the right direction.
Then you can look at specifications such as how many notes it can play at a time (polyphony), whether it can play multiple different types of sounds at a time (multi-timbral) such as bass and strings and drums. Then there is the issue of how many sounds it can play at a time. Many keyboards can only make one sound, while others gained the ability to make two, four, and up to sixteen or more. To be useful for making an entire song, keep in mind the number of notes that may need to be played at once, and the number of sounds that these notes will be spread out upon.
16 notes polyphony, with 4 parts multi-timbral can provide a good start for making a multi-instrument song. More is better. Be sure to note that some instruments are described in terms of how many "voices" or partials that they can make. Each note is generally made up of 1-4 partials, so some instruments like the Roland MT-32 are 32 voice polyphonic, but in real use, the good sounds all use 4 voices, so you are limited to 8 notes at a time.
Some good songs have come out of something as limited as an MT-32, it is just harder since you have to go out of your way to trim notes so they don't overlap or cut each other off.
Other features are the type of keyboard, number of octaves, whether the keyboard can tell how hard you hit the keys (velocity sensitive) or how hard you press the keys (pressure sensitive aka aftertouch). Some keyboards have weighted keys like a piano, while others are thin and light, or even miniature.
Search these forums for MIDI and check out what others have asked, then head on over to Music Machines, and you can read about different instruments:
http://machines.hyperreal.org/manufacturers/
There are several sites like this where instruments are described and reviewed.
Also, be sure to visit Tim's Atari MIDI World:
http://tamw.atari-users.net/
That should get you started...
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