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- M Audio Garageband Controller Review
- M Audio Garageband Controller Manual
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GarageBand is an application which can be run on a Mac or an iOS run device. It is a boon for all the music aficionados looking forward to be creative with musical tracks. M-Audio / Midiman designs and markets digitalaudio and MIDI interfaces, keyboards and MIDI controllers, synthesizers, loudspeakers, studio monitors, digital DJ systems, microphones. Oct 11, 2017 Maybe you can help. I do have an M Audio Oxygen 61 blue and would like to know how to do all the stuff you are describing. I find Logic very difficult to learn, been using Garageband for years BUT now I have a Macbook Pro with GB 10.2 and would like to setup the controller the way you describe it. Thanks in advance. Mi MIDI knowledge is almost.
MIDI connects your hands to your software, a vital tool needed for musicians to translate their compositions onto a computer. A MIDI controller should be your first hardware purchase for music production software like GarageBand and speeds up the writing of music via virtual MIDI instruments in your software.
- M-Audio (formerly Midiman) is a business unit of inMusic Brands that designs and markets digital audio and MIDI interfaces, keyboards and MIDI controllers, synthesizers, loudspeakers, studio monitors, digital DJ systems, microphones, and music software.The company has independent offices in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France and Japan.
- Jun 01, 2013 I just bought a new M-Audio Oxygen 25 USB MIDI keyboard controller for school (I'm a student at Berklee College of Music) and I'm trying to use it to record in Garageband. I put in the disc that came with the keyboard, clicked 'install,' and it said the installation was successful and I had to restart my computer, which I did.
They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from full-size keyboards with realistic feeling keys, to small units which pack additional pads, rotary faders and pitch and mod wheels.
They’re relatively inexpensive and are connected to any USB port, most need no installation and are auto-detected by software such as GarageBand.
Contents
- Top 4 Best MIDI Keyboards for GarageBand:
- Buyer’s Guide: How to Select the Best MIDI Keyboards for GarageBand
- Conclusion: What’s the Best MIDI Controller for GarageBand?
Top 4 Best MIDI Keyboards for GarageBand:
Image | Model | Price |
---|---|---|
Korg microKEY 25 (Editor's Choice) | ||
M-Audio Oxygen 49 MKIV | ||
Akai Professional MPK49 | ||
Novation Impulse 49 |
Korg MicroKEY 25 Keyboard (Editor’s Choice)
Korg are famous for their slickly designed, innovative products. They also love making their stuff smaller and smaller, packing great tech into portable packages.
This keyboard is simple and high-quality, the keys themselves feel great and the item has a good weight to it, not heavy but not cheap. The 25 key version is easily carried, has one USB output and features Korg’s ‘NaturalTouch’ technology.
The keys feel good, not as good as some high-end MIDI instruments, but this is a $80 model.
The keyboard has a single joystick for both pitch and modulation, which replaces separate pitch and mod-wheels that feature on most MIDI keyboards. This is cool as you can operate both functions with your hand in the same position.
There’s an octave selector, and also an arpeggiator This takes a chord and turns it into an Arpeggio, a handy function that other MIDI controllers lack. It’s plug and play, no drivers required.
Overall it’s cheap, well-made and fits the bill for anyone looking for a basic MIDI controller which can be carried about.
M-Audio Oxygen 49 MKIV Keyboard
The M-Audio Oxygen series of MIDI controllers are well established and the series has continued to innovate with the MkIV range of products. They’re fairly bulky but pack extra features such as faders, pads, and other controls for your DAW.
They offer quite a flexible package for controlling GarageBand, but because M-Audio implemented a connection system called DirectLink, you will have to download a driver package from M-Audio to plug and play with full functionality.
For Ableton and Pro-tools, this is not necessary. M-Audio implemented this to ensure the controller would work perfectly with the DAW, as sometimes, more complex controllers that auto-map are mapped incorrectly.
