One of my friends is going to buy a keyboard soon and he has asked me for advice. He's going to use this keyboard to record drums (and other things as well) and use them as backing tracks. It'll be used in a studio environment (for now at least). These are the important things:
* Good drum sounds. This is important.
* Good other sounds (e.g. strings, piano, organ or other sounds that would fit in metal).
* Easy to use (like me, he has a visual handicap, though not as bad as me).
* No arranger functions needed.
* Editing of sounds is a plus.
* Price range: up to approx. $800.
I know this is describing a synth more than an arranger, but this is the best place I know to post this question.

------------------

Robert.

P.s.: Should mention that he's a guitar player and he plays only metal (mostly death metal but also other styles).

[This message has been edited by painkiller (edited 05-28-2005).]

With the things your friend requires and for the price range, it sounds like getting your hands on an original Yamaha Motif (probably have to get is used now) would be a good choice. I would have suggested the Motif es Module, but if his mane instrument is not keyboards it is probably best to get everything in one.

A used Ketron X1..

Thanks guys, but there's one problem (one more thing I forgot to mention):
My friend is going to buy this keyboard in a specific store. This store part of one of the bigger music store chains here in Sweden. I checked out their website, under "used", and found nothing. The closest I got was a Roland DisCover 5. No used Motif and the other of the more "top-end" used boards were just too expensive.
So, in short, it's best with a new keyboard even if that degrades the quality a little. This is most likely also only a temporary solution, until he can get a band together.

------------------

Robert.

Does your friend need a keyboard with a sequencer or will he be recording directly to the computer (or what ever recording tool he uses)?

For about $800 you may have to look at an arranger like the Yamaha PSRs or the Korg pa50 or even check out the new Roland GW7.


If you can extend the 800 a little, have a look at the Roland Fantom XA (it is the Fantom X with a few less features).

He doesn't really need a sequencer, as he intends to record the tracks one by one (like one track for snare and so on).
I also now checked the prices for the mentioned boards. The Roland GW7 looks interesting at that price (I posted a question to George Kaye in that GW7 topic about the drums). The Fantom-XA costs way too much (take into account that keyboard prices are a bit higher here in Sweden).
Also, my $800 approximation is a little off I think, since you can't really compare prices from here to prices in the U.S., I posted it more as a general guideline .

------------------

Robert.

[This message has been edited by painkiller (edited 05-28-2005).]