best midi keyboards for under $100

  • Thread starter Thread starter rxQueen
  • Start date Start date
rxQueen

rxQueen

New member
hi, what are some awesome midi keyboards for under $100? I'm going to use it for drum sampling and bass lines and synth lines and stuff like that for the music I make, which is heavy metal and electronic.

thank you
 
That's one hell of a place to live ;)

For $100, you're not going to get a good all-in-one synth. You're best bet is to spend the cash on the best controller you can get, and use it to play softsynths (hopefully you're recording on a computer-based rig). Plenty of softsynhts are available for free - check out kvraudio.com

Here are a couple of ideas in your price range:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--MDOKEYSTAT49
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--ALEPHOTON25

One's short (few keys), one doesn't have many controls (just pitch bend and mod wheel). You'd be far better off if you could afford and extra $50 to get something like this:

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--MDORADIUM49

There are really no keyboards with internal sounds for that price - if you find one, it'll sound unusably bad, probably won't have MIDI, and won't be very programmable.
 
For less than $100, I don't think you're going to find much short of a yard sale score. I've been looking for a cheap piano-based midi controller/machine and haven't found much. You might try looking on Ebay or you local used instrument stores for a Yamaha DJX Keyboard. I had one quite a few years ago and it was okay... If you record the notes you're playing to a MIDI program you may be albe to achieve the sound you're looking for wiht plugins... That's basically how I did Jazz with the DJX I got for Xmas years ago.

YMMV, but I hope this helps,

Jason
 
By the way, the only real down side to Ebay, other than not being able to check out what you're buying first hand, is the shipping costs. Sometimes they put you in a position where it would actually be cheaper to buy local.

Jason
 
frankieballsss said:
Dude he said he wanted a midi keyboard, READ before blabbering.


The radium 49 is in that price range.
Click to expand...


And? If its got MIDI, its a MIDI keyboard - whether it has sound generation or not.

I'd rather give a thourough answer that covers all bases than assume I know exactly what someone means by a vague terma and tell them to buy something that won't do what they need.

Everywhere I looked (zzounds, sweetwater, music123, americanmusical), I saw a $150 tag on the radium - that's not under $100. AND I mentioned it anyway.
 
by midi keyboard, I'm looking for something I can plug into my computer and program drumtracks and make synth lines with it...
 
rxQueen said:
by midi keyboard, I'm looking for something I can plug into my computer and program drumtracks and make synth lines with it...
Click to expand...

Here's the confusion:

Does the keyboard itself have to make sounds? :confused: `
Some keyboards are merely keyboard controllers, they play softsynths, modules, etc. Those are in your price range.

If you NEED a synth, you could get an Alesis Nanosynth for probably 100 ( a module, no keys) and pick up a casio midi keyboard for 40 bucks that has midi.
 
I haven't played keyboards in years and I have some vintage keyboard stuff that gets zero use nowdays. Get ready to giggle. Akai S-612 sampler. Yamaha DX9. CZ-101. I think there's a poly 800 somewhere in the crawlspace.

Anyway, a few friends of mine, sometimes non-musicians, have these yamaha or casio keyboards with speakers in the tops of them and I fool around with them. They seem far superior to what was available when I was buying my crap. Are they all junk? Most of them are sub$100 and they almost all have midi outs.

If one were considering getting one of those maybe just to use as a controller for the S-612 (which I used to have loads of fun with while polluted with attention-span enhancing substances), what sort of flaws would one wish to avoid? I was thinking that the 61-key, velocity sensitive ones with midi out would be OK just to have around. What kinds of "features" make them a waste of money?
 
DavidK said:
Here's the confusion:

Does the keyboard itself have to make sounds? :confused: `
Some keyboards are merely keyboard controllers, they play softsynths, modules, etc. Those are in your price range.

If you NEED a synth, you could get an Alesis Nanosynth for probably 100 ( a module, no keys) and pick up a casio midi keyboard for 40 bucks that has midi.
Click to expand...

no, the keyboard itself doesn't have to generate sound (like those casio or yamaha ones from costco and radioshack)...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top