interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

2023-01-03 12:32:11

If you are putting together an airtight music production studio, you’re going to need some seriously good monitors for accuracy. It can be hard tracking down which set is best and what features they possess that make your music sound incredible.

That’s where we come in. We’re going to give you a rundown on the best computer monitors for music production. Plus, we’ll tell you some features to look at, and potential pain points to avoid. So here are our top choices.

It comes with several features for music production, such as a jack to connect audio from your device directly into the monitor and built-in speakers.

Dell U2720Q 4K LED LCD IPS Monitor is perfect for musicians who need a large screen monitor that can display videos and graphics accurately with minimal lag time.

It comes with all the necessary ports and cables to connect it to your computer and other devices. It has an HDMI port, DisplayPort, and a DVI-D port for this purpose.

This is one of the best monitors for music production because of its great color accuracy and excellent viewing angles, so you can see things clearly at any angle without distortion in color or brightness.

Music producers have different computer monitors, office workers, graphic designers, or gamer use demands. In addition, the producer is constantly mixing soundtracks and analyzing sound quality, so it’s vital to have the best computer monitor for music production.

If you"re serious about creating the next hit tune, a curved screen will be your ticket. The LG 34WN80C-B class monitor comes with a 34-inch curved screen, providing a large screen real estate for music production as well as video editing.

Music producers need a lot of screen real estate to keep all their music apps open and see them working at the same time. The LG 34 UltraWide monitor is a great option as it offers a big workspace and provides a great view of your digital audio workstation software and all the plugins you might use.

The best PC monitor for music production has a wide viewing angle of 178° so multiple people can watch the screen without seeing any color distortion or contrast issues.

I play music on my computer, and I like to enjoy the sound as much as looking at the visuals. So I decided to test HP VH240a 23. 8-Inch Full HD LED Monitor for music production.

It comes with several features for music production, such as a jack to connect audio from your device directly into the monitor and built-in speakers.

This monitor is very nice for recording music, editing videos, and connecting to your piano, guitar, bass, or keyboard. It brings out the fullness of voices with its built-in speakers. The sound was not bad, and there are USB ports on the side that you can use to connect to your iPod/iPhone.

This monitor is very nice for recording music, editing videos, and connecting to your piano, guitar, bass, or keyboard. It brings out the fullness of voices with its built-in speakers.

The speakers are also a great addition to this model as they give you an opportunity to listen to your favorite music or audio files without having to connect them to an external speaker system.

When it comes to music production, everything matters. The sound quality, the speed of your computer, and the monitors that you use can mean the difference between a hit or a flop.

The Dell UltraSharp U2720Q 27-inch IPS USB-C Monitor is a nice addition to any home or professional studio. It is an ultra-high-definition display that provides amazing detail, clarity, and color from every angle with the use of In-Plane Switching (IPS).

Dell UltraSharp U2720Q, 27 Inches monitor, is a very good choice for both Mac and PC users. It offers a resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels, which is four times the resolution of a Full HD display. This means that it will give sharp video images.

It"s also worth noting that this 4K monitor has an anti-glare coating so that you can use it in environments where there are bright lights. The monitor comes with a USB-C, HDMI, USB, and DisplayPort port for connecting to your devices.

Dell is one of the top computer manufacturers in the world with a product line that ranges from PCs to desktops, laptops, monitors, printers, and more.

Dell U2720Q 4K LED LCD IPS Monitor is perfect for musicians who need a large screen monitor that can display videos and graphics accurately with minimal lag time.

This monitor is well suited for music production, but it"s also great for gaming and photo editing. The large screen has enough real estate to display multiple programs at once, which makes multitasking easier.

This monitor is great for home studios on a budget because of its low price tag; even better, it comes with a 3-year warranty, so if anything goes wrong within that time period, you can send it back and get a replacement free of charge.

This SAMSUNG 27 inches’ flat monitor review is based on my own experience. This one"s pretty popular, and I wanted to make sure my fellow musicians could get a good idea of what they"re getting into if they buy this monitor.

With its good resolution and contrast ratio, it was easy for me to distinguish the important elements of my project without straining my eyes. The sleek design of this monitor is perfect for smaller studios where space is limited.

You will be able to see all the small details in an image with this monitor due to its high resolution of 1920 x 1080. Being able to see small details really helps when you"re editing an image or video and trying to find errors or things that need to be fixed.

This model has a refresh rate of 75 Hz, which means that your audio and video will always play smoothly on this model. With a low response time, you can be assured that there will not be any ghosting or blurring during playback either. The screen size is 27 inches, making it perfect for use as a computer monitor for both work and play

BenQ has released their latest gaming monitor, the BenQ EX3203R. This is a 32-inch curved monitor with a refresh rate of 144Hz and a response time of 4ms.

The BenQ EX3203R is designed for gaming, but it also works well for watching movies and other entertainment, making it a popular choice among music producers who need to work on both their music projects and visual media.

When it comes to monitors, bigger is better especially if you"re a producer, DJ, or just a music enthusiast. The size of the monitor will enhance your viewing experience and give you more room for multitasking.

Another important thing to consider when choosing a monitor for music production is the screen"s refresh rate. A higher refresh rate means that your audio and videos will play smoothly, while a lower refresh rate leads to screen tearing and stuttering, which can cause delays in your workflow.

The monitor has a curved design so that you can see the corners while sitting down or standing up, and the screen is coated with an anti-glare coating to prevent reflections in bright rooms or direct sunlight.

It"s also equipped with FreeSync technology which allows the screen to sync its refresh rate to the frame rate of your AMD graphics card to minimize screen tearing when you are mixing your music

A good music production computer monitor is essential for things like editing audio and video, composing music, and creating songs. If you want to maximize your experience in the studio and get the best out of your computer, I would recommend SAMSUNG C27F398 27 Inch curved LED Monitor.

