Major Set up change discussion

[vibrato]

Hi! Everyone,

I recently got into the world of sampling and need some advice in changing my set up. I have a few ideas and would like to discuss them.

At the moment, I have two keyboards -

1. Motif ES 6
2. Yamaha P-120S digital piano

And I use two computers - one for Pro tools and the other one for Gigastudio 3 Orchestra.

Off late, I have been finding it a bit difficult to play the sounds off my motif ES because of touch response problems - its too sensitive for the VSL sounds I think - I feel better while playing with the digital piano. The sound remains more in control. Other problems are not being able to change with the help of key switches cauz of 61 keys and my Digital piano has no Mod wheel!

I was thinking of:

Proposal 1:

*Selling my Motif ES and buying a rack version of that. I need that for all the drum sounds and a few pads, guitars, synth leads etc etc. The Motif ES rack costs around £840 and the keyboard should sell for at least £1000 - its only 9 months old in excellent condition. And then I was thinking of investing in a good Master keyboard with weighted keys - not toooo expensive though - just a decent one.

In this proposal - I will keep my digital piano for the piano sound because I think, its a different sound thatn giga piano and find it slightly better at times.

Proposal 2:

*Selling my Motif ES keyboard and my Digital Piano. I will get around £1500 roughly total or more. And with this money, I can buy aditional RAM for my computer - it currently has 512 MB(the one with gigastudio). The remaining money which would be at least £1400 - I will spend on a good Master keyboard and invest in sample libraries instead of the Motif ES rack. Even after buying a good master keyboard - I am guessing, I will still have around £900-£1000. This money, I can spend on piano, drum, synth samples libraries.

Which proposal sounds better and more realistic? I am tempted to go for the second one but I dont know if just converting everything into a soft synth kind of thing is a good idea. I would have to load and unload a lot of sounds every now and then - is there a solution to this thing or is it not that bad?

I compose music which sounds much like scores for films. I love film music and I am trying to learn as much as I can about it and compose such pieces. And next year, I am applying for a Film music masters. I am currently in my final year in De Montfort university, studying Music,technology and Innovation. So, any ideas what sample libraries - I should be looking at apart from the VSL? I have saved up £800 to buy the Opus bundle seperately.

Please help me. I dont know much about these things and dont have any friends here who are into this. I only make out stuff from reading articles online and getting help in forums. Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Regards,
Tanuj.

[rawmusic]

Alternatively, have the two keyboards hooked up together to control your MIDI setup simultaneously. This should be easy if you have more than one input port on your MIDI interface. If not, a simple 2 into 1 merge box is inexpensive. You would of course need to have both fairly close to hand, although, you would only need access to the mod wheel on the motif.

Just another option, maybe?

I am a terrible hoarder of gear, and work on the premise that the second I get rid of a piece of gear, there will be a sound I desperately wanted to use on it.

[rawmusic]

in which case, I know that one of the companies does just an 88 note (I think semi-weighted) keyboard with pitch and mod for not very much money. If it were me in your position, I think I would go along the sell-the-motif route and put the money into a half-way decent 88 note weighted controller keyboard which would also free up your piano for other musical duties.

Have fun making the decision!