How did you get your 1st keyboard?

[Toddskins]

To tell this story properly, I have to start with this preface: In 1978, at the age of 15, I bought my first 35mm camera, Canon AE-1, from a store in New York City, via magazine ad. It was much cheaper than the stores around St. Louis, MO. So, at a young age, I ventured into buying things from magazine listed store ads. In fact, I have yet to have an issue with buying something "uninspected". Items have always arrived in perfect condition. (Knock on wood. <grin>)

Sooooooooo...

I wanted to get into synthesizers when I was a young teenager, and remember drooling over Sequential Circuits' Prophet 5 in a large music store in Illinois.

By the time I finally got my 1st keyboard, in 1985, I had been doing a ton of research, and had all the specs written down on Roland Modules. But when it came time to buy, I called a store listed in Keyboard Magazine called "Synthony" in Arizona.

When I began to tell the salesman what I wanted, he steered me away from the Roland Modules and told me about a new board that had just come out that would do everything the Roland modules would do, and a whole lot more. And the price was right. Sight unseen, I took his word for it and bought ...........................an Oberheim Matrix 12!

When it arrived from the shipper a week or two later, I could hardly wait to unpack it. When I pulled it out of the box, I was ecstatic over its looks. Then I began reading the owner's manual, and playing the sounds, and just fell in love with it.

From that same store, Synthony, I also bought a Yamaha CP-80, full 88 key electric grand piano. Wonderful feel and good sound, it was a fantastic idea of a true grand piano, electrified and ready for band work... but.... in practice, the thing was so big and heavy that it was only suitable for bands with road crews.

What's your story?

[WhiteStrat]

What's a guitar player doing answering this post first? (Stalking Toddskins, probably! )

When I was a kid, we had a beat up upright grand in the dining room. My sister was going to learn to play. But whenever I could I'd sneak in and apply a bit of natural aptitude, and in no time it was obvious to my parents that I could play a little piano too, besides just banging on a guitar.

But I wanted a synth. Same time era as your story, Toddskins, so it was months of reading ads and drooling over pics of keyboards in magazines. I finally settled on a Korg Polysix, which was going for about $800 at the time. That might as well have been $800,000 in my family, and yet somehow--my parents bought it for me.

I'll never forget the night one of my big brothers (I was just 15) drove me up to Wise Music in North St. Louis county to pick it up. I loved that thing until I hocked it along with a couple guitar years later as a young married. Think I paid the rent and a couple bills.

Factoid: Right now, some 26 years later, I still have in my dresser the free Wise Bros Music t-shirt I got that night. They're long since out of business, and I'm long since too big for the t-shirt.

[mikeh]

The specific years get a little foggy but - in about 1977 I was playing drums (my main axe) in a band with a chick singer who needed some money so she sold me an upright grand (early 1900's vintage) for $300. I spent a few of years getting some piano chops together and started getting a few studio gigs as a "keyboard player".

In the early 1980's the studios were looking for synth players/programmers - so I bought a Roland Juno 6. Within months the Juno 60 came out (yeah....presets) which I also bought. Within a couple of months I bought an electric piano (a Korg) ........and a month later I was a keyboard player in a "big hair band".

[bigwillz24]

I asked santa for one when I was about 7 years old...

[punkin]

Christmas, 2006...Korg Triton

[Soundmind??]

PAIA KIT in 1974, cool little synth after I got it built. Learned a lot about soldering! Nothing like the minimoog I was drooling over but couldn't afford. Military pay was about 200/month. Can you believe PAIA is still around?

[arcaxis]

Korg DW6000 in 1986 for $749.00. Bought it from E.U. Wurlitzer in Worcester, MA and still have it.

[The Green Hornet]

I got my DX-7 by Yamaha some 20 years ago; lived with it, studied it; learned its potential and it still sits on the upper rack of my studio. I use it because I have some great patches; however, the patches on the DX-7 are not near the quality as on the Motif that sits below it. Now that my Motif is outdated, I don't know....maybe a new one with the key count @88.

All of this came about, and my studio, from starting out as a Belly Baldwin player, electrified later, and, then, the fabulous Cordovox machine-two of them--one tube, second solid state. An instrument far ahead of its time but extremely bulky to transport.