The display is big and bright, the colors are vivid and accurate, the viewing angles are good, and the screen is nice. The only real downside to this display is that it doesn"t have a built-in USB hub like some of Samsung"s other monitors.

The Samsung C27F398 27″ Curved LED Monitor will make your music production an enjoyable experience. With a 1800r curve radius, it"s easy to have multiple windows open on the screen at once without having to scroll or resize any of them.

When testing it, I personally set up my digital audio workstation software and music apps on the left side of the screen, with my browser in the middle, and all of my plugins to the right side of my screen, leaving plenty of room for other things.

Sporting a VA panel with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, 32 inches of curved display, and AMD FreeSync technology, the MSI FHD is a high-performance computer monitor ideal for any creative or productivity enthusiast.

The monitor also comes with all the necessary ports and cables to connect it to your computer and other devices. It has an HDMI port, DisplayPort, and a DVI-D port for this purpose.

Trying to find the best computer monitor for music production can be difficult without actually testing it, so I was super happy when MSI sent me this monitor to test out and review.

This monitor is 32 inches and has a 1500R curvature which allowed me to see all the details in my mix better than my previous monitors. The color accuracy is great, and I do not get eye strain at all from staring at it for long periods of time. This is due to having eye care technologies.

Overall, this is an excellent curved gaming monitor with a great picture quality at an affordable price, and I highly recommend it if you"re looking for a new computer monitor for music production.

This is an excellent curved gaming monitor with a great picture quality at an affordable price, and I highly recommend it if you"re looking for a new computer monitor for music production.

It comes with FreeSync technology that eliminates tearing, stuttering, and other issues that are common when screen refresh rates do not match the frame rates of your games.

The best computer monitor for music production should be able to handle high resolutions, have flexible viewing angles, and come with a wide assortment of ports and connectors such as ASUS VZ279HE 27” Full HD 1080p IPS Eye Care Monitor.

You won’t have to worry about being distracted by flashes of light or flickers caused by poor quality monitors or display devices because this one uses a Blue Light Filter and flicker-free technology that eliminates eye strain while you work.

With built-in speakers and audio jack support, this monitor allows you to listen to audio from almost any device, including your media players, tablet, smartphone, and PC.

The price of this best computer monitor music production is reasonable considering how well this product performs in comparison to other monitors of similar quality.

The monitor also has ASUS Eye Care technology which reduces eye fatigue. The flicker-free backlight and Blue Light Filter protect your eyes during extended viewing periods.

Other great features include a blue light filter that protects your eyes when working for long hours and flicker-free technology that eliminates screen flickering for reduced eye fatigue and increased comfort when viewing the screen for long periods of time.

The Asus PA248QV has an anti-glare coating that eliminates reflections. This allows you to see more detail in your image, and it prevents any glare from making it hard for you to view what is on your screen.

Music production is a very sophisticated activity and demands a large screen real estate to work on. This is why you should have a good computer monitor for music production.

Music productioninvolves mixing and mastering different tracks and sounds, editing beats and other sound effects, adding effects to the music, creating new sounds using sound synthesizers and samplers, adding background scores to the song, among others.

A large monitor helps you focus on the details easier and faster, so you can produce quality tracks and mixes in less time. The larger the monitor size is, the more things you can see at one time. This reduces the time you spend searching for certain files or folders on your hard drive or within your DAW software.

Price; Price is always an important thing when it comes to choosing the right piece of equipment for your needs. If you have the money to spend, then, by all means, go for something high-end and expensive because usually, this is going to be worth the price tag.

If you don"t have much money to spend on monitors, then the best thing you can do is get something affordable but still professional and high-quality at the same time.

Size of the Screen; The other thing to consider when buying a monitor for your music production is the size of the screen. The bigger the screen, the more you can see at a glance which is particularly helpful when you are working on a project with multiple tracks. This will allow you to focus on the important details and track arrangement, as opposed to having to scroll and zoom in and out.

Connection Ports; When buying your monitor, check what kind of ports are present on it. It should have an HDMI port and at least two USB ports so that you can easily connect your devices to the monitor and transfer media files or other data from one place to another quickly and easily.

It would be good if the monitor had built-in speakers so that you don"t have to connect to external speakers in order to listen to music while working on it.

If you"re a musician with a small home studio, then you may have wondered exactly how many recording monitors you need to produce professional-quality music.

If you are a musician who creates music in a studio environment or if your recordings are going to be sold in stores or online, then having several monitors may be necessary for your business. However, if your only recordings are for personal use, then it makes no sense to buy many monitors.

Yes, you need a monitor with speakers for music production. If your monitor does not come with in-built ones, you will need to connect to external ones.

As a music producer, you will want to hear the music you are working on. While mixing music without any speakers on your monitor is possible, the experience is not as good. It is also more dangerous for your ears to use headphones all of the time.

Monitor ports are usually located on the back of the monitor. Most modern monitors have a DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI port, and a VGA port. The HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI ports can be used for both digital and analog signals, but the VGA port only supports analog signals.

interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

Science fiction has always served as a window into a potential future, namely in the way of technology. But what was once regulated to episodes of Star Trek is quickly becoming the stuff of reality. Many fixtures of these kinds of shows and books have begun to inspire real-life counterparts, including - but not limited to - touchscreen technology.

One only has to look at how far cell phones have come since their inception. Physical keyboards, like those from BlackBerry, gave people about as much of a solution as is possible for those who found themselves doing more on the devices as they became more advanced. Where tactile options came up short, touchscreens graciously stepped up to bat, providing a much fuller experience. This kind of functionality then spread to tablets, which are considered by many to be rivals of laptops and even standard PCs.

While there are still some things that are best done on a desktop computer, that does not change the fact that many users find themselves longing for the same abilities on their PCs afforded by many of their mobile devices. This is what helped breed the touchscreen monitor market, which has many viable options for people seeking the best of both worlds. With stronger computing power and a finer ability to control actions occurring in the screen, users can get more work done in new and exciting ways.

