Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Please help me decide on a keyboard...

Ok, I don't really know where to start but here I go.
I'm going to give as much detail as possible so it will be easier for the community to help me.
I've been playing piano for around five years when I was younger and then I took a break from playing. Recently though, I have started seriously getting into piano again.
So now I'm writing lyrics with simple piano accompaniments and I want to be able to edit the piano parts on my Mac using GarageBand (and maybe other programs in the near future...)
So I have been around shops and researching online to see what kind of keyboard I would like to buy. I realized that I would need a keyboard with somewhat weighted keys. It would also have to be compatible with my Mac and multiple software.
I looked around the web and I found one that I sort of like.
The link is here: http://goo.gl/vchjo
Oh, and by the way my budget is $200 or less.
I don't need something perfect, but something in that price range that would best suit my needs. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of options out there, but being an amateur I don't really know where to start. Also is the keyboard the only thing I need or do I need other hardware that I would have to connect it to? So I really am lost right now and am asking the experienced community here to help me pick a keyboard that would best suit my needs.
Feel free to ask me for more information and I will gladly tell.
Thank you in advance.

P.S. - Ok so I've done a little more research and I'm leaning towards the MIDI controller that Vectistim mentioned earlier.
The M-Audio Keystation 88ES 88-Key USB MIDI Keyboard Controller.
It's simple and Mac compatible with semi weighted keys and it seems to be about right for me.
Do you guys think it will be good for me?
I have another piano that I could use for real practice, I'm probably just going to use this for my computer to record.
Everyone's been so helpful so far so thank you all.

An extra P.S. - Ok, so if I was able to spend around $300 to $400 would that widen up my options? I see that $200 is too little to buy something decent. Thank you all for helping me!

hey lovestar, your budget of $200 is too low to buy a decent weighted keyboard. your going to need at least $450 to pick up something decent with weighted keys like a Casio CDP120, Yamaha P-35. You may find something for $200, but I doubt its going to be good enough to practice efficiently on. However, if your willing you could try ebay to pick up something used. I recently sold my yamaha p-95 with the stand, pedals, and bench for about half price used. good luck to you!

P.S. That keyboard that you linked, if you read the first negative review on Amazon, the person says beware because it doesn't function well on MACs now because of the OS driver updates, so I don't think that will work with your MAC

Are you happy with a 5 octave machine? M-audio do a similar 88 key machine.
Another option would be the Behringer UMX-610 (I have the predecessor UMX-61)

I looked at the Behringer UMX-610 before and considered it...
You said you have the predecessor. How does it feel when playing on it? What do you use it for?

$450 is a bit high for me currently. I'm not planning on practicing on the keyboard, I have a real piano for that. I just need something decent that I could use with my Mac. Thank you for the help though and I will definitely look around eBay also.

If you are piano-oriented but don't need this board to have a piano-like weighted feel, I'd suggest looking at the Yamaha NP-11, or maybe a Casio like the CTK-6000. If you want something that feels more like a piano, that will be tough at $200, even used, but you might get lucky and find a Casio CDP-100/120, PX-100/110, Yamaha P-85 etc.

I'm using it to drive organ software, so just plugging it in as a usb device and the organ software recognises it, and I set some of the buttons on it to control stop changes.

I haven't used it running anything touch sensitive - organ is just on or off, but it does the job fine for me. (I bought it second hand off ebay)

FWIW --

You may have asked the question in the wrong place.

Most of the people on this forum have a Holy Grail:

. . . An electronic device that feels like an acoustic piano,
. . . and sounds like an acoustic piano.

But your needs are much simpler -- you're not asking to play classical piano literature, and you have an acoustic piano available if you change your mind.

Any 5-octave, touch-sensitive MIDI keyboard ought to work. The Yamaha NP-11 (playable stand-along if you want), or MIDI-keyboard offerings from M-Audio, or my ancient Korg X5D synth would all do the job.

Unlike most weighted keyboards, you can pick one of those up with one hand, and stick it in a corner when you're not using it.

I think you're a perfect customer for something like a Yamaha MOX6, when you come into some more money.

. Charles

PS -- forgive me if I misunderstand the stated requirements.

Budget seems to be real tight,

If ure lucky u may be able to get a used casio px110 off an eBay auction for around 300bucks.

Or maybe try Craigslist?

If you do somehow get your budget up a bit to around 400 /450. You can take a look at the korg sp170 or yamaha p35 as mentioned elsewhere.

I personally have been stuck with unweighted keys untill recently and I can tell u I'm never going back .

U have so much more control with weighted keys.