I’m pretty sure i have seen posts about more or less exactly this before but for some reason cant seem to find them at the moment, so apologies in advance for any repeat posting!
I am thinking of getting a Moog Minitaur to take for shows abroad (i just played a few Uk shows using my sub 37 for bass duties, but after such a massive headache getting my hands on one im not about to risk it in a budget airline hold…!)
So, i was looking at something like the Akai mini series keyboards which are super small and compact, but was wondering if anyone had suggestions for if it was possible to make them talk directly to a minitaur (or alternative analog synth) without needing to bring my laptop?
There seem to be a bunch of iconnect MIDI type devices to help you get your 5 pin MIDI devices to talk to your laptop, but i was wondering if i could just bypass all that?
Any suggestion, advice, links to existing topics that i cant seem to find would be much appreciated!
If you want the simplest solution, you should try to get a MIDI keyboard that outputs MIDI directly (5 pin connector). This will go directly between the keyboard and Minitaur. If the MIDI keyboard only has MIDI via USB, then you will need a USB host for MIDI purposes (iConnect4MIDI+, Kenton USB Host, Raspberry Pi - requires you to learn some Linux). Or you can get a KMI Qunexus or similar with the KMI MIDI Expander.
Yeah, i ideally would grab a keyboard that has 5 pin MIDI but i cant seem to find one that is a comparable size to some of the mini usb keys that are floating about. Unfortunately backpack friendly is the key here as its all got to fit in my hand luggage haha!
One option that I can think of is going with a keyboard like the Alesis VI25. It has midi out plus it has the option of being powered by external power if you want to only have a keyboard & minitaur setup w/o a laptop. & I believe it should be small enough to be easily portable. Then again, I don’t have one, I’m just spitballing solutions here