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Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: KickThatBathProf on 10 Mar 2008, 23:33
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Hey, since there's so many threads about start up guitar playing, I'm gonna branch out to something completely different: buying a keyboard.
I've been playing the piano for years upon years and I've been thinking about buying a keyboard as of late. I'd like it to be relatively cheap, but, you know, not shitty. It would definitely need to have weighted keys, and I'd like it to hook up readily with my compy so I can use it with the music writing software on it. Do you guys have any recommendations of what brand/model to get?
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buy an 808
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808 what? </confused>
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My roommate has an MO8. It blow my mind regularly.
I don't have a helpful suggestion.
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Buy a Roland TR-808
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Wait, were we talking about keyboards or severely outdated drum machines i forget
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Asking for weighted keys means start looking on craigslist and yardsales. Generally, that's gonna be big bucks.
Of course, I did find a Roland DP-7 (or was it DP-9?) 88-key weighted that also works as a midi controller for $93 last month.
Obv the keyboard player in my band has it atm
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At the risk of straying from the topic - indeed, this is an organ not a keyboard - I am the owner of the greatest impulse buy in history, in the shape of my shitty old Yammy organ.
Me and a mate of mine were wandering around a music shop pretending we wanted to buy something (As anyone here who is a musician will do time to time. Don't try and deny it.) when I found this organ, for £99, marked down from £799. I had no money to deposit so I had to get in before 12 the next day to buy it.
It has served me well and now holds pride of place in my room beneath my Hail To The Thief poster.
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Thanks for all the help guys. I mainly wanted a keyboard so I could flesh out some things arranging-and-composing-wise so it would be essential to have a keyboard that would include a MIDI controller. It would also need to suitable for any gigs that might come up (being a jazz pianist and all). I've had to turn down too many gigs because I couldn't supply my own equipment.
Oh that reminds me. What kind of amp is optimal for keyboards? I'm kind of stupid in terms of anything with electronics, so I'd like to know some background info so I don't get swindled somehow when I purchase one
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Does it need to be a keyboard? I'm completely in love with my Yamaha electric piano with weighted keys... wait while I go and find out what model it is.
It's a P-80. It isn't top-of-the-range but it's very piano-ish and sounds great. Maybe too heavy for gigging though. Actually, on reflection it wouldn't be very suitable for your needs but I'm going to post this anyway because it's a nice piano.
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Thanks for all the help guys. I mainly wanted a keyboard so I could flesh out some things arranging-and-composing-wise so it would be essential to have a keyboard that would include a MIDI controller. It would also need to suitable for any gigs that might come up (being a jazz pianist and all). I've had to turn down too many gigs because I couldn't supply my own equipment.
Oh that reminds me. What kind of amp is optimal for keyboards? I'm kind of stupid in terms of anything with electronics, so I'd like to know some background info so I don't get swindled somehow when I purchase one
Usually a keyboard amp is good for keyboards. ;)
That or a bass amp; guitar amps can't really do the lows for a keyboard very well. Also, the keyboard amp usually has little/no preamp stage because a powered keyboard usually sends out a fine signal for power amplification.
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Well I'd say if you have a laptop get just a midi controler and ableton live. I'm a pretty big fan of my M-audio axiom 25, but it only has 2 octaves, so that wouldn't really serve your needs as a real pianist, but they do make full keyboard versions, other than that I don't really know much about keyboards. I also have no real idea what weighted keys are. So maybe I should have just kept my digital mouth shut.
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I bought an awesome Casiotone (http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/casio_mt140.cfm) for ten dollars a couple of years back. It actually figures in what is probably our most popular song.
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I have a Casiotone too! It is a Casio VL-1 from the 70s or something. It cannot handle chords and also functions as a calculator.
I don't know why!
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I want a keyboard that functions as a calculator! No fair!
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(http://jimburgessdesign.com/comics/images/news_pics/keytar.jpg)
FUCK YEAH KEYTAR.
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Is that the cotton eye joe guy or the darkness guy? I can't really tell.
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Oasys.
(http://www.vanginkel-muziek.nl/jpg/keyboards/korg/Korg_oasys.jpeg)
This is not in your (or my) price range. But it's more or less the Holy Grail of keyboards.
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I know Amanda Palmer breaks Korg keyboards.
Therefore, if you play like her, I wouldn't buy them.
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Oasys.
(http://www.vanginkel-muziek.nl/jpg/keyboards/korg/Korg_oasys.jpeg)
This is not in your (or my) price range. But it's more or less the Holy Grail of keyboards.
Pffft, who goes digital? :p
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Get on eBay and find a Roland Fantom-S for cheap. They're really fantastic all-around boards. I used one for my MegaMan cover band, This Arm Is Gun, and it is used in our current Tech-Metal-whatever-the-fuck-you-can-call-it band. The sounds it comes with are absolutely astonishing, but if you want even BETTER sounds you can install up to four internal expansion boards. I bought the symphonic Suite expansion board, and it's still the best investment I've ever made.
(http://www.planet-groove.com/roland/images/fantom-s.jpg)
They now have the Fantom-X series with a lifted color screen, and, I don't know, twelve or so new sounds. Not worth the extra $1000, though. Just get the S.
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if you are blessed with money, hit up a Clavia. I think they have some sort of performance series that has the whole Rhodes-Clavinet-Piano thing going on, which seems ideal for jazz. And on the subject of organs, they have those too. I crave a synthesizer, but I feel that it would just sit in my room next to my slightly dusty Yamaha keyboard (whose model number I can't remember).
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Synthesizers are way to expensive with software synths you get a lot more for your money.
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Synthesizers are way to expensive with software synths you get a lot more for your money.
Actually, many good vintage analog synths run pretty cheap. I picked up my Korg Polysix for less than three bills