Reddit reviews Korg, 25-Key Midi Controller (NANOKEY2WH)

I do a decent bit of transcription, arranging, engraving type stuff freelance and I use Finale. I use a small keyboard and the Speedy Entry Tool. I can enter things pretty much as fast as I can play one hand. But heck, even if you can't play it, you'll still be able to move faster this way than any other method I've found. Honesty, even Hyperscribe (where you play it in) ultimately ends up being slower because you have to go double check for mistakes or spend forever fiddling with quantization settings.

Basically, use the numpad as your note durations and press the keys down on the keyboard that you want to notate. This makes chords in quick succession very easy. Also, if you're playing a relatively simple bass or melody line, you can literally input it faster than you could play it in with Hyperscribe using this method. You just get used to the rhythm of hitting the keys then hitting the correct duration like 5 would be a quarter note. For rests, don't hit any keys on the keyboard and just hit your duration. Depending on certain factors, you may have to deal with respelling chords into different enharmonic spells, which is easy enough using the 9 key. Even triplets and other tuplets are easy. Just hit Ctrl+3 (for triplets) and then end the pitches in the duration that tuplet would encompass. Dots are the . and so on. You can learn it by touch very quickly. If you mess around with it, you'll find plenty of other tricks to speed things up as well.

The only stuff that can slow you don't is if you have to deal with layers.

I personally use the KORG nanoKEY, though since I don't need to be as portable, I've thought about switching to the Akai Professional LPK25 or at least using it at my desk while keeping the nanoKEY for travel (which was the original reason I picked it). These have smaller than normal keys which is both a pro and a con. It feels a bit foreign to the hand, but it also lets you reach more notes if you're transcribing things bigger than you can actually play. It also makes them more portable.

I haven't really messed with much else in a really long time. I know there's plenty of software out there to record your playing and give you a piano roll or rough notation view. I know Cakewalk does this, but I'm honestly not that familiar or proficient with it or any other software that does this because it's not something I need to use often.

For the type of stuff you're doing, you literally might be served better by creating lead sheets rather than actual sheet music. For the vast majority of what I play at the keyboard when gigging, I'm reading either a lead sheet or a pure chord sheet and just comping in the appropriate style. It also takes up less space in my book that way. This is also easier to quickly hand-write than actual sheet music.

If you want to get slightly more specific, I'd highly recommend recording yourself, video if possible. Very often I will arrange a tune out very specifically, or compose an intro at the keyboard and just not really have the time to sit down and notate it out, or it might be a work-in-progress. For a lot of these, I'll just get my ideas together, then record myself playing it and sort of file it away on my computer so that I can skip the heavy lifting of the transcription of my own playing later by just listening and watching what I had previously done. Often, I just don't every transcribe my arrangements. I might just find that I need a song I haven't touched in months for a gig and I'll go listen to give myself a refreshing on my previous arrangement and just play the actual tune from chords rather than sheet music. It also takes up a lot less space.

How does this work for you?

Korg PlugKey

Korg nanoKey

Korg nanoControl

So when you say "write out" a small horn section, did you mean actual sheet music?

If so, I'd actually recommend skipping the keyboard entirely and getting Notation software instead. If you already have an understanding of how to write sheet music you will be faster writing it, compared to trying to play it on a keyboard.

I would recommend looking at Sibelius First (Trial edition) or Finale Notepad (Free Edition).

If you still think you need a keyboard - yes, a MIDI Controller is what you'd probably want. (as /u/Lt_Pineapple has recommended) This M-Audio 32 key controller might work or a small Korg Nano controller.

Advice for you, man. get a cheap midi controller. You don't need it to make anything, but it saves a lot of time. I'd suggest this.