[Ardour-Users] Gear recommendations for Ardour

[Roberto Suarez Soto]

Hi,

	sorry if this is more a hardware question than an Ardour one. But as
you'll see, it's related. Not completely, but quite :-)

	I use Ardour with ZynAddSubFX. Using the computer keyboard to emulate
a "real" (i.e., piano-like) keyboard gets complex quickly, and I wondered
what devices are people using here. I don't play the piano, but I'd like to
play some chords and simple melodies. I have never used any MIDI-related
devices in Linux, and I don't know how easy or difficult is to get them going.

	I had my eyes on several Behringer options:

	- U-Control UMA 25S
(http://www.thomann.de/es/behringer_ucontrol_uma_25s.htm)
	- U-Control UMX 25
(http://www.thomann.de/es/behringer_ucontrol_umx_25.htm)
	- U-Control UMX 61
(http://www.thomann.de/es/behringer_ucontrol_umx_61.htm)

	I'm looking for something cheap, in case I get tired of it and throw
it into the closet forever. I don't know what are the differences between the
25S and the 25 (besides color and design), so I'd probably go for the 25S.
But I'm afraid both of them are quite small, and I'm considering also the UMX
61. It looks more like a real keyboard, and is not much more expensive.

	What are your recommendations on this? Any other options? Are they
plug & play, or do they require some tweaking?

	Besides, what are people using for "general" software synth
emulation? I'd like something that can pass for a piano and has strings and
the like to wrap my guitar playing. ZynAddSubFX is good (to my unexperienced
ear), but maybe there are other options that I hadn't considered. Obviously,
must play nice with Ardour and Jack.

	Sorry for the length, and thanks in advance.

-- 
    Roberto Suarez Soto                             You come blazing
                                  Waving your arms and your attitude