Speed Of Inputting Music, If you can't play a real-time keyboard, how's the fastest way Options

[Ricky Buchanan]

I am experienced with both computers and music, but not so much with the mix of both. Because of my disability I can't use a regular music keyboard to compose, and putting the notes in one-by-one with the mouse is a bit like pulling teeth! I do have a small keyboard - eKeys 37 - which I use to do note pitches and then use a programmed XKeys Desktop device to specifiy the note length, but it's awkward and slow.

I think what frustrates me most is that music entered like this with a mouse or the XKeys/eKeys combination has no extra "live" midi stuff like note velocity/etc. (I'm not sure of the terminology - sorry). So playing it back is a bit like listening to a robot, and very frustrating.

Is there any decent way of getting this information in so the computer can play it back and have it closer to the way it sounds in my head???

At the moment I'm using Sibelius mostly and Garage Band a bit (haven't really mastered that). I started off clasically trained so I'm used to notes and staves and such, not the MIDI type stuff, but I am willing to learn!

Best Regards,
Ricky
ATMac - http://atmac.org/ - Assistive Technology for Mac OS X Users

[midiwife]

Hi Asus 32, the Edirol keyboard looks nice but Ricky's after something with mini keys and the Edirol has standard size.
I have one of these little Yamaha keyboard which is exactly what you're after but with midi out not usb!

http://www.zzounds.com/item--YAMCBXK1

Aha, but the Korg MicroKontrol is what you're looking for these days. More bells and whistles than you may need right now but very tactile, mini keys and velocity sensitive plus drum hit pads - great for inputting percussive sounds even with little physical movement.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/search_dir.html?s...amp;x=0&y=0

Not so cheap but a pretty effective bit of kit and really entirely designed for your specific requirements!

Good luck Ricky,

Kind regards, Midiwife.