Need advice...

[Bruno Falardeau]

Hello all of you musicians,

It's been a while since I've come around here. I've been busy a lot with many projects (and parties, but that's another story). One of my latest ideas, however is one which requires your help.

It's been years since I've left my parents house, and consequently, the piano that sits in my parents living room. And now every time I do visit the folks, I end up being so much happier seeing the piano then them.

And now, I've just moved in with a new roommate, who happens to be a musician by night (and a physician by day). Being around him, I've been tossing a few musical ideas in the air. Playing the tam-tam to back up his guitar and composing lyrics with him. The music bug has bitten me, but I've only played the piano all my life. And it's not as if I could drag a piano over here.

So I'm targetting the next best thing, a midi-synth. Now having only used and been around analogue instruments all my life I find myself completely clueless as to where to start to make this purchase. I just know that if I were to step into a music store and ask for a synth, I'd either pay little and end up with something cheap, or pay too much for something I don't need.

I was wondering which brands I should be looking for, and what qualities I should be looking for in a keyboard. I've already acquired Cubase and have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz on my computer,... I'd eventually like to be able to sequence live recordings from my synth to make my own tunes (and maybe C64 remixes, who knows). But I don't know where to start.

Remember that as a busy student, I'm on what some of you would call a limited budget... Any advice?

Thanks,

Bruno

[Chris Abbott]

Some of the older Korg workstations are very affordable now:
The N1/N5/X1/X5 things... they're pretty good workhorses with a pretty
good sound. For cheap price you'll have to put up with a cheap keyboard
though.

Other good keyboards which have been discontinued and superceded
include the Yamaha EX7/EX5 and the Korg Trinity, though Korg always
commands a price premium. As long as you buy something
from either Yamaha, Korg or Roland you would probably be OK,
though there were a couple of other good workhorses which were good
but never took off, and so are probably even cheaper. Buying second-hand probably isn't a problem because keyboards are pretty reliable.
Just find a gearhead who just upgraded

All of these are general purpose keyboards.

Of course the other option is to do it all through soft synths...

Chris

[Bruno Falardeau]

Thanks for your advice

I'm sure there could be plenty of gearheads who just upgraded in the online vicinity. However, I'm not certain a lot of you would ship gear from Canada to Europe

I may have made it seem as if I was too poor in my original request. It's not as if I can only afford to scrape a synth off the sidewalk, it's just that I probably can't afford the top of the market stuff.

Bruno

[ferris]

The cheapest setup is a computer with a Sound Blaster card and a dummy keyboard. The soundfonts you can buy/get off the net these days are pretty good.