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[Felidae_Khrall]

I'm looking for a good digital keyboard in the $200 range (Canadian) because I am getting one for christmas.

I need suggestions, and I'd like one that's going to be able to hook up to my computer.

Come on music buffs, help me out!

 

[warabi-mochi]

Uh... hrm. I can't recall anything you'll be able to get that would be any good for $200. Unless you just want a midi controller. I have a feeling that isn't what you're looking for though. I'm heading out to take a look at a triton extreme someone wants to sell me tomorrow, so I'll snoop around the store and see if they have/know of anything.

I'm pretty sure for $200 it would have to be used though.

 

[Felidae_Khrall]

Yamaha PSR 172 Portable Keyboard

Don't be fooled by the PSR172's entry-level price; it comes with 61 piano-sized keys and a host of features, like the Portable Grand. No matter what buttons you've been playing with, touch the Portable Grand button and instantly reset the keyboard to the finest piano. Kids will love the DJ function to create music, plus, the PSR172 has 100 built-in songs for you to learn to play!

FEATURES:

* Yamaha Education Suite: The PSR172 has 100 built-in songs with Songbook for you to learn to play, using the Yamaha Education Suite. The songs are separated into left and right hand parts, providing 7 levels of lessons, plus a convenient chord dictionary.
* Three keyboard lessons for each hand timing mode. You can play the melody or chord by pressing any key using the correct timing.
* Waiting Mode: Playback pauses until you find and play the correct chord or melody note.
* Minus One Mode: Mute the left-hand, right-hand, or both parts of a song and play along non-stop.
* Lesson Grading monitors your progress as you practice each lesson.
* Chord Dictionary shows you how to play chords and tells you which chords you are playing by displaying the notes and chord name on the LCD screen.
* Sound Quality: A special port on each speaker adds a powerful impact to bass sound reproduction.
* Auto Accompaniment: In addition to the 100 songs mentioned above, the PSR172 also has auto accompaniment features that "follow" your playing.
* Voices And Multi-Pads: Comes with a selection of voices from you to choose from - a total of 100 in all. You'll also find 4 multi-pads buttons that access 10 banks of phrases and drum fills. Just press one (or more) of the multi-pad buttons and it will play a musical phrase or drum fill that will match the music you're playing!
* MIDI: The music pathway to your computer and the Internet is MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a way for electronic musical instruments communicate with each other and computers. With this keyboard, you have access to thousands of MIDI sources on the Internet.
* Connectivity: The PSR172 features MIDI In/Out, Sustain Pedal Jack and a Headphone Jack for private practice

This is my current top runner because it's under $200.

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

keyboard synth's suck

save up money and get a rack sound module, prefferably soemthing like one of the roland jv peices, and then just get a keybaord controller.

peace

 

[Felidae_Khrall]

This is a christmas gift from my mom and her husband, and I need something so I can learn to play the Piano again. This should be perfect. (Or something along these lines)

 

[tt_deeb]

If you just want to relearn piano as a hobby or whatever the Casio/Yamaha cheap boards (with the built in speakers) should be fine. But remember, you get what you paid for and these aren't very professional. The piano sounds are going to sound cheap, along with probably all of the other sounds. But this is your only option if you are restricted to a price of around 200 bucks. My advice would be to save up and get something better but it really depends on how serious you want to go about this. You'll be able to hook it up to the computer and use General MIDI sounds with one of the thousand free MIDI programs you can find if that's all you really are aiming for.

 

[Felidae_Khrall]

If you just want to relearn piano as a hobby or whatever the Casio/Yamaha cheap boards (with the built in speakers) should be fine. But remember, you get what you paid for and these aren't very professional. The piano sounds are going to sound cheap, along with probably all of the other sounds. But this is your only option if you are restricted to a price of around 200 bucks. My advice would be to save up and get something better but it really depends on how serious you want to go about this. You'll be able to hook it up to the computer and use General MIDI sounds with one of the thousand free MIDI programs you can find if that's all you really are aiming for.

Ok, for the sake of curiosity, what would the lowest model/price be that you would consider decent for "professional" ?

 

[radioheadrule83]

I'd back up the Yamaha advice above. I've enjoyed their products immensely.

I'm paying off a £1600 credit on this baby right now:

 

[tt_deeb]

Ok, for the sake of curiosity, what would the lowest model/price be that you would consider decent for "professional" ?

I don't know, I just know the one's you're looking at are very toy-ish and will only have GM sounds all pre-recorded. What you're going to want is something that actually oscillates real sounds opposed to the pre-recorded. Alesis's QS series has some good piano sounds but are pretty expensive. Here's the 6.1 model which goes for about $500-700(U.S. dollars) according to the site although it could very well be cheaper (especially used on ebay):

http://www.vintagesynth.org/misc/qs61.shtm

The QS6.1 is a 64 Voice Expandable Synthesizer and is a much more improved version of the QS6 QuadraSynth. With double the sound memory, the QS6.1 has 16MB of digital ROM samples, double the expansion capabilities, double the real-time control sliders, and a much improved and larger LCD display screen. The QS6.1 has a vast set of sounds containing a library of 640 programs and 500 multitimbral mixes. Really amazing pianos, orchestral sounds as well as vintage synth sounds, strings, brass, winds, guitars, drums, percussion loops and groove patterns can all be found here.

This probably way too much unnecessary clicks and whistles if you just want to focus on a piano sounds. It's the only units I know for great piano sounds but like I said before I wouldn't know where to start looking. Keep in mind that you'd have to buy speakers for the unit too.

Just search around the site for related units although these are probably packing too much then what you're asking for. Maybe go to Sam Ash or whatever local music store and explain to them you want something with good piano sounds and then test out the units. That's the best way to go about buying something.

 

[Felidae_Khrall]

I'm getting the Yamaha featured in my second post. It'll be fine for now since I have to re-learn how to play piano anyways, so this'll be a good starter. I can save up for something fancier with weighted keys later on. Thanks for the advice.