Starting Songwriting - Should I get a Keyboard?

[howard]

@delyn77

weighted or semi-weighted keys

Note that this is kind of a religious debate

This is the right answer if you want a more piano feel. However, a lot of people (myself included) prefer the feel of a classic synth keybed.

@BeerBaron

I’m assuming “Yamaha” is never wrong.

Ironically, I am not a fan of Yamaha synthesizers at all.

@BeerBaron

What are the “musts” for a decent keyboard?

This depends a lot on what you want. Broadly your options are to get a MIDI controller and use it to control other instruments (like software or hardware synthesizers) that take MIDi input, or to get a standalone instrument. The standalone instrument can be a synthesizer, a digital piano, or a few other types of keyboards. I’m going to focus on MIDI controllers and synthesizers here; I don’t know much about digital pianos or arranger keyboards.

At minimum you will want USB MIDI out and it’s also nice to have DIN MIDI in/out/thru, for controllers. Actual instruments you will want MIDI plus it will have some forms of audio out, usually 1/4" mono or stereo Line outs.

I really like Arturia as a brand for controllers and their synths are cool too. Novation and Native Instruments make excellent gear too.

For hardware synthesizers, Korg is a good bet, as is Roland. I also like Arturia. A lot of jazz folks seem to like Nords. ASM’s are a newer brand that is popular. There’s many other excellent brands.

For less expensive but still high quality synths, the recent Behringer synths make excellent entry level synthesizers - believe it or not, they are well made and replicate a lot of classic gear.

For software synthesizers - literally hundreds of outstanding options. Happy to discuss a lot, but we have a topic already:

Plugins I Have Known And Loved

@kerushlow and I are murdering another topic with a gear discussion so I would move it here. We’re discussing DAW plugins as a replacement for effects, amps, and other gear. This Splice post talks about how far technology has advanced a bit in the context of the current Shoegaze renaissance: At this point, the digital plugins have reached a level of quality that rivals the analog pedals themselves. Palermo shared an anecdote about his collaborator Nick Bassett (formerly of Deafheaven, Whirr…

I’m not sure what DAW you use but you are going to want a real DAW, i.e. not Audacity or Amplitube, to get good MIDI support. Reaper and Logic are fine, Ableton and Bitwig even better for synth workflows.

If I were to make a recommendation, it would be to get a good MIDI controller and use software virtual instruments. They sound just as good and are much cheaper and more convenient, at the cost of needing an external controller. This will be the least expensive and painful way to learn what you want and then later you can make a more informed choice on whether you want a hardware synth or not, and what you want in it.