MIDI Controller keyboard
Want to make music on a PC?

MIDI Controller - It is a keyboard which does not have any sound of its own but it can send MIDI messages. If you use a software sequencer for all your recording, you really do not need a keyboard with all its sounds, effects and accompaniments. You just need a keyboard which can send out MIDI messages and this is exactly what a MIDI controller keyboard does. MIDI Controllers tend to be cheaper and you get them in smaller sizes as well.

Computer based Sequencer
Using MIDI you can turn your computer into a recording studio. You need a software sequencer like Sonar, Cubase, Reason, etc. and you need to connect your musical keyboard to your computer. The MIDI IN/OUT of your keyboard will need to be connected to the MIDI OUT/IN of your computer's soundcard.

A sequencer is something on which you record your performance track by track and play it back. It can be either software or hardware. But why should you use a PC based sequencer?

Keyboard based Sequencer
Almost all the keyboards contain a built-in sequencer and you can use that to record your performance. The problem with this approach is:

• It will actually record the sounds and styles of the keyboard. Now if you do not have a top of the line keyboard the sounds may not be very good and the recording will be of average quality.
• It will be a pain to do editing of your recording. It could be very cumbersome to do editing of the parts with mistakes. Of course, you will not find any of these problems with top of the line workstations like Motif, Triton, and Fantom.

But if you already have a keyboard and you want to make use of it, you can connect it to a PC through MIDI and use a software sequencer for your recording.

Why MIDI Controllers?
While recording on a software sequencer, you will not be recording the sounds from your keyboard. The sound will be generated within the PC using softwares called soft synths and VST’s, placed inside the software sequencer. You will just trigger them using your keyboard to produce the sound. The quality of the sound in this case will be determined by the soft synths and VST’s that you have installed in your PC.

Now, since the sound is not produced by the keyboard, you can go in for a MIDI Controller Keyboard which is not only cheaper but also comes in smaller sizes. You can easily dump your laptop, soundcard and MIDI controller keyboard in a bag and carry your recording studio along with you.

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