Negatronica

Ed said:

Your best bet would be: ect..ect...

Thanks for the advice! I have started looking online for synthesizers and the Korg X5 did catch my attention.

Since you have experience with these things, maybe you could answer this: is it possible to write a midi on a computer and hook it into the X5 and then asign certain tracks to instruments on the synthesizer? Or does the sythesizer just play the instruments the midi file says?

Also the first step I'm taking is getting the synthesizer. What kind of hardware will I have to buy along with that? (I.E. cables,memory,ect..)

Most workstations can have each channel in the midi assigned to a patch in the synth. The sound quality depends on the maximum polyphony/voices of the synth. You can't write 50 piece orchestra pieces on the X5. It peaks out at 32 or so poly I believe.. but for strings and choirs and the price, there isn't many others that can hold up to it. As for other hardware, for starting out:

Recording:

- M-Audio Mobile-Pre USB soundcard
- Behringer Eurorack 5 channel mixer
- Two monster patch cables to run between the mixing board and the pre-amp.

Midi:
- Midi-Man USB (takes a big chunk of memory, but it gets the job done)
- Hosa Midi Controller Cable

FX:

- Cheap wireframe rack, usually runs for 20 dollars, good if you're not planning on playing out.
- Digitech s1 or 200, whatever your wallet allows. The reverb is really warm sounding and great for ambient tracks. Accents the X5 nicely, really fills up where it might lack (pianos mostly)

That should start you off on making decent quality tracks. I'll make an example track using the X5 and a Kawai r-100 drum machine (my personal fav). Hope that helps.

Wheres a good place to buy a synthesizer/workstation?

Right now I'm planning on buying from musiciansfriend.com.