Making Music And Keyboards

Royality

Royality

Royality

Soldato
Joined
7 Dec 2003
Posts
3,528
Location
Normandy
Right so I have decided that I want to start making some music of my own (on my own) and also learn the keyboard. :)

The only advice here is mostly guitars so I am going to ask a couple of things:

What is the best beginners keyboard, do any have 'heavy' keys like a piano (just wondering)?

Are there any websites that are kind of like 'Which?' but for musical instruments and are fre to browse?

Are there any good communities about making music of keybaording on t'internet?

I play the drums to a respectable level, what is the best kind of way to record these sounds?

What is the best producing software available (for a beginner)?

Also, what is another good instrument to learn aswell as keyboard? I am foregoing guitar at the moment so thats not an option I want to take. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the help, that's a lot of questions - maybe I'll attempt a sticky once I get into it a bit more. :)
 
cubase is a good program for recording and it is easy to use.

The musicianforums is a very large community for lots of different instruments including keyboard

I dunno much about keyboards but if I was to get a keyboard, getting one with a large range (7 or 8 octaves) would be what I would want
 
Your price range would be a good starter before recommendations are made.
You obviously want to get into home recording so some excellent recording software like Cakewalk Sonar (which I use) or Cubase would be recommended.
You would also need a good soundcard like one of the M-Audio range.
You would then need a MIDI controller keyboard which come in all sizes, touch response or weighted keys but again price is a factor.
If you want to play the keyboard without the PC then you need one that has its own sounds, speakers and is also a MIDI controller.
With Sonar and Cubase a range of VST or DXi software synths come with them so you can emulate keyboard sounds. There is also a variety of drum sounds on plugins too.
If you are thinking of recording your own drums then a mixer will be useful but most people program into the sequencer software and some excellent results can be made.
 
Sorry new I forgot something! I'm thinking £200 for the keyboard if possible for what I want stretching to £400 if it's ideal to. I definetely want an 88 key, weighted keyboard with a stand but I understand if those might be too expensive.

The rest of the tools I'll have to save up month by month, I get around £350 disposable income a month atm so that'll have to do. :(
 
Sequencing programs like Sonar are pretty expensive, but there's some free software that's definately not bad (for free software).

Audacity is a pretty good program which I use, but I'm sure if you could get Cubase/Sonar it'd be much better :o Andelusion pointed me towards a good site called www.guitarampkeyboard.com which is where I bought a microphone, pre-amp and M-Audio soundcard. Getting a good soundcard is a must, I got the M-Audio 2496 which seems to be pretty good and isn't too expensive.
 
Wow, thanks dude! :D Pretty cheap aswell! Now all I need is a mic I think, I'll be buying on Monday I think when I get payyyed. :D
 
If you are adamant about recording real drums then the ball park has got to change.
You will need some type of mixer like this -
http://www.zzounds.com/item--ROLSI24 and you will need proper drum microphones such as the AKG D12 for the bass drum and several Shure SM57's for mic'ing up the other drums/cymbals.
You might get away with a M-Audio 10/10 soundcard where you could plug mic's into each input and send them to a different channel on the software.
Even better would be a Digital Drumkit but I'm not sure which model would be able to send out the different drums/cymbals to a different track on the software.

I find Cakewalk products very easy to use far above the Cubase programs.
However, I grew up with Cakewalk from v1 so I'm biased and Cubase users will tell you how easy that is.
It is exactly as you say - easy to command but hard to master but this very forums is testament to how people get better with practise on their recording software.
 
dmpoole said:
It is exactly as you say - easy to command but hard to master but this very forums is testament to how people get better with practise on their recording software.
Click to expand...

I agree, I think this is true of any recording software as you say. Even with free software like Audacity and Hammerhead I've improved a lot through practicing and experimenting.. Funny to think I kept things mono before!
 
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