The MIDI controller and the keyboard: They look similar, feel similar, usually are of similar weights, and usually cost about equal. They appear, in short, to be the same.
But are they? Well, no, not really. Let’s start by describing the basics of each instrument.
MIDI Controller
A MIDI controller is an instrument that usually resembles a piano style electronic keyboard (though MIDI controllers are often smaller than keyboards) and transmits MIDI data into a computer.
Software within that computer then interprets the data that the user inputs as they hit the keys, and turns that data into music. Producers (he/she who hits the keys and formulates the mix) have a wide degree of control over what actually happens when they hit the keys, and can usually make changes to how the software reacts to different inputs (i.e., different patterns of key strikes from the MIDI controller).
The MIDI controller is the nexus of all electronic music, and is used by all producers, from the lowest of the low, to those at the highest heights of success. There is no way to make electronic music without a MIDI controller, a computer, the requisite software, and (often) an audio interface. It’s something that every artist needs.
The Keyboard
A keyboard is quite similar to a MIDI controller, and can have (1) everything, or (2) nothing in common with a MIDI controller.
The biggest similarity between a MIDI controller and a keyboard is completely superficial; that is, that they look similar to one another. There’s that similarity, and, well, the other main one is that each can be used by musicians and producers to make music (often very different kinds of music, albeit).
What a keyboard sometimes cannot do, and what a MIDI controller definitely can, is transmit MIDI data back to a computer to be interpreted by software, and then made into music.
A keyboard is also an instrument with audio output, while the MIDI controller has no audio output local to its physical body; that is to say, the keyboard can make audible music more or less on its own, while a MIDI controller cannot. This is the distinctive difference between MIDI controller and keyboard; MIDI controllers cannot make sound on their own, while keyboards can.
In a way, then, the difference between the two is pretty much cut and dry. A MIDI controller translates MIDI data to a computer to be interpreted by that computer as sound, and can make no sound of its own accord, while a keyboard has audio output, and does not transmit MIDI data at all.
Here’s the tricky part, though, and it’s the part that anyone purchasing a MIDI controller is going to want to know: MIDI controllers can never be keyboards, but keyboards can sometimes be MIDI controllers.
How? It’s actually pretty simple.
The Difference
A keyboard is already an electronic instrument – that is to say, it is not an analog instrument like the piano is – and, as such, it can be altered pretty easily to interact with other electronic equipment.
In fact, one of the popular features modern keyboards have is USB ports that users can configure to transmit MIDI data.
It’s that simple.
Your keyboard becomes a MIDI controller when it has a MIDI port, and when you, the user, configure it to input MIDI data into your computer.
A MIDI controller, on the other hand, is a MIDI controller specifically because it is not a keyboard and because it does not have audio output. A keyboard with a MIDI port, on the other hand, is both MIDI controller and keyboard. Two instruments in one.
So why would anyone have a MIDI controller, anyway? Isn’t it better to have two instruments in one?
Well, it’s true that having two more in less space is usually beneficial to the user, but some argue that MIDI keyboards (as opposed to MIDI controllers) are sometimes inferior tools for creating electronic music.
This, however, is primarily a matter of personal preference; some producers just prefer MIDI controllers, and abhor MIDI keyboards.
But is there any evidence that a MIDI keyboard is actually inferior to a MIDI controller?
Not really, no. Skrillex, for example, uses a MIDI keyboard (as far as we can tell).
In the end, limiting yourself by declaring MIDI keyboards inferior is an unnecessary step. If you’re a novice approaching the field for the first time, you’re going to want to go with a MIDI keyboard, not a MIDI controller, since you don’t really know what sort of music you’re going to be making yet; you might want to have a keyboard in addition to a MIDI controller (and you now know you can have both).