Used Keyboard Question

[BTO]

I went on my bi-monthly pawn shop run today (I look for guitar stuff...pedals etc, generally) and saw a used Yamaha PSS780. Now I don't play keys, but from what I understand it would be a good idea to have a keyboard around for midi and stuff. And yes I am a total newbie about this stuff and I basically know squat about midi and synths etc. Anyway, I could probably pick this thing up for about $50 CDN. What attracted me was that it had midi in/out/through and drum pads. Everything works on it. Should I pick it up? It would be mainly for learning purposes.

 

[Emusic]

If I was to buy a cheap keyboard to learn - yeah, I would pick it up for 50CND as long as the midi part works.
Norway is a very expensive country to live in though so I have no idea how that amount of money transfers into Canadian value. Meaning, 50CND dollars is 280 Norwegian kroner, witch is what I pay for one studiohigh quality 3 meter jack to jack cable.
If the pads work too thats handy if you can config. them to use for manual drum tracking.
If it's your first keyboard and you are up to getting into it - give it a try.
The first Yamaha PSS780 I looked up on Ebay was £55.00
Hopefully you will get some more replies here too.

 

[mikeh]

It kinda depends on what you want to do. Something like that would be OK to learn some basic keyboard/MIDI skils on. The sounds would be "fair" and the MIDI implementation would be enough for some basic MIDI appliactions.

The price seems "reasonable" I suspect in the States these can be found at rummage sales for anyway from $10-$15 to $40.

Make sure all the keys work and that the audio jacks work (the MIDI jacks tend to take less abuse than the audio. Also make sure they have the manual - trying to get around a digital keyboard without instructions can be tough (I suspect you could find a manual on line somewhere.