Dear friends,
I just found this gooorgeous forum, and not being very expert yet I would like to get some advice.
I own the mythical keyboard GX-200-S-PLUS, don't know if you heard 'bout it; a great machine in my opinion, which I got as Santa present.
However now that I have been playing for several months, I think it's about time to make the big jump into pro stuff, and your advice would be welcome. I tell you somethin more.
First of all, I read that one must say the kind of music he's into: in my band we mostly play covers of famous tunes like Eye of Tiger, Smoke on Water, and stuff from Madonna, John Denver, Yanni and Celine Dion.
We also play our own tunes, kinda progressive new wave, but not for live because they are longish (about 15 minutes).
We never played gigs but we'll start soon, we hope for a tour!!!
I also have a parallel project with my friend Luke who plays guitar, sort of jazz, but this is for later because I understand that you need to know four-note chords, and I don't yet know those.
We'll decide later about the songs, he keeps talking 'bout a russian (I think) guy, Zavinull, but I don't think he's that good, he plays very SLOW (I played to my friend a CD of a real tough guy like Richard Clayderman, and he was blown away).
There's a new music store close to my place, so I went there but they have so many keyboards that it's difficult to choose.
The shop guy was talking 'bout weighted keyboards, but I'm not sure I got it: does it mean that they have a precise weight, while for normal ones you don't know it exactly? Is it for shipping? I think it can't be that important, if you move them by car anyway.
I listened to the piano sounds, some were really nice like a real piano, but others I find really ugly: those of the "Rodes" brand didn't sound AT ALL like a piano!
I also considered a real piano: there were several in the store, although the one I asked for they don't sell (Stenway D, which was used even by PINC FLOID! I think it sounds pretty good), probably because they only make money with other brands. He claimed some italian brand being very good, something like FAZOLLI, not sure it is true?
The guy insisted that an upright piano would be better for me, but I don't think so, because I want to put a second keyboard over it, and it would then be too high: actually even on youtube I don't see people using upright pianos live.
Anyway a grand piano may be out of my budget, even if I considered buying it online, but since it only makes a single sound I think I would get bored soon. And transport for gigs would be an issue, I would always need to get my brother's grocery van. Do you use a piano live? Also, I am not sure you can plug a jack into it: I did not see the plug, maybe it was beneath the cover?
In the end I think an electric keyboard is better for me, with many different sounds (except Ammondh organ sounds which I don't care about, because I am not into worship music).
On one of the keyboards the shop guy showed me a nice trick: if you press keys harder it plays louder; I think it can be useful to raise the volume without reaching for the knob, but in the end it's not really the same: when the drummer in my band starts playing I have to increase volume A LOT. Maybe it works better in those keyboards with triple pedal like a piano? (I understand the three pedals are for soft, medium and loud).
Some bigger keyboards I saw even have a CD tray, but I am not sure whether this is just for listening to music while playing or also for recording (that's what my friend claims, that you put a blank CD into it, play the keyboard and it automatically adds drums, guitar, bass etc. so that you get a complete tune recorded onto the CD, but maybe he's joking on me).
OK, finally, trying to make up my mind by reading on the net I was thinking about a Kronos and a Voyager, what do you think? (I definitely need two stacked on top of each other: so coool). Many people are talking about this Buchla keyboard too, but they don't have it at the store (but they say it is very heavy and it has few keys).
One more question: my keyboard has the TRANSP button, which sort of raises all notes (C becomes D, D becomes E etc.), which I find very useful: we play some tunes in which I would have to use the black keys, but using the TRANSP in the middle of the song I can avoid it and only use white keys (so far I prefer not to use the blacks).
Do all these keyboards have the TRANSP function?
I am sorry for the many questions, I am sure you will be able to help me.
As a way of thanking you in advance, I would like to give a musical listening suggestion: a band from the 80s I just learned about recently, which is really cool. They are not too well known (never heard them on radio charts), are called ELP (you can find many videos on the net); their keyboard player is really cool, I think his name is Greg Lake, he plays really fast with kind of spacey sounds (there's a tune in which he plays a sound which drops down smoothly, passing many notes but not in steps, just as a siren, in a kinda continous way, very cool).
So long, and thanks for all the advice, dear fellow keyboardists!
