dmb@TIS.COM (David M. Baggett) (04/06/88)
Hsiung Young asked a few questions that may be of interest to others: 1) Why is the Casio CZ 101 more popular than other MIDI keyboards with ST owners? 2) What is a good price for one of these? 3) What are some other cheap MIDI keyboards? Answers: 1) The CZ 101 is more popular becuase it was the least expensive MIDI keyboard for a quite a while. Now it also has quite a lot of software supporting it, making it even more popular among ST people. 2) Don't know, but I would imagine you can get one for $250 or less these days. 3) Casio makes a few other low-end MIDI keyboards which are very good for the price. The major difference between the "low-end" keyboards and the "more professional" keyboards is the size of the keys. The CZ-101 has "mini keys" (i.e., little keys which are much smaller than piano keys", while the better keyboards have piano-sized keys. Another difference is the amount of polyphony -- the number of keys you can hold down at once. The CZ-101 allows 4 with most patches (sounds) and 8 with others. Better keyboars allow 8 or 16. Aside from the Casio keyboards, I know that the Korg Poly 800 II can be bought for under $400 now. It is (I believe) the cheapest keyboard with piano-sized keys. Make sure that you get one with MIDI or it won't be of any use with your ST! Some companies "fail to mention" that their cheaper keyboards don't have MIDI ports... Hope this info is useful Dave Baggett apra: dmb@tis.com
rosenkra@Alliant.COM (Bill Rosenkranz) (04/07/88)
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In article <8804052015.AA04263@TIS.COM> dmb@TIS.COM (David M. Baggett) writes:
->Hsiung Young asked a few questions that may be of interest to others:
->
->1) Why is the Casio CZ 101 more popular than other MIDI keyboards with
-> ST owners?
->2) What is a good price for one of these?
->3) What are some other cheap MIDI keyboards?
->
->Answers:
[ good answers tendered... ]
a good friend of mine (also a sometimes frugal friend) has his own weekend
band (weddings and the like...). he uses 2 cz101s and loves them. as a pro,
he was easily able to make the transition to smaller keys and actually
now even prefers then (gives him longer intervallic reach). he's done most
of the sound patches himself and finds it a very good price/performance fit.
me? i have a dx7 and a couple of samplers but am still planning on an cz101
because it takes up less space (all i need is a cheap midi controller).
BTW: i recall someone asking about samplers. i happen to know a bit about
those suckers (i've programmed for akai s900, prophet 2000, ensoniq mirage,
and lately casio fz1) and so far i prefer the akai (12-bit) over the prophet
(both in $2k price range) for much better user interface and better packaging.
the mirage is not bad in this respect but if you are serious, the 8-bit
companded format of the mirage is just not quite as good as the 12-bit
machines. i have just started playing with the casio (16-bit) which looks
VERY interesting (especially since casio loaned it to me :^).
i think as far as user support goes, casio is probably best. they certainly
are for developer support. akai is big in europe and pretty popular here, too.
generally i'd look at what the europeans do (especially germans) and follow
their lead. they are generally right on target (they even like the ST :^).
americans tend to buy the sizzle and not the steak...
[Disclaimer: i am loosly affiliated with the above companies but since i
use the things, i have to put up with the same hassles you do so use this
info accordingly. if you are really into sampling, check out a new program
from Dr. T's called SampleMaker (for the atari ST). it's a general purpose
computer-based synthesizer (REAL general) AND totally integrated sample
editor for several different samplers. yes, this is a plug...i wrote it...
sorry if it offends anyone...]
-bill