Aside from the 49 keys, it has a lot of flashy bits and bobs, with 8 velocity-sensitive trigger pads, 8 assignable knobs and 9 assignable faders. It also has Play, Stop and Record buttons for controlling the transport functions on GarageBand.
This means you can control these basic functions without touching your PC or it’s keyboard.
The mod-wheels and pitch bend follow a classic design, and the keys are springy and responsive rather than realistic.
The Oxygen is a breath of fresh air in its feature set at the price point, but for Garageband, you do have to download drivers, which isn’t an issue but some would have liked to see this be made as a plug and play controller.
AKAI MPK49 Keyboard
Taking a big ramp up in price, the AKAI MPK49 is a pro level MIDI controller which excels in performance, build quality, functionality and features. It really is a beast of a controller, it’s difficult to know where to start!
Akai may hold the aces when it comes to MIDI and audio control, they developed the first MPC controllers that were at the heart of the hip-hop movement. Akai fits a good slice of the MPCs amazing beat-making power into the MPK with 12 real MPC drum pads.
If you’ve used an MPC you know these are a cut above the rest – they’re responsive, sensitive, and comfortable to use.
These have 4 layers, meaning there are 48 options for the pads in total. They come fully tricked out with MPC Swing which applies grooves to your percussion and drums.
Alongside this is all the mod-cons, 49 weighted keys with after-touch, that are particularly nice to play, and will satisfy pianists and keyboardists. 8 full-sized sliders with 3 controller banks for each for 24 sliders total, providing more than enough faders and sliders for controlling Garageband or any other DAW.
8 assignable backlit switches with 3 controller banks each for 24 switches total, for controlling as many on/off functions as you could possibly want to. So, 8 full-sized, 360-degree rotation pots, each with 3 banks for 24 pots total, for all manner of instruments and mixing control.
Some will look through the features on this and think, well, I’m never going to use all that! And that’s completely fair enough, it is overkill for most music production and if you’re just starting out with a DAW like Garageband then the AKAI is going to be a big beast to tame right off the bat.
That said, it is comprehensive and will stand the test of time, it really will see you through any audio production or performance journey with no problems or hick-ups.
The MPK will work plug and play to some extent with Garageband, but advanced functions will need to be custom mapped using a MIDI editor.
Novation 49 Impulse Keyboard
On the same tier as the MPK lies the Novation 49 Impulse. This is a legendary controller that really is battle hardened. It’s tried and tested, with all the functions you could need and puts up a good fight with the AKAI.
In fact, splitting them is like splitting hairs for the most part!
The Novation comes from a long line of successful MIDI controllers from Novation and comes with special auto-map software which is designed to take the headache out of mapping these advanced MIDI controllers to your software.
Its switch, fader and knob selection equals the MPK. There are 9 faders, 8 drum pads, 9 knobs and 8 switches. It’s the full deck of cards, with an LCD screen, semi-weighted keys and the drum pads feature the same functions as the AKAI.
Overall, the drum pad section is lacking when compared to the Akai, and the auto-map function works poorly with GaragebBand. It’s maybe a controller for further down the line, when it’s software is more refined.
Buyer’s Guide: How to Select the Best MIDI Keyboards for GarageBand
Remember, MIDI controllers don’t generate any sound themselves, but trigger them within your computer. This is why they’re affordable too, they’re just controllers, nothing more!
There are quite possibly thousands out there too, and it can be a confusing situation when you come to buy one. On the face of it, they’re simple devices which enable you to do very complex things if you wanted to.
You can trigger hundreds and thousands of functions in combination on a fully featured MIDI controller, or on portable models, just play the keys. The keyboard you need will depend on how many options you need, or whether you just need a simple device for recording notes.
When viewing MIDI controllers and keyboards you’ll instantly notice that there aren’t just keys:
Rotary Faders/Knobs
These can control the effects parameters within your plug-ins as well as controls such as volume fades or panning. They enable you to trigger events during your performance.
