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Old 11-14-2012, 02:04 PM
dj dj is offline
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Join Date: Jan 1970
Location: Balderson, Ontario, Canada, 100 kms (60 miles) from Ottawa
Posts: 799
Default Re: I am looking for a good synth keyboard?

Hi,

I suggest you start on Kijiji. There are plenty of keyboards at reasonable prices available.

You're looking for a work-station style synth, which can handle multi-track playback and so on. Mid-range Yamaha DGX keyboards can often be had for a few hundred on Kijiji. I use a DGX 500 myself and it does what I need very well. (Just scored a 1st generation Yamaha DX7 yesterday! FM heaven!)

You will also need a midi interface between your computer and your keyboard (unless the keyboard has a USB midi connector). They go anywhere from $15 to $150. Beware of the super-cheap ones, as they can sometimes cause problems.

Notation Software products are designed to handle high-quality notation and midi recording/playback. They aren't intended to do audio and sampling. You can use Notation Musician or Composer to record and play midi tracks from your keyboard.

One option is to acquire a hardware digital recorder (Zoom products can often be found on Kijiji for a few hundred). Your guitar can then be recorded directly into the digital recorder. The whole can then either be mixed and mastered directly on the hardware recorder or dumped to your computer for final mix. To record your guitar into your computer directly, you will probably want an audio interface ($50 to $300 on Kijiji), as the quality of the inputs on most sound cards is not sufficient.

I suggest that you acquire a decent DAW software package (Digital Audio Workstation) to handle the sampling, audio recording and mixing you want to do. These range from freeware (LMMS or Linux MultiMedia Studio -- yes, it's for Windows!) through mid-range like Reaper ($69) and Magix Music Studio (about $150) through top end stuff like Reason or Pro Tools (in the $1000s).

With a DAW package as a host, or with a virtual midi cable like Midi Yoke or LoopBe (both freeware) and a freeware host like Herman Seib's VST Host, you can then begin to use VST effects and instruments -- a whole other world of virtual synthesizers, samplers, stomp boxes and more.

Anyway, start on Kijiji.

Good luck.

David
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