Not a keyboard player YET

[Laura]

"Not a keyboard player YET", it's still a dream of mine. I do play guitar, bass & a few other string instruments. I have an audio interface and I want to record ambient/prog/trance/spacey tracks. So I need some kind of keyboard for those spacy ambient sounds!!

I found an old Ensoniq ESQ1 in the attic and I hoped to use that, but I think it blew a fuse. So I went to SamAsh music store and tried a few keyboards. Specifically when I tried the Yamaha YPG 225 76, I started to drool. I loved the beautiful ethnic & spacey sounds, vocals, etc.

I understand chords & music theory and I figure once I get a nice keyboard I can teach myself. (it sounds so good, I can play a 3-note chord and that's all I need.) But I am still trying to figure out all the equipment angles. Can you buy one of those packs of sounds, like "ethnic sounds" or "drums" and load them into this keyboard? Or is that only for high-end midi units?

Still trying to figure out what MIDI really can do. I found a few Korg MIDI units at Sam Ash for a similar price ($300) and I wondered if those would be better.

I want to spend more time playing the keys than sitting at the computer tweaking parameters. On the other hand I don't want to buy a junk keyboard that is just meant for kids/beginners, and have half the keys stop working.

Also I'm not a performer yet, but in case I ever do become one, I want a unit that isn't a piece of crap.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[letsel]

Hi Laura!

Like you, I'm very new too! I played a bit two years back, but I don't really consider it as learning anything(was more a by-product of my guitar and vocal course), but the keyboard I had then was horrible and made me stop playing. I'm getting a new one though(the Yamaha S90 ES, should arrive within 2 days or less! *very happy*)

I have been thinking of compiling a guide for new people to the electronic side of keyboards, seeing as it is confusing and alot of the new members on the forums asks questions about it. You can look in the "Music Keyboard Discussion" section of the forums so long, I replied to a few people with the same questions there, but here is the basic rundown:

MIDI: A protocol for communication between various components. Sends signals along the line of "Play this note this hard for this long etc...". Just a standard to make sure 99% of all keyboards and modules and pc's can work together without much hassle.

Controller: A device used to send MIDI signals to other modules. Usually in the form of a keyboard.

Synth: A module used to create, modify and synthesize new sounds by applying filters, effects, combining and other funky things.

Sampler: Records sounds and transposes and modifies it to play the same sound over various pitches. Can use more than one sample for the same istrument to reduce the effects of modifying and transposing it.

Sound Module/Library: Contains sound/s of various instruments, mostly synthesized, but some sampled.

All these modules/parts/functions can be bought in various shapes, sizes and colours, and most can communicate with MIDI. Most keyboards come with one or more of these functions built in, with workstations being the ones with all of them in for semi to fully proffessional music production quality wise. They cost a bit though.

Regarding your question for expansion, most high-end keyboards does have expansion slots for various features, I'm not sure but I don't think too many low end ones do. But that isn't really a problem, you can buy a controller and a sound module with the sounds you want seperately, assuming there is a sound module with the sounds you want. Alternatively, there might be software packages with the sounds you want that you can play through the computer, but they sometimes tend to be pricy from what I hear.

Hope that helps, haven't done much research on that area since it's not exactly what I'm looking for.

In terms of buying, brands that have a good reputation is Korg, Yamaha and Roland. M-Audio and Casio have bad reputations. Don't know about any of the other brands.