Traditionally, computer mice are what have allowed us to "touch" in a virtual context, but touchscreen monitors are changing all that. It might be said that the reason that mice were used in the first place was because the technology had not evolved to a responsive enough level to enable that natural solution. Now that people have the touchscreen technology, they want it everywhere.

If one thing is for certain, it is that the burgeoning adoption of touchscreen technology is no fad. Proliferation has already come too far to turn back now, and computer manufacturers are taking notice. Everyone is trying to get a piece of the action, including ELO Touch Solutions, Laiputuo Electronics, Planar, HP, 3M, Touch Systems, ViewSonic, Dell and ACER as well. Getting into the touchscreen monitor game is a no-brainer for the companies involved in this generation of computing. With so many different applications made for touchscreen monitors, options exist for all sorts of interested parties.

Touchscreen monitors are becoming the new standard in both private and enterprise settings. Here are some of the ways they can be leveraged effectively for business: touchscreen monitors for workstations, touchscreen monitors for hospitals, and touchscreen monitors for POS systems.

Newegg offers a large selection of touchscreen monitors which vary according to the type from 5-wire Resistive touchscreen monitors, and Accu Touch touchscreen monitors, to Capacitive touchscreen monitors, and more. Newegg’s wide selections will definitely meet your needs.

interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

Option 3: If your laptop cannot provide 5V/1A power through the USB-A port, or the monitor has no signal/unstable signal after connection. You must use a 5V/1A external power supply (an adapter) to connect to the K2"s USB TYPE-C port. For external power supply (an adapter), it is not included in the package.

· If the system of your PC is Windows, the graphic card may not able to recognize the resolution of the product 1920*515P so that it cannot be displayed in full screen. Please set the product resolution according to the following below setting methods:

1)Click the right mouse button on a blank area of the computer desktop, and in the dialog box that pops up, select "Display Settings", and click the "Display Settings" with the left mouse button to pop up the dialog box as shown in the figure below.2) Select Advanced Settings, Monitor Select KEYBOARD to display adapter properties

interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

Samsung Flip can be used for a wide range of business applications, providing embedded versatile templates. You can use the Flip as a calendar, scheduler, note or checklist board. Samsung Flip perfectly matches any business need, enabling users

Samsung Flip has up to 20 pages of writing space per roll, allowing users to seamlessly scroll through pages. In addition, the Flip ensures that confidential meeting information remains in the right hands. Its reinforced lock system allows users

Users are empowered by the Flip’s versatile connection options. USB, HDMI, NFC and screen sharing capabilities enable optimum collaboration and provide interactive content visibility, notation and sharing. The Flip also offers an optional tray

The touch out functionality allows users to sync their personal devices with the Samsung Flip, allowing real-time content sharing and control. Any changes made on the Flip display will be mirrored on the connected device, and vice versa, for efficient

To help create more efficient meetings, the Samsung Flip can connect to a PC remotely, eliminating the need for additional devices in the room. Users can also connect a keyboard, mouse to the display directly via Bluetooth connection enabling better productivity and collaboration.

Users can project content on Samsung Flip to another large digital display in real time, using Wi-Fi network or HDMI out connection. Even connected to a personal device, the Flip display can be shared. This feature is ideal for large meeting environments,

With AirPlay 2 built-in, stream or share content from Apple devices straight to the boardroom TV for effortless presentations. In a variety of business environments, play videos, music, photos and more from iPhones, iPads and Macs on Samsung Flip to enhance customer engagement.

Samsung Flip displays all content in clear UHD picture quality, regardless of the room, creating a compelling meeting environment. Backed by the powerful Tizen 5.0 operating system for a seamless user experience, embedded sensors automatically

The new, slim stand for Flip 55” offers increased working space in front of the display and more convenient ways to position and store than previous models. Its enhanced, hinge assembly structure enables easy setup and efficient stocking.

interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

Every aspect of the light imaging system in Pro Display XDR is crucial to the overall quality of what you see onscreen. Each element builds on top of the last to create a display with unbelievable brightness and contrast.

Typical LCDs are edge-lit by a strip of white LEDs. The 2D backlighting system in Pro Display XDR is unlike any other. It uses a superbright array of 576 blue LEDs that allows for unmatched light control compared with white LEDs. Twelve controllers rapidly modulate each LED so that areas of the screen can be incredibly bright while other areas are incredibly dark. All of this produces an extraordinary contrast that’s the foundation for XDR.

For even greater control of light, each LED is treated with a reflective layer, a highly customized lens, and a geometrically optimized reflector that are all unique to Pro Display XDR. Through a pioneering design, light is reflected, mixed, and shaped between two layers to minimize blooming and provide uniform lighting.

Converting blue light to white is a difficult process that requires extremely precise color conversion. It’s why most display makers use white LEDs. Pro Display XDR accomplishes this conversion with an expertly designed color transformation sheet made of hundreds of layers that control the light spectrum passing through them.

Pro Display XDR extends exceptional image quality to the very edge. To ensure that LEDs along the sides of the display mix well with adjacent ones, a micro-lens array boosts light along the edges. This creates uniform color and brightness across the entire screen.

With a massive amount of processing power, the timing controller (TCON) chip utilizes an algorithm specifically created to analyze and reproduce images. It controls LEDs at over 10 times the refresh rate of the LCD itself, reducing latency and blooming. It’s capable of multiple refresh rates for amazingly smooth playback. Managing both the LED array and LCD pixels, the TCON precisely directs light and color to bring your work to life with stunning accuracy.

interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

It’s been nearly two decades since prototype digital pianos hit the market, and that means we’re working with mature technology. Regardless of your budget, there’s probably a good keyboard that suits your needs.

Our Top 5 Lists feature the best digital pianos and keyboards for each price point, ranging from budget beginner setups to wooden, furniture-style consoles.

