Advice needed on a good keyboard to use for home recording

villain fan

New member
Hi,
I am getting ready to set up a home recording studio to record some songs I have written for my own enjoyment. I am kind of old-school so I started searching for a news keyboard with an authentic grand piano sound. However, I'm also looking for some great vintage instrument sounds like: B3 Hammond Organ, Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, Harpsichord, Accordion, etc. They need to be authentic sounding, though. Several years ago I would just go out and try to find the keyboard that has just the right sounds that I need but, I was talking to a guy in a music store today and he basically told me that everyone is going to basically just using the keyboard as a control and running it through a computer and using software to get the sounds they need. I have never used a keyboard in conjunction with a computer before but, it sounds like this is the way to go.

Can anyone give me some starters on some keyboards I should look at, software that I will need, and VST's (I think that's what they're called). I was told I would probably need to download VST's for the sounds I want. I'm trying to do this without spending a ton of money. I'm not making a professional album or anything. This is for my personal enjoyment but, I really like old-school vintage instruments so I want to get something that has everything I need. I'm also looking for something with weighted keys. It doesn't have to be 88 keys but, that would be a plus.

I am a clean slate right now so any advice anyone might have for me would be much appreciated.

Thank you!
 
I don't know about weighted keyboard controllers. I have an Akai MPK-49 that I use for controlling VSTi's and a Moog Taurus 3. The action on it is a little stiffer than the action on my Voyager. I'm not really a keyboard player but dink around on it a bit.

As far as VSTi's check out the Toontrack stuff and also Dimension Pro.

I have the Toontrack Steinway Grand and it sounds pretty good to my ears.

The Dim Pro Wurli's and Rhodes sound pretty good too.

I have yet to hear a B3 VST that sounds convincing to my ears.

A hardware solution you might want to look into is a used Yamaha Motif rack unit. I've seen them on CL for $400-500US.

Something to keep in mind is some of the VSTi's require a host---- i.e. a DAW program to run them. Toontrack and Dim Pro will both run in standalone.
 
What's your budget? First step - find a weighted 88-key keyboard that has full MIDI capability. Then worry about VSti's after that.
 
I'm pretty open to my budget right now. I went into this thinking it was going to cost over $700 or so for a decent keyboard with the sounds I wanted. Although, it seems like nowadays the equipment is relatively inexpensive and the VST's is where all the money is at. An I correct in assuming that? I'm not a professional keyboardist by any means. I want something that feel like a piano but will give me the capabilities for all of the great vintage organ and keyboard sounds too.

Thanks
 
A lot of people are staying "in the box" and using softfare sound libraries - and if you are looking primarily for a few "old school" sounds - they certainly could be a logical way to proceed.

Keep a couple of things in mind: 1) sound libraries can eat up a lot of computer space 2) A weighted action controlller may be preferred for accountic piano - but it is not nearly as user friendly for things like Hammond sounds.

I am very much old school - so I prefer hardware to create sounds. I like being able to tweak sound in real time without having to scroll through numerous parameter windows. I decided I wanted/needed two (2) seperate controllers: an 88 key weighted for accoustic piano (which I also use to trigger Rhodes and Wurly sounds) - and a seperate 61 key unweighted to trigger organs, strings, horns and other synth sounds.

I am not a schooled pianist - but after years of playing, I've develop a piano technique that needs a weighted feel (from years of playing on acoustic pianos). I've also found that I need an unweighted controller to play organ sounds (and I find unweighted works better with almost any sound that is not a piano.

For what it's worth.
 
I have on of these (full weight, 88 key).

maudio_keystationpro88.jpg


However they seem to be discontinued. I would locate one used personally if it ever dies though because it's a solid midi controller. I paid $250 for it used. I think they went for around $400 new when they were in production.

Honestly I really don't use half the knobs or sliders. I use the transport controls and MAYBE the first row of knobs.

It is cool to map everything to a minimoog emulation, or really any subtractive synth.
 
May I ask something? My M-Audio Keystation is alright as a MIDI controller but it's not inspiring to play (the feel of the keyboard, and of course it doesn't have any sounds of its own). Previously I had a Yamaha P-70(?) that had fully-weighted keys, a satisfying grand piano sound, but did not function well as a MIDI controller. Other members here seem to be saying that someone like me needs separate keyboards for piano and MIDI. But if I could find one keyboard that did a good job of both, is it possible to record audio and MIDI data at the same time from one instrument?
 
At least I'm able to do that even with my ancient and dirt cheap Casio CTK-611. ;)

Record the output of that keyboard (for example Line Out, Headphone Out) to your recorder and simultaneously the MIDI data of your playing with that keyboards MIDI Out to your recorder/sound module. There has to be such connectors at the first place though of course.
 
Thank you for replying. That's what I was hoping for. When I shop for a keyboard I will make sure to check for both audio and MIDI outs. I wonder, though, when you do that...
1)Are audio and MIDI recorded on the same track or separate tracks?
2)Have you experienced any problems with them staying in sync?
 
Thank you for replying. That's what I was hoping for. When I shop for a keyboard I will make sure to check for both audio and MIDI outs. I wonder, though, when you do that...
1)Are audio and MIDI recorded on the same track or separate tracks?
2)Have you experienced any problems with them staying in sync?

You might know this already, but audio and midi are not the same thing at all. Audio is the sounds you hear, midi is the data to tell your synth how to play those sounds. Think of midi as digital representations of your fingers playing a keyboard. You push the keys on the keyboard and the keyboard makes the sounds. You determine which note to play and for how long... that is what midi is. So, they can't be recorded on the same track in a DAW program.

As for staying in sync, I see some latency of the midi data when I record from my keyboard into Cubase. I'm not sure why and it doesn't bother me. It's easy enough to fix by nudging the midi track in Cubase. I suppose if I was motivated enough, I would find the cause of the latency and correct it, but... you know.... lazy and it doesn't bother me.
 
Thank you for replying. That's what I was hoping for. When I shop for a keyboard I will make sure to check for both audio and MIDI outs. I wonder, though, when you do that...
1)Are audio and MIDI recorded on the same track or separate tracks?
2)Have you experienced any problems with them staying in sync?

No, in your DAW you would select 1 track as audio and one as MIDI.
There should no synch problems unless possibly you use different input devices (i.e both MIDI and audio shoudl go through the same audio interface.)
 
Usually modern DAW does the latency compensation quietly on it's own. For example, Reaper and Sonar handle it so that you don't have to bother yourself with it. It's the latency that you have selected in your DAW for your soundcard's ASIO driver that matters. The lower the better of course, as low as your system just can handle without pops and cracks and audio dropouts. And for recording or live playing of course, latency can be higher when you just play back or tweak/mix the sounds and whatever stuff you have.

I remember that Reaper has this cool hybrid ability to actually record and use audio and MIDI data on the same track, because it doesn't differ MIDI tracks from audio tracks, correct? Not that it would really make any difference for me at least, I like to keep audio and MIDI separate anyways. :rolleyes:
 
Back
Top