Classical Pianist Seeking The 21st Century Experience, so many options, so little time Options

[Ananda77]

Dear Friends
Please excuse my absolute ignorance of your world. I have suddenly woken up from the 19th century bubble of Chopin, conservatoires and Steinway pianos. I have now decided to invest 6-9 months of sabbatical on '21st century learning'. Electronic music; Final Cut to learn video editing; Dreamweaver and Photoshop to learn web design.

My budget for the music component is around 1000 pounds ( about 1500 us). I have a new iMac.
Here are some wishes of what to do and what to buy, slightly over budget:
Akai controller keyboard MPK 88 (600 pounds new , 900 us, obviously can buy cheaper used one.)
Motu Interface microlite. (88 pounds 130 us)
Software: Tracktion 3 (165 pounds, 225 us). Possibly Absynth 5. (375 pounds 560us)
I could try a music course in London such as Audio and sound engineering course, to dip my toe in the water. They do a day course for around £100 (about 150 us)

I want to achieve three things: 1) simply to get myself started in electronic music, so not scared away by the technology, but relaxing into / engaging in the process.
2) see if I can create big bands of interesting ambient sound. Im guessing with this wish its better I buy a midi controller that has lots of keys like a piano? Or can I get away with a smaller controller and spend more on software? I have a clavinova Yamaha which is nicely touch sensitive, but I guess I need a midi controller.
3) I want to explore audio/visual interface, to make sophisticated, creative music videos for youtube. I see this as being a new creative outlet for me when/if I can get to that stage of feeling comfortable with the technology. These might be of classical piano or of electronic music, I'm interested in the dovetailing of sound and image.
Any pointers in the general direction much appreciated! Thanks a lotl

This post has been edited by Ananda77: Fri 3 Dec 2010, 22:46

[ronineko]

Excellant advise from houstonmusic. If you're checking out Reason why not throw Record in too?
The bundle is a great price and for the cost of a modest starter interface you have the best of both worlds.
You'll need the interface for any DAW anyway.This can also serve as your Midi interface though I recommend a USB controller for that.There are budget USB mics that can work as well, if all you input is audio.
The Reason/Record community on the internet is vast and fun and appeals to pretty much all genres.
If you feel you need to take a kick start course, it helped me when I got started. Networking has proven to be the best tool yet.
Another option I might consider is Logic Studio. You mentioned Final Cut and the integration is seamless.
You would be completely under the Apple "hood" and Logic is an all in one music studio that runs imbedded on a Mac. The Apple Logic courseware is easy and fun and quite coherent.

Once you get your chosen application I do recommend macprovideo.com as an excellent resource for tutorial videos.

Welcome to the world of digital audio production. Your friends/family will never have to worry about shopping for you again.