High-end digital pianos are crazy expensive, some costing as much as a new car! If that’s up your alley, then go for it; but do your research first. If you want bang for your buck, you’ve come to the right place.

If you’re just starting out, all you really need is a digital piano that facilitates the practice of proper piano technique. Experienced players might want keyboards with sound-shaping or detailed recording facilities. We’ll briefly cover what you can expect and why certain features are essential.

True beginners might be a bit apprehensive about starting with an expensive digital piano. What if you find it’s not for you? Well, it’s perfectly fine to start out with a cheaper digital piano or even a keyboard. Upgrades are always available down the line when needed.

Our articles give intuitive details for each choice. Each featured instrument has its own merits, so our top choice may not be the perfect keyboard for you.

While the name might imply that they are designed for musicians on the go, that’s not entirely true. Digital pianos of this kind are generally cheaper as their construction material costs less.

That’s not necessarily a black mark against their quality since these digital pianos (apart from the keyboards in the sub-$150/sub-$300 range) can still feature hammer-action keys and built-in speakers.

We do realize that money will always be a factor under consideration, and even our cheaper recommendations might be overly expensive for the thrifty spenders out there.

At the absolute lowest price point, we’ve selected these keyboards, which include the bare minimum required to get you through the basic learning processes. Upgrades are a must if you decide to pursue music further.

The Casiotone CT-S300 is our personal favorite choice as a budget keyboard. At this price point, sounds and keys are as far from the real deal as you can get, so it was hard to choose a winner here.

The CT-S300 is a new offering from Casio and a part of their reboot of their classic Casiotone keyboards. Casio also entered our sub-$300 list with their cheap CTX-series keyboards, and a similar sound chip is included in the CT-S300.

While I wouldn’t call the included 400 sounds particularly good, they are good enough for practice purposes. There are even basic rhythms and stripped-down accompaniment features too to spice things up.

While there are cheaper keyboards in the Casiotone line, the CT-S3000 is the cheapest option that includesvelocity-sensitive keys, which makes it the right choice.

As we’ve mentioned before, playability is the most important aspect at this price point, and having reactive keys that respond to your playing intensity is a must to build up dynamic control skills.

For what it’s worth, the keys don’t feel as cheap as many other entry-level keyboards mostly due to the textured keytops and block-end piano-style keys.

Add decent speakers to the mix, and the CT-S300 is a solid budget choice for beginners. Just remember that better options do exist if you’re willing to pay slightly more.

Finally, you also get aUSB to Host port, which not only allows you to record MIDI on your devices but also enables you to use Casio’s Chordana Play app to add a graphical user interface for added control.

US:(What Retailer to Buy FromWhat Retailer to Buy From?As you can see, there are plenty of good places where you can buy this item. My personal favorite is Sweetwater.Being one of theoldest and most reputable music retailers in the US, it offers exceptional customer service, competitive prices, fast shipping, and overall the best experience I’ve ever had shopping for audio equipment.Many of my fellow musicians share the same opinion and regard Sweetwater as their go-to music store.)

If you do want to go that route, consider paying a bit more for the PSR-E363 or the PSR-EW300, which are both better built and well worth the extra price, not to mention the addition oftouch-sensitive keys.

The star of the newly rebooted Casiotone line is a basic but complete package, and it includes all the necessary features to be considered a proficient practice keyboard.

If you’re concerned about getting as much keyboard as possible for a cheap price, this category is for you. At this price, we’re not too concerned about realism.

The PSR-E373 is one of the newer arranger keyboards, being released in late 2020. However, we were blown away by how well it fared at just about everything.

I won’t say this keyboard is perfect. When it all comes down to it, this is still a budget keyboard with some cut corners. However, its quality more than makes up for it.

The Yamaha PSR-E373 is easily the best budget keyboard we’ve reviewed. Yamaha’s PSR-series was in dire need of an update, and the PSR-E373 really does deliver.

Yamaha’s Advanced Wave Memory (AWM) technology is a bit long in the tooth, but it still sounds decent. The PSR-E373 is easily the best keyboard in this price bracket.

The downside to budget keyboards are sacrifices made in name of playability. Realistic feeling keys are generally absent, as weighted hammer actions cost a lot to implement.

The PSR-E373 comes with 61 unweighted keys, but a 73-key version exists in the form of the PSR-EW310. The keys aren’t too impressive, but they’re among the better synth-style keys I’ve tested.

Regardless of the lack of realism, the PSR-E373’s unweighted keys are still good for practice purposes. Thanks to well-tunedvelocity curves, pianists of every skill level can exercise dynamic control.

Being a budget arranger keyboard means you get a lot of extra functionality like rhythms, accompaniment features, and effects (also, let’s not forget about the 622 onboard tones).

If you’re so inclined, you can run the PSR-E373 off6 AA batteries. For practice purposes, you can also use your headphones through the rear-facing jack.

My personal favorite bonus is the USB to Host port, which supports both MIDI and Audio. Even premium keyboards skimp on the audio interface functionality, so getting it on a sub-$300 keyboard is a steal.

While the PSR-E373 covers a ton of ground as a budget arranger keyboard, you might be looking for something that is more versatile as a song composition too. We recommend the Roland GO:Keys.

The PSR-E373 might be the best keyboard in this price range, but I consider the GO:Keys the best choice for trained keyboardists. It’s designed like a quality toy, with inspiration in an easily accessible form factor.

The PSR-E373 sets the golden standard for budget keyboards, and as of the time of writing, its easily the best budget option for any beginner looking for an introduction to the world of music.

In my opinion, this is the minimum price point if you’re serious about learning the piano. Less than ideal conditions will stifle the learning process, andsub-$300 keyboards aren’t ideal for mastering correct piano technique.

Thankfully, you don’t need to spend an arm and leg to get a good keyboard. For less than $500, you can get a solid digital piano withweighted keys and realistic sounds.

