MIDI Keyboards

[Reyer]

i have been getting into MIDI and i started using Reason 3.0, its great.

but i need a decsent keyboard and every thing i have found was a cheap 40 buck piece of junk, or a 3,000 dollar stainless steel beast.

any one have any ideas of a keeper that i could afford?

im willing to spend about 150

[ReignInPain]

M-Audio imake a wide range of good quality midi keyboards, they do from ultra cheep and nasty to ultra high tech machines with multitrack mixers built in.

http://cgi.ebay.com/M-AUDIO-MIDIMAN-RADIUM-USB-KEYBOARD-CONTROLLER_W0QQitemZ150081088531QQihZ005QQcategory Z29552QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Something like that perhaps?

[Redundant]

Casio or Yamaha are good companies. I have a casio ctk-471 keyboard and it was only $90 a 5 years ago. It has the MIDI in and out and also has a screen and 100 songs, 100 rythems, and 100 instruments. (http://www.casio.com/products/archive/Musical_Instruments/Standard/CTK-471/) It's pretty good though I rarely use it...

[ReignInPain]

Hmmm, I have found Casio's to be of a pretty shoddy build quality. Sorry to piss on your parade. Both Yamahas and Casios are primarily built for school children to play Hot Cross Buns on, with Midi only being an afterthought.

[slytherock]

You wont get too much for that price, I had to pay up to 800$ to get something worth it.

I've used a Casio CTK-530 (http://www.casio.com/products/archive/Musical_Instruments/Standard/CTK-530/content/Technical_Specs/) for a couple of years cause I did not had any money. The response of that keyboard was so bad, even enhanced with midi sounded like ****.

Now I have a little Yamaha Piano P-70 (http://www.yamaha.ca/content/electronickeyboards/products/digitalpiano/homepiano/P-70/keyfeatures.jsp), and it work so well...

But then again, if I could get a new one I'll get one with a USB port.

[ReignInPain]

I have a Roland EXR-3s. It cost me about £300(580$) new. Its a pretty good keyboard, it has GM2 and USB. However the USB can't be used as an alternative to Midi cables as it is simply for uploading midi files to the keyboard itself. So you have to be careful when you see the word USB in the brochure, as it won't always work as you might of liked it to. I must admit this caught me out. Luckily I have midi interface anyway, so I got away with that one! ;)

[Reyer]

Great, thanks for all the help.

im just guna look around for a while and save up.

[ReignInPain]

Good choice, if you're serious about sequencing etc... Its worth saving a bit. Try going into your local music shop? You'll find a few that know what they're doing. I find the independant companies usually have the friendliest staff...

Happy hunting!

[Reyer]

Im probably going to take a MIDI class next year and then see how much i get into it.