So, I'm supposed to be looking for a keyboard on limited funds. $200 to be exact. I scoured craigslist and found all of these:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/316360396.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/msg/315837212.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/315524221.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/315465540.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/315270378.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/315117054.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/315065442.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/msg/314887996.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/314503047.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/msg/314460946.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/msg/314432939.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/msg/314379837.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/msg/313762614.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/msg/313254662.html

Then I e-mailed the links to our guitarist who knows way more about keys than I do, but he's in LA and frankly I don't want to ask him for too much help because I want to look like I know what I'm doing at least a little bit. Anyways, he wrote back:

"those keyboards are all a little-- rudimentary, to use a delicate term, to get much use in our setting. i think a good rule of thumb is if a keyboard has built-in speakers, it's probably not for us.

And here I am not wanting to ask too many question but am like 'wtf? Keyboards without speakers?' So I want to do a new craigslist search for keys without speakers, but that just doesn't sound right or specific enough to me. What should I be looking for thats not as rudimentary as the ones I picked before, doesn't have speakers, and is less than $200?

Cheers,
Lost

Perhaps you should take off the $200 spending limit during a future search, just so you can SEE what some decent keyboards would look like.

I would really like to help you, but I honestly don't know of any quality instruments that can be found for such a small price.

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I need a little more cheepnis...please?


JiveTalka87@gmail.com

Alright, well just name keyboards I should be looking for then. I'm sure I can find something. Just what am I supposed to be looking for?

Cheers,
Lost

You're going to need to spend a lot more if you want a decent keyboard. No two ways around it, you need more money.

EDIT: Jive beat me to this one.

Okay! I get it, I need more money. But, what am I looking for?

Cheers,
Lost

LostCause NOBODY can help you because you havent told us what you want to buy.

Just "A keyboard" doesn't mean anything. What do you want to DO with it??

do you want a mid icontroller?
A workstation?? If so what are your synthesizer requirements?
A digital piano that uses sampling?
An acoustic piano? if so do you want a grand piano, and upright piano, what?
An electronic keyboard?

And hell MOST of those links you gave us were dead,, and the rest wer ejust cheapy kids keyboards that have no real use other than kids playing the Halloween theme music.

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"Women and rhythm section first!" - sambob@gmail.com

LostCause NOBODY can help you because you havent told us what you want to buy.

Just "A keyboard" doesn't mean anything. What do you want to DO with it??

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. I - personally - don't know anything about keyboards other than pressing buttons. I know how to play simple things on a piano and I know shit all about technology in general. But, they want me to pick out a keyboard. So, frankly I don't know what I want to be able to do with it.

do you want a mid icontroller?

I don't know what a mid icontroller is.

A workstation?? If so what are your synthesizer requirements?

What kind of workstation are you talking about and as far as synthesizer requirements are, the more tones we can get out of it the better.

A digital piano that uses sampling?

That sounds good. But, I thought keyboards were digital pianos...

An acoustic piano? if so do you want a grand piano, and upright piano, what?

I have an upright piano. I don't need that.

An electronic keyboard?

That's what I was thinking of... I think. An electronic keyboard without speakers (I don't know why I don't want it with speakers - that's just what my guitarist told me to be looking for.) that will give us lots of different tones.

And hell MOST of those links you gave us were dead,, and the rest wer ejust cheapy kids keyboards that have no real use other than kids playing the Halloween theme music.

I'm not surprised because I wrote that e-mail over a week ago. I just wanted to give some examples of what I had been looking at.

Does that clear anything up?

Cheers,
Lost

Well I hate to put it as bluntly as Sam did, but he really makes a point. There are a large number of different keyboards out there, what type of music are you trying to play with them? What kind of sound you want? What do you want to do with them?

__________________
I need a little more cheepnis...please?


JiveTalka87@gmail.com

I know I don't have very much information. I am LOOKING for information on what I should get from people who might know better because I don't know anything about it. Basically, tell me what I want because I don't know. I'm searching in the dark for something I've never even seen before.

We play rock and roll like in the same viene as The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It's sort of Velvet Underground meets YYY's with a side of Muse or The Killers, though the guys will shit themselves if you tell them that to their faces. It's a little screamy but mostly singy, very melodic but a little hardcore. I don't know - we sort of like an electro-y sound I think. But we don't want to sound like electro-clash.

I literally don't know!

Cheers,
Lost

Well, not really to be honest. I still don't know exactly what you want. BUT I have a general idea. If you don't know what MIDI is, then you dont know how synthesizers work, so you want something like a Korg Triton..

That would be my recommendation, a Korg Triton. Tons of great patches (hundreds literally) right out of the box and of course it has a synthesizer that is fairly flexible so once you learn more about it you can create your own patches. Onboard effects, and as far as how well it replicates sounds like.... an acoustic piano, classic electric keyboards (like Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzers, etc etc), organs (like a Hammond B3), its not as good as big heavy digital pianos, but they're good enough for you guys I assume since you obviously don't have a real keyboard player.

and a "digital piano" usually refers to something with built in speakers, taht strictly uses samples, and is meant to replace an acoustic piano. So it has heavy weighted keys like a real piano, more realistic feel, etc etc. They're meant to sound like REAL acoustic pianos as much as possible. They usually don't have many sounds other than a couple of acoustic pianos, and maybe a couple of classic electric pianos, a string sample, and an organ or two.

Btw, you will need to spend more than $200. A decent worstation like a Korg Triton will only set you back about $1700 though, so its not too bad. The more high end ones are generally at least $2000, with the most expensive being up to $10000!

__________________
"Women and rhythm section first!" - sambob@gmail.com