Newbie looking for recommendations

[Biggles]

A further thought.

If you have an iPad or Mac there are some really good and very cheap Apps available.

Add in a decent MIDI keyboard, a $40 camera adapter for use with an iPad and you are you are playing for way less cost than most quality keyboards.

Music Studio on iPad c$30, on a MAC Main Stage gives 6 Gb of instrument sounds for $30

A MIDI keyboard like an Arturia Keylab Mk II 61 keys is $500 with great software included, keybed has aftertouch which is a great feature. You can buy cheaper MIDI keyboards but they are more suited to playing more short pieces as part of music creation rather than full scale learning or playing.

Or if just noodling around you can use a low cost MIDI keyboard plug it into your PC, MAC or iPad and be playing for $150 and it will probably come with Ableton Lite which is a DAW and you can add a free DAW like Cakewalk and VSTs to give you an armoury of sounds to choose from. On a MAC and i
Pad there is the free Garage Band DAW which is more than good enough to get you going.

The screenshot shows just a few Apps that are available, these are on my iPad mini.

 

[fmlatghor]

Personally I would buy something like a Yamaha NP-32 with an expectation that if you find you enjoy it you are going to upgrade to something better in between 3 and 6 months.


So why did I recommend that particular device. The NP 32 is a 76 note (not a full 88 note) keyboard with spring loaded but responsive keys (if you hit the note harder it gets louder). Its enough for a beginner but only just but when you have outgrown it you can still fit in into the backseat of a car to take it with you when you go somewhere (I took ours on holiday).

It doesn’t have to be this particular model there are others like it at the same price, but I bought this for my grandson to see if he liked it - he did and we are about to upgrade (probably to an acoustic upright piano) - and I feel the quality of the build on it is good enough to recommend.

When you upgrade you will have to spend more - I would probably suggest one of Yamaha P124, Kawai ES110 or Roland FP30. These are portable keyboards but they have the full 88 keys and are weighted like an acoustic piano - but can be bought with a wooden stand to turn them into more like a furniture piano.

I'm looking for a synth, not an electric piano. I already have a full size, weighted kawai and a casio as a controller. I wouldn't want to buy then upgrade. I'm looking to buy one thing that I can use for the purposes I listed in the OP.

 

[fmlatghor]

A further thought.

If you have an iPad or Mac there are some really good and very cheap Apps available.

Add in a decent MIDI keyboard, a $40 camera adapter for use with an iPad and you are you are playing for way less cost than most quality keyboards.

Music Studio on iPad c$30, on a MAC Main Stage gives 6 Gb of instrument sounds for $30

A MIDI keyboard like an Arturia Keylab Mk II 61 keys is $500 with great software included, keybed has aftertouch which is a great feature. You can buy cheaper MIDI keyboards but they are more suited to playing more short pieces as part of music creation rather than full scale learning or playing.

Or if just noodling around you can use a low cost MIDI keyboard plug it into your PC, MAC or iPad and be playing for $150 and it will probably come with Ableton Lite which is a DAW and you can add a free DAW like Cakewalk and VSTs to give you an armoury of sounds to choose from. On a MAC and i
Pad there is the free Garage Band DAW which is more than good enough to get you going.

The screenshot shows just a few Apps that are available, these are on my iPad mini.View attachment 1633

Not what I'm looking for. I don't mind the price of the better quality synth. My goal is to be able to use it w/o software.

 

[happyrat1]

Basically if you want the typical bread and butter sounds of a preformance keyboard you are looking at ROMplers like the ModX or PC4. While they do have some synthesis capabilities they are priamrily designed to reproduce orchestral instruments and do it well and deal with synth sounds as an afterthought. Programming synth sounds on those boards can be a nightmare.

If you are specifically looking to simulate a swarm of rats copulating on top of a steel drum, then what you should be looking at is Analog or Virtual Analog synths.

Since money is no object, and you already have a Kawai and a Casio you can use as controllers, you might start looking at modules instead to save a few bucks.

For instance there's the Nord Electro Rack or the new Waldorf Kyra or the Deepmind 12D desktop module or a very popular unit, the Access Virus or a Dave Smith Prophet, also available in keyboard and rack formats.

My advice to you is to do your homework thoroughly, watch as many videos as you can and get as much hands on experience in music stores as you can and download the manuals of your short list and read them thru before you drop a few thou on your dream instrument.

Don't rely on the anonymous recommendations of a few online strangers and store reps paid by commission to make this decision alone. You wouldn't buy a house or a car on a single recomendation and there really is a legion of options out there in Analog and VA synths.,

DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!!

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

If you are specifically looking to simulate a swarm of rats copulating on top of a steel drum...

A sound we hear all too rarely in today's music...[sigh].

 

[Rayblewit]

Never heard the sound of rats copulating.
I am sure Gary has a vid or two tucked away.
Anyway playing an F# at the 5th octave using a "strings" voice and pitch bend sounds like a female rat being thrust upon.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

As far as your question about necro-posting, I don't think the forum has any rules about that, but Ian could tell you if there are.

Personally, I've never had an issue with necro-posting, although it doesn't usually make sense to post a reply to an old question if the person who'd asked hasn't even visited the forums in a long time, because the assumption should be that the person won't see the reply, and there's a chance that the question might not even be relevant or important to them anymore.

But Ive seen at least one occasion on another forum site where someone posted a reply to a question that had been asked years earlier, someone else pointed out the date on the original question as well as the date of the OP's last visit to the site-- and then, lo and behold, the OP popped in to respond, because they'd gotten an email from the forum notifying them of a reply to their post! So you never know.

Anyway, you won't get any complaints from me about necro-posting, but you should probably expect to get at least a few ribs from other members of the forum. (Ew, zombie ribs!)