Question on Midi controllers and synthesizers

Poststructural Pub
1

I have been investigating a particular nearing-release midi instrument (not a whistle, unfortunately) and received this information from the maker today:

MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) instruments do not produce any sound themselves. The generate a digital code, which can be translated into sound by a computer, keyboard, synthesizer, sampler, etc.. Our system is wireless, meaning the instrument is not connected to the receiver (the part that is connected to the computer, etc..) by means of a cord. You can always connect headphones to the sound source (computer, synth etc..)

I suspect that my laptop computer will not be able to handle midi input very well. I would really like to keep this instrument portable and not tied down to huge piles of equipment. Does anyone know of a portable, reasonably affordable ‘sound source’ for MIDI devices? Ideally it would run on battery and have a headphone jack. Does such a thing exist?

2

Is it a concertina?

Anyway, when I was in the market for a MIDI controller (changed my mind when another opportunity came along,) I was planning on buying this portable synth module to go with it:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/fg=41/g=key/s=synths/search/detail/base_pid/701399/

That might be too high, price-wise. For purposes of practice, anything what makes sound and has a MIDI in jack might be good enough. You could probably score a cheap electronic keyboard with a MIDI in jack.

Your laptop might be able to handle it too; people sell little boxes that connect to a laptop by USB, and provide MIDI input jacks. I have one right now, a 4-jack box that plugs right into my computer but I don’t think my current laptop supports it (wrong OS).

Caj