Reddit reviews M-Audio OXYGEN 8 V2 25-Key USB MIDI Controller 9900-41392-00
We found 4 Reddit comments about M-Audio OXYGEN 8 V2 25-Key USB MIDI Controller 9900-41392-00. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
25-note velocity-sensitive synth-action keyboard with USB MIDI interface8 fully assignable MIDI controller knobs6 transport buttons also assignable to any MIDI parameterAssignable pitch bend and modulation wheelsIncludes Ableton Live Lite 4 music production softwareso you can make music right away
http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-OXYGEN-25-Key-Controller-9900-41392-00/dp/B000ED4CUW
Mac mini. No comparison.
$5-600 bucks. Has garageband and itunes and a bunch of other cool apps right out of the box.
Then get this USB pre-Amp to plug in a mic and/or a guitar, and get this MIDI Keyboard and you're totally in business.
It uses whatever monitor/keyboard/mouse you want to put on it,
You don't have to worry about spec'ing drives or power supplies or whatever. Plug it in and it works and it jams.
It will also give you a long road to follow until you need to upgrade to the mac pro.
As far as power, it has what any home studio will need -- I know web designers that run graphics packages on mac mini's and it works for them.
Stick with a mac and you'll be happy you did.
GarageBand is super easy, and more capable than you might think. It definitely has limitations (some of which I ran into making this track), but you can definitely put together interesting music with it. For making Homestuck/chiptune-sounding stuff, you'll want the magical 8bit plugin.
My biggest recommendation would be to use premade samples carefully. The GarageBand sample library is very high quality, but not very big, so a lot of the best samples are pretty overused and will immediately stand out to an experienced listener.
So yeah. I'd recommend picking up a cheap USB MIDI controller--something like this would work--and seeing what you can come up with. It's a lot of fun
It'd definitely be possible with a 25 key midi keyboard