Guest valley69 Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 hey wondering if someone could help me out? Im interested in introducing some keyboards into my band but wouldnt know where to start regarding which one i should actually buy. im looking to spend around 100. ta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marillionboy Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 That ain't very much...Depends of course on what you want them for. Ebay is a good place for retro keyboards, and the Roland D50 and the Yamaha SY-35 are still tremendous pieces of kit. Its jugely versatile, with some good synth lead sounds and some great strings, organs etc. The lead sounds are a bit 80s though, in particular the keyboard sound used on KC and the Sunshine Band's Give It Up! At the newer end of the market the Korg CX-3 is an incredible good rock organ. If you're wanting your synth for aone particular task, say for example some dark string in the background and you wanna go for a real curio, seek out a wonderful Logan String Synth. These go very cheap now and are still the darkest synth strings I've ever heard. And if you are prepared to be patient with it, a cheapo mini moog is a terrific lead synth which will never really date, it sounded quaint when it first was invented!These are just personal selections, don't know what your band style is, but what I would say is that as these are predominantly more erpic sounding instruments that could make a nice unique mix if your band has a rawer sound...look how distinctive The Stranglers were for chucking a prog-rock keyboard into the punk brew! In a studio I was in once someone had left an ancient Wurlitzer a la Sgt Pepper and just holding a few chords on it added an entire new magic to everything we played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valley69 Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 well yeh our bands sound is really raw. Dirty rythm guitar and a trebly bass sound although if i got a keyboard or synth i think the bass guitar may be put on the back burner for the majority of live songs while i play the bass notes on the keys and chop and change between synth work and very low end guitar. The mini moog looks good like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marillionboy Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 There are also lots of sample things available you can plug into a master keyboard, but I really think it can be quite unusual and fun to buy some obscure antique keyboard and add it to your existing sound, means you have a trademark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest valley69 Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 There are also lots of sample things available you can plug into a master keyboard' date=' but I really think it can be quite unusual and fun to buy some obscure antique keyboard and add it to your existing sound, means you have a trademark.[/quote']do you have a lot of keyboards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marillionboy Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 I actually don't currently own any, just a grand piano Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spellchecker Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 if you want to go lo-fi, and aren't interested in hooking up with the MIDI side of things, then you could do as suggested and get a cheap keyboard, then run it through a couple of effects, like a guitar distortion and a little chorus. some of the most basic fm synth sounds totally come alive with a bit of distortion and other effects like tremolo (hmm, maybe the one time when a zoom multi effects may be of any use). if you can borrow a keyboard from anyone, try running it through some effects to see if it may be something that appeals to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compuphonic Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 Well you are going to be extremely limited in your choices on that budget.You might be really lucky and pick up a Roland D5/D10, JX-1 or maybe Yamaha DX7, Korg Poly 800 for 100Something like a Roland D50 or Korg M1 is probably going to still be nearer 200Really depends on what you want to do with it. Cheap synths do tend to sound cheap. Sometimes this can be used to creative effect, but in general they stuggle a bit to complete with guitars when playing live.Places to check are Scot Ads, eBay, Cash Converters, Evening Express etc Oh and that Mini Moog is going to set you back about 750+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swingin' Ryan Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 if you want to go lo-fi' date=' and aren't interested in hooking up with the MIDI side of things, then you could do as suggested and get a cheap keyboard, then run it through a couple of effects, like a guitar distortion and a little chorus. some of the most basic fm synth sounds totally come alive with a bit of distortion and other effects like tremolo (hmm, maybe the one time when a zoom multi effects may be of any use). if you can borrow a keyboard from anyone, try running it through some effects to see if it may be something that appeals to you.[/quote']I'd definitelly second that. We've been playing an old Casio keyboard through a digital 8 track and using the onboard effects thing and you can get some great sounds out of it. For example, a pretty basic synthy kind of noise, played with the "screaming" vocal effect (which is pitch-changing/phaser kind of thing), gives you a really gritty synth noise, and it's miles cheaper (assuming you have some kinnd of recording equipment or effects stuff). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodast Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 At the newer end of the market the Korg CX-3 is an incredible good rock organ.That thing is the sexiest keyboard on the market With Nord Electros a close second...About models.. I don't really know about one that cheap, unless you do the software stuff because master keyboards are really cheap. If you want to get lots of sounds then you should probably look for a workstation of some sort, but it might be cooler to find something obscure with more limited sounds and just mess about with it like Marillionboy said. I got a Roland XP50 workstation off ebay for 300, check as often as you can because there are quite a lot of good things on buy it now that get sold on the first day they're up.www.vintagesynth.com/index2.htmlwww.zzounds.comwww.sonicstate.com/synthJust so you can match a model name to a description and stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stripey Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 well yeh our bands sound is really raw. Dirty rythm guitar and a trebly bass sound although if i got a keyboard or synth i think the bass guitar may be put on the back burner for the majority of live songs while i play the bass notes on the keys and chop and change between synth work and very low end guitar. The mini moog looks good like.You might find the micro-korg to your liking' date=' it's pretty decent for the price ( 250 quid or so) [url']http://www.dv247.com/invt/9229personally I would avoid vintage synths that don't have midi interfaces and toy keyboards like low end yamahas that you find in argos. If you want good bass sounds go for some virtual analogue synth (like the microkorg) that has at least 2 detunable oscillators and a decent modulation matrix. Above all, try and get a hands on demo before you buy anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compuphonic Posted April 23, 2005 Report Share Posted April 23, 2005 well yeh our bands sound is really raw. Dirty rythm guitar and a trebly bass sound although if i got a keyboard or synth i think the bass guitar may be put on the back burner for the majority of live songs while i play the bass notes on the keys and chop and change between synth work and very low end guitar.In your price range I think you'll struggle to find a keyboard that will cut it live as well as a bass guitar does.. often the reason bands with keyboards are 5 piece (or reserve bass keyboard swaps for more laid back material).Some more suggestions around your price range are Yamaha FM synths - DX21/DX27/Dx100 or Casio Phase Distortion stuff CZ-101, CZ-1000, VZ-1BTW a Korg BX/CX-3 is going to cost you more than the minimoog..What sort of sounds are you looking for ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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