questions from newbie

[GearsOfDuty: Battlefield4]

first of all, im a complete novice to music production.

im looking for a midi keyboard to go with cubase 7 (this DAW wasn't my first choice because people say it's hard to learn, but most people writing the style of music i want to write use it). i was thinking about m audio keystation 61es because i need 61 keys and its cheap. is it a good choice? are the extra functions on more expensive keyboard of any great use? im a keyboard player so if you have recommendations it needs to be semi-weighted or fully weighted.

i also have one more question. i was thinking about getting the EWQL orchestral libraries but ive read many horror stories (go on amazon.com) about their support. it seems like there's a 40% chance of something major going wrong, e.g. won't install, constant crashes, major bugs etc., and people say their support is nonexistent. is it as bad as what i read, and is it worth the risk to buy from them? i heard their demos and they are very realistic so i want to buy if the crashes/bugs/wont install aren't not as bad as people say. some people said their PLAY sample player is terrible always crash, and said to go kontakt sample player. can someone tell me what's a sample player? sorry like i said im completely new so please explain to me like a physicist explain black holes to a laymen.

btw any tips you want to give to a complete newb are welcome.

Edited October 13, 2013 by GearsOfDuty: Battlefield4

[Garpocalypse]

i also have one more question. i was thinking about getting the EWQL orchestral libraries but ive read many horror stories (go on amazon.com) about their support. it seems like there's a 40% chance of something major going wrong, e.g. won't install, constant crashes, major bugs etc.,

A huge burn mark was on Disc 3 of EWQLSO Gold when I bought it from them. After a quick call to CS they offered to send me a new disc 3 but refused my request to replace all of the discs and send me a new batch. REFUSED! when I had no idea if the discs beyond 3 were affected by the apparent mishandling and might not have installed at all.

It's a great library though. Just wish they would have included close mic options in Gold.

some people said their PLAY sample player is terrible always crash, and said to go kontakt sample player. can someone tell me what's a sample player?

btw any tips you want to give to a complete newb are welcome.

Play is a biznitch. It's CPU overload protection cuts PLAY at the worst times for me even when my CPU is no where near taxed. Nice GUI tho. Don't get me started on the ilok garbage.

A sample player plays collections of wavs called samples that are shaped through live recordings of the instrument. Instead of using a synthesizer to add/subtract harmonics to get something that kind of sounds like whatever you want to call it you are using something that's as close to the actual instrument as possible. The downside is that they take a large amount of system resources and are nowhere near as flexible. What you hear is what you get.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Garpocalypse

[Esperado]

I would say that no, the extra functions on most keyboards wouldnt be particularly useful to a newer musician. I had an oxygen 25 for a while when i started , and i only really used the play/pause buttons. Im also not sure if cubase even has many automap functions for knobs, which would IMO render them useless for just casual use. ultimately though, its a matter of learning your own work flow. if having a box-o-knobs would be useful to you in tweaking common parameters on your softsynth, then you can always upgrade later.

+1 for the keystation 61es. if you did want to go fancier, you could spend 50 or so more and get the oxygen 61 which is a pretty solid keyboard though. Another less thought of option is to pick up a used digital piano at a gear shop. Ive seen a few of them go for 200 something and they almost always have midi out on them.

[mickomoo]

Hi friend, I'm an amateur composer who just upgraded to EWQL Platinum. I'm happy, but I totally acknowledge your risks are very warranted. Everything's gone smoothly and the one time I did have a problem (last week) I got a reply in a day after reporting the case to ew through their online case system. I solved in on my own. Most installation errors actually can be handled through online research. I think I actually had one when I first got gold. Worse comes to worse though you can literally rip the samples and folders off the disk and install the version of play that's on the website. The only time you run into problems is if the disk if physically damaged or something. Then the only way you can fix that is if you deal with them, which from what I can tell is one of those things that's up in the air. I have no idea if I can tell if my experience is the norm or completely irregular or in between...

Sample player is a software that plays samples, samples being recordings of instruments that are then mapped to midi keys/notes so that you can "play" the instrument. Kontakt is a very versatile player. Where as Play (EWQL's player) only plays 1st party (EWQL's own expensive sample libraries) Kontakt is built off of 3rd party support. Tons of freebies allover the internet, and libraries of different price ranges so you're only obligated to shell out as much as you want. Bonus fact, EWQL developed symphonic choirs and orchestra for Kontakt, they only fairly recently switched to their own sampler for piracy reasons (like in 09). I have Kontakt too, in fact I started with Komplete (Native Instrument's huge library/software bundle). There are tons of orchestra libraries that have been developed for Kontakt and some aren't bad. I will say the cool thing about east west is that it is consolidated material of the same quality in one place, so that makes it feel "convenient" to buy from them.

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For the keyboard I've gone from basic midi keyboard (a casio) to Oxygen (I wanna say 61) to M audio (45?) The major functions you need for orchestration are velocity sensitivity (which some midi out keyboards like my casio don't have, they also add midi data from their hardware banks), modulation (a mod wheel), and maybe pitch bend. You don't really need to worry about advance functions (I've not used them yet and I've been doing it for 5 years almost). Any other miidi functions can be added to your work in your DAW.

Feel free to ask me more questions, I know how you must feel and I would love to talk and help.