Happy Spring and its almost time for that in Michigan

Green Hornet

[mawtangent]

When I was a kid (early 70's) there was an upright piano in our house (I don't know where it came from, I would say the piano was 20+ years old, I'm pretty sure it was handed down from previous generations or came with the house). No one in my family had a lot of ability with it (little one-handed music bits mostly, and people trying to double-team "Heart and Soul")

I had a friend with an electric guitar (early 80's) who was into the band Rush. I had discovered a Candy-O (The Cars) 8-track and fancied myself (from all my previous muscal experience on the piano-NOT) a keyboard player. My parents weren't into spending big bucks (and I didn't know what digital and analog were anyway) so I ended up with a $30 toy organ (you could hear the electric fan noise) with a few notes in the highest octave that were out of tune (which I didn't know until years later). My friend and I recorded (on a show-box cassette recorder) dozens of electric guitar/ toy organ/ vocal songs.

I got my first (after school) job around 1983. Now I was going to get a real keyboard (I still didn't know what was going on in the evolution of the pro-keyboard)...I went to a music store in the closest city (Kingsport, Tennessee) from my rural home and got some kind of $500 Casio thing with auto-accompaniments. It was horrific (by todays standards) but I loved it. It was super heavy with a metal body, and the connections looked as if it might could be played in a pro-level setting (maybe it was is the best one could expect to get for $500 in 1983).

Too make a long story short (too late) I've had a few (ever improving) Yamaha PSR-type home keyboards (I still have a PSR-540). In '94 I got a used Yamaha v50 w/case for $800 (a truly pro-level keyboard, FM sound generation, with sampled drums sounds, decended from the DX-7) and made some good songs with it. I started reading Keyboard Magazine and discovered that sampled-sound technology was what was happening (in the mid-90's) and finally got a keyboard, Roland XP-50, that was (at the time) current and "cutting edge".

I still have the Yamaha v50, Yamaha PSR-540, and the Roland XP-50. I know there is supposed to be a lot of advancements in todays keyboards (since the mid-90's), a couple of new sound-generation technologies have been thrown into the mix, but I was never a big sound programmer anyway (I tweaked a piano sound once). I need to make some new songs (its been a while), I figure I have plenty of keyboard "power" on hand if needed.

[DavidK]

In high school. I borrowed a friends Moog Rogue for a few months.

In 1984, I bought a Korg Poly 800. That was about 25 keyboards ago.

[Somnium7]

After working the entire summer of 84 delivering Penny Savers all over Queens NY I thought I had enough money to buy a real synth. So my dad took me to 48th St. in Manhattan to look through the big music shops there and I quickly realized I couldn't afford anything in those stores. I had my heart set on a Korg Poly 800.

Unfortunately, it was like $275 and all I had was $225.

We left the shops and on our way back to the subway my dad wanted to stop in some Korean camera shop on the corner. As he was browsing around I spotted a keyboard and started playing with it. It was a Casio CZ-230s. And so began my love affair with phase distortion synthesis.

I even had enough money left over to buy a guitar strap for it

[bsr2002]

Man you guys are rich to start off with such nice keys. When I was 6 my parents bought a Wurltizur upright. When I turned 8 my first electronic keyboard was a Magnus Organ...lol.
When I turned 17 I got a Crumar Orchastrator, then a Wurlitzer electric 6 more months I got an ARP SOLIS and that started my first stage rig with those three boards.

[drossfile]

interesting this thread should pop up today. for 9 years i took piano lessons, quit when i was 15, and only tinkered a bit on friends' stuff since. i've been itching to add a keyboard to my studio for years, and i just bought my first one about two hours ago on ebay. a roland rd700sx for under $1600. listed by a really reputable seller (w/ a 7-day return policy to boot) as a new, full warranty, factory refurb. it should be here this week, and man am i stoked!

[jpw23]

Lets see......early 80's, need a keyboard in the band, seemed a shame to hire another body since I had 12 years of piano lessons....anyway, first keyboard was a Korg dw8000 and then a korg poly 61, yamaha electric grand, ensonq vfx, korg m-1, ensoniq sq1, I now have and old korg n364.......wish I still had all those boards

[mshilarious]

First I wanted to play guitar. Then I discovered that girls didn't want guitar players anymore, they loved keyboard players with big, overly styled hair. But keyboard players with the salon hairdos didn't like girls, so I was at an impasse. I gave up and bought a bass.

Then, one kid in my neighborhood bought a Korg, and it was fun to play with the helicopter patch. Then I actually got a girlfriend, she had a synth with lots of faders to control the parameters. I don't think it was analog, but it was still pretty cool. I plugged it into my guitar amp and it sounded a little like a Rhodes, but not very much.

Then I got in a band with a keyboard player who forced us to learn "Melt With You" so we could get gigs, so he could get girls (oddly enough, he liked girls). I still want to orchestrate the death of millions when I hear that song

Years passed by, and I bought a four track. A friend had a Casio SK, so I played a pivotal Casio solo on an early cover of "Wild Thing", which included insightful and hard-hitting lyrics like "Wild Thing, I was wondering if you'd like to go to a secluded area where we could remove our clothing".

