New - looking for purchase advise for keyboard

[Kerry O'Brien]

Advice, that is.

Hi there - After 10 years of being a litigation lawyer, I am seriously getting back into music. I am a guitarist by trade, learned some piano skills in college, enough to get by and want to supplement my songwriting with synth parts. I have a Yamaha Motif on loan from a friend, but in music school, I got to play with analog vintage synths - like the ones that really had patch cables. *sigh* It's like longing for momma's homemade apple butter.

I'm looking for a keyboard that has the following specs, in order of importance:

1) Full manual (pots or drawbars, not digital menu access) control of the sound envelope.
2) At least 100 user-programmable patches available
3) At least four-voice polyphony
4) Audio input/output so I can run a signal through the filters
5) At least 44 keys, semi-weighted fine but full or close to full sized (I have a Korg Vocoder which is tough to use because of the key size)

Above that is gravy. I don't have to have analog. I was looking at the DSI Morpho X2 for instance and was pretty interested because it is analog (mmmm gravy), but it has no audio input (boo).

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks a bunch in advance.

 

[happyrat1]

Take a look at the Casio XW-G1. For $599 it has most of what you're looking for and won't break your bank account doing it.

Plus! It has a sampler built in.

 

[Kerry O'Brien]

ooo I will definitely look into that. I would never thought there might be a Casio in my future. Thanks! Anyone else with a suggestion?

 

[happyrat1]

Threre's also the Waldorf Blofeld Module for $499. Just add a good MIDI controller for a few hundred bux and you are on the road to creating a full studio with a single controller and some VST Soft Synths.

 

[Kerry O'Brien]

Do you see any benefit to doing the Blofeld setup as you described, vs. getting the integrated keyboard/module?

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item...2G00SRCHCAPN&gclid=CNWMquav47UCFQP0nAodszYA5w

 

[happyrat1]

Going with a separate controller and modules and software VSTs allows you to emulate a wide array of expensive keyboards for a lot less money and also allows you to save space if space is at a premium. Plus using a keyboard controller and modules saves you money in the long run allowing for cheap and easy expansion just by adding software or a module.

That being said, however, the Casio XW keyboards can also function as a decent controller so for an investment of just over a thou you could have the dual benefits of the XW-G1 and the Blofeld module in your rig giving you that much more flexibility and bang for the buck.