Orion on laptop, need tiny midi keyboard

[dogsolitude_uk]

It speaks volumes for the efficiency of Orion that I managed to get it working beautifully on an old Sony Vaio TR1MP laptop.

OK, I do need a new laptop (this one's got a 900mhz processor and 512MB RAM, 30GB HD) but Orion works really well on this with a couple of Toxics, drum machine, Triangle II and Crystal, no glitches, crackling or anything on it. Awesome.

Other music packages, such as FL Studio, have just tanked or sounded terrible.

Anyhoo, whereas using the laptop keyboard to tap out a quick melody is a very useful feature of Orion, I'm looking for a small MIDI keyboard that I can take around with me in my satchel with the laptop. Ideally something the size of a large paperback book, or something flat-ish.

Any ideas folks?

[Kriminal]

http://www.korg.co.uk/products/software ... c_nano.asp

[dogsolitude_uk]

Perfect, cheers Krim!

[cooliadh]

I suggest you have a look on the Oxygen 8 V2 Keyboard...

http://de.m-audio.com/products/de_de/Oxygen8v2.html

C

[matthy]

I must be honest i have felt the nano-key's and they didn't feel like a keyboard. the pad and the kontroll are ok.

[dogsolitude_uk]

@cooliadh: I did have a nose at the Oxygen keyboards, but they're a bit big and chunky for whipping out on a train, so I'll be getting one for my desktop instead, where it can sit next to my graphics tablet

@matthy+Krim: I nipped out that day and wandered into The Academy of Sound, where they had one of the Nano keyboards...

Size-wise it's spot-on, though as matthy says it doesn't really feel like a keyboard as such. The little buttons/keys are flat-press buttons. I certainly wouldn't want to hammer away at it in a live environment, but for tapping out a tune it makes life a lot easier (for me anyway) than using the laptop keyboard.

Basically it's a keypad arranged like a piano keyboard.

I'll probably be getting one when the black ones come out in June...

[Jouni]

Get Korg MicroX and you get good synthesizer with it.. http://www.korg.com/Product.aspx?pd=264

[dogsolitude_uk]

Thanks Jouni - another one for me to check out

[rn pro]

I'm not too sure but 1 octave midi isn't it too small you could probably get a 2 octave one for about the same price. Good luck.
Strange idea to play midi on a train!!

[dogsolitude_uk]

I do a fair bit of travelling. Some people read, I like to play chess, or write music!

[Dexx]

korg microX-video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZh0bu_nIc&fmt=18

[Kriminal]

just to say, i havent tried the one i linked too, i just knew about it and thought it might be suitable

[Dexx]

Yes, The KORG nanoKey is really small, i think also for trip in a train is it a good compromise. The bigger korg is in a train a little bit ... snobbish.. or? a pic from the nano->
http://www.musik-schmidt.de/images/prod ... anoKEY.jpg

[bones]

A microX is not going to be useful for travel. It's small for what it is but it ain't small, if you know what I mean. My suggestion would be the Edirol PCR-1 or PCR-M1. The former has a built-in USB audio device, the latter does MIDI [and is black]. It's a really small package but the keys feel OK once you get used to the lack of travel and they are full-size, so it doesn't take long to get used to it. You can store templates for favourite instruments and/or the Mixer and stuff like that. i still have mine, even though I haven;t used it for a few years. Here's a link to the "M" -
http://www.instrumentplus.com/recording ... cr-m1.html

[dogsolitude_uk]

Awesome, thanks Bones... I like the option to use either a PSU, batteries or USB power source on that one, and the key size is a definite plus.