Newbie...

Hi,

I've been a musician for much of my life and have recently become interested in moving into keys / synth. Basically, i don't have a clue what's floating around gear-wise and could use a hand trying to figure out what's appropriate for me.

I want to do solo stuff, so i won't be with a band. I am particularly interested in ambient electronica, but perhaps also something on the more euphoric side. A bit of a contrast, i know, but i'd like to do both.

I had a look around at what sorts of stuff i could use, and i like the look of the korg emx-1. I have a midi keyboard that i planned to use to create melodies etc to store onto the korg, using the korg for its sound bank and drum machine; and also obviously to store songs.

Is this unit appropriate for what i want to do? And is there anything else that might perhaps be more appropriate? Am i completely on the wrong track? I'm a complete newbie when it comes to synth gear, so i don't know what's what.

Thanks in advance for you help,

Martin.

Welcome to the GAShood

Solo producer of ambient bordering on eurphoric trance? - thats hard core GAS waiting to happen

get that gal/guy some rolaids...

Sorry what are rolaids?

And does anyone have any suggestions for types of gear / specific pieces of gear that might suit me?

If you are starting out completely from scratch and want to keep it cheap to start with, then I would suggest NOT start with hardware unless you particularly like the idea of a groove box.

Personally, I dont know anything about the emx-1, and havnt used any of the other groove boxes type devices either for a long time - the only only one I would probably consider as having the potential to do decent (rather than minimalist) tracks on would probably be one of the high end roland ones as I beleive they are bascially a Fantom in groove box format - so have a useful polyphony.

Personally I think *by far* the best starting point for the kind of you music you want to produce would be Propellerhead's Reason v3 software. That + a good low latency audio interface. The low latency bit is important to minimise the delay between playing a key on your midi keyboard and hearing the sound from the software synths running on the computer.

For enjoyment vs production quality on an entirely soft synth based setup - I would go for reliable low latency over high quality audio because you you then play it like a normal hardware synth which would make a hell of a difference to creativity, vs a high quality audio side that is only going to make a maginal difference to what you hear, and has no part in an entirely software based production (as the mix only goes to the card so you can hear it).

As for the software - *assuming* you have a reasonably capable computer, then you end up with loads more flexibility on the sound and fx side, potentially huge polyphony to work with, and/or able to use loads of fx, and an easy to use interface for recording/programming notes, controller data, rhythym patterns etc.

I think there are alot of people here who have had reason at some time, probably got going on it as a way back into production and later moved on. I was still using it until very recently when the one thing I was still using it for (programmed drums) got taken care of by a hardware purchase.

hahahaha,

Rolaids are a chewable medication that people eat for heartburn and gas in the states. I guess that joke didn't go over well with an international crowd. I just assumed that Rolaids were everywhere.

forget reason. check out all the free VST hosts first if you want to use a computer. 'cause thats more with the free-ness.

my bid is for hardware though, or at LEAST some serious midi knobbage.

also on the software side of things.... check out plogue bidule, pure data (FREE!!), max/msp, and any other modular thing you can find.

Hi thanks for the responses. I was particularly interested in the korg device because i wanted something that has actual knobs i can tweak, i hate doing stuff like that on a computer. Are there any hardware alternatives to the korg emx-1?

Even out of context, these two words make perfect sense for this forum!!!

Softsynth suggestions are good ones, and you should strongly consider getting one to use with your MIDI controller. I'm not sure how far you'll venture into keyboards and synthesis, and this would be a good, inexpensive way to find what you like and what you don't. Use common sense when downloading free stuff. Not all viruses are cool synths.

If you're hankering for hardware, I'd seriously consider the Korg N264. My church has one, and I've found lots of great pads on it. Since it's a music workstation (albeit an older one), you can create and store MIDI files on floppies (3.5). Look for one on ebay.

M-Audio makes a controller with some serious knobage. For ambient stuff you wouldn't really need semi-weighted or fully-weighted keys, but if you want to get into pianos & such, then you'll want to upgrade then.

Best wishes & welcome to this world.