Choosing a Synth

Since a while now I decided to learn to play an instrument. With the help of a friend who is a musician, I decided to go for a keyboard. I’m going for an 88 keys keyboard since that would give me the most flexibility as to where this adventure can take me. And with an 88 keys keyboard I can just follow piano lessons. These seem to be the most popular on the Internet as well.

Anyway, for a couple of months I have been looking at different brands and models. The result of all this is that I choose Yamaha because I like that sound the most. I feel that Yamaha is able to reproduce the most natural sounds and their piano emulation is spot on. My quest has led me to two models: the M08 and the S90XS. I tend to lend towards the S90XS more because it is a newer device and it has the Grand Piano S6 which sounds fantastic.

Of course the above mentioned machines are great no doubt about that. The thing I have been struggling with is that these are not cheap, especially my top favourite, it costs about 2300 Euro. I’m not a professional musician and I don’t know if I ever will get to a decent level in terms of playing. A big part of that is due to my age. I’m over 40 and I’m just starting with all of this. I can’t read sheet music and I never played an instrument before in my live (apart from flute when I was still at school).

So, I’m looking for some comments here: will my age get in the way of getting any good and what do you think about the M08 and S90XS?

I would buy a piano which has weighted or half weighted keys (but some musicans prefer lighter keys, try it in a music shop), but sound is not important, because you can connect it to your PC and then use a program like Pianoteq or Synthogy Ivory, see this topic:

https://afpa.hooxs.com/synthesizers-other-music-technology-f25/pianoteq-has-anyone-tried-it-t1134.htm

And I think there is no age limit when starting with piano playing, but it might take longer. I'm playing for a year now, and I'm still at a beginners level. But then it is the same like with programming:

http://norvig.com/21-days.html

"it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, telegraph operation, painting, piano playing..."

At least I'm a good programmer