fantom_menace Posted March 2, 2003 Share Posted March 2, 2003 Hi all! Just sold my motorcycle to free up some cash for a new keyboard workstation or computer based system. That's my dillemna. Any help would be appreciated. I'm a pop/rock singer/songwriter. Live performace 50%, recording/producing 50%. Gear: 1. Roland XP-50 workstation 2. Mackie 1402 mixer 3. Tascam 788 24 bit 8 track digital recorder 4. Mackie HR624 near field monitors I have other gear...but that's it in a nutshell. I only have about $2500 to work with right now. I'm willing to consider this a downpayment if the payoff is high enough. Option #1: The new Roland Fantom-S This is a new version of the Fantom which appeared recently at winter NAMM. Available for release from Roland at the end of this March. It includes a large display for user friendly sequencing, sampling capability, new ROM, and a 16 button touch sensitive programable interface. $2000 shipped. With the extra $500 I could buy the drums expansion card($300)and a Samson subwoofer($200)to go with my HR624s. Option #2: Start a computer based system Everyone seems to be heading this direction. When Tascam acquired Nemesis and started pushing the Gigastudio on my 788 users forum I was suspicious at first. But leveraging the hard drive power of a computer seems to be the future of sampling. The question. Will I regret buying a new keyboard workstation when I could have kept my XP-50 and tapped into the power of Giga AND purchased the foundation of a computer based recording setup for the future? Is $2500 enough to get started. I would need a new computer, an audio interface of some sort(MOTT?)and the software, or course. Any advice or opinions would be appreciated. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbaby Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 Personally I like option 2 because of expandability. You can buy a pretty fast dell for about $800 (should do just fine-something like a p4 1.8ghz or higher) plus you can pick up cubase sx for about $600 and giga studio for another (about) $400. You'll need a sound card. The M-Audio Omni card is about $400. That's $2200 which gives you $300 left over to buy stylus(an incredible drum module) and you have the whole studio set up to go. And expandable as heck. Just remember that there are no really expensive upgrades from this point. Just plug ins the same price as your expansion cards and you don't have to open up your keyboard and an actually studio to record and edit pretty quickly I might add. Look into it and continue to do your homework. But for the price range this seems like the way to go. Just remember you can buy virtual guitarist, the grand(piano), absynth, battery, and so much more down the road from a computer based set up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantom_menace Posted March 4, 2003 Author Share Posted March 4, 2003 thanks big baby. so much to kick around. i like the idea of a new keyboard. kinda sexy. a computer? not so sexy. but like a good mixer it's the foundation you build on. it would be nice to have a keyboard with sounds i'm excited about using again. computers aren't very portable. maybe you were suggesting a rackmount unit? $800 seems cheap. i'll check into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bond1 Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 I would go with option 2 (I did!). I don't like the idea of buying a keyboard and being stuck with the sounds on it. I bought myself a very nice Fatar sl-880 88 key midi controller. It is simply an outstanding weighted hammer action midi keyboard, no sounds. It will never be obsolete since i can always upgrade or add new sound libraries to my computer. I'm running gigastudio for its nice collection of pianos, and Kontakt for other stuff and a nice collection of vst synths. I couldn't be happier with this setup, and i'll never outgrow it, only augment it. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantom_menace Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 just wanted everyone to know i appreciate your helpful comments. i think i'm going with the fantom-s. i appreciate the benefits of computer based recording but i think a new keyboard is going to be a perfect "fit" for my needs. it's expandable, the sounds are great(maybe not as great as computer samples but still very nice), and it will inspire my song writing bent as well as be a great recording tool. jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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