I'm fairly new to the home recording studio, so forgive me if I sound like a complete n00b. I posted a few weeks ago the first song I tried to do on the computer, and in the post I stated that I had to do it all by hand because I didn't have a keyboard yet. Well, I'm able to buy one now, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking at. I would like to only spend around $200-$300. I went to Sam Ash and looked at their keyboards, alot of them are too pricey($1000-$3000), some of them were too cheap(sub $100, no touch sensitivety, no MIDI In/Out), and then right in the middle of the two were things like the Yamaha PSR292 or Casio WK-3000. They had all the stuff I need, and were in my price range. But then in the back of the store they had the home audio center with all the MIDI controllers for just as much or more than the keyboards I mentioned above, but they had all the cool little buttons and stuff. Basically my question is this: Why would I invest in a MIDI controller instead of a keyboard? It seems to me that a keyboard would be better since I can play it without having to hook it up to the computer, like I would the controller. BUt, the controller did have all the cool little nobs, but you can do all that in the software program. Thanks for any help. Current setup(I know, needs upgrading, but I'm a poor college student and this will work for now ) : AMD Duron 800 256 MB RAM 40 Gig HD Been using Reason 2.5, but a friend of mine Recently gave me his old copy of Cubase SX(said he didn't need it anymore but I didn't ask any questions). Which one do you guys prefer? Thanks

Give American Music or Sweetwater a try. They have some good sales every once and a while.

For your sequencer question, I prefer Cubase SX. It's what I use. I'm not saying Reason is not good. I own that also. I just found that Cubase is a lot easier to learn.

Reason 2.5 is fine. It's a very powerful program, and probably the most cost-efficient sequencer on the market. keep it.

Also, DON'T get a simple keyboard like a PSR or Casio. They may be fun to play around with, but they are not serious instruments. Reason 2.5, on the other hand, is extremely powerful and very 'serious' in comparison, so you're not going to need any external sounds of lesser quality. Get a MIDI controller like the Edirol PCR-30 or the Edirol PCR-80 (depending on how many keys you want). I own the former, and I'm very happy with it. Having a dedicated MIDI controller is an excellent idea because dedicated controllers offer a range of knobs, sliders, buttons, and MIDI commands that rarely (if ever) exist on similarly priced keyboards.

Just my two cents.