key advice?

[reco]

Hey guys n' gals!
I have been looking for a Keybaord with "Real" sounds.......
I am poor since getting my BR-1180CD so I need to keep the price down in the $400-450 range.
anythoughts? I tryed and kinda liked the sounds in the Casio WK-3500, but I am kinda embaresed to say the "C" word.

Thanks in advance.
-Rik

 

[brzilian]

I'd buy one of Yamaha's DXG boards over a Casio.

$450-500 might even get you a used Roland XP30 on eBay which would blow away any Casio or Yamaha arranger board.

Other boards to look out for in that price range:

Em PK-6
Yamaha S03
Roland RS-5
Alesis QS 6.1 or 6.2

Any of the above would have good "acoustic" or "real" sounds.

 

[Atterion]

I'd personally stay away from the DGX myself (I have a DGX-202...I've given to my kids). I have always been a fan of the XG tone generators from Yamaha, and the S03 is much better then the DGX (Which suffers from poor MIDI implementation, and the lack of ability to save presets). I'd personally go for the EMU PK-6 or Alesis QS6.2. They both have a fair amount of expansion cards available, so if the included soundsets aren't exactly what you need, you'll probably be able to get what you need. Not real sure about the options for the Roland (It does sound nice though). Also a good bet would be to look around for a used KORG N/X series (N364/N5/X5 etc.), especially if you want some of the sweetest pads around.