Synth Recommendations

  • Thread starter Thread starter gugon
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gugon

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Hi:

I'm just recently getting into home recording and I'm looking for recommendations on a good synth. Up to now, I've been strictly a pianist, so I'm pretty much in the dark when it comes to synthesizers. Feel free to talk to me like I'm in 2nd grade. But I do have a couple specific questions / requirements (below).

For recording, I'm using a Gateway 500X computer with Windows XP, Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz. I'm using Cakewalk Home Studio 2004 and a Lexicon Omega external interface.

For my recordings, the drum tracks are extremely important. I wan't realistic synth percussion and I wan't to be able to program the entire song start to finish (in other words, I'm not much concerned with looping). I've been considering buying a drum machine - but then I thought, I need a synth also, so why not just do the drums on a keyboard? Is there a keyboard on which I can program a drum track the way you would with a drum machine?

As for the synth - I'm actually leaning towards the full 88 keys (though I'm still on the fence with this). Also, the realism of the piano sounds are very important.

By the way, my budget is $1000 or less.

Any suggestions?
 
You will probably have to get something used at that price if you want 88 weighted keys. You might look for a used Yamaha S80 or one of the Korg workstations. The Kurzweil K series also has some pretty realistic sounds. Take a look on Ebay or at the local music shop and see if you can find something to fit your budget.

Another way to go is to use a controller and softsynths. Softsynths let you load a virtual keyboard into the computer and play that from a midi keyboard. The downside is they take a lot of computer resources and latency (delay) can be a problem while playing.
 
Yamaha Motif 8 is amazing - really under-rated compared with eg. the expensive but popular Korg Triton, but with $1000 you could get the (little edition) "LE Triton". Yamaha released the new Motif ES range, but may not be under $1000. I make whole songs on my Motif 6 (non weighted keys), and now I'm getting into computer recording it is amazing. It has hundreds of quality string, brass, bass, percussion, keyboard, piano and organ sounds, which is what I was after - rather than synthy electronic sounds. I'm sure there are hundreds of great synths out there, and it all depends on what you want out of it. As a pianist you may want fully weighted keys which are more expensive and heavy. you get "semi-weighted" but personally I think they're awaful.

All I can say is try to play as many as possible in your local store. Ask for some guidence and they should be able to help / try to sell it to you. Look through sites, and look at the reviews from real people at Harmony Central

Hope that helped,

Carter
 
WahLikeMe said:
Yamaha Motif 8 is amazing - really under-rated compared with eg. the expensive but popular Korg Triton, but with $1000 you could get the (little edition) "LE Triton". Yamaha released the new Motif ES range, but may not be under $1000. I make whole songs on my Motif 6 (non weighted keys), and now I'm getting into computer recording it is amazing. It has hundreds of quality string, brass, bass, percussion, keyboard, piano and organ sounds, which is what I was after - rather than synthy electronic sounds. I'm sure there are hundreds of great synths out there, and it all depends on what you want out of it. As a pianist you may want fully weighted keys which are more expensive and heavy. you get "semi-weighted" but personally I think they're awaful.

All I can say is try to play as many as possible in your local store. Ask for some guidence and they should be able to help / try to sell it to you. Look through sites, and look at the reviews from real people at Harmony Central

Hope that helped,

Carter
Click to expand...

:confused:

Motif 8 for $1000???

Triton LE for $1000???

What are you talking about?
 
Hmmm...in effects you can't have great sounds and great action keys for 1000 bucks max only.
The S08 have a great actions, but sounds a bit "smaller" than his big brothers.Could be an axcellent solution for the beginning
If you have only to work with the pc take a look at the software solution (controller + something like Sampletank 2 XL).
if you have to play live too I can only suggest to wait, get more bucks and go with an yamaha S90! ;)

(please consider that the best feeling keyboard for a classical trained pianist is the Kawai mp 9500: the only with wood keys and hammer action...but it costs something like 2K bucks...arrgh! :eek: )
 
metropolis79 said:
Hmmm...in effects you can't have great sounds and great action keys for 1000 bucks max only.
Click to expand...

That might not be true anymore. If you don't mind getting two pieces of equipment anyway. M-Audio's new Keystation 88 Pro has a graded, hammer action, feels pretty nice (I finally got to play with one), has tons of controllers and retails for $499.00. (I actually got a quote of $399.00 at www.eastcoastmusicmall.com using their "bid" option in their shopping cart.) With the $500.00-$600.00 you could certainly find yourself a decent rack synth, new or used.

It's a great time to be a gear-hound!

Ted
 
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