4 Best Keytars with MIDI Support – Rock in Style!

Besides its performing qualities, this keytar can also be a great studio tool. I love keytars for their expression and modulation capabilities.

The modulation wheel, which you control with your left hand like the frets of an electric guitar, allows you to phrase things as if you were playing a guitar. Coupled with the modulation handle is a touch strip ribbon to control various CC commands and expression tools such as filter cutoffs, portamento glides, and many other features.

One of my favorite uses of the keytar is creating unusual sounds by bending and modulating sound sources in unconventional ways. For example, I can bend and apply weird modulation tricks to thick dubstep-style leads.

These thick, oscillator-based wobble bass leads that dubstep uses are incredible to perform live with the keytar. They have a natural distortion due to their rich harmonic content, and when you bend these sounds and control the detuning through the touch strip, you get an impossibly thick, pseudo-guitar sound unlike anything you've ever heard.

I use this technique for film scores too. By cutting off the filter frequency and darkening the sound, you can create those Trent Reznor-style bendy, ethnic dulcimer sounds he used throughout The Social Network soundtrack — you know, the ones that sound like a strummed ethnic instrument processed through filters, distortion, and effects.

Since you can connect several modules and plugins to play simultaneously in layers, I love combining a voice sample — whether it's choir-style vocals or a Mellotron-style grainy, detuned voice — with some thick pad sound, then darkening everything by lowering the filter frequency. These combinations create incredible sounds for horror film scores.

You can create eerie, gliding melodies by adding portamento to the touch strip on the keytar. I've even used these types of sounds on indie albums—in the background they sound almost like pedal steel or Ebow guitar.

Think Daniel Lanois, who's most famous for being U2's producer and creating many of the ambient guitar sounds that are very mainstream right now.

I use it to trigger guitar samples from Native Instruments Kontakt and the East-West Play Series, when aiming for a more realistic performance. These libraries contain incredibly detailed multi-sampled guitar sounds that you can play as if you were using a real guitar.

Through key switching commands and the touch strip, you can make the library respond differently to your playing style. For sustained chords, you can trigger strummed samples for realism. When playing faster, short notes like a shredding guitarist, it automatically switches to a fingered staccato sound.

These realistic sounds can be processed and layered with otherworldly synth sounds to create unique guitar tones. You can even produce sounds that would be impossible to create on a real guitar.

I also connect via Bluetooth and an editor app to further enhance the wireless capabilities. This gets very cool if you perform with a laptop setup and a DAW with custom presets from your album.

I’ve also used it with Ableton Live to great effect. Sometimes in Ableton, I play basslines with the guitar using a Moog sub bass layered with a brighter, punchier bass for definition. Then I create loops of these basslines and add them to my clip library.

The keytar is amazing for bass playing because if you have experience playing bass, you know there's a lot you can achieve with the neck. The modulation and touch strip allow for expressive playing that would feel unnatural on a regular keyboard.

It also forces you to play with one hand. I often see keyboard players overcomplicate basslines by playing octaves with two hands instead of one. This results in what we call "keyboard bass," which sounds unnatural since you're playing patterns a real bassist would play with just one hand.

You might ask, "Why does it have to sound real? Why can't it just sound synthetic?" It absolutely can sound synthetic on a normal keyboard, but it becomes even more musical when played on the keytar.

Another surprising instrument not usually associated with keytars is tuned percussion — sounds that are percussive but also have pitch or tone, like log drums, hang drums, talking drums, and even kalimba.

Take Toto's "Africa," which was a huge hit. What made that song stand out on the radio was its use of pitched African percussion like kalimbas, log drums, and marimbas. Today, many artists use these sounds in a plucky way for electro-pop music and reggaeton.

These instruments have strong Caribbean and Latin influences, which, when mixed with hip-hop — as artists like Bad Bunny, Rosalía, and Raye do — is incredibly popular. Even Dua Lipa's music incorporates these elements.

While most people program these sounds in their DAW, try playing these plucky ethnic instruments on the keytar instead of a regular keyboard. Use the bend modulation and touch strip to create that ethnic detuned sound you'd get from bending a drum's skin or plucking a dulcimer.

These sounds aren't just for film scoring — they're amazing for pop and dance music too. You don't even need specific libraries; the included Roland sounds are fantastic, with over 500 internal presets.

The keytar also has a vocoder — you can plug in a microphone to create robotic voices that layer with other sounds. If you're unfamiliar with vocoders, think of Daft Punk's hit with Pharrell, "Get Lucky." Pharrell sings the main vocals normally, then Daft Punk comes in with the vocoder toward the end.

