Good music keyboard for Macbook Pro

[roshi]

A friend of mine is in India for a year, with his Macbook Pro, and needs a music keyboard to plug in, compose music in GarageBand.

He left his MIDI setup with his Windows PC back in the US.

Are there any nice, under $300 or so keyboards. USB.

Recommendations?

[volcs0]

There are two main types of keyboards:

The lower-priced keyboards ($100 on up) do not feel like pianos but will connect just fine - just make sure it has MIDI - which most of them do. They are also unlikely to be full-sized keyboards at that price point.

For $1000, you can get a really nice controller keyboard (we have a Yamaha Clavinova), which feels like a regular piano and has all the octaves. Maybe they've fallen in price. Since you are using the soundset from within garageband, the feature set on the keyboard is not as important.

Maybe things have changed, but the way I've always connected keyboards is via a MIDI connector (I have the Midisport 2x2 which was $50 or so). I'm not away of a way to connect the keyboard directly through the USB without the MIDI box - but maybe there is.

We love it - my kids play on the keyboard, save it in Garageband, compose, etc. It is a lot of fun.

For what its worth, I just got an email from Woodwind & Brasswind - they have 20% off all instruments through Friday and free shipping over $99.

[rz]

M-Audio makes a range of inexpensive USB Midi controllers. The Oxygen 8 is nice and portable. Cost is approx $150.

https://www.m-audio.com

[comaplate]

M-Audio Keystation 61 has a nice feel and is reasonably big enough to cover most of what your friend might need. Inexpensive too - I have one on my iMac at school.

[ileneh]

I have a smallish M-audio keyboard that is nice. OWC sells a variety of M-audio products, including the previously mentioned Oxygen 8, but the Oxygen 49 might fit yours needs better at only $139.

You can see our full line of keyboards at OWC at this link.
Hope you fin this useful.

OWC ilene