Re: keyboards
For an extremely good deal I would suggest checking out the Optimus Concertmate 990 if you can score one off ebay it might be a good deal. They were a radioshack brand, but it has all the features you would want and its cheeeeeap. for like $420 CDN or whatever back in like 1999-2000ish it had Midi, Line out, headphone jack, onboard mixer, touch response, full scale keys, metronome, lessons, It even showed your note on a scale when you play a key, aswell as telling you what chord you are playing, it has pitch bender, hundreds of built in sounds, tracks, and 4 full concert percussion sets. I got one for Christmas a couple years ago and to be perfectly honest it is slightly more user friendly than the Roland units I worked with in the studio at school and at the Music College. The audio bites were all fully customizable aswell so you can modify them to get the exact sound you want. Basically the thing had everything a beginner would need without having to setup Midi and less user friendly audio software on a computer workstation. The speakers on it are capable of giving enough kick to play infront of a semi large group aswell. I suggest trying to find one in your area and picking it up for something in the area of $150. It is encased in plastic though, but aslong as your carefull you wont have a problem.
