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From: Donk on 4 Apr 2008 19:51

I posted a while back about problems getting my Yamaha PSR-510 to work
with Vista and Sonar 7. I never got it to work and and have decided to
give up and get a new keyboard.

I looked at the M-Audio Oxygen 61 61-Key Mobile USB Controller. Guitar
Center has them for $170.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/M-Audio-Oxygen-61-61-Key-Mobile-USB-Controller-103573663-i1154829.gc

I'm not really a keyboard player (just for fun) and am at least 3
steps short of MIDI novice. Any thoughts/advice on this, or other,
keyboards in the price range would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Don

Thank you,

Don
From: Donk on 4 Apr 2008 23:23
On Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:08:24 GMT, Glennbo
<vdrumsYourHeadFromYourAss(a)cox.net> wrote:

>In news:o4fdv35u1vtbrp4llki61mmij32u6k751d(a)4ax.com the killer robot Donk
><don81846(a)verizon.netnot.valid> grabbed the controls of the spaceship
>cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons...
>
>> I posted a while back about problems getting my Yamaha PSR-510 to work
>> with Vista and Sonar 7. I never got it to work and and have decided to
>> give up and get a new keyboard.
>>
>> I looked at the M-Audio Oxygen 61 61-Key Mobile USB Controller. Guitar
>> Center has them for $170.
>>
>> http://www.guitarcenter.com/M-Audio-Oxygen-61-61-Key-Mobile-USB-Control
>> ler-103573663-i1154829.gc
>>
>> I'm not really a keyboard player (just for fun) and am at least 3
>> steps short of MIDI novice. Any thoughts/advice on this, or other,
>> keyboards in the price range would be very much appreciated.
>
>I've been using an M-Audio Keystation 61 for about five years now, and it's
>worked fine for me using it with Sonar, Reaper, and various other midi
>softwares. I use it connected up through USB and let the USB connection
>power it so it comes on with my computer.

After seeing your reply I almost went over to Guitar Center and bought
one but it's been raining pretty hard here, non-stop, for a couple
hours. That combined with being Friday evening always makes traffic
really crappy. So, If you don't mind, I'll use this opportunity to ask
another question.

The difference between the Keystation and the Oxygen seems to be that
the Oxygen has a bunch of knobs, dials and thing-a-ma-bobs that allow
you to control your software's transport and other fucntions from the
keyboard so you don't have to keep reaching for the mouse.

It looks like it's only about $30 more for the Oxygen. Is having those
assignable knobs something that really gets used or are they there
just to make dusting more difficult?


Thank you,

Don
From: Steve L. on 5 Apr 2008 00:04
Donk <don81846(a)verizon.netnot.valid> thought it was ok to answer this
way:

> Is having those
> assignable knobs something that really gets used or are they there
> just to make dusting more difficult?
>

some people like em ..
I found it more efficient to use the computer keyboard since it's right
there and i already know where most of the keys are.
It always seems like extra steps with knobs to control effects
parameters
... remembering what affects what .. how to switch between etc etc.
i just think money is better spent on things that sound good.
Save those extra bucks for your next effect instead of something to
control the ones you already have. dats me motto. course i'm a yankee.
From: Ricky Hunt on 5 Apr 2008 02:53
"Donk" <don81846(a)verizon.netnot.valid> wrote in message
news:o4fdv35u1vtbrp4llki61mmij32u6k751d(a)4ax.com...
>
> I posted a while back about problems getting my Yamaha PSR-510 to work
> with Vista and Sonar 7. I never got it to work and and have decided to
> give up and get a new keyboard.
>
> I looked at the M-Audio Oxygen 61 61-Key Mobile USB Controller. Guitar
> Center has them for $170.

I looked at the user's manual to the PSR-510
(http://www.synthman.com/cgibin/x.cgi/yamaha/support/PSR510_Owners_Manual.pdf)
and if you couldn't get it to work with Sonar you probably won't have any
better luck with the Oxygen. Can you go back over what didn't work and why,
what you tried, etc.? Let's get that one working before you plop down $170.


From: Rick Paul on 5 Apr 2008 03:04
"Donk" <don81846(a)verizon.netnot.valid> wrote in message
news:s5rdv3h2hakghf3u951jimglge4vqr91p1(a)4ax.com...
> The difference between the Keystation and the Oxygen seems to be that
> the Oxygen has a bunch of knobs, dials and thing-a-ma-bobs that allow
> you to control your software's transport and other fucntions from the
> keyboard so you don't have to keep reaching for the mouse.
>
> It looks like it's only about $30 more for the Oxygen. Is having those
> assignable knobs something that really gets used or are they there
> just to make dusting more difficult?

That probably depends on your orientation.

If you like to control SONAR's faders, effects parameters, etc. in real
time, and would like to have the ability to control more than one parameter
in parallel, which, short of grouping similar parameters in SONAR's track
view together, can't be done with the mouse, then having those controls
could be useful. The ACT support in SONAR 6 and 7 makes it relatively easy
to have any general MIDI controller mapped easily to applicable areas in
SONAR and most common plug-ins, and you can always map ones you have that
aren't already pre-mapped. It isn't the sort of thing where you have to
manually map your keyboard for each new plug-in, like would have been the
case pre-ACT. Rather, the keyboard gets mapped once (and for a popular
keyboard like the Oxygen, it has probably already been done) and each
plug-in gets mapped once (and that would have already been done with ACT
setups provided by SONAR for most popular plug-ins), and the two sets of
maps just "magically" work with each other thanks to the way ACT works.

I don't have any sophisticated MIDI controller, but my old Roland Rhodes
MK-80 does have 4 faders on it that send MIDI continuous controller values.
That wasn't mapped for ACT by Cakewalk, but it was easy enough for me to map
it, then it magically worked with SONAR's mixer and any plug-in I've tried
to date, though obviously with a highly limited number of parameters. I
don't use it much that way, but there have been a few times I've used it,
mainly just for automating track faders for doing "mixing with my ears",
being able to move up to four faders at a time, instead of being limited to
one at a time.

I think at this point, were I considering a controller keyboard purchase,
and there was a $30 difference between the basic keyboard and one with
additional controls, I'd probably go the extra $30. Even if I didn't use
the extra stuff all that often, it would be useful to have those
capabilities at times, and $30 isn't exactly a huge chunk of change.

On the other hand, dusting extra knobs isn't fun. ;-) (I tend to keep my
keyboard covered up with a towel when I'm not using them to try and minimize
that sort of thing.)

Rick

--
=======================================
Rick Paul
Closet Cowboy Music (ASCAP)
Web: www.RickPaul.info
MySpace: www.myspace.com/rickpaulmusic
=======================================



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