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Need help choosing Keyboard/digital piano


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Hey ya'll... looking for some help. I am quite knowledgable about guitar and amps etc.... but I know SQUAT about keys/digital pianos.

 

I have a small recording set up in my house, and I would like to have a keyboard/piano for it. I record simple demo stuff for myself, and record demo stuff for others... not pro recording... just demo stuff.

 

Really, all I'm looking for is that I can run stereo direct outs from it to record from or plug into an amp.. I don't do any WAV or DAW or whatever... keep in mind.. really basic recording. I would also like to a footswitch for it that is like on a regular piano. I think the more keys the better.. but if 61 will do then thats cool too. Effects and synth stuff is cool, but I really would use this for mostly just piano sounds. I don't want it to sound like poo... but I realize that for my price range that it's not gonna be amazing sounding either. I know that with guitars/amps you can still get great sounding gear and not spend a fortune as long as you know what you are looking for, and I'm hoping that is the same with keys.

 

I did some searching around on musicians friend... and all I got was differences in number of keys (usually61-88) and features. It also looks like key size and "feel" of keys is also different. My budget for this is around 300-400 dollars (or less.. I don't really play keys but it would be nice to have a keyboard, but I'm not trying to break the bank on somethin I'm not using alot)

I dunno if what I'm looking for is a pipedream.. but again I'm not so knowledgable about these items.

 

Thanks for your help.

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first off, best advice anyone can give you is to go down to your local music store and try different boards out. Find what best fits your needs on your own.

 

My two cents: yamahas (particularly the p series) tend to be the best studio option. The have GREAT action and they record pretty well (though they tend to sound like crap in the live setting, IMO.) However, if you're looking for something in the $300-400 range, you may be out of luck. Casio makes a couple of decent digital pianos in a low price range but i'm not sure what those prices are, exactly. They do have OK action and pretty good tone, however, so it would probably meet your needs.

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For 400 dollar you might buy a XP60 that you later on can expand with some pluginboards. I don't know what style of music you play, but if you look for a keyboard/synth to play pop/rock/metal it's best to go for a rompler like xp30/xp60, or something from the JV series. You don't only want a decent pianosample, you might want strings as wel...

 

Other options when talking about synths are for instance a Korg M1 or N364, are pretty cheap, and still have good strings although the piano's are a bit weak, but you could fix using midi and a vst plugin.

 

You can also look at "home arranger keyboards" like the Yamaha PSR series, but I'm sure that when you take a secondhand synthesizer from a year or 5 ago you will have much more freedom to tweak your sounds.

 

If you had more money to spend I would say: buy a Triton LE or maybe a Triton Classic.

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