[LAU] good and cheap keyboard usb for linux

[Ken Restivo]

On Tue, Dec 04, 2007 at 02:04:33PM +0100, Jorge Salgueiro wrote:
> well in fact, i need advice in two keybd:
> 
> one for me to control bristol. maybe with knobs? is it dificult to program
> the knobs to work with bristol?
> 
> one for my girlfriend, she plays the piano and i though (as a Christmas
> present) in a usbmidi keyboard so she could practice with her notebook
> 

Tou can find lots of old MIDI controllers that were built much better than anything you could buy new today, and can sometimes be had for cheap. Simply plug the into your MIDI interface, and off you go.

One night at a gig, I had brain fart and forgot to bring my second MIDI controller. I borrowed a cheap Yamaha all-in-one keyboard at home-- the kind of toy you'd expect to buy at Radio Shack-- and it worked great and got me through the show. Had velocity and sustain pedal and everything. Anything with a MIDI out port will work-- you can probably find stuff at garage sales if you're really going low-end.

If you want USB, the M-Audio keyboards are, in my experience, utter crap. However, they seem to be the cheapest things out there. I bought a used Axiom and it died after a couple months of use. Garbage.

-ken