Say you have a synth with a low-pass filter, you can use these rotary knobs to open and close the filter to create a wobble. You could pan your synth from left to right, or trigger a reverb or delay.
Many synths and plug-ins on GarageBand will auto-map relevant controls to these rotary faders. Give them a turn and see what happens!
Pads
These are like what you see on the Akai controllers from the ‘90s. Their primary use is in triggering whole loops, usually percussion, or triggering ‘one-shot’ samples, like a kick or a snare drum. These are great when you are operating multiple instruments within a session. You can play a lead melody on the keyboard whilst triggering percussive sounds with the pads.
Wheels
These are often positioned next to the keyboard. There is, more often than not, a pitch bend wheel which bends pitches of your instruments. Often, you’ll find a mod-wheel too, it’s function is often auto-mapped to a synth where you have an assignable mod-wheel function. You can auto-map FX with this whilst recording a MIDI performance.
Faders
These are sliders that can be used for all manner of functions, like controlling faders whilst mixing a track, or controlling settings whilst recording a performance. Some synths will auto-map controls to these, be sure to experiment!
Getting a MIDI controller for GarageBand will really help you produce your music and be creative, providing these tools to help you express yourself during MIDI performances, and control the software when you’re just producing your track.
Don’t be afraid to try all the controls, as some will undoubtedly surprise you with their pre-mapped functions. You can obviously also map controls to anything you want!
This is usually easy too, you simply select the control you want to map, usually by holding a combination of keys and pressing on it, then you press the control on the controller and Voila! It’s mapped to that control for easy operation!
Conclusion: What’s the Best MIDI Controller for GarageBand?
GarageBand is great for sketching out ideas, recording, writing and editing music, but controlling its functions with MIDI keyboards like the Impulse and the MPK49 is arguably a little overkill.
That doesn’t mean they’re redundant purchases, they are some of the best-selling MIDI controllers ever, but it does mean they may be worth progressing onto rather than starting of on.
The KORG MicroKEY’s plug and play reliability makes it ideal for GarageBand, its functions work well and allow you to be more creative with the software and there won’t be any redundant controls like there would with more expensive MIDI controllers.
The Oxygen 49 fits suitably in the middle, it’s cheap and has a lot of controls. Its functionality with GarageBand is good and with DirectLink it should be easier to make use of its many controls.
Your choice will depend on whether you use GarageBand primarily for fun or for basic use, or whether you use it alongside other DAWs, or plan to move onto other DAWs. The Korg has the best profile for GarageBand users in this line-up.
And if you want to change any of the default behavior, VirtualDJ has a powerful 'VDJScript' language that will let you easily tweak any functions exactly to your liking. Virtual dj 7 free download for pc.
Related Posts
Control Surface For Apple Garage Band 2
Spot the difference.. M Audio's iControl is clearly modelled to look like a hardware version of Garage Band, seen running in the background. But there are some welcome differences, too — Garage Band's tiny Track buttons are much larger on iControl.Photo: Mike Cameron
There are dedicated (and expensive) control surfaces for Logic, Pro Tools and Cubase.. so why not an affordable one for Apple's semi-free entry-level application Garage Band? M-Audio must have thought exactly the same thing..
It's always been a tricky business, designing control surfaces. On the one hand, you can make a controller that can theoretically talk to any piece of software, but then what do you make it look like? The control layout that works brilliantly for one sequencer or plug-in is inevitably no good for another, and the potential for confusion is then huge as the user hops between different software while using the same controller. On the other hand, you can create a control surface that is dedicated to working with one piece of software, and is ergonomically completely in tune with it.. but the problem then is that you can't easily use the controller to run anything else. Generally speaking, these kinds of dedicated control surfaces also tend to be much more expensive than the generic type.
