an all around synth?

[SacredDespair]

I've been looking for a good all-in-one type, all-around synth. I need this thing to do the keyboard, have decent drum machine sounds and do some sampling. I've looked at the Yamaha M08 Synthesizer Workstation and the Korg Triton. Would these do the trick? Are there any others that would be better or do the same thing and be cheaper? I'm on a limited budget, so cheap (pricewise) is good. Thank you in advance.

[sixways]

Cheap, I'd probably go with an 88 key controller from M-Audio and Reason 3.0, if you don't have a problem working with a computer.

6

[ssscientist]

If you don't need the 88 keys of the M08, here is the one I would recommend looking at.

I've also seen these older but more than capable keyboards going for ridiculously low prices on Craigs List, eBay, etc. I lusted after one of these when they were out of my price range to the point of taking a trip to my local music store every other day just to have the pleasure of playing one.

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[SacredDespair]

I need something that has a pretty good drum machine (as it needs to do all the drum work, which is very electronic sounding drums) and will play live. 88 keys is not a big issue, that would be at the bottom of my importance list.

[blazingstrings]

Most keyboards are notr going have drum machines built in, in a literal sense.
If its a work station it will have a sequencer that you can program your own rythyms into and maybe some stock beats for demo purposes.

But you would need a separate drum machine for such a purpose(Zoom makes one for less than $100).
But learning how to make your own electronic'y drum parts is a good skill to have so as not to sound like everyone else who has the same equipement.

korg makes a few lower line keyboards now a days that have the Triton synth engine but they have no sequencers. the X-50 is $699.99 and they also make an even smaller one that does basicly the same stuff but with less keys for $649.99.

Plus they have USB ports for using with software. WHich you may also wish to look into (just to re-enforce what sixways said).
I use Reason and FL Studio Producer along with Sonar 5 Producer with alot of software synths and dont hardly miss the hardware.

-Blaze