Using a vocoder live creates an amazing spectacle. People usually hear these effects on records without knowing how they're created, often assuming it's an effect box or pedal. When they see someone singing through a vocoder while playing melodies on the keytar, it's a whole new level of experience that people love.

It's so popular live that in my electro-pop band, I do harmonies behind the lead singer using my keytar and vocoder. While he sings lead, I back up every syllable with vocoder chords.

Not only does it sound incredible, but it also reduces our reliance on backing tracks. Artists often need to trigger samples or use click tracks to incorporate studio layers, which forces their stems to play in strict time.

This approach limits your live show's dynamics by locking you to a time grid. Before getting the keytar, I struggled with triggering sounds from a keyboard, requiring an extra stand and keyboard just for vocals. The keytar changed everything.

Just for the vocoder alone, the Roland AX-Edge is worth it.

But here's the cool part: the Vortex adds backlit MPC-style RGB pads, which are super innovative and show that they want this guitar to be more versatile in the hip-hop and electronic worlds, as well as live pop acts.

What's really great about having pads on a keytar is that you're able to launch samples in a really cool way, which can definitely ramp up your performance. Because of the direction the keytar faces the audience, it's pretty tough for synth players to play drum-style patterns on these.

I've been using it successfully for live drum beats on the pads, especially when I need slower, longer 808-type sounds — like those long, decayed sub bass drums you hear in hip-hop. I also love the effects on release, using some cool non-linear reverb tails on snares and rims.

I typically avoid busy hi-hat patterns since they can be tricky, but I love triggering trap-style 16th note or 32nd note hi-hat stutters from one pad. I'll add individual one-shots to some pads and loops to others — the combination works really well.

I also love how retro Tron-like the color and lighting are on this instrument. If Roland is Lady Gaga's style, this one would be Daft Punk’s. Not only does it look like a cool vintage keyboard from the '70s or '80s, but it also comes packaged with some of the best modern and retro sounds — especially the TimeWarp 2600, which is an incredible emulation of the ARP 2600.

The ARP 2600 was a competitor to the Minimoog, featuring a brighter, more chirpy sound that was perfect for sequences and modular-style arpeggios. It gained widespread adoption among synth players and was even featured on Michael Jackson's "Thriller" — many of the bass sounds in the title track came from the 2600, though most people assume they're from the Minimoog.

The bundle also includes sounds from Hybrid Three, Loom 2, and Expand 2, all excellent synth packs that complement the retro aesthetic with modern, punchy sounds.

Even though the price is much cheaper than the Roland, they didn't skimp on features.

It also has a touch strip and modulation wheel with a very intuitive pitch band positioning as well, which I thought was pretty clever. Another cool feature I use a lot are its sliders to control CC commands, volumes and even ride stem arrangements in Ableton.

The volume slider on the neck is one of this keyboard's best features. Many of my favorite guitar sounds — like those on King Crimson and Pink Floyd albums — use volume pedals for sweeping effects. It's amazing how synthetic acoustic sounds become when you remove their attack. Hit a note, slide up the volume after the initial punch, and you'll get an almost pad-like reverse sound, especially with reverb.

I love using this keyboard like a reverse guitar or Ebow to create ambient soundscapes, both live and in the studio. While drawing automation lines to fade up after the attack works, performing it live feels entirely different.

A studio controller with sliders just isn't the same as having a guitar-style volume slider. When you're controlling volume while playing the instrument itself, you naturally think like a guitar player — something that's hard to replicate with a separate slider controller.

The magic truly emerges when you combine these volume slide techniques with pitch bend and run your sounds through high-end effects plugins or guitar pedals. That's when your soundscapes reach new heights.

These sliders transform the keyboard into a genuine sound design instrument. I particularly enjoy using them to boost samples at crucial moments during performances, which is especially effective when playing keytar.

As a keyboard player, audiences rarely see what you're doing on stage. I often open shows by playing a single note to trigger a long drone, then use the sliders to gradually layer in other ambient samples. Sometimes I'll perform 5–6 minute intros alone under the spotlight before the band joins me. This creates a powerful effect, particularly in electronic music.

Speaking of electronic music, this keyboard excels with synths thanks to its tight MIDI response — it has minimal latency and faster connectivity than most keyboards I've tried.

At my studio I have it wired so I can connect the Vortex to older synthesizers like Moog Voyagers, Roland Junos, and a lot of the amazing '80s digital synths like the Yamaha DX7. The Midi jacks are perfect to chain these synths together and layer them in cool ways.

I actually own this keytar precisely for that reason.

The one thing I'm not a huge fan of when it comes to the Vortex as a live performance instrument is that you rely on having most of your presets triggered from your computer instead of having a vast array of internal sounds like the Roland Edge.

