hi!!!

[Feel-IX]

Hi, my name is Felix and I live in Quebec, Canada.

I will soon buy a keyboard and registered on this forum to find some advices and answers to my questions . I have never played the piano nor the keyboard.

I messed around a bit with Fruity Loops on my computer with the computer keyboard..but it's kinda hard to play. I thought about buying a midi controller, however the VST plugins included with Fruity Loops or Reason sounds really bad in my opinion. So, instead of buying many VSTs that costs a lot $$$ to get a more "profesionnal" sound, I prefer to buy a nice workstation to mess with. I heard a lot of good things about the Korg Tritons and two of my favorite composers/keyboard players uses them..however 1500-2000$ is too much for me especially considering I don't know how to play the piano at all. So i'm looking for a cheaper alternative...that would still have a lot of different "sounds" and a good sound quality.

any ideas?

thank you guys and cya on the forum!

 

[Sargas]

Welcome to the forums, Feel-IX!

Since you haven't played either piano or keyboard before, I guess I should ask if you want weighted keys or not, since that might be hard to know if you're unexperienced .

I don't really think it's a good idea to buy something expensive (like the Triton, or similar keyboards) as your first one, since you would probably be confused by all it's functions, and you may end up not playing it at all, since you never really understood how it worked.

A good beginner keyboard would be the Yamaha DGX-220 (http://www.thomann.de/gb/yamaha_dgx220.htm) or similar. It has 489 sounds with rather good quality, considering it's price. Split and Dual functions and 16 free bank slots to save your setups. It even has a "lesson" function for the newbies (I've never used it, though, so I don't know how usefull it is ). And it's really worth its price.

Atleast it's something to look into a little bit

 

[Riotblade]

Hey there, since your new to both forum and the world of keyboards, you came to the right place. We will help as much as we can!

Enjoy your stay!

 

[Feel-IX]

thank you for the welcome guys !

Welcome to the forums, Feel-IX!

Since you haven't played either piano or keyboard before, I guess I should ask if you want weighted keys or not, since that might be hard to know if you're unexperienced .

I don't really think it's a good idea to buy something expensive (like the Triton, or similar keyboards) as your first one, since you would probably be confused by all it's functions, and you may end up not playing it at all, since you never really understood how it worked.

A good beginner keyboard would be the Yamaha DGX-220 (http://www.thomann.de/gb/yamaha_dgx220.htm) or similar. It has 489 sounds with rather good quality, considering it's price. Split and Dual functions and 16 free bank slots to save your setups. It even has a "lesson" function for the newbies (I've never used it, though, so I don't know how usefull it is ). And it's really worth its price.

Atleast it's something to look into a little bit

I already have some questions, I don't know if I should post them on this thread, but well since they are really really "noobs" questions I guess I will ahah .

so

#1. Weighted keys or not??? what does that mean?
#2. Split and dual fonctions? what are they?
#3. Why does some keyboard have really high quality sounds "banks" while other have sounds that sounds like game boy music...ok i'm exagerating..but still?

and how do you call them? you know the differents sounds on a keyboard....like "organ, strings, grand piano, etc." ?

thanks a lot

 

[Sargas]

#1 Weighted keys are a bit harder to press down, but are much easier to get a good feeling with dymanics and such. While lightweighted keys are easier to press down, but lack the feeling, and tends to be very plastic, which might make you slip when trying to play faster things.

#2 The Split function allows you to have one sound on the right part of the keyboard, and another sound on your left part of the keyboard. The name pretty much explains itself, it Splits the keyboard in 2 parts.

The Dual function allows you to have 2 sounds simultaneously on the same keys, so you can play with i.ex both Piano and Strings at the same time.

#3 That usually depends on the price, if all keyboards would have really high quality sounds, there wouldn't really be any good cheap keyboards for the beginners to start with. As a beginner, you probably don't want to buy the real expensive stuff... Then it's pretty good to know that there are cheaper keyboards out there as well.

and how do you call them? you know the differents sounds on a keyboard....like "organ, strings, grand piano, etc." ?