But here's a product that bucks that trend. M Audio's iControl is one such dedicated control surface, and it's a mere £129. As you can tell from its looks, it's designed to control Apple's 'semi-free' Garage Band 2 application (the iLife suite of which Garage Band is a part costs £49 if you don't already have it, but it's supplied free with all new Macs). It's worth noting, though, that the version (2.0) of Garage Band included with iLife 05 needs upgrading to at least v2.0.1 to function with iControl; v2.0.2 is the latest download from Apple's web site.
Before we go any further, I need to mention a couple of things. This controller doesn't really work very well with any other software on the Mac (see the box above for more on why), and none at all on PCs. So if you run a PC or don't use Garage Band, turn to the next review and put away your credit card!
The Look
The rest of us can now mentally unpack a well-built, cleanly designed add-on to a widely available piece of Apple software. The iControl's size is just right, taking up less area than the magazine you're reading now. It's not so small that it's fiddly to use, and not so large that it dominates a desktop. The hardware is even equipped with faux wooden end cheeks, reflecting Garage Band 's own virtual end-pieces!
As delivered, the controller comes with a six-foot USB cable and a brief multilingual user guide (the English bit runs to seven pages). Since iControl is a buss-powered plug-and-play device, no driver CD is required. Everything worked first time for me, with Garage Band recognising the controller immediately. In addition to the USB socket round the back, there's a five-pin MIDI In socket, though it's undocumented in the manual. You'll notice it turning up in your MIDI applications as 'iControl Port 2', and it can be used by them. It seems to be there to provide a quick conduit to Garage Band for your MIDI controller keyboard if it's not itself equipped with USB, or if you've only one USB connection free on your Mac.
The user interface on the iControl is as coolly streamlined as.. well, that on a piece of Apple software, say!Photo: Mike Cameron
In general, the iControl knob and button collection reflects the on-screen facilities of Garage Band, and allows you to undertake the majority of the important jobs, such as recording and mixing, Instrument tweaking, effects and EQ editing. The layout is really quite clean and straightforward, with loads of space around the controls. You might at first think that the legending is a bit plain, but as soon as the USB connection is made and Garage Band is fired up, subtle backlighting is enabled behind most of the white button graphics. The colour scheme of the backlighting even reflects that of Garage Band. In broad daylight, this backlighting can prove a little too subtle, but it works well in most other conditions.
Straight out of the box, each of the eight 'tracks' is equipped with Mute, Solo, and Record-enable buttons, an endless rotary encoder, and a Sel(ect) button for choosing the track for editing. If your Garage Band song has more than eight tracks, you'll find that the two big arrow buttons in the centre of the iControl (labelled 'Track/Parameter') scroll through the track list in banks of eight. Over on the left, the two Volume and Pan buttons marked 'All Tracks' allow you to determine whether the eight small rotary encoders act as track-specific level controls or pan pots.While a fader for level control would have been ideal, the rotary encoders are a vast improvement over Garage Band 's on-screen equivalents. Similarly, the track-specific buttons are refreshingly large, and much better than the miniscule, hard-to-mouse, on-screen equivalents.
M Audio Garageband Controller Review
The jog wheel and transport bar work as you would expect: record, return to zero, rewind, play, fast-forward and loop buttons all reflect Garage Band's facilities, and the jog wheel simply moves Garage Band 's playback position back and forth. Incidentally, it's possible to set playback or record loop points from the iControl: engaging the loop button whilst using the jog wheel or pressing the rewind or fast-forward buttons enables a loop, and sets start and end points for the looped region.
The one fader on board the iControl drives the master volume control in Garage Band. It has a nice feel, though it's only small, and makes one rather wish that M Audio had been able to budget for faders all round. It'll take you a few goes to get used to the way that the hardware fader doesn't move its software twin until the software position has been matched, though.
Using iControl With Other Software
While the main body of this review asserts that the iControl is exclusively dedicated to Garage Band, this isn't wholly true. In theory, the controller does its thing in exactly the same way as any other USB MIDI control surface. This means (again in theory) that if the target software is capable of manually accepting assignments of incoming control data to on-screen parameters, then iControl can do the job. In practice, however, it doesn't work very elegantly.
