Sorry if this is the wrong section by the way;
I started to learn Piano, and started to get somewhat serious about learning instead of the usual "Pick it up and play for a few minutes" kind of thing, but my rather crappy keyboard broke.
I need a decent one for about 200 dollars or so, to practice with, one that doesn't feel like it has light plastic-y feeling keys.. Any suggestions?
You can get a decent controller for about $100-200 such as the Oxygen 49. The issue with this is that you need to hook it up to your computer to use it. As far as I'm aware, cheaper synths lack pretty bad in the quality department. If plan on just practicing in your bedroom I'd suggest the Oxygen 49 or something similar, just be aware that you'd need to hook it up to your computer stuff.
In your case, pretty much anything with weighted-keys would do although they are usually a fair amount of cash more. Yamaha in particular make decent ones. If possible, find some used gear. I got my hands on a lightly used Technics SX-P50 for $350 which would normally retail for over a thousand bucks.
Also, how many keys do you want? Do you want the full 88-key and 7 octave setup or a smaller one? A full sized keyboard can be up there in price.
And going off of what Pepin said, some stage keyboards and controller keyboards normally don't have built in speakers but rather can be hooked up to an amp, headphones, or your computer. If it can be hook up to the computer via MIDI, the built in sound samples won't matter since you could use programs like Art Vista for awesome and realistic piano sounds. In this case all you would need is one that has a nice action.
After thinking about it, I think I'd like to go with a midi controller like Pepin said.. I'm looking at the Oxygen 61, as I'd prefer to have the extra keys.
Since my PC is not in my room, I might move it across rooms, I would be able to plug it into my amp to practice, or headphones, correct?
If I get more serious about playing Piano, I can always save up for a nice normal one anyways.
Thanks by the way.
You'd play it through your computer speakers. You could hook up a cable from your computer to an amp if you wanted, or you could just play through your speakers/headphones.
[QUOTE=Rooster Assassin;25839280]After thinking about it, I think I'd like to go with a midi controller like Pepin said.. I'm looking at the Oxygen 61, as I'd prefer to have the extra keys.
Since my PC is not in my room, I might move it across rooms, I would be able to plug it into my amp to practice, or headphones, correct?
If I get more serious about playing Piano, I can always save up for a nice normal one anyways.
Thanks by the way.[/QUOTE]
You should be able to depending on whether or not the one you buy has those abilities. Usually all keyboards will have some sort of headphone jack whether it is 1/4 or 1/8 inch (If not buy a converter for 1/4). The Technics I have is a controller/stage piano and it has both MIDI, L/R jacks for amps and whatnot, and the stereo headphone jack. I assume most other keyboards will follow this minus/plus a few features.
I'm pretty sure he'd need to buy a synth for that. I'm not fully sure, but I'm believe that a controller wouldn't ever have a headphone out unless it was set up so that it sent data out to the synth and the synth sends the audio back to the controller.
You could create a surrogate synth by putting a cheap keyboard through a monotron.
[editline]4th November 2010[/editline]
Analogue Synth :science:
I have a Novation Remote 61 SL, the keys feel sooo much better than the oxygen, it's a little expensive but you can get some pretty good prices used.
The Moog!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxTShKhAm74[/media]