A quick note – we did not consider keyboards with unweighted keys for this list. Weighted keys are essential for building proper finger strength and technique and foster skills transferrable to actual acoustic pianos in the future.

Now that the Casio PX-160 is discontinued, the Roland FP-10 is a pretty easy pick for us in this category. While it comes really close to exceeding the $500 price point, it justifies the cost with its excellent key action and great sounds.

Even when the PX-160 was still around, the FP-10 was very close to taking over the top spot of our list. However, the PX-160 did have an edge over its competitors by providing a more complete feature set that wasn’t available in this price range before.

Triple sensors allow more accurate detection of your keypresses,performing especially well on pieces with quick note repetitions. Escapement gives the keyboard an extra level of authenticity by simulating the slight notch felt when you press the keys about halfway down.

While the FP-10 sounds wonderful through headphones, don’t expect to be blown away by its onboard speakers, after all the FP-10 has a very slim profile and is not really designed to handle big performances unless you plug it into an external amplifier.

The Roland FP-10, just like its competitors, is verybare-bones when it comes to additional features. It doesn’t have an onboard MIDI recorder nor the split mode where you could split the keyboard between two different sounds.

The Yamaha P-45 has been hands down the best-selling beginner digital piano out there…and for a reason. Yamaha is a well-known name in the music industry and their products rarely disappoint.

I’d advise testing both the FP-10 and P-45 keyboards out to see which you prefer. I prefer the Casio for its sound and features, but I also liked the FP-10’s playability.

Again, we’re not featuring workstation keyboards or keyboards with lackluster key-beds, only digital pianos with full, 88-key weighted keys were considered for this list.

As mentioned earlier, Roland’s SuperNATURAL sound engine is used for most of their instruments, from keyboards to electronic drums. It merges audio samples with software modeling for a malleable sound palette. The mainpiano sound is also solid and recreates the feel of an acoustic piano really well for the price.

The keys feel similar to those on acoustic uprights and they recreate the physical mechanics well. It’s a subtle but welcome touch. To be sure, the PHA-4 Standard is among the best key actions you’ll find below $1,500.

A 1-track MIDI recorder and the essentials are included. Most special, though, is the string resonance, damper resonance, and key off resonance simulation, all subtle touches that enhance realism. All of these are adjustable within Roland’s own Piano Designer app.

The same goes for the limited recording and layering capabilities of the instrument. All the basics are covered, and if you want more external software is always an option.

Most people at the advanced level prefer stage pianos, workstationsorsynthesizers. These keyboards favor sound designers wanting deep control of their sound. We’re not covering that here.

This was, yet again, another hard category to picking a winner. Most pianos in this range are close in terms of sound and build quality, so it’s hard to pick a straightforward winner.

Kawai is known for their acoustic pianos and many will argue that their RHIII action (as featured on this model) is one of the best plastic “folded” type key actions out there.

Kawai has been in the piano business for a long time, since the early 1900s, and their experience in making pianos pays off. These keys feel great and are definitely at the top of their class.

I’d like to remind you to test out as many of the options we’ve listed as possible to ensure the best choice for you. Chances are, if you’re looking at this price bracket, you already know what you want.

However, that’s no reason to skimp on decision making. $1,000 is still a heavy investment, so you’ll certainly want to get as much bang for your buck as possible.

Casio’s Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Acton Keyboard II is used here and feels great to the touch, even simulating the feel of textured ebony and ivory keytops.

While the keys tend to be noisier than other key actions, the feel more than makes up for this downside. The internal mechanisms are responsive, and that’s really all that matters.

Casio is a prolific digital piano manufacturer, but for the longest time I never enjoyed playing their keyboards. Their sound was a major sticking point for me, as I always felt their samples were 2nd rate compared to other manufacturers.

However, the Audio recorder is surprisingly fully-fledged. You can record up to 99 songs, each with a maximum length of 25 min. These songs can then be saved onto flash drives for safekeeping.

Casio’s PX-870 is the easiest digital piano among the bunch to recommend. I’d even say it’s worth considering for beginners and intermediate players alike due to its playability.

I previously praised the PX-870 for its good number of features and impressive degree of quality for the price, so the pianos here really needed to step up their game to impress me.

This really isn’t much of an issue during play, though. In actual play, the KDP110 feels nice, both in touch and sound, thanks in no small part to a powerful dual, 20Wspeaker system.

Five presetmusic booksis an impressive bonus here, allowing you to practice and listen to up to 200 songs right on the piano. This is great for beginners, as they’re tailored to assist the learning process.

However, if you’re looking at this category, you’re probably an experienced player. In that case, I’d recommend you test as many digital pianos as possible before pulling the trigger. After all, you probably know what’s best.

As you might have expected, our choices here feature beautiful furniture-style bodies and extra features. And let’s not forget about the sophisticated sound-generating setups that use the structurally sound bodies to further enhance the realism factor.

What you hear isn’t all you get either, the simple LCD display allows you to modify parameters in the Piano Room modeling software, which also includes a selection of effects to make each sound your own.

The CLP-735 uses the plastic version of the GrandTouch-S key action, which is a good reliable action that feels realistic, though many have said that it leans towards being slightly heavy.

While I definitely prefer the wooden GrandTouch-S action on the higher-end CLP-745, plastic GrandTouch-S is still very good. This family of key actions (GH3) has been the standard for CLP-line keyboards for years now, and it is a good way for training dynamic control.

The LCD screen is also worth mentioning here, as it is fairly informative despite its small size. The arrow keys make navigation a breeze, and there are quick recall options that quickly switch you over to the CFX or Bösendorfer presets.

As always, you getLayer and Split mode, which allows you to practice stage performance styles without purchasing extra software or a dedicated stage piano.

Of course, for more modern recording techniques using a computer, you have USB MIDI and Audio capabilities, so an external audio interface is not required.