I tried it with Ableton Live and Propellerhead Reason, and discovered that due to the way iControl's hardware is configured, assignments didn't always work properly. The crusaders live scratch youtube. Chiefly, some buttons are momentary when they would ideally latch, and the rotary encoders tend to move between the extremes of an on-screen slider's (or knob's) travel with just two clicks. In any case, there's no way to switch 'banks', so even without such problems, you can't assign more parameters than there are physical controls on the surface of the iControl.
Users of Apple's Logic may be better off; an Environment could be set up to respond to the incoming data. However, because iControl's knobs send incremental rather than absolute data (source of the 'jumping' problem I just mentioned), the objects in the Environment would have to be carefully tailored to work correctly.
In general, though, I think it's fair to say that you probably wouldn't buy iControl unless you were using Garage Band a lot. Incidentally, Windows XP recognises the iControl when it's plugged in to a PC, but it's not recognised by any software I tried, though it appears as a USB audio (!) device in some Preference windows.
Double Up
With this number of hardware controls, some doubling of button and knob assignments is inevitable. With the iControl, though, this doesn't lead to operational confusion; even a complete newcomer to music on computers, with the manual in hand and Garage Band on screen, should be able to get going fairly quickly. Five buttons, grouped together on the left under the 'Selected Track' label, cause various windows to appear in Garage Band, at which point the Sel buttons and rotary encoders perform a range of different functions, depending on which of the Selected Track buttons you've pressed.
Of these, the first, the Track Info button, invokes Garage Band 's window of the same name (shown opposite). Here, you see exactly what sort of Instrument has been assigned to the track (Garage Band, as you may know, distinguishes between 'real' Instruments, which play back sampled loops or your own audio, and 'software' Instruments). You also see the Instrument itself, and the selection of 'effects' (in Garage Band 's broad sense of the word) that have been enabled for each track. On offer, as you may know, are a compressor, two variable effects, EQ, echo and reverb. 'Real' Instruments also have a noise gate as part of their arsenal. The Select buttons enable or disable any available effects, and the rotary encoders alter the global value of that effect.
Here's the Garage Band Track Info window for a 'real' Instrument (software Instruments lack audio routing and the gate effect). You'll be able to switch effects on and off and tweak any of the on-screen sliders from the iControl, but not choose effects, effect presets or select Instruments from scratch. In this window, the audio input controls are also inaccessible from the iControl.Photo: Mike Cameron
One problem here is that if either of the two effects proper have not been assigned to a track, there's no way to make the assignments from the iControl — it's not quite sophisticated enough. Once you've made those choices, you can turn the effects on or off, but that's it. From this window, you can do nothing more than turn EQ on or off.
It's also not possible to select Instruments or change those that have been assigned to a track from iControl. And as for selecting MIDI or sampled loops from the Garage Band library or setting up an audio recording.. well, put simply, you can't. In short, you'll still need your mouse and ASCII keyboard to hand for several significant operations.
Underneath Track Info, the next button, Generator, can be accessed whether the Track Info window is active or not; it invokes Track Info first if it's not visible. When a software Instrument is assigned to a track, this button brings up the parameter-editing window for the Instrument and the rotary encoders take the part of the on-screen parameter sliders.
The last three buttons — Effect 1, Effect 2 and EQ — call up the relevant windows for editing those particular Garage Band elements. Again, the rotary encoders do all the work here, by being assigned to each on-screen parameter from the top down. If there's only two parameters in an effect, it'll be the top two encoders that come into play, and so on. These three windows have the same shortcoming as the Generator window: there is no way to select or save presets from the iControl.
Incidentally, there's an 'Option' button on the iControl that doesn't seem to do much, but it does allow you to quickly enable or disable Effect 1, Effect 2 and/or EQ no matter which windows are, or aren't, open. You just press Option and the required 'Selected Track' button.
