Posted by: jvalentine
Need Help Buying Keys/ Yamaha PSR / Casio 500 / etc - 05/05/09 07:11 AM
Hey...
New to the forum. New to the world of synth gear. Not new to music or the keys.
Some of you may have fun answering these questions, some may be annoyed by questions that have surely been answered before (I did do a search though to research before I ask).
Regardless... I still need help.
I'm looking at buying a keyboard for my wife and I. We have an interesting thing going. Right now we have a cheap m-audio 25 key controller hooked to a laptop. She gets a gnarly overdriven synth bass (maybe a sawtooth thing, can't remember). The sound comes from the laptops recording software/usb midi. Then she takes a second keyboard... some old wal-mart special, and plays leads / accompaniments on that. The walmart special is crap-cheesy, but not in a cool way. If we are feeling up to it, occasionally we drag out a second lap top and use the wal-mart's traditional midi with a usb converter to access the secondary computers recording software instruments. Then we go headphones out (of the 2 laptops) in to an old PA. Sounds great. Bass with the left, accompaniment with the right ala new wave distorto Ray Manzarek.
I play guitar/marshall-stack and we have a drummer.
The end sound is a crazy punk rock ala Ramones-ish thing with a new wave crazy driving synth bass (m-audio 25) with whatever she decides to add in on the walmart keys.
Good enough I suppose... but the dual keyboard/dual laptop rig is a royal pain in the ass to set up and scroll through (LOTS of trouble-shooting). And I wouldn't dare to drag all that mess out to a bar. So we are looking to buy a new synth, preferably one that does it all.
O.k. here's the solution: buy a good Roland Fantom or maybe a cheaper Juno-g/d.
Whelp...errr, sorry. Just don't have that kind of bread right now (we've already spent way too much on gear).
So. I did some research, visited a couple music stores, and I found the Casio WK-500. It seems to have a good number of sounds, played well, looked pro. Maybe not exactly the sounds we want, but I'm thinking maybe I could just run it through some guitar pedals or something (what EVH did right?). Plus, apparently she can split the keys up and have two sounds going at once.
I'm doing research and I keep seeing where people are saying to go with the Yamaha's instead. Like PSR-3000,700,550 etc. But when I looked at the PSR series they seemed really cheap, like toys. PLUS... the Yamahas are anywhere from $500 to $1,000+! It seems like if I was going to pay that much, I'd save up for a real keyboard (Juno-D is just over $500).
The PSR-E413 is the closest Yamaha in the WK-500 price range. The wk-500 has 670 sounds... the psr-e413 has only 500.
Am I missing something here? Are there other options that I'm not thinking of? Yeah, maybe I'm being cheap by not wanting to drop a grand on this... but I also don't want to get stuck with a $300 piece of junk.
I don't know why they just can't make a good solid 61key keyboard with tons of sounds for less than $500. It seems if they cut the crap internal speakers, nix all these recording features, nix the crappy drum beats, and all the beginner "learn to play" software... a good cheap quality synth could exist.
Also, is this an option???? What if I kept the m-audio 25 key controller, bought a secondary m-audio 61 key controller, then bought an external synth modulator. Would that work? Would one synth modulator run the two m-audio keyboards, or would I have to buy two? I know a guy who will give me an old Roland JV 880 (not sure what sounds it has or if it'll work).
Alright... I'm sorry for dragging this out for so long, I just wanted to be thorough on what I'm trying to do and what I've been thinking about. There seems to be a wealth of knowledge here and I can't wait to see what you folks will suggest.
THANKS!
New to the forum. New to the world of synth gear. Not new to music or the keys.
Some of you may have fun answering these questions, some may be annoyed by questions that have surely been answered before (I did do a search though to research before I ask).
Regardless... I still need help.
I'm looking at buying a keyboard for my wife and I. We have an interesting thing going. Right now we have a cheap m-audio 25 key controller hooked to a laptop. She gets a gnarly overdriven synth bass (maybe a sawtooth thing, can't remember). The sound comes from the laptops recording software/usb midi. Then she takes a second keyboard... some old wal-mart special, and plays leads / accompaniments on that. The walmart special is crap-cheesy, but not in a cool way. If we are feeling up to it, occasionally we drag out a second lap top and use the wal-mart's traditional midi with a usb converter to access the secondary computers recording software instruments. Then we go headphones out (of the 2 laptops) in to an old PA. Sounds great. Bass with the left, accompaniment with the right ala new wave distorto Ray Manzarek.
I play guitar/marshall-stack and we have a drummer.
The end sound is a crazy punk rock ala Ramones-ish thing with a new wave crazy driving synth bass (m-audio 25) with whatever she decides to add in on the walmart keys.
Good enough I suppose... but the dual keyboard/dual laptop rig is a royal pain in the ass to set up and scroll through (LOTS of trouble-shooting). And I wouldn't dare to drag all that mess out to a bar. So we are looking to buy a new synth, preferably one that does it all.
O.k. here's the solution: buy a good Roland Fantom or maybe a cheaper Juno-g/d.
Whelp...errr, sorry. Just don't have that kind of bread right now (we've already spent way too much on gear).
So. I did some research, visited a couple music stores, and I found the Casio WK-500. It seems to have a good number of sounds, played well, looked pro. Maybe not exactly the sounds we want, but I'm thinking maybe I could just run it through some guitar pedals or something (what EVH did right?). Plus, apparently she can split the keys up and have two sounds going at once.
I'm doing research and I keep seeing where people are saying to go with the Yamaha's instead. Like PSR-3000,700,550 etc. But when I looked at the PSR series they seemed really cheap, like toys. PLUS... the Yamahas are anywhere from $500 to $1,000+! It seems like if I was going to pay that much, I'd save up for a real keyboard (Juno-D is just over $500).
The PSR-E413 is the closest Yamaha in the WK-500 price range. The wk-500 has 670 sounds... the psr-e413 has only 500.
Am I missing something here? Are there other options that I'm not thinking of? Yeah, maybe I'm being cheap by not wanting to drop a grand on this... but I also don't want to get stuck with a $300 piece of junk.
I don't know why they just can't make a good solid 61key keyboard with tons of sounds for less than $500. It seems if they cut the crap internal speakers, nix all these recording features, nix the crappy drum beats, and all the beginner "learn to play" software... a good cheap quality synth could exist.
Also, is this an option???? What if I kept the m-audio 25 key controller, bought a secondary m-audio 61 key controller, then bought an external synth modulator. Would that work? Would one synth modulator run the two m-audio keyboards, or would I have to buy two? I know a guy who will give me an old Roland JV 880 (not sure what sounds it has or if it'll work).
Alright... I'm sorry for dragging this out for so long, I just wanted to be thorough on what I'm trying to do and what I've been thinking about. There seems to be a wealth of knowledge here and I can't wait to see what you folks will suggest.
THANKS!