Newbie question, need advice

[something cool]

Alright, you all seem to know what you're talking about, maybe you can help me out?

With the holidays coming up, I'm looking to get a keyboard/midi controller for recording purposes. I use a Triton LE at school and love it, but for my own little studio I'd like to hopefully stay below $500. I'm no pianist so basically I'm looking to add effects and weird sounds and a little piano here and there to my guitar-based recordings. Drums too.

So far I've been looking at the Roland A37, the M-Audio 61. Thoughts on either of these? Do either of them come with a decent number of patches? or any?

Someone suggested the Roland XP30, which looks sweet, but is just a little too pricey for me. Some guy down at the guitar shop also suggested the Korg MicroKorg.

Anyways, long story short: What's the best I can do with less than $500?

Need more info please ask. I'm total newb when it comes to this stuff. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[subtractor]

An ms2000 or micro korg are the most fun you can have with a synth, for the money as far as I know. And they definitely both have weird sounds...
What kind of music do you want to make?
And do you know the difference between analog / virtual analog and sample based synths?

 

[brzilian]

Alright, you all seem to know what you're talking about, maybe you can help me out?

With the holidays coming up, I'm looking to get a keyboard/midi controller for recording purposes. I use a Triton LE at school and love it, but for my own little studio I'd like to hopefully stay below $500. I'm no pianist so basically I'm looking to add effects and weird sounds and a little piano here and there to my guitar-based recordings. Drums too.

So far I've been looking at the Roland A37, the M-Audio 61. Thoughts on either of these? Do either of them come with a decent number of patches? or any?

Someone suggested the Roland XP30, which looks sweet, but is just a little too pricey for me. Some guy down at the guitar shop also suggested the Korg MicroKorg.

Anyways, long story short: What's the best I can do with less than $500?

Need more info please ask. I'm total newb when it comes to this stuff. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

The Roland A37 and M-Audio Radium61 are MIDI controllers and produce no sound of their own.

Look at the E-Mu PK6, Korg X5D, Roland RS-5 and Yamaha S-03. They are in your price range, but you sacrifice a decent keyboard feel, expandability and aftertouch response.

 

[something cool]

An ms2000 or micro korg are the most fun you can have with a synth, for the money as far as I know. And they definitely both have weird sounds...
What kind of music do you want to make?
And do you know the difference between analog / virtual analog and sample based synths?

First off, thanks for the sugesstions. As you can see, I know basically nothing.

Type of music? I'm mostly a rocker/metalhead but I'm also into an industril/goth type of sound and electronic music, as well as softer more melodic stuff.

And the diff between analog/v.a./sample-based? nope, i'm dumb.