I just found this gooorgeous forum, and not being very expert yet I would like to get some advice.
I own the mythical keyboard GX-200-S-PLUS, don't know if you heard 'bout it; a great machine in my opinion, which I got as Santa present.
However now that I have been playing for several months, I think it's about time to make the big jump into pro stuff, and your advice would be welcome. I tell you somethin more.
First of all, I read that one must say the kind of music he's into: in my band we mostly play covers of famous tunes like Eye of Tiger, Smoke on Water, and stuff from Madonna, John Denver, Yanni and Celine Dion.
We also play our own tunes, kinda progressive new wave, but not for live because they are longish (about 15 minutes).
We never played gigs but we'll start soon, we hope for a tour!!!
I also have a parallel project with my friend Luke who plays guitar, sort of jazz, but this is for later because I understand that you need to know four-note chords, and I don't yet know those.
We'll decide later about the songs, he keeps talking 'bout a russian (I think) guy, Zavinull, but I don't think he's that good, he plays very SLOW (I played to my friend a CD of a real tough guy like Richard Clayderman, and he was blown away).
There's a new music store close to my place, so I went there but they have so many keyboards that it's difficult to choose.
The shop guy was talking 'bout weighted keyboards, but I'm not sure I got it: does it mean that they have a precise weight, while for normal ones you don't know it exactly? Is it for shipping? I think it can't be that important, if you move them by car anyway.
I listened to the piano sounds, some were really nice like a real piano, but others I find really ugly: those of the "Rodes" brand didn't sound AT ALL like a piano!
I also considered a real piano: there were several in the store, although the one I asked for they don't sell (Stenway D, which was used even by PINC FLOID! I think it sounds pretty good), probably because they only make money with other brands. He claimed some italian brand being very good, something like FAZOLLI, not sure it is true?
The guy insisted that an upright piano would be better for me, but I don't think so, because I want to put a second keyboard over it, and it would then be too high: actually even on youtube I don't see people using upright pianos live.
Anyway a grand piano may be out of my budget, even if I considered buying it online, but since it only makes a single sound I think I would get bored soon. And transport for gigs would be an issue, I would always need to get my brother's grocery van. Do you use a piano live? Also, I am not sure you can plug a jack into it: I did not see the plug, maybe it was beneath the cover?
In the end I think an electric keyboard is better for me, with many different sounds (except Ammondh organ sounds which I don't care about, because I am not into worship music).
On one of the keyboards the shop guy showed me a nice trick: if you press keys harder it plays louder; I think it can be useful to raise the volume without reaching for the knob, but in the end it's not really the same: when the drummer in my band starts playing I have to increase volume A LOT. Maybe it works better in those keyboards with triple pedal like a piano? (I understand the three pedals are for soft, medium and loud).
Some bigger keyboards I saw even have a CD tray, but I am not sure whether this is just for listening to music while playing or also for recording (that's what my friend claims, that you put a blank CD into it, play the keyboard and it automatically adds drums, guitar, bass etc. so that you get a complete tune recorded onto the CD, but maybe he's joking on me).
OK, finally, trying to make up my mind by reading on the net I was thinking about a Kronos and a Voyager, what do you think? (I definitely need two stacked on top of each other: so coool). Many people are talking about this Buchla keyboard too, but they don't have it at the store (but they say it is very heavy and it has few keys).
One more question: my keyboard has the TRANSP button, which sort of raises all notes (C becomes D, D becomes E etc.), which I find very useful: we play some tunes in which I would have to use the black keys, but using the TRANSP in the middle of the song I can avoid it and only use white keys (so far I prefer not to use the blacks).
Do all these keyboards have the TRANSP function?
I am sorry for the many questions, I am sure you will be able to help me.
As a way of thanking you in advance, I would like to give a musical listening suggestion: a band from the 80s I just learned about recently, which is really cool. They are not too well known (never heard them on radio charts), are called ELP (you can find many videos on the net); their keyboard player is really cool, I think his name is Greg Lake, he plays really fast with kind of spacey sounds (there's a tune in which he plays a sound which drops down smoothly, passing many notes but not in steps, just as a siren, in a kinda continous way, very cool).
So long, and thanks for all the advice, dear fellow keyboardists!
