Hey,
I will just mention here that Behringer Deepmind is a great take on Juno line of synths and I actually really like the key bed it has. It can, like most synths send MIDI information also. It’s not the cheapest synth you can get, but it’s still cheaper than top controllers from Novation, Arturia or NI and the engine is kind of half-way between basic and advanced synthesis. So, it’s actually really good pick for a beginner.
Just my two cents.
Have a good one.
Yeah! The Deepmind looks outstanding.
I’ve owned two Behringer hardware synths and can speak to the quality of the stuff their synth division is producing, it’s fine.
If your looking for an excuse to by a keyboard, just buy one but its not required for your songwriting. I great way to begin your songwriting is to start with the blues, you won’t need anything but a beat and your bass everything else is just color.
Found this out on the web to help you out…
WRITING AND SINGING THE BLUES - SOME GUIDELINES…
Most Blues begin, “Woke up this morning…”
“I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you
stick something nasty in the next line like, “I got a good woman, with the
meanest face in town.”
The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it.
Then find something that rhymes… sort of: “Got a good woman with the meanest
face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth
like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound.”
The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a
ditch–ain’t no way out.
Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues
don’t travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues
transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and company motor
pools ain’t even in the running. Walkin’ plays a major part in the blues
lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die.
Teenagers can’t sing the Blues. They ain’t fixin’ to die yet.
Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, “adulthood” means being old enough to get the
electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.
Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any
place in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical
depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best
places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don’t get
rain.
A man with male pattern baldness ain’t the blues. A woman with male
pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cause you were skiing is not the blues.
Breaking your leg ‘cause a alligator be chompin’ on it is.
You can’t have no Blues in a office or a shopping mall. The
lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.
Good places for the Blues:
a. Highway
b. Jailhouse
c. An empty bed
d. Bottom of a whiskey glass
Bad places for the Blues:
a. Nordstrom’s
b. Gallery openings
c. Ivy league institutions
d. Golf courses
No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you
happen to be a old ethnic person, and you slept in it.
You have the right to sing the Blues if:
a. You older than dirt
b. You blind
c. You shot a man in Memphis
d. You can’t be satisfied
You don’t have the right to sing the Blues if:
a. You have all your teeth
b. You were once blind but now can see
c. The man in Memphis lived
d. You have a pension fund
Blues is not a matter of color. It’s a matter of bad luck. Tiger
Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got
a leg up on the blues.
If you ask for water and your darlin’ give you gasoline, it’s the
Blues
Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. Cheap wine
b. Whiskey or bourbon
c. Muddy water
d. Nasty black coffee
The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. Slim Fast
If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues
death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So
is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broke-down cot.
You can’t have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting
liposuction.
Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling
Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie
Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Debbie, and Heather can’t
sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
Make your own Blues name Starter Kit: a. name of physical
infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.) b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit
(Lemon, Lime, Melon, Kiwi, etc.) c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson,
Fillmore, etc.) For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Jackleg Lemon Johnson or
Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not “Kiwi.”)
I don’t care how tragic your life: if you own even one computer,
you cannot sing the blues.
You are well aware of your questions answer…
Why are you wasting time here?
Go get your keyboard… 
Pretty good.
Made me think of Crossroads, blues song about selling your soul to the devil - a good ol’ blues theme.
Hey if you want a keyboard, get one; if you want to write a song, write one. Two different things.
Definitely not needed with the Tokyo_Rat spoon feeding you the gravy.
Yo T_R, at my typing speed I would have given away likely over 30 minutes of playing time to type that essay.
However, you did sum it up pretty good.
Thats just something I found on line…BTW I used a formula like this when I wrote “My Lady Sadie”
Reminds me of “The Manual”, by my heroes the KLF:
For anyone who’s interested, I found a downloadable version in the Internet Archive. Click on the 3 dots in a circle top left, just below the magnifying glass, click on “Downloadable files (2 formats)” and click on “Get PDF”. That will open the PDF in whatever PDF file viewer your browser defaults to. Then download the file.
That’s awesome, thanks for finding it 
Or John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd 
Pretty neat list though 
Hell yeah 
Figuring this all out. I think it’s pretty clear that I want 49+ keys. I think a 61 would be about perfect.
I’d kind of like something with onboard sounds. Doesn’t need onboard speakers, but I’d like to be able to connect to an amp or mixer with XLR or 1/4" and just play. Having just a MIDI controller seems to be simpler and less expensive, and is how it would probably get used most often.
I’m seeing some M-Audio stuff that I could probably pick up cheap. Like, <$50. That’s a price I could just eat to test if this is something I’m going to make more regular use of.
NI - The only option in my price range is a Komplete Kontrol 61, $160 about an hour drive away.
Closer to home:
Novation Launchkey 61 - $150
Roland A49 - $130
Lagrima 88key digital piano - $115
(MGR has a nicer Lagrima for $200)
I don’t know if any of these are worth it, or if I should keep biding my time for something that fits my needs and budget better.
“Novation Launchkey 61 - $150” I will just throw in my own experience. I had some Launchkeys and now I have Novation’s flagship controller (SL MK3) and frankly, I kinda think that Novation key beds suck. So if you are after a keyboard because you want a good key-bed, I wouldn’t choose Novation. I would go probably for something from NI, or Arturia and I would definitely take a look at some Akai models (I always liked Akai key-beds a lot.)
There’s an Akai MPK 249 for $225
The Arturia Keylab Essential 49 is only $210 new. And there’s one for sale on FBM, asking $150, but I could probably talk them down from that.
I haven’t tried this but I bet velcroing an iPhone/iPad with Garage band, a lightning to USB breakout dongle, and an audio interface to a MIDI keyboard would get you a relatively close experience to something like my MPC Key 37. It could also look stylishly hacky if done well, which may or may not be appealing.
Depending if you hang on to junk or not you might even have an old phone around that’s still plenty capable of being a software synth. This would probably work with an Android phone too I just don’t know what DAW software is available and if they have external MIDI in support.
I got a new droid recently. I could see about hacking it for that purpose. Would simplify things.
This needs to be a wall poster 
LOL (might have been… who knows )
I’ve owned one of these and it’s an excellent starter MIDI controller. Note that in contrast to your previous post, this is a controller with no onboard sounds - those will come from synhesizers or other instruments it is controlling, either in your computr or oer hardware units.
Korg’s last three flagship hardware synths, now each on their second revision and all excellent, have been controllers wired in to an internal Raspberry Pi running nearly the same software as the DAW plugin.
My fave of the three:
I think @wellbi has this one?
