Samson Carbon 49 iPad keyboard targets mobile musicians

iPad musicians looking for an easy way to get their ideas into their tablet for under a Benjamin might find some keys to their taste in Samson's Carbon 49 MIDI controller. As well as being a regular USB MIDI keyboard with 49 semi-weighted keys for use with your favorite PC or Mac music app, the Carbon 49 also has an integrated iPad stand and hooks up direct to the Apple tablet.

The keyboard hooks up via Apple's Camera Connection Kit and works with any app for the tablet with MIDI support. It has dedicated transpose and octave buttons, along with pitch bend and modulation wheels, and Samson has also thrown in a shift key for adjusting more than a dozen performance-related parameters.

Both USB and traditional MIDI-Out connections are available, along with a sustain-pedal input. Power can be supplied via the USB connection from your computer or, indeed, from your iPad, making for a surprisingly portable setup (assuming you have a bag capacious enough for a 49-key 'board).

Samson throws in a copy of Native Instruments' Komplete Elements software for PC and Mac, too. The Carbon 49 is available now, priced at $89.