While we did choose the CLP-735 to be included on this list, do remember that things are subjective, and you really should give all possible choices a test run before buying, especially at this price point.

Its bigger brother, the Grand Feel III, which is featured on the higher-priced CA-79 and CA-99, is even better, and I’d even say they all feel more realistic than Yamaha’s GrandTouch-S.

Again, you shouldn’t be spending $3000 on a whim. Test out both (or even better, all the options we listed, including Roland’s newest HP models) before making a purchase. You might easily prefer another keyboard.

The CLP-735 is expensive, but we can attest that it’s well worth every penny. The premium sound, build quality and keys make for a very compelling package.

If you’re not necessarily interested in a full-fledged digital piano and simply want to control your virtual instruments and/or produce music using a DAW running on your computer, a good MIDI keyboard may be all you need!

We hope we’ve helped your pursuit of the ideal digital piano for your needs and interests. The market is really overcrowded these days, so it can be hard to identify the best options.

I’d suggest diving deeper into the categories by entering our full top 5 lists for more information. There’s only so much we can do in these aggregate lists, and you know what they say – a ton of detail can get lost in the summaries.

interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

Most of us now have an iPad or some sort of tablet or smartphone. What’s more, we’ve probably tried using it to make beats, play synths, do some field recording or control our studio computer with a swipe-swipe of our fingers. We’re completely at home with the multi-touch screen environment. But we’re also perhaps grumbling at the size of the tablet/phone screen, quickly running out of processing power, and troubled by how best to integrate our devices into a larger studio setup. Conversely, on our desktop and laptop studio machines, we have far more power available and access to all the software tools we could wish for, but often find ourselves reduced to controlling them with a mouse.

Multi-touch technology has been very slow to make any headway in the world of desktop computing — and not just in terms of music production software, by any means. Surprisingly, perhaps, given the ubiquity of the iPad, Apple’s OS X doesn’t support multi-touch, but on ‘the other side’ it’s been available in some form or other since Windows 7. And, with high-quality, 24-inch, 10-point touchscreens now available for a very modest outlay(around £300), Windows 8 maturing through version 8.1, and Windows 9 on the horizon, some developers are now making significant progress. So, maybe it’s finally time to figure out how and where multi-touch-capable software could enhance your own recording studio, whether that be a modest home-studio setup, or something on a grander scale.

2. Infra-red technology creates an optical grid across the screen, and registers a ‘touch’ when the beams are interrupted. This is particularly suited to larger screens. It’s what the Microsoft PixelSense was based on, and it can be found today in Slate Digital’s Raven MTX. It benefits from great accuracy, not having to use annoyingly reflective glass, and the ability to register touches from any object (not just a finger). However, infra-red screens are vulnerable to accidental ‘touches’ from elbows, clothing, insects and so on.

3. Capacitive technology has risen to the top, primarily through Apple’s use of it. It’s durable, reliable and accurate, with a good resolution (although not as good as a stylus), and the price has come down significantly due to the sheer number of phones and tablets using it. Capacitive screens work by creating a minute electrical field, from which a capacitive object (such as a finger) draws current, creating a voltage drop at that point of the screen. Most phones and tablets now use a variant called Projected Capacitive Touch technology, which essentially doubles up the grid for improved accuracy and tracking, and also supports passive styli and gloved fingers.

Microsoft introduced native multi-touch support with Windows 7, but two things prevented it from really catching on: the expense of the hardware, and the fact that a desktop OS designed primarily for a mouse isn’t particularly suited to being operated with your fingers. In an act of pure genius (or madness, depending on your point of view) Microsoft then designed Windows 8 to offer the user two distinct interfaces: the Windows Start (formerly known as Metro) Modern UI, which is intended for touching, and the standard desktop, for use with a mouse and keyboard. It meant that the OS could be used on multiple devices: tablets, phones, laptops and desktops could all use it, and be touchable and futuristic in every environment.

Unfortunately, for the vast majority of people without a multi-touch interface, it was confusing and a bit frustrating, in that half of the OS couldn’t comfortably be used when all you had was a mouse! Microsoft addressed many of these concerns with Windows 8.1, and further updates have brought the Modern and the Desktop interfaces much closer together. The experience for the mouse and keyboard user is now much more that of an enhanced or augmented desktop, rather than a touch interface that was out of their reach. At the same time, sales of all-in-one computers with multi-touch screens, hybrid laptops and Surface tablets have grown at a healthy rate, and so multi-touch technology is fast becoming ‘normal’ on regular Windows computers.

So what does the Windows App Store offer in terms of music apps? Unfortunately, not a lot! There’s a sprinkling of piano and guitar-strumming apps, and some sample-triggering and remixing ones. There’s a DJ remix app from Magix called Music Maker Jam, which is pretty cool in a DJ-remixing-preset-samples kind of way, and a recording studio from Glouco, which does at least allow you to record via a mic input and sequence the included instruments. However, Windows Store apps have been hampered by two things when it comes to music production. Firstly there’s been no support for MIDI, and secondly, the output latency is only as good as the system’s soundcard using standard Windows drivers.

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft revealed a MIDI API (application programming interface), which for the first time allows a Modern app to use a MIDI input. Image Line took advantage of this in FL Studio Groove, a decent music-making app that lets you sequence, mix and mess about with a range of sample-based instruments and drums — and, of course, you can play the sounds from a MIDI keyboard.

The MIDI API is the first release from a new team of creative people at Microsoft who are working to improve the MIDI and audio aspects of Windows apps for the forthcoming Windows 9. This is unprecedented, and potentially very exciting for music makers. Pete Brown, from Microsoft’s DX Engineering Engagement and Evangelism department, said that they’re doing some serious engineering here, including on audio latency for Universal apps (apps that run across all Windows devices). They’re working with a lot of partners, big names and small, from both hardware and software worlds, to help prioritise, prototype apps, and so on. He tells me they’ve made sure that the approach is aligned with industry needs and requirements, and not just what Microsoft think needs to be done. It’s been the most open development process he’s ever seen, and he says the response from partners so far has been extremely positive.