I don't really understand that question, could you try and clearify that one a little bit?

 

[Feel-IX]

#1 Weighted keys are a bit harder to press down, but are much easier to get a good feeling with dymanics and such. While lightweighted keys are easier to press down, but lack the feeling, and tends to be very plastic, which might make you slip when trying to play faster things.

#2 The Split function allows you to have one sound on the right part of the keyboard, and another sound on your left part of the keyboard. The name pretty much explains itself, it Splits the keyboard in 2 parts.

The Dual function allows you to have 2 sounds simultaneously on the same keys, so you can play with i.ex both Piano and Strings at the same time.

#3 That usually depends on the price, if all keyboards would have really high quality sounds, there wouldn't really be any good cheap keyboards for the beginners to start with. As a beginner, you probably don't want to buy the real expensive stuff... Then it's pretty good to know that there are cheaper keyboards out there as well.

I don't really understand that question, could you try and clearify that one a little bit?

thanks! a lot for the answers

what I meant is like you're saying "both piano and strings at the same time" how are those "things" called???

489 Instrument Voices including: 116 Standard, 361 XGlite, 5 "Sweet!", and 3 "Cool!" Voices

I found that on the yamaha dgx-220 page on yamaha website, is that how we call them, "instrument voices?" thanks!

 

[Sargas]

Aha... They're usually called either Voices, Sounds, or Sound Patches. Atleast that's the words I've heard for them, I don't know which one of them that is the most common, I think it's "Sounds", but I don't know. "Voices" sometimes refer to the sounds that sound like someone is singing, like "do do do" or "ooh ooh" and so on, so that can get a little confusing sometimes...

 

[mohanapriya]

hello

hai,

soon i will bought a keyboard.

so give any tips for me.

#####

priya

Suffering from an addiction. This website has a lot of great resources and treatment centers.

http://www.treatmentcenters.org

 

[Sargas]

hai,

soon i will bought a keyboard.

so give any tips for me.

http://www.treatmentcenters.org

If you could be a little more specific about what you want from your keyboard. Like, do you want many and decent sounds, or do you want few and really good sounds? Do you want weighted keys, or lighter ones? What keyboard do you currently have? And how much are you willing to spend?

Answering these questions will help us find a suiting keyboard for you

 

[Venkatesh]

How much is your budget ?

Hi Priya,
Welcome to the forum. Yes, you have to be very specific on the features you are looking for in the keyboard you want to buy. So that it will be easier for the forum members to through some light on it. Most important is your budget. How much you are going to spend on it and the max limit. It really helps members to give you proper suggestions on your thread.
Bye bye ... Venky.

 

[Riotblade]

hai,

soon i will bought a keyboard.

so give any tips for me.

#####

priya

Suffering from an addiction. This website has a lot of great resources and treatment centers.

http://www.treatmentcenters.org

#1 I dont I like your advertisements of that type of site.

#2 Please create your own topic, explaining who you are and some details about your and your keyboard life.

#3 Nice to meet you

#4 What tips are you looking for.

 

[jpscoey]

quote=Sargas;3419]#1 Weighted keys are a bit harder to press down, but are much easier to get a good feeling with dymanics and such. While lightweighted keys are easier to press down, but lack the feeling, and tends to be very plastic, which might make you slip when trying to play faster things.




Thought I might just poke my nose in here & perhaps clarify this slightly!

Whilst it is true that the keys the keys are 'harder to press down', the intention of manufacturers is to try and replicate the 'feeling' of an acoustic piano's keyboard.
An acoustic piano has wooden keys varying between about 15 to 20 inches in length which 'pivot' roughly at it's centre-point.
The weight of the piano 'action' along with the tension of the damper springs etc means that the keys have to be 'balanced' using lead weights.
It is this combination of weight and balance that gives the acoustic piano its unique feel which electronic keyboards attempt to emulate.
Synth-type keys, however, use a simple spring to return the key to it's starting position & the resulting feel of the key is much lighter.
I hope this helps.