HollowMan1975
New member
I've been writing music off and on for most of the last 10 years. I moved to a new city and started writing music with a guy here and things look like they're at the point where we're going to start looking for a bassist and drummer and take the show on the road. Currently I use my large keyboard here in my home studio, MIDI'd into Sonar3 to play DXi's, mainly Triangle II and Edirol. I also usually add a heap of effects like reverb, chorus, compressor, equalizer and delay (the Sonitus one is brilliant). I have a Yamaha P-200, which is an absolutely beautiful digital piano. But as we've begun to rehearse, and I have to leave the softsynths behind and use only the Yamaha, the limited capabilities of the digital piano just don't cut it. The music is mostly rock, with a little darker, proggy feel to it sometimes (no wanker key solos though). I use mostly piano, epiano, a distorted organ sound (organ from my P200, distortion courtesy of Sonar plug-ins), and the occasional analog sound (and one song -relies- on a delay effect). Three of the songs have samples in them (from movies, etc.)
So I've been thinking of getting a much more portable 88-key piano (something maybe like a Yamaha P60) and a synth, buying one of those double stack stands, and making a "real" keyboard setup. But on the other hand, I look at all the flexibility I have with the software, and I think I should buy an 88-key controller for the bottom and a 61 key controller for the top, plugging them into a laptop with a firewire MAudio card and doing it that way. Controllers are cheaper, but farting around with software can be a pain.
So I need some advice from some people who've done this before, or at least tried a few of these options out. Understandably, software is extremely upgradeable, so I expect I'll be able to grow very easily with it and expand. On the other hand, I already suffer clicks and pops and hangups on my desktop studio, and an on-stage reboot is completely out of the question. And then there's the standalone sound modules.
What's the best way to go? My budget is really kind of limited. A really nice keyboard, new, is like $1500... (I'm thinking Triton61LE) and I'm kinda hoping to do the whole thing for that much.
So I've been thinking of getting a much more portable 88-key piano (something maybe like a Yamaha P60) and a synth, buying one of those double stack stands, and making a "real" keyboard setup. But on the other hand, I look at all the flexibility I have with the software, and I think I should buy an 88-key controller for the bottom and a 61 key controller for the top, plugging them into a laptop with a firewire MAudio card and doing it that way. Controllers are cheaper, but farting around with software can be a pain.
So I need some advice from some people who've done this before, or at least tried a few of these options out. Understandably, software is extremely upgradeable, so I expect I'll be able to grow very easily with it and expand. On the other hand, I already suffer clicks and pops and hangups on my desktop studio, and an on-stage reboot is completely out of the question. And then there's the standalone sound modules.
What's the best way to go? My budget is really kind of limited. A really nice keyboard, new, is like $1500... (I'm thinking Triton61LE) and I'm kinda hoping to do the whole thing for that much.