It's a bit of a bummer that you can't route the sound directly from the guitar to a pedalboard or guitar amp. Playing internal sounds through guitar amps and distortion can be really cool, especially live, because it gives you that energy that guitar players feel all the time but keyboard players rarely experience.

However, if you have a dedicated interface for your keytar, you can easily route computer USB or MIDI sounds through it and process them in creative ways. I have an SSL 2+ specifically for this guitar when I play live, and it runs through a Strymon Deco, an Eventide Blackhole reverb, and a Line 6 M5 for amp simulations and distortion.

Korg has always been one of my favorite synthesizer brands, both for vintage and modern instruments. One of my first monophonic synths, when I couldn't afford a Minimoog, was the MS-20. This little black synth sounded so fat and punchy that it was hard to believe it came from such a small footprint.

I don't know if many of you are familiar with that particular keyboard, but it's probably half the size of a Moog. It has one of the best filters I've ever heard — incredible for basslines and lead sounds. Many of the preloaded sounds on this instrument use Korg's MMT (Multiple Modeling Technology) sound engine, so you can truly recreate everything from those MS-20 punchy lead and bass sounds to realistic guitar and strummed instrument sounds.

That's another thing Korg has always excelled at — having amazing internal sounds and presets. I use mostly their internal sounds when I use this synth. They're just that good. They also included the M1 sounds which have that cool '80s and '90s vibe, especially when processed through effects.

Korg is known to be Roland's direct rival, hands down, because of their incredible effects. I could even say that at times I preferred Korg effects to Roland effects. This keyboard has everything: compressor, filter, EQ, distortion, a wonderfully warm space-cycle type delay, chorus, flanger, vibrato, and even ring modulator — all included.

Even if these sounds weren't great, you could make them amazing just with the effects alone. But the fact that the included sounds are also fantastic makes this almost a no-brainer if you're going to be performing synth sounds on stage or in the studio.

Korg wisely added two touch strip ribbons. I use these simultaneously when I track, and they add a lot of power to perform incredible lead solos. One of these touch strips is actually dedicated for filter sweeps, whether for cutting off or opening up the filter.

This makes it a synth player's dream, especially in the studio, since using a knob or touch strip for manual filter control feels far better than drawing automation with a mouse in your DAW. Every player knows that opening and closing filters on synths is a performance element — you need to feel it.

While you can assign filter controls to other MIDI CC controllers and sliders from different manufacturers, it's unique on this Korg keytar. One of its effects is the MS-20 model filter I mentioned, which comes pre-routed to the dual secondary touch strip.

You won't need to worry about setting up different touch strip routings for different songs. One strip will always have the filter cutoff option available. While performing, you might realize mid-song that a filter sweep would create an amazing riser during the bridge. That's just one example — you can use it in any section for any type of sound.

Being able to route this to MIDI is also amazing since you can control almost any parameter on your soft synths. The 37 keys have a nice feel to them, as Korg keyboards are smoother and easier to play on. 

Unfortunately, this model doesn't include any drum pads, which would have been super fun.

However, they did include a fantastic vocoder, which, to my ears, is based on their vintage VC-10 vocoder that was a direct competitor of Roland's famous VC-340. This Vocoder sound is used by bands like Goldfrapp, Yes, and Pink Floyd. Now you can have it on stage with you.

You can save 200 onboard presets for performances, and the vocoder settings are ready to go for your live or studio performances.

I’ve already touched upon how high-quality I feel the effects are, but if I were to sum it up, I would say that Korg has a way of making effects that are very typical in recording studios sound like they were tailor-made for synth sounds.

That's an important difference because I own many effects that I specifically call "synth effects." For example, I own several boutique boxes by the French manufacturer OTO. They famously made the now-discontinued Biscuit, but then went on to make a trio of amazing processors based on vintage 80s units.

These boxes are the BAM, BIM, and BOUM. I feel like Korg aligns with this philosophy of making their effects more gritty and darker, much like vintage rack effects such as the Eventide H3000, AMS RMX16, and the older Lexicon 480L.

To producers and synth players, these types of effects are known as "synth rack effects," and they sound different from what you'd use for vocals or making drums more lush. While they can serve those purposes, they excel at creating more experimental sounds. I feel like Korg is the master at bringing these types of effects to their synths and guitars.

The onboard waveforms of the synthesizer itself are quite varied, featuring saw, pulse, triangle, and formant, which is a voice-like type of synthesis that plays well with the vocoder. 

This is a fully-fledged synthesizer — not just a controller or keytar workstation. Its unique capabilities make it worthy of being a secondary keytar in your setup.