More years passed, and for reasons I am still not entirely certain, I bought a 10 year old Yamaha YPP-15, and I added lead weights to the keys, and it actually has a pretty good feel. If I ever finish my pipe organ, the YPP will be its controller

[DavidK]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

Then I actually got a girlfriend, )

Lies make the baby Jesus cry.

Then, one kid in my neighborhood bought a Korg, and it was fun to play with the helicopter patch.

I think the Helicopter patch actually got me hooked on synths. Seriously.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by DavidK

Lies make the baby Jesus cry.

It's true! She was a Deadhead though, so it didn't last

[mwthompson]

This was the first keyboard I ever had, my parents bought it for me for Christmas many many many many many many years ago...

I don't remember what happened to it, but I have a feeling it disappeared because I played "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on it continuously. That was the only piece of sheet music I had, if I remember correctly...

[Toddskins]

These stories are fantastic. I am really enjoying all of them.

Keep 'em coming!




p.s. I'm not so sure about that bit, that girls stopped liking guitar players for keyboardists with big hair (funnier than anything, though!). The chicks that dig (dug) keyboard players, have always been in the minority, I thought???

[antispatula]

garage sale
some crappy casio

[ofajen]

I was already in college in 1982. I had taken two years of music theory in high school and was interested in composing music, but I didn't have a good instrument to realize my music, so I stopped into a local music store, Crazy Music, in December and checked out what they had. The Roland Jupiter 8 looked very cool, but I didn't have whatever massive amount they were asking for it, so I bought a Juno 6 instead.

Within a couple of months, that led to buying an Otari 4-track, a couple of SM-57s, a small line mixer and soon I was playing the Juno 6 live with a local garage band and was hooked on recording. I added a second keyboard, a Roland SH-09 monosynth, which I bought from a friend. I got an electric guitar and an electric bass and eventually I built my own drum set. In 1985, I bought my first MIDI synth, a Casio CZ-1.

Funny thing is, I've had a lot of MIDI gear over the intervening years, including various samplers and other modules, the MidiVox voice controller, a Yamaha GC10 guitar controller, and a VL1-m modeling synth, but I've sold almost all of it, and the only synths I still have at this point are the Juno 6, the SH-09 and the venerable Yamaha TX802, which I control with my remaining MIDI keyboard, the old Casio CZ-1. I still have a DrumKAT which I mainly use to play drum sounds in Live on the Mac.

Another funny thing, if I'd come across the Ebow earlier, I'm not sure I would have spent so much time with other synths beyond the Rolands.

I tend not to try to imitate real sounds any more, because I try to do them with real instruments, so most of the need for samplers isn't there for me. The Juno 6 is a pretty cool keyboard to run through my Roland vocoder, which has been another staple in the collection since about 1985.

So, anyway, that's my story on my first synth and what it led to after that.

Cheers,

Otto

[Somnium7]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

Then I got in a band with a keyboard player who forced us to learn "Melt With You" so we could get gigs, so he could get girls (oddly enough, he liked girls). I still want to orchestrate the death of millions when I hear that song

It's a shame that this song was the only one from the album that got any play. The rest of the album is really listenable - not a dog on it with that one overplayed exception.

I have to give a +1 to the Juno 6. It was my 1st analog synthesizer. It was the best sounding of the Juno lineup. Eventually I got the 106 for doing Midi stuff and could never get it to make the same patches I loved on my Juno 6 - was very disapointed with the 106.
At one point I built this simple circuit that would turn a snare hit coming from one output of my drum machine into a clock pulse. I used this to "sync" the Juno 6 arpeggiator to Midi tempo. Add a digital delay and you had instant early Front 242

[mwthompson]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

Then I got in a band with a keyboard player who forced us to learn "Melt With You" so we could get gigs, so he could get girls (oddly enough, he liked girls). I still want to orchestrate the death of millions when I hear that song

Bwahahaha!!! "oddlly enough..."

[Coughmist]

bought mine with a college grant. couldn't graduate with a degree in rock guitar...

Yamaha psr-gx76

[fraserhutch]

Originally Posted by arcaxis

Korg DW6000 in 1986 for $749.00. Bought it from E.U. Wurlitzer in Worcester, MA and still have it.

hahahah mine was the DW 8000 around the same time. I still have it as well

It was HUGE at that time. I took a loan to get it, and learnt a hard lesson from that - never take out a loan to buy gear.