uhm, maybe try buying just a cheap midi keyboard. that way you'll be able to play it just like a piano, yet do all the production and knob tweaking on the computer.

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sempre contra a corrente do jogo

If you want the complete feel of a piano (and as an accomplished pianist, anything less than the complete feel will probably piss you the fuck off ), then you should probably just get a digital piano. Another option would be the Triton workstation full 88-key weighted synth; from what I hear this also has a very "real" feel to it, and is pretty sweet for producing too based on reviews I've read. Unfortunately it also comes with quite the price tag, hehe.

Thanks for the Triton tip. I hadn't even looked at those models yet. Damn! The one at the top of the range is $3,400, but it's got some sweet built-in hardware. (An onboard CD burner? Cooool.....)

Pretty much out of my price range right now, but I'm definitely taking a trip to the music store over Christmas to try some of this stuff out.

Get a keyboard that will allow you to play the piano, but one that also has midi out so that you can hook it up to cubase and play softsynths or hardware rack synths. The Triton will do this but there are cheaper options out there I'm sure.

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1 out of every 4 people in this country are mentally disturbed. Look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem okay, then you're the one.

Thanks for the tips.

I just took a trip to the music store to try a few things out. A digital piano is clearly the way to go for just playing piano. There really is no comparison between the "piano" feel on the digital pianos and the keys on the weighted synths. So my primary purchase will probably be a full-size Yamaha digital piano. Great piano and organ sounds, great action, under $1000. 'Nuff said about that.

But I still needed some kind of MIDI/synth/controller solution for the computer. I took a look at some bare controllers, but the cheapness of feel on those was pretty bad. I felt like I would be spending at least $150 for something made by Fisher Price. So I checked out some real synths.

There wasn't much of a selection, but I did like what I heard on the Yamaha CZ2X. The Alesis Ion was there too, but its software seemed really difficult to use. I'll have to spend more time checking out the synths.

Any other thoughts are appreciated-

One way or another, if you plan to buy some hardware, you will need something to control them (if they're rack mount synths), so a MIDI keyboard would be a good idea. Midiman makes great midi keyboards, i've tested them all out, very high quality. The Oxygen 8 is very inexpensive (150 bucks) and works perfectly. Only drawback is that you can only use two octaves at a time. The Ozone is the same as the Oxygen 8, but it has a built in soundcard.

Most music stores carry them (from what i've seen), or you can order online.

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Back from another music store, and wow! They had a Yamaha S30 with an expansion pack in it that emulates the sounds of the AN1X. The price was $1000, which after looking on the web is actually reasonable compared to what people want for just the S30.

Bottom line is I've got a whole bunch of info to look at and think about. Whatever I get won't be until after Christmas.

But whatever board I get, along with Cubase/Reason, I think I'll have a pretty good setup.

Whatever you get, just make sure it has a midi out port. That way you can use it to controll reason, cubase, etc. and you won't need to get a shitty cheap feeling midi controller.

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1 out of every 4 people in this country are mentally disturbed. Look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem okay, then you're the one.