Buying a keyboard ...

[NothnButClay]

I've been playing the piano for four years and want to buy a keyboard. Not only do I want one, I'm about to NEED one. I've been playing the keyboard in my church's main sanctuary band for five months now and am fixing to switch to the youth band and we don't have a keyboard. So, I need one that will work for praise & worship, and has the disk thing and the computer hook up. (not sure of the tech terms) Am willing to pay 1 - 2 grand at the most. Thanx for any and all opinions!!

[jmlouie]

Get a Yamaha S80, the sounds are good and it is critically acclaimed (meaning that it's not just my opinion the pros think it's good too)

[Nate]

Check out the Roland RD-700. It's an incredible board. It's a little more than the S-80 (which is also a great board, BTW).... but it's worth every penny.

BTW, what do you mean by "disk thing"??? Are you looking to save and record songs ON the keyboard itself??? If this is the case.... you might want to look at the Roland XP-80 and Korg Trinity (the predecessor of the Triton.... the Triton would be over your $2000 budget.. but you could get a Trinity for under $2000)

Personally... unless you've used sequences (recorded songs) a lot in the past... I wouldn't worry about having an onboard sequencer and "disk thing."

[Nate]

Originally posted by jmlouie
(meaning that it's not just my opinion the pros think it's good too)

Michael W. Smith would top the chart of "pros who use the S-80." Just some food-for-thought.

[NothnButClay]

The disk thing I was talking about enables you to save songs on it then take the disk out and be able to delete them on the keyboard, but put the disk back in later and pull them up again. Did that make sense??

:confused:

[LWatford]

You arn't really recording to the keyboard, but you are recording to the disc. The Roland XP-60/80 is good for playback, but recording and editing is very difficult. If you wanted to learn it, it would be a very good keyboard.

Usually it is best to work on seqences on a computer where everything is visual and all options are easy to get to.

If you were talking about actual audio recording, the only keyboard I know of that does that is the Korg Trinity. It has a 4-track HD recorder option.

[NothnButClay]

Thought of another question: how many octaves do these keyboards all have??

[LWatford]

The Korg Trinity is avalible in 61, 76, and 88 key versions
The Roland XP-80 is 76 keys, the XP-60 is 61 keys
The Roland RD-700 and the Yamaha S-80 are 88 keys

I'm guessing on the last two, but I think thats right.

Lee

[Nate]

Originally posted by LWatford
I'm guessing on the last two, but I think thats right.


Good guesses... :D

My recommendation for either the Roland XP-80 or Korg Trinity still stands. Those two are about the best keyboards with a disk drive under $2000. I'd probably recommend the XP-80 over the Trinity just because I'm a little biased towards Roland. (I own the XV-88.. which is also a great board)

Anyway, the best advice I can give you is to go and actually try these keyboards out for yourself. The XP-80 and Trinity are fairly common boards, and just about any medium-to-large music store should carry them. You have to be the one to make the final decision.... so trust your ears and your hands. Decide which one YOU like better.

Hope this helps.