The first thing to realise is that multi-touch is not mouse emulation, as it was on the old single-touch screens you might find in supermarkets or information kiosks. So, although it sometimes appears as though you’re just mousing about with your finger, it doesn’t always work as expected. In an application not designed specifically for touch control (we’ll call these ‘non-touch’), like Cubase, a single finger can access all the menu items, controls and parameters, just as with a mouse. But with some of the plug-ins you’ll find you can’t play the virtual keyboard unless you pull your finger across the notes, giving you a sort of Stylophone effect.

This problem is more obviously demonstrable in Adobe’s Photoshop: you can select all the tools and menu items, but you can’t actually use your finger on an image — nothing happens! Oddly, if you start with your finger off to the side of the page and then drag it onto the image, it then allows you to draw — but only as long as your finger stays in contact. Adobe say that this is because there’s no touch standard, and they already have their own APIs for use with Wacom’s pen and touchscreen products. They’re also waiting for Apple to join in the game, which, I fear, is something we’re going to hear from a lot of developers of software aimed at creative professionals.

Slight oddities aside, most DAW software actually works very well with single touches on a multi-touch screen. In my tests, Cubase, Pro Tools, Reason, Studio One, Reaper and Tracktion all happily let me poke around to my heart’s content. Ableton Live proved good for launching clips, entering notes and moving regions, but I ran into trouble when attempting to move parameters: once I’d grabbed a control with my finger, the knob or slider would zoom to the maximum or minimum value with the slightest finger movement without letting me easily set any value in between. Fortunately, there’s a fix for this. You have to create an ‘options.txt’ file in the Preferences folder, which lurks in the back end of the dusty reaches of your file system, and add the line “-AbsoluteMouseMode” (more precise information can be found at: www.ableton.com/en/articles/optionstxt-file-live). This allows all of the parameters to be moved much more smoothly. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of similar fixes for Bitwig Studio, which has exactly the same problem, or Digital Performer 8 (DP8), where some plug-ins exhibit this behaviour.

In the project/session/arrange window, with the exception of Live, Bitwig and DP8, all DAWs responded to the pinch/zoom two-finger gesture to either expand the track height or extend the timeline. Reaper even managed to do both directions at the same time. So, although these programs are not multi-touch compatible, there’s not that much you can’t do with your fingertip, assuming you can get your fudgy finger on the sometimes tiny knobs. You could load Reason, Live or Pro Tools onto a Windows 8 Pro tablet, such as the Microsoft Surface, and get on with making music without having to add a mouse to the equation.

Similarly, with stand-alone plug-ins and instruments, such as Native Instruments Reaktor or the Arturia Mini V, you’ve got single-finger control over all the parameters — the only problem is the Stylophone effect on virtual keyboards described earlier. Even though, especially on a tablet, you can go without a mouse, there’s no reason why you would want to do so on a desktop machine. The beauty with multi-touch on the desktop is that you can use everything. So, you can use your mouse and keyboard as normal, but perhaps when tweaking plug-ins or working closely in the arrange page you can simply reach out and touch it. Which is fantastic!

1. Console View: all the faders and pan, sends and other controls are all gloriously multi-touchable. You can use all your fingers, all at once, and mix to your heart’s content.

3. Matrix View: You can drag/drop samples, launch clips and move things about with as many fingers as you like, making this performance side of Sonar a real joy to use — Ableton and Bitwig really should take note.

Sonar struggles, though, when it comes to consistency. In the Pro Channel expansion to the Console view, the knobs in the EQ, Tube and Compressor respond to a rotary, sort of half-circle finger movement, but the knobs in the rest of the Pro Channel respond with an up and down movement. You can’t control more than one knob at a time, although you can move other controls on the console. Using the visual display on the EQ suffers from the same ‘zooming about’ problem found in Live, though they’ve dealt with this issue in X3 by sliding out a lovely large EQ window, which works perfectly with multi-touch.

Meanwhile, back in the arrange window, nothing is actually touchable! You can’t move any regions, cut them up or edit them in any way. Nor can you add notes to the piano roll or change any automation. All the arrange page things that can be done in the other non-touch-enabled DAWs can’t be done in the touch-enabled Sonar, which is a bit strange. The changes they made to the Pro Channel EQ shows exactly what’s required for touch to work effectively: you need big knobs. The Console view is hampered in places by the size and throw of the faders and some of the small controls. Cakewalk have built multi-touch into their existing GUI, and although it works well in some areas it also demonstrates why this might not be the best way to approach it — although, of course, you still have your mouse and keyboard.

StageLight has the standard arrange window, with tracks and a timeline, piano roll and automation, but it also has drum pads, a step sequencer, and a virtual keyboard that you can lock to various preset tunings, making it very easy to play all the right notes. In version 2 they’ve added in some nice-sounding synths and instruments, all with touchy parameters, and they’ve introduced an Ableton Live-style loop arranger, with large clip boxes to poke with your fingers. One very neat feature is that, through its support of VST plug-ins, it includes a multi-touch GUI version of the standard VST parameters window. It’s very simple, with each parameter displaying just a slider and a value, but it hints at what’s possible. Matthew Presley, Product Manager at Open Labs, mentioned how the right-click element of touch — where you hold until a menu appears — is something they’ve found frustrating. In refreshing the interface for version 2, they decided to get around that by creating a ‘Charms’-style toolbar at the side with all the editing tools, including a ‘Duplicate’ button, which takes the finger pain out of copying and pasting. Their core concern was to make it easy, so that people can just get on and make music.

