October 1st, 2007What keyboard should I buy? (Electronic and Computer Music)
Before you do anything else, indulge in some self-analysis of what you want
to do, how committed you are to doing it, and how much money you have to
spend on it. If you plan just to play your keyboard every once in a while for
fun, you will have a different set of requirements from someone who is looking
for the first piece of equipment along the road to establishing a professional
set of gear as the nucleus of a studio. Persons who are going to be performing
contemporary popular music or who wish to imitate traditional instruments will
probably find any number of keyboards which will fit their needs.
Experimentalists, or persons wishing to do sonic exploration, with the sound
being the primary concern, will have a harder time. In general, keyboard which
feature extensive modulation sources and routings (such as the Oberheim
Xpander, Kurzweil K2000, or Ensoniq SD-1) will be more useful for synthesis
than less complex machines.
Set your musical priorities: must-have, highly-desirable, nice, don’t care,
etc. Acoustic sounds? Synth sounds? Multi-timbral? Built-in sequencer?
Built-in effects (reverb, etc)? After-touch? # of keys? You’ll probably need
to get more familiar with the terminology before you can make any decisions
here. A few terms for those new to this:
a) Multi-timbrality means that the keyboard can produce more
than one sound at a time. For most people who will be
purchasing only one synth the first time out, this is
very important. A monotimbral (one-sound-at-a-time) machine will require the use of multi-track tape to
simulate multi-timbrality. Commonly available used
synths which are mono-timbral are the Yamaha DX7 and the
Roland D50. You will not be able to make these keyboards
sound like more than one thing at once.
b) A built-in sequencer (on modern machines) means
that the keyboard has the equivalent of a built-in
multi-track tape machine; it records the events that
occur and allows you to play them back. It is *not* an
audio device; it simply records the actions you take to
produce a piece of music and then plays them back again,
like a player-piano. If you have a computer, you may
want to purchase a MIDI (see below) interface and a
software sequencer instead.
d) Most synthetic sounds are more pleasing with at least a little
bit of effects (echo, reverberation, etc.). Some keyboards
have built-in effects; others require external ones. Note that
built-in effects usually require that all voices go through the
same effect; if there is an alternative, it is usually “no effects”.
This means that is you have a distorted guitar, an organ with a
rotating speaker effect, and a lead with just a touch of reverb,
you are going to have to choose which two of the three effects
you are going to be able to live without, because only one will
be available at a time.