This thing is built to be a one-person band. I can easily play full arrangements by myself.

Remember those quirky electronic home organs from the '60s and '70s with their built-in auto-rhythms? You might recall seeing one in your grandmother's living room. For the time period, these innovative instruments offered pretty much everything — from lively polkas to pulsating disco beats, driving rock rhythms to smooth bossa nova grooves.

With just a few simple controls, you could set your desired tempo and instantly have a full accompaniment at your fingertips. The genius of these organs lay in their pedal system, which allowed you to control the foundational bass notes with your feet while your hands were free to create rich, layered accompaniments on the keyboard. It was like having an entire ensemble contained within a single instrument.

I'm sure many of you remember these big, clunky organs that took up half the living room wall when you were growing up. And let's be honest — we always thought they sounded terrible and still do, but that's exactly what makes them so cool!

The Sonogenic Keytar represents a modern reimagining of those versatile auto-rhythm organs, brought into the digital age. I've discovered endless joy in experimenting with its various functions, creating playful and unexpected patterns, capturing these experiments, and mangling them through various processing techniques.

By pushing the boundaries of its intended use, I've found an entirely new dimension of creative possibilities that makes it perfect for producing lo-fi, indie-type rhythms and bass. Think of artists like Beck and Jon Brion, and you'll instantly understand where I'm going.

The Chord Tracker app is amazing — it has an extensive library of accompaniments (kind of like backing tracks) for thousands of popular songs. 

The jam mode is particularly powerful, allowing you to not only play along with these tracks but also manipulate and transform the backing arrangements in numerous creative and unexpected ways.

The instrument's internal sound bank is a delightful mix of tones that can range from intentionally retro to surprisingly sophisticated.

While some patches are genuinely impressive in their own right, what truly sets this keytar apart is its comprehensive control panel. Musicians can access and modify an array of effects parameters in real-time, while the inclusion of both pitch bend and modulation wheels opens up even more possibilities for expressive performance and sound design.

When working with the built-in rhythms and tracking them into your DAW, try experimenting with signal processing — run both your backing tracks and live performance through various effect combinations, including filters with different characteristics, various types of distortion, phase manipulation, and sample rate reduction effects. Make sure to capture all of these sonic experiments in your DAW for future use.

My personal creative process often involves extended improvisation sessions, typically lasting between 15 and 20 minutes, where I explore different rhythmic patterns and timbral combinations, recording everything directly from the keytar as I play. These recordings then become raw material that I can later edit and refine into concise, usable loops and sample material.

To further enhance these recordings, I employ an array of post-processing techniques, including ethereal space echo delays, characterful lo-fi processing tools, and immersive reverb effects such as the highly regarded Valhalla DSP Vintage Verb Plugin. Through this approach, I've managed to build an extensive library containing between 400 and 500 unique Ableton clips, each with its own distinct character and musical potential.

In many ways, I've come to think of this instrument as my contemporary equivalent of a Mellotron. For those unfamiliar with this iconic instrument, the Mellotron gained legendary status through its use by the Beatles and relied on an innovative system where pressing keys would trigger tape recordings.

The mechanical nature of the system meant that the tape would gradually deteriorate through repeated use, resulting in captivating sonic artifacts — unusual tones, quirky variations, and sometimes beautifully distorted sounds that became part of its signature character.

The Mellotron's distinctive sound was particularly evident when playing chords — take the famous flute sounds in "Strawberry Fields" as a perfect example. Because each tape mechanism operated independently and triggered at slightly different moments, the resulting chords had a natural detuning effect that created a rich, organic sound. This innovative design effectively made the Mellotron the world's pioneering sampling instrument.

With the right approach and mindset, this keytar can produce equally distinctive and unconventional sounds. Success lies in maintaining a patient, experimental attitude while thoroughly exploring all the available possibilities. The key is to maintain detailed documentation of your sonic experiments by recording everything into your DAW — you'll likely be surprised by the wealth of interesting and useful material you can generate for loops and samples.

In today's musical landscape, we find ourselves inundated with countless generic loop libraries — seemingly endless collections of lo-fi samples and Mellotron-style sounds. We need to find new ways to use our gear and make original sounds.

Throughout music production history, some of the most iconic and memorable sounds have emerged from creative experimentation — whether it's the revolutionary drum fill in Phil Collins's "In the Air Tonight" or the groundbreaking guitar tone in the Beatles' "Revolution."

These innovative sounds were born from artists who dared to use their equipment in ways that weren't originally intended. I encourage you to approach this keytar with the same spirit of adventure and experimentation, allowing it to become your own vehicle for sonic innovation.