At $10, there’s nothing really to touch StageLight. The pricing model is similar to that used in so many iOS and Android apps, and it’s something we’ll probably see much more of — the standard software is very cheap, or free, and then, through an in-app store, you can purchase additional features as you get more serious. It’s a refreshing change from the ‘Lite’ versions of DAWs we’re so familiar with, where you always wish you could afford the ‘real’ version just to get a little more functionality. StageLight is increasingly being pre-installed on many Dell, Lenovo and Acer Windows 8 tablets, and as kids these days are unlikely ever to possess an actual desktop computer, this might very well be where they start making music.

Ben Loftis, Product Manager for Mixbus, had this to say: “In a touch interface, you must accommodate calibration errors, parallax, and the splay of your finger. You don’t have any haptic feedback. So, if you want an analogue-console experience on a touchscreen, you will need a touchscreen that is larger than the analogue counterpart. But exactly how much larger depends on the hardware and the user. Currently, Mixbus v2 chooses between three sizes, based on your monitor resolution. But v3 will give the user an infinitely variable-scale slider, so we can accommodate more combinations of screen size and resolution. Also, our plug-ins (like the XT series) are arbitrarily scalable: if you stretch the plug-in window, all the knobs get bigger. We think this will be important for touch users, because many existing plug-ins use tiny buttons.”

The grandaddy of digital audio on the PC, Software Audio Workshop (SAW) Studio added multi-touch control to their Software Audio Console (SAC) live-sound mixer application as long ago as 2010. It was tied into the revolutionary 3M multi-touch screens, as favoured by Perceptive Pixel. Unfortunately, it hasn’t got any further than that, and still only supports multi-touch on these rather expensive screens. The layout of SAC lends itself brilliantly to multi-touch and currently works very well with a single touch — but it would be good to see this opened up to more current and cheaper technology.

It turned out that the development libraries they were using (JUCE C++) contained multi-touch features, which were primarily intended for the iPad, and that these had simply translated into the GUI of the VST version. This is true of all their plug-ins. They’ve now released a larger-GUI option for LuSH-101, for people with fat fingers.

I had a similar experience more recently with Arturia’s Spark 2 soft synth. Arturia told me that they hadn’t planned to make it multi-touch, but that they’re very happy that it is. So, the programming languages already exist to allow developers to include multi-touch functionality without specialist add-ons or tools — which means plug-in manufacturers may start to produce their multi-touch GUIs even while the DAW makers drag their feet.

The alternative to direct touch control of the DAW or plug-ins is to use touchscreen technology as a controller. The Jazz Mutant Lemur, the first commercially available multi-touch controller, has now evolved to become an iPad app, and there are now dozens of iPad apps for controlling DAW software via MIDI or OSC — in fact, there are even a few for Android. They’re selling well and there’s obviously a desire and use for it. The lack of haptic feedback (an actual physical knob or fader) doesn’t appear to be a barrier to most users, despite the recent Kickstarter campaign to manufacture knobs that you can stick onto the surface of the iPad (http://sosm.ag/ipad-knob-kickstarter).

James Ivey, Pro Tools Expert hardware editor (www.pro-tools-expert.com), who owns a Slate Pro Raven MTi controller, put to me the case for touchscreen controls over physical faders: “I was using a Euphonix [now Avid] Artist Control and Mix. So I had 12 faders to play with. With the MTi I have unlimited faders — what’s not to like? I really don’t buy into the “Oh, it’s not a real fader or pot” thing. I’m so much faster on the Raven. It’s big, it’s clear and if I don’t like something about the workflow or arrangement I can change it.”

Perhaps more of a barrier, then, is the physical size of the iPad, and the connectivity when away from the cosy security of your home network. With a touchscreen attached directly to your desktop you have none of the connectivity problems, because the screen is right there: attached via HDMI or DVI, it’s part of your system via a virtual MIDI driver. Although Windows tablets may suffer from the same size issues, hybrids, all-in-ones and dumb touchscreens don’t give you a proper console-sized surface to play with either. Probably the most important point is that the controller can ‘be’ anything — knobs, faders, pads, XY controls, you are not stuck to a hardwired configuration.

SmithsonMartin’s Emulator Elite is an awesome crystal-clear, projected capacitive, 10-point touchscreen that folds out into a beautiful sheet of glass. This is then rear-projected upon to create what looks like the ultimate futuristic DJ performance tool. At $15,500, the ‘Elite’ part of its name is apt. However, a rather more reasonable $99 buys you the screen’s core controller software for use with the desktop. CEO Alan Smithson is a DJ and fully admits that 90 percent of their focus is on the DJ market, but the capabilities of Emulator Pro extend far beyond controlling Traktor and offering performance tools.

Emulator Pro runs only in full-screen mode, but that doesn’t mean it has to obscure the DAW: a feature that’s particularly useful for single-screen setups is the ability to ‘cut holes’ out of its GUI, so that the software running beneath is visible through it. That may be useful to reveal meters, a preview screen, or the arrange page, for instance — the possible configurations are endless.

If Emulator Pro is found lacking anywhere, it’s in the depth of the MIDI side of things. Channel and controller numbers is as far as it goes, so it can’t send SysEx commands or emulate a Mackie HUI, for example. However, Shane Felton (of www.alien-touch.com) has been working on an implementation to get 24 channels of Mackie HUI Control into Pro Tools running on his Apple Mac. The result looks not unlike the Slate Raven MTi, and includes many of the same shortcut buttons and controls. He uses Bome’s MIDI Translator to provide the HUI emulation and three virtual MIDI drivers (one for each group of eight faders) that are setup in Pro Tools. The template files are available to download from his web site, though he stresses that it’s a work in progress and would value contributions.

Back in the world of Usine Hollyhock, we find all sorts of depth, function and parameter possibilities. It has its own ‘add-on’ community, where you can find all sorts of control scripts and patches. Whether it’s SysEx, OSC or even Mackie Control emulation, you’ll find that someone has created a patch for it. Usine Hollyhock has the potential to be an extremely versatile controller. It doesn’t quit

interactive lcd touch screen monitor for music keyboard factory

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