Kanthos

I think he meant "live performance?" Based on what you're saying, I'd get a weighted keyboard of some sort. If it's basic and only has a few (or even no) sounds, that's probably all you need. I'd hold off on any kind of MIDI controller until you find a need for it in your workflow (e.g. "I wish I didn't have to use the mouse to automate this..."

Ok, your post reads like you're misunderstanding MIDI controllers. A MIDI controller is any device (not necessarily one that has keys! Things like the Korg nano series don't!) that sends MIDI data. In today's market, virtually every keyboard of any kind sends MIDI data, except perhaps super-cheap entry-level Casios or something. Obviously, check if any keyboard that you're interested in sends MIDI (through a standard 5-pin MIDI cable or over USB), but probably that won't be an issue. Something billed as a MIDI Controller will *only* send MIDI data, and may have a lot of other knobs, faders, and buttons that send various MIDI messages, while with keyboards, it can vary quite a bit. The two weighted keyboards you showed will probably send note and pedal information, but the buttons they have are likely more for controlling the built-in sounds rather than sending MIDI messages. Should you get a MIDI controller or something with built-in sounds? That depends entirely on where you want to play. If you're only ever going to use the keyboard in front of your computer, than built-in sounds don't matter; if the keyboard you buy happens to have them, great, but to actually *record* them, you need additional hardware anyway. If you're going to play anywhere else with the keyboard (and also use it as a controller), then built-in sounds matter much more. Then again, $500 or so is going to get you a keyboard with pretty crappy built-in sounds, and the same money spent on software sounds will get you much better quality. Or, if you really want to be playing away from your computer as well as recording things, I'd look at something like the Roland FA-08 or Yamaha MX-8 or MOXF-8 for a moderately-priced workstation keyboard that will have a large quantity of good-quality sounds and also work just fine as a MIDI controller. Yes, it's more money, but it's worth saving for unless the ONLY thing you can EVER afford in the next few years is a lower-budget keyboard. So, before you go looking at keyboards, you need to decide: weighted, semi-weighted, synth-action, or don't care? (Sounds like you only want weighted). Built-in sounds or not? (If so, will you be recording them? And do you have an audio interface to do that? If not, you'll need to get one. If you don't want built-in sounds, do you have, or will you buy/find free sounds/find sounds bundled with your DAW, the sounds you need?) There might be cheaper weighted MIDI controllers than the ones you linked. I'd figure out why you think you need a keyboard vs. a MIDI controller, and what you want to do with sounds. Also, unless you're in a rural area and you really can't get to a local store, I wouldn't recommend buying a keyboard based on what you see online, especially a keyboard with built-in sounds. Given this, I don't understand your questions about getting a MIDI controller down the road. Buy any keyboard, with sounds or not, that has MIDI capability and you're set, and if you want some extra knobs and faders, you can look to a second, small, device (the Korg nanoKontrol is great, for one example). The DAW that you should use is the DAW that you feel most comfortable with. All major DAWs support MIDI. Some are a bit better or worse than the majority, but pick your DAW based on what makes sense for you, and you'll find that the MIDI support is good enough.

1) What do you mean by keyboard here? Something you can play on to send MIDI note data to your computer? Something with its own built-in sounds? You're not going to find anything in your price range that's semi-weighted or weighted and also has more than a few built-in sounds. Semi-weighted is rare for keyboards with built-in sounds, except for a few models that go for thousands new. There probably are a few semi-weighted MIDI controllers in your price range, but they won't have built in sounds. You may find weighted, though not in your price range if they're any good or have built-in sounds. Most likely, your budget is limiting you to synth-action keyboards. There's also a bunch more important questions to ask, like how many keys you need, whether you need pedal connections and how many, etc. I'd suggest going to a website like sweetwater.com and getting a better idea of what's out there, and then coming back with more specific questions about which keyboards may or may not be good choices, and explain what you need it fore in a bit more detail too. 2) It definitely is. Keyboards are line-level instruments while guitars are instrument-level, so there's a big difference in the volumes coming in. Some brands of pedals can handle line-level signals, while others only can if you turn the instrument down a lot. That may or may not be good for what you want. If you get the levels right, though, it's no different than using a guitar: connect your keyboard to the pedal with a 1/4" cable, and then connect the pedal to something else (your audio interface, a mixer, amp/speaker, etc.). I have a stack of pedals I run my keyboards through, but they're all brands that work well with line-level signals (Strymon, Earthquaker Devices, Neo Instruments for their Leslie speaker pedal, and Moog). If you can only swing $500 on a keyboard, all of those will be out of your price range.

I got mine today; it took so long because it was a pre-order. Thanks, Kitty, for The Legend of Zeld: Art and Artifacts. It's fantastic!

Could whoever was my secret santa please let me know (PM is fine) who you are and if and when you sent something? I'm not upset if you didn't, and not looking to shame you. I think that there's a problem with my mail not getting delivered properly, as I've had a couple other things go missing, so I want to know if your present was among them before I go to Canada Post. Thanks!

Still nothing as of yesterday...

Still waiting here too.

No problem; it'll get here when it gets here!

I wouldn't have gotten a League of Legends card for an arbitrary person, but I saw you had some forum posts mentioning that you played it, so that made it easy!

Glad you liked it, Hyperion! I wasn't entirely sure what to go for, but figured that you can't go wrong with Zelda, right?

Mine didn't give any interests at all, just t-shirt size. I found a few things that nearly any gamer would likely want, though, and one thing that I'm sure will appeal specifically to my person. I just got it in the mail over lunch today, and they can expect it within two weeks, I think.

I missed this last year, but I'm in this year!

I don't mind getting my ass kicked; I just don't want to drag you guys down. I'll almost certainly be really busy for the next while, but I've got your info, and Ryan's, and I'll catch up when things settle down.

Ok, so I'll probably get my ass kicked repeatedly, then. It'd still be fun to play with other people though! I'll see how my schedule works out now; it's quite erratic right now for several reasons, but it should hopefully calm down before too long.

Hey Ryan, is there place in your LoL gaming for someone who's basically a beginner to the genre? In the short term, I may or may not have time to play; I'm going through some pretty major stuff right now and it's hard to predict right now what any given night looks like. Longer-term though, I expect a ton of free time; with Will going to bed at 7ish, I'm usually free not far after 8 PM, even with going to the gym. I feel everyone's pain about how hard it can be to find friends, especially if you're a quieter, more introverted, type. I lost a few friends I had through leaving the church a year ago (I tried to stay connected with them, but they were just too busy for someone they didn't see regularly any longer; I played in the church band with them), and lost a few more by walking from a band I was trying to put together when it became clear that only two of the six of us had the skill and passion and time commitment to get where we wanted to go. It's tough to find people to connect with if you don't have common interests, or if a lot of your interests are things that you can only do alone. Having a kid makes things a lot harder for me as well. I need to work out some other things first, but I hope to be in a position before too long where I can try and pursue some other interests. My cousins who live 5 hours away have gotten me into Pub Quiz, weekly trivia nights in a bar; I'm sure I can find something local and hopefully meet some people that way. Got to try to stay positive!