No matter which window you call up from iControl, it'll take a short while for you to become accustomed to how the Sel buttons and encoders relate to the various on-screen elements. The correspondence is not always immediately logical, though when working in the Track Info window, the Sel buttons light up when the matching switch is engaged on screen. But as I noted earlier, the backlights are not very clear in daylight, especially on these switches. They also dim when disengaged, so you still may not be sure which hardware button is equivalent to which software button if they're all disengaged. The manual explains this all very clearly, so you can keep that page open until you become accustomed to the layout.
Incidentally, there's no 'echo' or 'reverb' edit buttons because these effects are uneditable inside Garage Band: they're either on or off with an amount value, both of which can be set from the iControl.
Getting Into The Garage
![M Audio Garageband Controller M Audio Garageband Controller](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126960511/311231309.jpg)
I was never that taken with Garage Band, even as a freebie. But Garage Band 2 is much better. The initial basic options for recording and crucially, editing, your own MIDI or audio data have been very much enhanced. You still need ideas, but Garage Band is now more useful for someone who might have a little creative ambition, offering more room for growth for those who are introduced to the idea of creating tracks by stacking the supplied loops.
The interface is simple and the terminology is made more comprehensible to the novice computer musician ('Align to..' is used in place of 'quantise', for example). Certainly, the loops are there if you really want them (and I must admit that I've borrowed the odd drum loop or two as a way of quickly mapping out a song), but they're no longer Garage Band 's main reason for existence. The program also feels a lot less bloated than the first release. The supplied Apple Loops still take up a lot of disk space, and the Garage Band application is huge, but the whole thing seems to zip along much more smoothly — I notice things like this on my soon-to-be-retired 450MHz G4!
Park It Here
There isn't really a lot more to say. In describing the available facilities, I've introduced practically everything the iControl does. Of course, as I've already explained, there are things you can't do with iControl, although sometimes this is because Garage Band itself doesn't offer the facility (iControl button presses and controller moves, for example, can't be recorded by Garage Band for automated playback, because the software doesn't support this option yet). But there are plenty of Garage Band features you can't access. There's no way to enable or disable the metronome, access track-edit windows, or change tempo, and there are no file-management options. But these features, and any further metering or display options, would have added more components and increased the controller's cost. And if M Audio had gone this far, you'd still have needed to use an ASCII keyboard and mouse for track editing and file naming, say. In general, the balance is largely right.
If there's a problem, it's the same one I mentioned at the start of this article — if you design a dedicated controller for a certain piece of software, you immediately put off all the people who don't use that software. And any major changes to the software can potentially leave the hardware behind. There was considerable excitement a couple of years ago at the idea of a dedicated controller for Propellerhead's Reason, proposed by Novation. However, in the end, what Novation brought to market was the Remote 25 — a generic, non-specific controller.
Furthermore, although Garage Band may be installed on all current and many other Macs, not every user will be playing with it — do you use everything Apple puts on your hard drive? And PC users will never, as far as I know, get the chance of using Garage Band, which permanently locks out a large number of potential users.
Despite these concerns, if you do meet the criteria for using iControl, it's a great product. I enjoyed working with it tremendously and found that it elegantly opened up those aspects of Garage Band that it can reach. And working with this controller also caused me to reassess Garage Band in a favourable light. Now, I couldn't imagine working full-time with Garage Band without an iControl in tow.
Pros
- Integrates snugly, as you'd expect, with Garage Band.
- Clear layout, reflecting Garage Band's streamlined appearance.
- Good build quality.
- Inexpensive.
Cons
M Audio Garageband Controller Manual
- Only works with Garage Band — and therefore only works on the Mac.
- Doesn't control everything in Garage Band.
- Not future-proof — if Garage Band is drastically overhauled, iControl won't be able to keep up.
Summary
If you take your life with Garage Band seriously, then it doesn't get much better than this. To try one will be to buy one.
information
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Garageband Audio Recorder
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Best Midi Controller For Garageband
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