Please help! I'm kinda lost. Where do I start?

[Jeffkilledjoe]

I really like the music played with synthesizers and have taken an interest in them. I'd like to learn but I don't know where to start and have never played piano or any kind of keyboard before. I have enough money for a microKorg. Would that work okay? I'd like to play multiple genres like metalcore (Attack Attack, Asking Alexandria) amd electronica. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance

[jlewin]

I really like the music played with synthesizers and have taken an interest in them. I'd like to learn but I don't know where to start and have never played piano or any kind of keyboard before. I have enough money for a microKorg. Would that work okay? I'd like to play multiple genres like metalcore (Attack Attack, Asking Alexandria) amd electronica. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance

Do you have a software setup?

If you want to play synths, a good place to start is with a basic but powerful synth, like the Mininova or microKorg. But if you want to make tracks, you'd probably be better off getting a software audio workstation, which includes software synths. Examples are Logic, Propellerhead Reason and Ableton Live.

[navigateur]

Hey guys, new to the forum, and would have to agree with jlewin!

There are a TON of free VST (virtual studio technology) synthesizers out there that replicate a lot of the famous synths you hear on a lot of recordings these days (Roland Juno, Moog Minimoog, etc). In my opinion, I would hold off on buying a MicroKorg, and maybe look into getting a small MIDI Keyboard off of eBay or something. Depending on what you want you could get a nice 25 key controller like the Akai MPK25 or M-Audio Axiom (the Axioms are even cheaper than the Akais and the pads are a little easier on your fingers), which has all you need for fiddling around with synth parameters and such.

Ideally, though, nothing beats a good hardware synth, IMO! Especially if it's an analog synth.

[jacques]

Hey guys, new to the forum, and would have to agree with jlewin!

There are a TON of free VST (virtual studio technology) synthesizers out there that replicate a lot of the famous synths you hear on a lot of recordings these days (Roland Juno, Moog Minimoog, etc). In my opinion, I would hold off on buying a MicroKorg, and maybe look into getting a small MIDI Keyboard off of eBay or something. Depending on what you want you could get a nice 25 key controller like the Akai MPK25 or M-Audio Axiom (the Axioms are even cheaper than the Akais and the pads are a little easier on your fingers), which has all you need for fiddling around with synth parameters and such.

Ideally, though, nothing beats a good hardware synth, IMO! Especially if it's an analog synth.

Definitely. There's so much free stuff available, but it's easy to load up on a bunch of garbage, too.

Start by learning everything you can do in your DAW. I started out with a $100 Casio home keyboard. As long as it's got MIDI out on it, you can get a cable and hook it into your computer. I've got a USB MIDI box and just plug my keyboard into that, but nowadays you can get USB to MIDI cables or just get a controller that plugs right into your computer.