Home Recording Blog
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~ February, 2006 
~ May, 2006
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Other Diary Entries... 
In The Beginning... 
Beginners Start Here 
The Keyboard is King! 
~ My Keyboard Family 
I Wanna be Eight Again 
Getting the Perfect Take 
Dare To Be Different  
Dare To Be Different #2 
Read The Flaming Manual! 

Home Recording Diary
Monday, June 21, 2004

THE KEYBOARD IS KING... 
No, not the keyboard you use to enter data onto your computer (although its usefulness should never be underestimated), but the keyboard you use to access a world of musical instruments the like of which you could never hope to master if you had a hundred lifetimes. 

Using my humble $AU240 CASIO CTK-551 keyboard I can create music using 98 instruments or sets of instruments. On top of that I can select from 99 rhythms ranging from Rock to Rumba, and from the Bossa Nova to Baroque.

'Cassie' my trusty CASIO CTK-551

Granted, some of the instruments may not sound all that authentic, but like everything else in life, you gets what you pays for. Besides, you don't have to use the 'instruments' if you don't like the sounds they produce!

As I write this, I am trying to save around $AU3000 to purchase a new keyboard. Not only will this give me a greater range of instruments to choose from, but the quality of the voices will be much better given the higher quality of the keyboard.

WARNING! Do not be deterred by the elitists who argue that you have to buy a 'real' piano or $5000 keyboard before you can be serious about the music you are trying to record. These people are only trying to justify their own expensive purchases by looking down on your 'toy', or other budget priced piece of equipment.

These types are everywhere. They will say you can't record anything unless you have paid thousands of dollars for a state of the art Neumann microphone, and sound proofed your spare room to the highest industry standards. This is nonsense. 

So why am I saving money to purchase a $3000 keyboard? Why not keep using my $240 Casio CTK-551?

Because the Casio will not convert the ideas and music in my head into the sort of recordings I hope to produce in the future. For a start, it doesn't have the instrument voices I want to incorporate into my compositions. Secondly, it doesn't have the quality of the samples I am now starting to look for. And finally, a better keyboard with more features, will hopefully help me work faster and smarter, than I am now. 

However, until I can afford to buy a new keyboard, I will have to keep using 'Cassie' to at least start recording my third album. 

In summary, I firmly believe that you can do perfectly good work with the most basic of hardware and software if you are prepared to put in enough time and effort. See my entry, Beginners Start Here, to read about, and listen to my first effort at home recording.

Wednesday, August 4, 2004
As an update to this entry, it gives me much pleasure to say that I have now bought myself a 'new' keyboard. Like much of my gear, my Casio MZ-2000 was bought secondhand, but that doesn't stop it from playing and sounding as good as a brand new one.

You can see a picture of my new pride and joy here.

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