Hi
Didn’t know where to put this question, so decided to post it here 
Just wanted to know how many of you were using MIDI when making there tracks?
I am thinking about investing or trying to find a MIDI-keyboard + converter, so just wanted to know a little about it.
What a the biggest advantages and are there any drawbacks, and why do YOU use it if you do?
Regards Gotthelf
Advantages:
You don’t need Renoise to be in focus to be able to strike notes
The wider your master keyboard is, the more note ranges you can have without having to consequently changing the octaves
drawbacks:
The PC piano keyboard mappings aren’t overridable with more practical shortcuts that you could desire.
I have a 49 keys midi keyboard and it served me for over 5 years by now.
I would not recommend USB Midi-keyboard though, but a soundcard that has a fixed midi port.
You save yourself the hassle from keyboard detection problems and restarting your hosts in order to be able to use your keyboard e.g.
Are you then using the MIDI for everything? even dumlines etc. or are you automating that?
Would a synthesizer then be just as good?
And when you talk about the soundcard is ít then wireless?
Thx for the answer 
A wireless soundcard? no i don’t do wireless stuff on that area, that has to be all fixed as in PCI-x or PCI-e cards (Low latency gear).
Yes i also use midi for drumlines (I sometimes abuse the arpeggiator tool for that), no problem.
That’s a minor difference in behavior. Not a real drawback.
once you selected your USB midi device in Renoise it will always find your keyboard when plugged in.
USB even has the advantage to deliver the power also with most keyboards.
this way you only need one wire to connect it.
I used to have an old type of MIDI port on my previous soundcard (game port actually that also supported transporting midi communication) which delivered the voltage i needed for my keyboard.
I wouldn’t need the extra power in that case either, but nowadays no soundcard is geared with these kind of game-ports.
I see - think I understand it now
Which pricerange are we talking? Don’t want to spend a lot, but i’ve seen some used ones for sale at a low range
That depends. I got most of my gear from thomann.de, which seems to be fairly affordable if you live in Europe.
When it comes to midi keyboards you have various price ranges. If you want one with extra functionality and internal instruments, you can shell out quite a bit. A midi keyboard that only sends signals is quite cheaper. Most important stuff is touch sensitive and aftertouch, perhaps it could have some extra controllers so you can also map some controllers to other functions in Renoise and perhaps adding a sustain pedal to the config. Mine isn’t that luxury though.
What do you consider your budget?
Was thinking quite a low budget for a start - but it appears that my girlfriends dad has a keyboard which might be MIDI-capable, so think Im going to start there