if i want really good EP sounds, decent piano, and some pads in portable keyboard...

[arcadesonfire]

Hiya folks... I'm a guitarist who needs some help figuring this stuff out... maybe you're sick of clueless guitarists coming on here, so i apologize if it happens too often.

 

Anywho, my band wants to add keys, but we've always relied on our computers for keyboard sounds before. Now though, we'd like to have a portable keyboard with good sounds!

 

We're looking in the $300-500 range (for used equipment, we're perfectly happy with used stuff), and our top priority is good electric piano sounds, followed by grand piano sounds, and finally, perhaps some synthy pad sounds.

 

In my experience, i've always much preferred setting up my own synth sounds (using the analog moddeling plugins i've got) to any preset synth sounds, so do you think it might behoove us to get a digital piano for the above stuff and then carry around a little sound module connected to the digital piano via midi? Are there affordable sound modules that you can connect to your computer and edit just like you'd edit a plugin??

[ElectricPuppy]

There's that magical $500 budget again.

 

For electric and accoustic pianos and usable "synthy sounds", I'd aim at some flavor of Yamaha Motif. You might find an original "classic" Motif 6 for around that, or if you could beef up the budget a hair more, a new MM6 would do, too.

[Dejavoodoo]

There's that magical $500 budget again. ... if you could beef up the budget a hair more, a new MM6 would do, too.

 

Two :thu: way up.

Really good piano sounds for the buck.

[ElectricPuppy]

I want to know what's up with this $300-$500 range that all the guitarists seem to have? Maybe this is a common price range for guitars?

 

C'mon, you gee-tar players...! Open up those wallets a little! Double that limit to $1000 and your sonic choices increase ten-fold!

 

 

Silly gee-tar players. :poke:

[angstwulf]

I want to know what's up with this $300-$500 range that all the guitarists seem to have? Maybe this is a common price range for guitars? C'mon, you gee-tar players...! Open up those wallets a little! Double that limit to $1000 and your sonic choices increase ten-fold! Silly gee-tar players. :poke:

 

Rule of thumb used to be $500 will get you a guitar that anyone should be happy with, over that amount and you're getting progressively less improvement compared to cash spent. It's less now with all the Chinese and Korean guitars on the market.

 

I've never dropped more than $500 on a guitar and I've been more than happy. If I spent the money that I've dropped on synth stuff on a gee-tar, I'd be polishing a Paul Reed Smith or Les Paul Mid-Life Crisis Limited Edition.

[ElectricPuppy]

 

If I spent the money that I've dropped on synth stuff on a gee-tar, I'd be polishing a Paul Reed Smith or Les Paul Mid-Life Crisis Limited Edition.

 

 

Word. In my case, though, I'd be polishing a mighty nice car.

[arcadesonfire]

That budget comes from the fact that we're a 4-piece band, so if we spend a total of $300-500, we're each spending around $100. That's very little money for high sound quality, i know... however, i think a lot of us geetarists (and the cellist in the band) are in a camp where we'll spend lots of cash to prevent tone loss for our instrument, but when it comes to keys and synths, we don't get quite as passionate about the sound quality because we know that they're samples, that our fingers aren't literally touching the transverse wave that produces the sound. It's silly and illogical, but that's how the mind of a geetarist works.

 

Thanks for the help; i'll look into the Motifs.

[angstwulf]

No need to defend your reasons, it's just that cheap and functional for keyboards tends to get a little pricer than for guitars. You have to remember that to get those transverse waves out there, you have to run your fingers up and down a keyboard. Decent keybeds (and decent waves) cost money. Plus there's no way for us to know what is "good enough" for your purposes - I know some guys who are perfectly happy with that $120 Casio at Target.

 

My first rig was a used M-Audio Keystation and a Kurzweil Micropiano bought used for $160. I would have kept it except my other stuff made it redundant.

 

Try some of the new Casio Privias - they are in your price range brand new, have useable pianos and will control a module/computer via MIDI.

 

Used: E-mu's PK-6 can be found on the low end of your budge. It has some great organs, good EP's even if the stock pianos are so so. BUT: it's tweakable, probably enough to stand in for your soft synths on stage.

So are the Roland XP's.

[-groovatious-]

XP30 w/keyboards of 60s 70s card.

 

Yamaha S30 - crap action shouldn't matter as there's no skill in producing the tone with keyboards anyway

 

transverse waves

[Ed Wall]

Alesis QS 6.1 might be a good choice with your budget in mind

 

edwall.biz

[mrcpro]

I'll throw my hat into the used Yamaha Motif 6 camp. Foe you guys I'd keep it simple with just one keyboard. That's a good one, and well built physically too.

 

You may have to go a bit more than $500 but not much. Actually there was one listed locally on CL awhile back for $350. Didn't last long though. A couple of hours.

[Diametro]

Take a look at the Fusion 6HD if you want a good but more adventurous choice ...

 

... the Motif will be good if you just want decent sounds ... the Fusion will let you program and sample more, and probably for less money and getting a much newer piece of equipment ...

[arcadesonfire]

XP30 w/keyboards of 60s 70s card. Yamaha S30 - crap action shouldn't matter as there's no skill in producing the tone with keyboards anyway transverse waves

 

woah woah, i never never said there was no skill involved in keyboard playing. i even pointed out that my feelings were illogical, but still, what i was saying was that with guitar, i've actually got my fingers on the strings (and i realized i fudged up, i don't even touch the wave, the fret gets in the way of my left hand, and usually i'm using a pick... i suppose i touch that wave when i fingerpick)... so i feel more passionate about guitar tone and less passionate about digital keyboard tones. BUT, what the audience hears are all longitudinal waves anyway, right? so the keyboard tones matter just as much,

 

and just like with guitar, there are skilled key players and unskilled- and with keys, the ratio of skilled to unskilled is probably much higher than with guitar.

 

And you're right, those of us in the band who will play keys only took piano lessons as a secondary instrument, non of us are concert pianists, so, we probably won't notice good action versus poor action.

 

the keyboardist in my other band though swears by his yamaha (i think its a p80 or an s80 ??) for sound and action. but he's a real pianist.

 

 

Thanks again everyone for all the suggestions.

[theextremist04]

+1 on the Fusion. EPs are great, and anything else you want can be had after some tweaking. And when I say anything, I mean anything.

[eminor9]

Yes, Yamaha S80 if you can find one in that price range or else S30 but groovatious is spot on, the action is very poor. Still playing an S30 but using it as sound module midied to Roland keyboard. Especially in he EP sounds dept, the Yamaha smokes the Roland, even with the keyboard of the 60-70's expansison, which is already a drastic improvement over their standard ROM.