I need help with buying a keyboard

[greatwhitenorth]

I have never bought a keyboard before. I am planning to spend about 200-300 dollars on a keyboard to start out with. Can any of you make any suggestions on which are good. Thanks :)

[Luca_Capozzi]

Start read this

Next, we need to know what kind of music do you want to perform. :)

See ya

[greatwhitenorth]

well I'll probably be playing all types of music, but mostly prog rock type of keyboard.

[Angelic Layer]

A lot of keyboards can do those works.
There's never have any kind of keyboards targeted at a kind of music sound.
Your best choice is getting a used synth or synth module.

[greatwhitenorth]

what are some good synth keyboards?

[Scrap]

I'd just like to point out that anything under the ~$400 range will not be of any quality whatsoever when compared to pro-level gear, especially when they have built-in speakers. Unlike the guitar world, where you can just pick up a MIM Fender Strat for $300, replace the pickups for $100 and get a reasonably decent guitar, the 'mickey mousers' are generally meant for children or people who are not seriously interested in playing - it would get you laughed off of a stage pretty quick. ;)

Just my two cents. If you're seriously interested in learning how to play, consider pro level gear - read the Keyboard Overview and skim over the Gear Talk FAQ. You'll end up saving more money in the end when you want to replace that portable keyboard.

[Spacehog]

There's a wide range of stuff available used in that price range, I'm sure. New, the only things approaching that kind of price are the Alesis QS6.2 and the E-MU range. I have 2 E-MUs (a PK-6 and a Vintage Keys) and I like them a lot (much more than the Triton Classic or the Motif, which I didn't get on with the action of at all) but a lot of people diss them. Certainly they look a bit cheap, they're very plastic, but they're reliable and use the well-established Proteus 2000 architecture, they're plenty expandable (I have 3 ROM cards out of a possible 4 in each) and E-MU are blowing them out at the moment.

I don't know what's going on at E-MU (probably Creative applying the squeeze) but their products are getting cheaper all the time. I remember when the PK6 retailed at £999/$1195... now you can find it quite easily for £299/$399. Expamsion ROMs are pretty cheap too, direct from E-MU, having come down by as much as 70% in recent months. The presets on the PK-6 are quite lame (the Halo and the Vintage Keys are much better) but it's a powerful and easy-to-use engine that encourages you to edit and create much better sounds (it's very possible) and you can get great results from it.

I'm not trying to be an E-MU evangelist here, just that everyone talks about Korg, Kurzweil, Yamaha and Roland (occasionally Alesis) and forgets about E-MU... which is a damn shame, you get a lot for your money IMO :)

Martin