Newbie Question

[Jimmy J]

I’m not sure this is the best place, but here goes.

I understand the point of midi software and controllers, I just don’t have experience.

My wife and I are starting a band, and she has had some experience playing keyboard, but neither of us have experience with midi. It is mainly 80’s stuff, new wave, pop material. She just wants to be able to play basic synth stuff live on a controller. We were thinking the Alesis Vortex to allow her to move around, and being an 80’s band, it kind of fits the keytar vibe.

Anyway, we don’t want to get too complicated with programming and sequencing, but we do want to have decent synth sounds for her to play live on a controller.

What suggestions would you all have for the best way to make that happen, what synth software to use, if the Alesis Vortex is the best way to go or not, etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

[msepsis]

Hey Jimmy,
no this isn’t the best place to ask something like this but no matter where you post a question like this (gearslutz, etc) you’ll be just getting a bunch of subjective opinions anyway.

live band? 80s? I see why the vortex comes to mind. Call around a few local music shops to see who has one in stock and have her try one out in person to be sure she likes the feel of the keys, the key action, adjustability, mobility, etc.

Plug that thing via USB into a laptop running Arturia’s Prophet softsynth and she’s ready to rock 80s style.

By all means try out as many soft synths as you want to be sure they have the sound characteristics you’re looking for, every arturia and native instruments soft synth is available as a free demo. try before you buy!

Good luck, man

Monstrum Media | Music, Sound & Software Design, Chicago / San Francisco listen

[atom]

I wouldn’t spend too much money on that. The keytar is a bitch to play from what i heard (never had that).

I’m selling a Korg 707 at the moment it’s a cheap plasic digital fm synth that does all the 80s sound and has the “strap-on” (sounds pornographic) option. Look for one of those 80-90s plastic synths, they are cheap and some of them had that strap option, there is some guitar like controllers out there but nowadays theyre considered “vintage” for some reason and are expensive.

Look at vintagesynth.org site and have a look aroung at what Yamaha/Korg/roland had to offer in those days i’m sure you’ll find something cheap on ebay.

[jasefos]

Korg and Alesis have announced new Keytar models at NAMM2014 – the alesis is cheap and chearful, the Korg is sexy and more expensive.

--> Music: www.soundcloud.com/jasefos
--> DAW: OSX10.10.5 with Live 9.6 x64, UA Apollo Quad
--> Controllers: Push 2, KeyLab61, Maschine mk2, MCU Pro, 2xMCU-Ext
--> Synths: Cyclone Bass Bot TT303, ESQ1, MKS80/MPG80, Matrix 6R, Matrix1000, Mopho, 05RW, DW8000, Virus TI Polar, Voyager Electric Blue, MiniBrute, AN1X, K5000s, FIZMO, ASR10 rack, Kenton ProSolo (controls Sequential Pro-One, Yamaha CS15), Prophecy, EMX1, MonoTribe, SP1200, DX100, KARP Odyssey

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