Newbie to musical keyboards, help!?

[Paulius]

Hey, guys. I am taking up learning piano from scratch, from a book ("Learn to play the piano and keyboard" by Nick Freeth). At the moment I'm also on holiday where I have an upright, but no professional advice available. When I come back home, I want to buy a keyboard and the E-MU X BOARD 49 displayed in the book caught my eye. It is labelled as a usb midi controller as compared to, for example, the SHORTboard 49 which is a 'performance keyboard'.

Links:

www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=922&subcategory=923&product=19165&nav=technicalSpecifications

www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=532&subcategory=533&product=13558&nav=reviews

I would like for someone to tell me the difference between these types and to recommend me what to buy as a long-term device (not just from the two above).

I would sincerely appreciate a good explanation/introduction to the choices available to me.

Budget: saving atm, £200-£400 planned.

 

[Wayne T]

Your links do not give me two different keyboards. For a good keyboard, you should expect to spend more than what you have planned by about 50% at least.

 

[David]

If you're wanting to learn to play the PIANO, you'll want a keyboard that is as close as possible to a real piano keyboard -- within your budget. Yamaha makes an array of excellent instruments, and the P95 will give you something you can enjoy learning to play on, it will have a full 88 keys, and it will sound good, too.
http://www.kraftmusic.com/search/index.asp?query=yam-p95

If you're wanting to play "keyboard" for a rock music group, then the EMU will be good for playing a wide variety of MIDI sounds. The keyboard itself will be shorter and easier to carry around, but don't expect a standard "touch" quality found on better instruments.
The less expensive instruments will have keys that move on shorter fulcrums, which won't be an issue when playing on the tips of the keys. It will, however, make playing a little more difficult when you have your fingers playing handfuls of black notes and you need to add a few white keys in the mix. While they will be playable, it will take considerably more effort. It won't be too much of a problem with rock music, but the extra effort will be distracting when playing classical or pop.

Chances are you could find a gently used one in the classified section of the newspaper.

Hope this helps . . .