So, i wanna get into keyboards, whats a good starter?

[nomad911]

I've been playing guitar for about 8 years and im a pretty serious musician. I know a lot about guitars and nothing about keyboards. Ive always been really curious about them but ive never had any real experience. ive had a little experience with pianos but not much. Ive been listening to a lot of music that has synthesizers in it and ive finally decided i wanna learn how to play it. Im looking for something that wont be so complicated it scares me away from playing. But id also like to get something thats pretty versatile so that i wont have to turn around and buy a new one in six months when i figure out what im doing. Any advice? if theres already a thread like this one i couldn find it, but im sure youve heard questions like this before. Anyways if this is the wrong place for this kind of question tell me where i should look for advice

[synthman]

There are too many choices available these days, let's narrow down the search. Keyboards come in all shapes and sizes, please give us your preferences:

1. Keyboard size (number of keys): 25, 32, 49, 61, 76 or 88

2. Keyboard type: non-weighted, weighted, hammer-action
Most synths up to 76 key usually come with a soft touch, 88-key (full size) keyboards are designed for piano players, imitating real acoustic piano hammer-action.

3. I take it that you want built-in sounds, do you prefer sample playback or tweaking your own analog-type synth sounds?
Sample playback has many advantages, it uses samples from all kinds of acoustic and electronic instruments, suitable for pretty much any style of music.
It's like having a full multi-purpose orchestra. This would be my first choice.
Analog synths start with a simple waveform, it's routed through a number of modulators, and produce a unique, synthsized sound.
This is only recommended as a second option for generating special sounds.

4. Do you plan to use your synth with a computer? This is highly recommended. You get a virtually unlimited access to new sounds, music software and MIDI files.
MIDI can be used for all sorts of things, learning, practice, composing, etc., plus as a back-up band.

5. Finally, what is your keyboard budget?

Please give as much details as possible, so we can give you the best recommendations.
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