Pam, in short: a fysical midi keyboard can do it all at ones.
Playing a fysical midi keyboard is just like playing an synth or fysical piano.
You play the song, like you would on a normal piano or synth. You can try different keys, listen, play again. Different tonation, duration whatever you feel makes the transcribtion more accurate. So do all you need to do to transcribe. All the input you need (want) is stored in a midi file directly, which the notationsoftware reads and shows to you as sheetmusic.
As most people have a better visual reference on a piano keyboard look, that is being used.
Ones setup, it ādoes the same as you do now, but faster.
Nothing better or worse, just different.
Sorry @howard I didnāt mean to insult keyboard players with my comment. What I meant was, āfor meā it would be a nice toy, since I have no intention of spending the time to become a keyboard player.
I understand completely. It would be nice if I had the extra money (and space) for a piano or just a nice keyboard, but I donāt. It would be nice if I had the extra lifetime it would take to learn to play piano, but I donāt (yes I DO understand how the keyboard is laid out). I wish I could turn the clock back 50 years, but I canāt.
For now, all I have time for is developing my ear and identifying the tones in a song. I have to do it the cheap way; with the piano app that Windows provides, along with my pc keyboard. Iām fine with manually dragging and dropping the notes onto the stave once Iāve identified them. Iām fine with testing out what Iāve written into my composition software with my bass, then fine tuning it.
Iād be curious to know how many professional (gigging) bass players who learn songs by ear own or play piano. Iād venture to guess, not that many.
All bass players who have gone through a formalized education (e.g., Berklee College of Music etc) MUST have learned either piano or guitar. I donāt think you get through music school without knowing (being able to play) at least one instrument where you can play chords etc.
Agreed! I meant those who DIDNāT go to formal music college. For example, I remember reading in Fleaās book that he had played trumpet prior to learning bass, but never learning to play piano. He didnāt go to Berklee or anywhere else.
Jazz has become sooooo academic it is actually a BIG problem, as it is standardizing the sound of all jazz. This is really bad. Jazz started on the completely opposite side of the spectrum from academia, in the streets and brothels of New Orleans. To this day in New Orleans, some of the best musicians there learn in the streets and bars. Sure many go to more formal education, but the āWynton Marsailising / Berklee-ingā of jazz is a very hotly debated topic right now, as it is forming cookie cutter musicians with no āgrit/soul/backroom learning/real world experienceā and has become an academic exercise.
To me, its one of the reasons many people donāt like or care about modern jazz music (I am one of them). If you see the one wall behind me in videos, its mostly dead people.
But they can re-harm the sh*t out of āOh When The Saintsāā¦
But, seriously that is just how things are developing. Professional golfers didnāt use to go to the gym - now they all beef up like crazy. Who is to stop them or āregulateā thisā¦ and why?
Also, I know jazzers who flunked music school, struggled, worked low-wage jobs, got their act together, re-kindled with music, make brilliant musicā¦
Thereās all kinds - and everyone is free to find what they like or resonate most with
It depends on who you know and/or ask.
I know many that never had any formal education, yet have studio work, gigs and some even a good income from playing bass. Many that do use a midi piano to transcribe, learn music through sheet music and roughly the same amount of folks that work only by ear, without using sheetmusic or even tabs. A few of them use their own āmusic-languageā to remember certain parts of a song!
But my music scene differs, from jazz to Irish folk. From mainstream hiphop to pop and classic rock. Most are semi-professional to professional (meaning making a living from playing).
And yeah, Iād wished I knew this 35 years ago, would be very different nowadays, if I would have started playing bass more regularly then I did.
Although I have no formal education in any instrument, I play keys, whistle, cayon and sing, beside bass, when needed.
Not to offend anybody, but their is more around the world then each of us thinks he or she knows. Luckily, forums like these help us to find out a lot more.
Everyone has his/her own background, we all enjoy the music. Keep on learning, playing and enjoying yourself. Music is to good to let go.
I was talking to several of my musician friends earlier today about midi and one of them made the exact same statement ie. āI have no intention of spending the time to become a keyboard playerā, and one other agreed with him.
It suddenly became clear to me that they did not understand what a midi keyboard really was.
I believe one of the problems is that there are two terms that are typically used, interchangeably, that cloud the issue for a lot of people. Those two terms are midi keyboard and midi controller. These both refer to exactly the same thing.
To me the proper term is midi controller.
The fact that most midi controllers are in the form of a keyboard is only coincidental and seems to confuse some people into thinking they have to learn to play piano, or a keyboard, to be able to use it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
As far as size is concerned midi controllers are available from 12" to a full sized 88 keys and range in price from $40 and go up from there.
So in short, a midi keyboard should always be called a midi controller, it just happens to be shaped like a piano keyboard, no more no less, and will not play any sound by itself. A midi controller has to be plugged into a computer with appropriate software to make any sounds.
I hope this helps clear up things with people that may be struggling to understand the purpose of a midi controller.
I must confess, when I hear the term āMIDI controllerā I think of a joystick, like the ones my boys used for their computer games when they were kids.
No, you would need to get a virtual instrument. Reaperās MIDI keyboard is a MIDI controller just like an external keyboard would be, used to enter MIDI note data into Reaper.
To make those MIDI tracks generate sound you need to send them to an instrument. This is the fun part, because there is a whole world of amazing virtual instruments out there.
Many MIDI controllers come with some if you buy new. For example, Korg controllers usually come with a license for the Korg M1 plugin. Native Instruments come with several, usually, as part of Komplete. Etc.
Reaper actually has a built-in synth plugin (maybe more than one) but they arenāt really up to what you would want for real usage.
Exactly.
The actual sound depends on the piano virtual instrument in Reaper.
The Piano One keyboard plugin, mentioned in the video, is currently not available until July 13th. Apparently they are having server issues, but there are other piano plugins available I am sure.
My reason for even thinking about a piano keyboard, again, is just for transcribing. I really donāt care about Reaper or recording a track with it, Iām just wondering how I would get this cheap keyboard to make any sounds. Maybe it comes with software IDK.
I actually donāt recommend you get one. Youāre happy with what you have, keep protesting you donāt see the need, and have no interest in the controller besides transcribing. Why would you want one?
Additionally, some random, cheap controller is probably not a good path to exploring them anyway.
According to the manufacturer there is only the controller and the interface cable.
I know that in MuseScore you just have to connect the midi controller and select the midi input in the preferences section of the software.
I searched on YouTube for a similar feature in Crescendo but did not find anything.
