Keyboard recommendations

Kreeeee

Kreeeee

Kreeeee

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What are the pro's/cons of getting a keyboard that connects to my PC?

I'm looking at spending around £100-150 and am just starting off the search so any recommendations and advice is most welcome.
 
Anyone know if that m-audio keyboard's likely to be much good with reason, with the controllers ?

I've not used Reason since 2 (or was it 2.5?).
 
Should be fine, I've never used one myself but I'm thinking of ditching my Roland JX-305 for one of these seeing as it's only ever used as a midi controller these days.

There may be a compatability list somewhere, it will certainly work for inputing notes and I would imagine that the knobs will be assignable within Reason, they are for the Roland.
 
I'm not too fussed about recording to a PC, but it would be a nice feature. I've been playing a bass guitar since easter and am looking to expand to a keyboard. I was definitely looking at 61 key keyboards with at least a few good instruments/effects.

My PC is:

E6600 @3.6GHz
2GB RAM
8600GT
Audigy 2 ZS
1.4TB HDD space
Logitech Z5500's (the weak part of my PC for music tbh)
 
Most of the big music apps auto detect controller keyboards and map all the nobs, I to would recommend going the midi controller and soft synth route.

If you can strech to £180 you could get a 61 key M-audio Axiom which looks really nice, thinking of getting one myself.
 
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Would my Z5500's cause an issue though?

any decent reviews for the M-audio Axiom 61
 
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You would be best to get some active nearfield monitors, but they cost quite a bit, and the cheap ones are pretty bad (<£125) so you would be looking at about £200 for a half decent set, but obviously are used for monitoring sound properly.

You would also be looking at a few £££ for software too. If you were just after keyboard sounds, then Steinberg's "The Grand II" is good which you get with Cubase 4 along with many other popular synths and samplers.

Either way, its gonna be expensive ;)
 
OzZie said:
You would be best to get some active nearfield monitors, but they cost quite a bit, and the cheap ones are pretty bad (<£125) so you would be looking at about £200 for a half decent set, but obviously are used for monitoring sound properly.

You would also be looking at a few £££ for software too. If you were just after keyboard sounds, then Steinberg's "The Grand II" is good which you get with Cubase 4 along with many other popular synths and samplers.

Either way, its gonna be expensive ;)
Click to expand...

defnitley, ive got a pair of krk rp5s and they sound so good, better than my old mission 773e floorstanders :)
 
So there you go, all in all it'll cost about £600....erm, what was the original question?:D

What soundcard do you have by the way? and depending on your recording style, type of music etc may I suggest some quality headphones for monitoring rather than speakers (simply to save cash), you can always listen to final mixes on a regular stereo.


Beyerdynamic DT100 would be my first choice for around £70-£80.
 
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m audio oxygen 49 - £80
pair of rp5's - £230
emo 0404 - £70
sennheiser hd25sp - £70

£450, bit cheaper than £600 :p although i am pimping my own kit :p
 
I'm only after a keyboard to learn to play it, not mixing my music etc, although being able to record what I play is a bonus :)
 
Smiley Man said:
m audio oxygen 49 - £80
pair of rp5's - £230
emo 0404 - £70
sennheiser hd25sp - £70

£450, bit cheaper than £600 :p although i am pimping my own kit :p
Click to expand...

All you need then is the software.

You did buy the software of course didn't you?:D

Kreeeee said:
I'm only after a keyboard to learn to play it, not mixing my music etc, although being able to record what I play is a bonus
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Sorry Kreeeee but we've spent much more than that for you, you don't get a say in the matter :D

http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/electronic-instruments-2/67923

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http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/behringer-umx-61/70535 or the M-Audio, bothe come with Ableton Live 4 (albeit a stripped down version.)

Your soundcard may also have a soundbank that you can use. I'm really not sure what the benefits of the more expensive midi controllers are at the end of the day it's only an interface, all I would be wary about is the fact that they all seem to be USB based, might be worth checking the bay for an older synth that has true midi ports.

If that's what you do may I highly recommend either a Yamaha CS1x or CS2x depending on how much you can find them for, the 1x will probably go for 100 or less and has some incredible sounds, it's old (I sold mine over 7 years ago) but it's a brilliant piece of kit. Midi implementation of the synth sounds was a bit limited but it had some amazing piano sounds :)

The synth sounds were great but I could only ever seem to midi one of them at a time, If you were to record it as Audio this wouldn't be a problem, the GM sounds could be layered perfectly well.
 
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What about stand alone keyboards for £150? I'm just beginning to learn the instrument so I'd appreciate if people didn't spec silly priced setups :)

My speakers are pretty crap for music reproduction so I think it might be worth looking at stand alone keyboards.
 
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I'd probably go for a Yamaha, something like a Yamaha PSRE403 would probably be in that price range.

Not a great deal to call between them though tbh :)
 
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