beginner keyboard

[FBstdminime]

I'm a drummer and I just want a portable keyboard to mess around with. I don't want anything serious and I don't want to spend over $300. The two I have been interested in are the Roland EM-10 and the Yamaha PSR-270. They're both $170 at Mars Music. The Roland's list price is $399 and the Yamaha's is $299. The Roland would seem like the better deal, but the specs go in the Yamaha's favor. So my question is: Has anyone had experience with these boards? And if so, which one would you favor?

Eric

P.S. - Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[drstawl]

I just got the Yamaha PSR-GX76 for $300. It has 76 full size velocity sensitive keys that feel nice to me and a bunch of other cool standalone features.
Beware the grand piano function, though. It sends out a mode change to any connected synth modules that's not documented in the manual. The symptoms are:
Everytime you hit grand piano function while connected to the module the channel disappears and won't reappear until you send a sysex reset to the module via the computer.
Comes with an arpeggiator wheel and a cool footswitch which acts like a sustain pedal on an acoustic piano. Probably the kind the guy in that other thread could destroy in 4 months.
But I like this keyboard.
Almost went with the really small Evolution keyboard but it wouldn't fit on the stand I already owned....

 

[monty]

Check out the Casio CZ101 I just put on eBay. Small keys but MIDI so you can hook it to a large keyboard or sequencer. The cool thing about it is the shitloads of free sounds you can download from various websites. I've downloaded so many, I'll never be able to listen to all of them. Only reason I'm selling it is because I have three of them. Or you could buy the Ensoniq VFX-SD I'll be selling which has a built in 24 track recording/sequencer with floppy backup of song and sound data. Lots of drum sounds and rhythms too.

 

[FBstdminime]

So... which one should I go with? Any strong recommendations?