roland rs-5

[gbvgbv]

i was in the same boat - shopping for a first "keyboard" - i learned much of the same stuff as peaople are saying our here - cant really get a good one for under $500, avoid any that have built-in speakers - lol.

anyway, i ended up getting a roland rs-5 new on sale for $580 and i'm pretty pleased with it - easy to get up and running with the programmed sounds and it will allow me to program my own sounds (so i guess its a synthesizer more than a keyboard) and eventually trigger samples (my next experiments).

its sounds are pretty good at least to this novice ears - i believe they copped some of the better sounds from some of the more expensive rolands - it has 61 keys, good feel, sensitivity, etc.

actually i fell way in love with the korg karma, but it was $1800 - the roland rs-5 seems to be a great entry level keyboard/synthesizer.