#Electr. Keyboard Info.
22-Dec-90 13:11:30
Sb: #3882-#Electr. Keyboard Info.
Fm: David Art 72017,1130
To: George Smoot 71106,24
You'll need a MIDI interface for your Amiga if you don't already have one.
An interface having a serial pass-through is the most convenient, although
not abolutely necessary. You can always add a separate serial switchbox.
Unfortunately, DMCS is somewhat limited in it's MIDI capabilities. I don't
say this to dissuade you, just to advise you of that particular program's
limitations. (MIDI is one of my primary reasons for having an Amiga. 8)
The DMCS program is not good for real-time recording. (The recording
capabilities of DMCS are explained in the manual.) MIDI output works well,
except that none of the DMCS playstyles apply to MIDI output. Tie and Slur
do work OK. Dynamics (ppp-fff) work by varying the MIDI Note On velocity,
so to use them you'll need a synth that recognizes velocity. (Some of the
synths recognize MIDI Note On velocity, even if they don't have a velocity
sensitive keyboard themselves.) DMCS defaults to fff if there's no
dynamics specified in the song, which can make some synth's sound really
terrible until you realize what's happening. I've had problems with
(de)cresendo's and MIDI – I generally remove them from any DMCS songs that
I'm going to be playing via MIDI. My guess is that you'll probably want to
get one of the more powerful music programs once you get into MIDI, but
DMCS is a good starting point as long as you realize its limitations.
re:Keyboard features
Will your primary interest be in playing songs generated by others, or, do
you plan to play the keyboard yourself as well as play sequences? This
makes a difference in the direction that you'd want to start out. If you
plan to play the instrument, Full-size keys becomes a major issue, as well
as number of keys and whether the keyboard is velocity sensitive. If not,
go more for sound quality. Do you have a price range of interest? It
would help in terms of recommendations.
One thing that's very important is that you get a sound that you like and
can live with. Personally, I prefer the Yahama sound over the Casio, but
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