Quote:
Originally posted by RW:
Wow Wheelbarrow,
You can certainly run a keyboard straight into a mixer. My experience in this would be to raise the keyboard level as high as possible then adjust from the mixer. This sends the strongest signal into the mixer from the keyboard. This is often the preferred method.

You got quite a list of bands there. Thinking of the many songs that each of these play, you're going to need nearly every sound there ever was. From minimoogs to wurlies to B3's to incredible pads/strings I think you 'll be able to get away without having a great orchestral soundset but you got ELO listed there too. You'll also need some DX7 sounds.

The sound set alone is pretty expansive that you're talking about... So whatever synth you settle on, you will probably need to expand it. Not many come stock with that array with great quality.

A graded, high quality keyboard in itself is not cheap unless you go for a Fatar type controller, but they lack really good "live" control-ability. Which leads me to ask, will you need this rig to play live or just to record and play in the studio? Cause if you don't plan to play live, you don't need as much control.

And all for 800-900..... wow... I think that's pretty tall order unles you go for used gear.

Maybe others will have some ideas... I'm thinking Alesis QS8 series. But to be honest I haven't heard a lot of them nor their expansion cards. I just know they have a weighted (not sure if it's graded or balanced though, probably balanced since it's a synth). By the way, "graded" to me means the keyboard has a heavier feel in the bass area and progressive becomes lighter as yo move up the board. This is generally not what you want from a synth as the synth is used to play sounds other than just piano. But a stage or digital piano is usually "graded" as piano is the main sound.

Some synths are greatly supported by many programming companies. I personally use Motif and the sound sets & online support is fantastic. Many sound libraries are available from programming companies, but you're not going to get a weighted motif for your price range. (I'm also assuming because you said "graded" you mean you want weighted 88's.)

If you're not going to play live... and you have a PC, then a weighted controller (I have used and like the feel of the Fatar SL-880), and soft synths may be the way for you to go. That combination may keep you closer to your price range and give you great quality of sounds. I've not delved into the world of soft synths so I can't offer any advise about which are good and which are not nor how they perform in certain PC/operating systems. But I understand the quality of soft synth samples often surpass the quality in hardware synths.


I can offer you this... take your time and learn all you can about synths over the next month or two before buying anything. There's nothing worse than buying a synth only to find it's not really what you want once you learn it, then you have to sell it or live with it.

Best wishes
Bob
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[This message has been edited by RW (edited 11-30-2005).]



Ok I think I'm going to go high end. I got the ok pricewise. So what is better-Motif,Fantom, or Triton?(These seem to be the three with the best expandablilty like USB/memorycard/etc.)