Are you a producer who needs more sounds? Are you a musician that feels limited with the VST’s or gaming mechanical keyboard you currently have? We all have been there and most musicians still are, as being a musician, I am never satisfied with what I have. I always look for what’s new, or what’s better than my current setup!
Let’s say you producer hip hop beats/rnb tracks and you want to step outside of the box and get some new sounds and experiment a bit, and honestly a lot of hip hop producers produce the same sounds and everything is starting to sound more and more alike. The reason to this is, most producers use VST’s! VST stands for “Virtual Instruments” and are sounds that are made from your computer rather than from an external sound board.
The problem with using VST’s is that everyone has the same instruments and not a lot can afford a $3k keyboard workstation like the Roland Fantom, but those who own those keyboards usually tend to produce a much better composition than those who use preset sounds in Fruity Loops.
If you are ready to take your production to the next level then here are some great keyboards for you! Lets start at the top, with the Roland Fantom X6, this is a full workstation keyboard with drum pads for sampling and 61 semi-weighted keys. This is the ideal keyboard for a serious and well established producer! If you have a one on one session with an artist, they will walk in and know exactly what keyboard you have in front of them and immediately will be impressed!
Let’s go to something a little less expensive, the Yamah MO6 or MO8, the only difference between the two are one is 61 semi weighted keys and the other is fully weighted 88 keys. Now, this wonderful keyboard is very popular in the hip hop world, producers like timbaland, scott storch and eminem have produced hit records using the sounds of the Motif! This keyboard is a little bit older, but you can find one for under $800 online almost anywhere now and this still produces some unbelievable sounds! Hook this up to your DAW and lay down tracks or put together the records on the keyboard workstation without a computer!
Now, staying around the $1k price range, lets move over to Korg’s line of keyboards. Starting with the Korg M50. This keyboard has some fantastic sounds that would work great for R&B and even hip hop! One thing about this keyboard is that it is more on the experimental side, more of the sounds are leaned towards techno etc. and will require a creative mind to put together some hip hop beats but in the end, you will have some sounds that almost no hip hop producers have. If you go with the Motif Keyboards from Yamaha, you will find some of the most recognized sounds from early 90’s records and even records from today which is a great thing but for someone who wants to be very original, going with a Korg M50 almost is a guarantee that you will have unheard sounds, and the drum kits on this thing are amazing! Thick, clean and real sounding kits will also make you that much more original, considering most hip hop producers use the same kicks, claps and hats this keyboard will allow you to step outside of that “comfort zone” we all fall into.
OK so we went over some pricey keyboards, maybe you aren’t ready for that but you want some great sounds! One keyboard that you need to check into is the Yamaha MM6, this keyboard has a lot of sounds from the higher priced Motif keyboards we discussed earlier so you know there is some quality in this! It also has built in arpeggios and on board effects so you can tweak parameters to make an original sound! You can find this keyboard brand new for under $600 on websites including ebay and zzounds.
Well we went over a few keyboards that will absolutely give you a new sound and a real bang for your buck, and when it comes to investing into your business as a producer or your hobby as an artist/musician these keyboards are all very worth the money you spend on them.
Stay motivated, stay blessed and keep pursuing your dreams as a producer and be sure to visit my website below and sign up for new tips and beats as well as new articles to our blog about how to sell more beats online as a producer!
