[X4U] Piano replacement via (wireless) Garageband. M-Audio Keystation 88es.

[B. Kuestner]

Thank you all for your valuable input.

I will definitely check out Reason if GarageBand is not up to the  
task. But we'll try GarageBand first. I hope GarageBand follows  
Apple's style of simplicity. Plus, I already have it, so it's free.

I am a little surprised, however, because I heard that the GarageBand  
pianos would be pretty good, plus there are supposedly good extra  
pianos for an affordable price. Like these:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/jampacks/jampack4.html
http://www.postpiano.com/products/prod_iteminfo.php? 
id=168&subCat=iPIANOS
I would expect that the stereo and room acoustics are a bigger  
problem than the quality of the piano. The sound would be coming from  
the speakers, and she cannot feel the vibrations of the instrument.  
(Does that make a difference for musicians? I am just guessing here.)

I showed pictures of the M-Audio Keystation 88es and 88 Pro to my  
wife. She didn't like the dozens of buttons on the Pro. On the other  
side she said, that she usually prefers pianos with a heavier feel to  
the keys, so that would be "full weight" in keyboard-talk. Hmpf. Can  
anybody recommend a lean and clean keyboard with full weight keys  
that is in the same price range? She really liked the idea that  
hooking the M-Audio is so simple: No power cord, no Midi-to-USB- 
converter. Just the USB cable. M-Audio seems like a good brand to  
look at, but they do not offer anything like it.

Eddie, thanks for clarifying the limits of Airport Express. I looked  
at Airfoil. It seems to add what I need. But then users on both  
VersionTracker and MacUpdate reported problems with the "delay" when  
streaming the audio part from DVDs. I would expect that this  
translates to latency when streaming GarageBand (or Reason), which of  
course is totally unacceptable. Eddie, can you report otherwise that  
there is no noticeable delay?

Jerry, could you recommend a good digital piano or a selection with  
different pros and cons in different price ranges? I opted for  
GarageBand initially because I expected more flexibility and quality  
from the synthesizer and because I expect that we need to connect  
with the stereo anyway. I just cannot imagine that the built-in  
speakers of anything are really worthwhile to produce sound that  
reasonably resembles a piano. No, I'm not a perfectionist, so by  
"reasonably" I really mean just that. For that reason I would rather  
save the weight and size and cost of built-in speakers, amplifiers  
and synthesizers. The latter might be the exception, if it allows to  
take the Mac out of the equation.

I explained to her, what would be the minimum cable fiddling to be  
expected. Well, she knows that it's that or nothing ... or a bigger  
appartment. (c: Because the appartment is a non-issue at the moment,  
then the first option definitely beats the second. And her smile  
clearly communicated her excitement about the end of musical abstinence.

Björn