Notorious wrote: hey guys, it's about time for me to get my hobby off the ground, i currently own a small behringer mixer and a shure mic, that's about it, plus few software tools, such as reason(demo) and sonar 3 pro.i was thinking of purchasing a pair of monitors, i do hip hop, r&b, a lil bit of soul.as i'm i a shopping spree trip mood, i thought of gettin a keyboard as well, my budget is kinda tight, am only a student with a part time job.anyhow, i was thinkin of the behringer truth speakers, and m-audio radium 61 keys.appeal to you gusy with more experience , hope u can help me out. thanks , truly yours Notorious

You might want to consider the Triton. That's pretty much the standard nowadays for hip/hop R&B. I have one and find it pretty useful except I also have a Rhodes piano which fills out the lackluster vintage stage piano sounds. HOw much are you looking to spend?

I'll second the Triton idea.

As for monitors, save your self the headache and buy half descent monitors to start with. Avoid Behringer gear whenever possible. The Yamaha Msp 5 monitors are great for the budget minded recordist. Absolutely stellar in their price range.

I own & use a triton rack myself. But I also own a Kurzweil K2500RS, Roland JV1080 w/ vintage synth & hiphop expansion cards, Korg 01R/W, Ensoniq ASR10, and Akai MPC4000. I don't care too much for the piano sounds from the triton though, because the piano, strings and a few other sounds from the Kurz are the bomb. I'm using a pair of Event PS8 bi-amped monitors too. As far as the Behringer monitors are concerned, well...I'd look into getting a pair of used monitors. I do some of the same genre' of music so I can relate. My keyboard is actually a controller only, no sounds. This is interfaced with a Motu MTP A/V and Cubase SX. All I can say is... it all sounds good.