Getting started - help needed!

[Lindsay Honey]

I don't know if there is anyone out there who could advise me. Please forgive my ignorance in advance. I was in the music business a long time ago and have loads of experience from the 'old days'. Now in my fifties and not at all familiar with how things are done now, I've decided to get back into songwriting at home. Can anyone suggest a setup for this? I would like to produce simple demos and wonder if there is a keyboard out there that would be good for this. I want to end up with demos featuring piano, drums, bass and vocals. Possibly also putting some strings, sax and backing vocals on too. I just need some nice sounds and most importantly simple for an oldie like me to learn how to use, not being very au fait with modern technology. I think I've seen some keyboards that have the ability to do this. Any help gratefully received. Many Thanks.

 

[TeyshaBlue]

I don't know if there is anyone out there who could advise me. Please forgive my ignorance in advance. I was in the music business a long time ago and have loads of experience from the 'old days'. Now in my fifties and not at all familiar with how things are done now, I've decided to get back into songwriting at home. Can anyone suggest a setup for this? I would like to produce simple demos and wonder if there is a keyboard out there that would be good for this. I want to end up with demos featuring piano, drums, bass and vocals. Possibly also putting some strings, sax and backing vocals on too. I just need some nice sounds and most importantly simple for an oldie like me to learn how to use, not being very au fait with modern technology. I think I've seen some keyboards that have the ability to do this. Any help gratefully received. Many Thanks.

A few questions.....do you want to do your own drum programming...making your own patterns, etc?

How conversant are you with sequencers?

How conversant are you with multi-track recording?

What's yer budget?

A good, sequencing workstation would be perfect for your purposes. I own a Roland Fantom G6 sequencing workstation and the sounds are killer. The sequencer is not the most intuitive but the manual is pretty good. It also has the ability to record up to 8 audio tracks and place them in any sequence your working with....so it's conceivable that you could record an entire tune on the workstation itself. That's the upper end of the sequencing spectrum.
If you don't want to climb the learning curve of sequencing, then a good hardware multi-track recorder would be your best bet...something simple like the Boss BR-600 http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BR600/
Then add a decent keyboard with some contemporary sounds..which we kinda need to know what you're budget is before we can get real specific.