Looking for a keyboard, piano based with 88 keys & floppy drive, anyone recommend model/website (£200 budget)

Question

I think most will know what i mean, i want a keyboards (not a huge piano) a portable piano that has 88 keys and a floppy drive for midi.

My budget lies around the £200 mark, but i have no idea where to look or indeed what models would fit within my budget... i also feel if i go into a local music shop they'll be all over me for the sale of what they have rather than what I need.

Any help please?

Answer 1

I think you're likely to struggle in that price bracket but I'd recommend you have a look at http://www.dv247.com to check. I'd also say if you can stretch the extra £150 it's worth going for the M-Audio Pro-Keys 88. It's a full size, weighted keyboard with good piano sounds and a few others to choose from. Not sure it has a floppy drive but as it's midi compatible you could store stuff to your computer very easily using a midi-usb cable. Check out the M-Audio Website http://www.maudio.co.uk for soundclips etc.

Answer 2

Learning on a keyboard for the first few months is definitely ok. I started playing piano when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and I started on a TINY keyboard, which fit my small fingers well...I think it only had about 3 octaves or so...then for the next few years I played on an electric organ that was still small (probably around 61 keys, I don't remember exactly), then when my parents figured that I was going to keep continuing, we found a cheap piano. So although I do not like playing on keyboards now, it is ok to start on a keyboard until you seriously know that you'd like to purchase a piano. I've been playing piano now for about 15 years, went to college for piano performance (I have my Masters now), so I'd say that learning on a keyboard is not a handicap at all..I turned out fine and I'm sure you'll do great! Depending on the method in which you learn piano, you will not need all 88 keys at first (unless you learn with the Pace Method, but even with that a 61 keyed keyboard would work fine). Good luck! :-D