ORIGINAL: Unreal39
Dude, that IS nice! How do you people afford these things?

They don't lose all of their resale value so it's not like you're throwing all that money out the window. After spending $2000 on one, you might be able to sell it for about $1500 next year. That works out to about $42/month rent. If you can get a used one on ebay for $1500 you might be able to resell it for what you paid. If you subtract the cost of a keyboard controller and high quality sample library which you probably would buy for ITB work, it's even easier to justify.

Hi micv

I have a Roland Fantom X8 and love it - But - IMO - when it comes to working out ideas, trying different approaches, and so much more, hardware sequencers like that in the Fantom (et. al) don't hold a candle to software sequencers like Sonar. With the Fantom, it's lots of button pushing and eye strain to to one thing - Cantankerous. With sonar you can see lots of things at once and paint lots of changes at once, across multiple tracks, and undo a zillion times with with a quick ctrl-z - Bliss. But I still recomented the Fantom.

To those of you familair with both, do you aggree, or am I missing something?

Agree completely re ease of use. My K2000 sequencer was too tiny, too fiddly, too hard to read.

you guys are great. Thanks.
I did some research and the Fantom, modtif, triton are all great. But I think that they would be overkill for what I'm doing.
I gave up the flagship hardware WS years ago and went with software base. There is no question that non of the WS can come close to Sonar.
I'm looking for something so that ideas and arranments can be recorded quickly. Then use that SMF file in Sonar as starting point. The final tone or samples would be from plug-ins to Sonar. So the samples quality and quantity from the hardware is not that important. Full blown sequencer, mixer, editing, record to cd features are also not important. This is for a non-tech pianist so all those buttons and sub menus of the WS really intimidated her, ... and me too.
Is there a water down verion of these full-blown WS? and hopefully cost less too.

If I'm reading you right, I suggest you use Sonar MIDIed to a keyboard (not full blown ws) and do you creating right in Sonar and play it back thru your keyboard (or whatever). No need to create in a ws and then transfer to Sonar. Regards.

kelsoz,
We would use my sonar setup but we don't live in the same state. So I'm trying to figure out how she can record her performance either fully arranged or roughly arranged and then I can work from that.

ORIGINAL: micv

I'm looking for a keyboard or workstation that can be used to compose and work out idea and then able to export midi to Sonar for processing. I havn't looked at keyboard for years so I'm clueless. I'm not a keyboard player, just use Sonar for recording, and I'm collaborating w/ a pianist and we need to be able to pass file back since we don't live in the same area.
thanks for any advise.

A. Korg Triton (Studio or Extreme)
B. Roland Fantom X8
C. Yamaha Motif EX8
D. All of the Above

ORIGINAL: micv

kelsoz,
We would use my sonar setup but we don't live in the same state. So I'm trying to figure out how she can record her performance either fully arranged or roughly arranged and then I can work from that.

Send .mid files and/or wav or mp3's back and forth? Use notation (Sibelius or Finale) files?

Most of us are hitmen, dealers and numbers runners. Personally, I was able to afford a lot more stuff when my wife got rid of me.

ORIGINAL: Unreal39

Dude, that IS nice! How do you people afford these things?

ORIGINAL: micv

I'm looking for a keyboard or workstation that can be used to compose and work out idea and then able to export midi to Sonar for processing. I havn't looked at keyboard for years so I'm clueless. I'm not a keyboard player, just use Sonar for recording, and I'm collaborating w/ a pianist and we need to be able to pass file back since we don't live in the same area.
thanks for any advise.

I just went through the process of buying a workstation. I wound up with the Yamaha Motif XS. It was far and away the best sounding to me.