I'm currently looking at a pile of different controllers right now.

This one looks like a red flag to me. I wouldn't touch it and wouldn't promote it or any company selling no name products. Looks like some made in China ripoff. IMHO, there are a lot of legit brands to support with support and forums to help you grow as you learn..

The keyboard on eBay is a home arranger keyboard, not a controller per se. With a controller you get dedicated knobs, faders, mod/pitch wheel or stick, and maybe a few other extras that you can directly map to parameters in your hardware or software synth.

The best thing to do is go to a local music store and play around with a few different controllers and see what you like. There are a range of options in either 25, 49, 61, 76 or 88 key models - ones to look for: Novation, M-Audio, Korg, Emu, and probably a few others I am forgetting. Or check out an online music retailer's site in the midi controller keyboard section. Yes, the Oxygen would work well with Reason.

audiokid - what are you looking for specifically?

but wouldnt it be just as easy if you were to add all of the effects within the Editing Software? Once the music has been recorded?

I plan to use a midi keyboard purely so i can take advatage of the sound replacement features within applications like Reason... I always thought that Reason and Nuendo would be able to substitute the missing controllers on the keyboard..

am i correct in saying that??? or do i just sound stupid? lol

cheers,
Spiro

dterry, I'll move this topic into Digital Audio Pro and we'll continue.

I'm looking for an 88 weighted high end control keyboard such as the CME UF or Vseries Master Keyboards plus a workstation like Motif XS8.

Any suggestions other than these? I'll be doing everything from dance to classical. Most likely adding the MPC5000 for a grove unit then upgrading PT for tracking.

Motif sounds killer, however, seems a waste to pay for the cubase when I'll most likely never use it.

Ditto what audiokid said. Also, audiokid, I own the CME UF8. I'd steer clear of it. I personally like the feel but the velocity response isnt good. It has 4 curves and none of them seem very dependable. I've heard this complaint echoed throughout the community. Probably the best deal going as far as feel would be the Yamaha S90es. It has four sliders in addition to the standard mod and pitch wheels. It also offers aftertouch and all the motif es sounds. Hope this helps.

Eric

igotnosmoke- To me the most important thing about a controller is the feel of the keyboard. The best way to tell this is to try them out. But if you buy one on line you definitely want to get it from a place with a good return policy. eBay from a seller you don't know for a controller you've never played seems a bad idea. If a keyboard doesn't have the right touch, you might as well just program the midi in.

audiokid- I'll second the S90 es. Of course, it all depends on whether you like the feel of the Yamaha weighted keys. I do. If you like the feel then you have your weighted keys, great piano sounds (IMHO), and motif samples for around $2k. I'd still want a shorter more organ-like or synth-like controller since some things (like B3 and many synths) don't feel right to me with weighted keys.

Spiro - you can access any controller code or function that a software or hardware synth is setup to utilize from within Nuendo/Cubase. Reason's synths can be programmed to any midi controller code, or programmed within the sequencer - I don't know if it will send CC's back out to external synths, but it's highly flexible internally.

The main advantage to a controller keyboard, or keyboard with something like the Evolution UC33 is having access to knobs and faders to control soft synths in realtime, or live performance (just faster than using a mouse :-)

audiokid - ditto on the S90ES - good feel for mixed synth/piano needs. Also for classical, Yamahas CP300 and CP33 digital pianos have a very nice feel - a little better than the S90 (which is a lighter feel), though aren't really controllers. For controller with synth, the Motif series is a nice line - not quite as fond of the action with them though. If budget isn't an issue, the Korg M3-88 is a great keyboard.

Yamaha is also coming out with new controllers as a new line of the original KX88 model (which I have): http://www.yamahasynth.com/products/kx/index.html
http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=5969

The others I would consider (e.g. check out for feel) is the Kurzweil PC line. I like the action for general use, though it's a bit light on some models, but I haven't tried the new PC3 or PC2x, etc. Plenty of controller features on these units. Fatar also has a new controller with touch screen display coming in March.