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@Randelph

The PA-1000 actually has the sound engine from the PA4x, which is a heavily upgraded Triton soundset. I"ve played a PA-900 and it had some nice synths and instrument sounds, the PA-series are actually super popular (from videos) in Indonesian and Latin music bands which play specific kinds of music or one man bands from watching videos, it does a good U-20, YC-45D, and Juno-60/106 emulation, all popular keyboards over in Indonesia and Mexico a long time ago (YC organs are still expensive over there, and especially in Thailand).

I was going to ask around, 'cause I've been so surprised at the stunning quality of the sounds, I'm finding most of them to be excellent. I'm wondering if it's partly 'cause these sounds were developed for an arranger. I've heard that manufacturers give you the building blocks with the workstations, whereas with the arrangers they give you a pre-assembled sound, with various modeling and expressiveness built-in to the programming. I had a Korg M3 for a few years, my overall evaluation of sound quality would be a 6-7, this PA 1000 gets a 9-10, depending on the sound of course.

 

Whatever the case, this thing sounds out of this world to me, and I was wondering if I just haven't had a new keyboard of quality in the last few years, so I wasn't aware of how far sound quality has come, or if it's cause this board is extra bad ass. Don't have a MODX, a Fantom, a Forte, a NS3 to compare with these sounds! In any case, it doesn't hurt that they did such a great job with the built-in speakers. I've never been so compelled to play a keyboard before! So much fun!

 

Randy

 

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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I hadn't planned to get a Behringer Model D but they lowered the price so much I couldn't resist. Under $200 at Guitar Center with the 15% off coupon code.
C3/122, M102A, Vox V301H, Farfisa Compact, Gibson G101, GEM P, RMI 300A, Piano Bass, Pianet , Prophet 5 rev. 2, Pro-One, Matrix 12, OB8, Korg MS20, Jupiter 6, Juno 60, PX-5S, Nord Stage 3 Compact
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A minor purchase: I pulled the trigger on the new Pianoteq Harps (concert and celtic) instrument pack. They truly sound beautiful. I'm a shameless 'blender', always mixing my piano with another piano, or an EP, an acoustic guitar, or whatever to make hybrid instrument that you can still play pianistically. This is great for that.

 

Pianoteq Harp

Yamaha P515 & CK88, Pianoteq, Mainstage, iOS, assorted other stuff.

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A Suzuki M37C melodica. Gigged yesterday, with my Nord electro and a Roli seaboard block.

It is great to play something so "physic". Learning to breath, forgotting the chords and just focus on the solo lines.

Used a Mac for effects (delay, reverb).

 

Maurizio

Nord Wave 2, Nord Electro 6D 61,, Rameau upright,  Hammond Pro44H Melodica.

Too many Arturia, NI and AAS plugins

http://www.barbogio.org/

 

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A Suzuki M37C melodica. Gigged yesterday, with my Nord electro and a Roli seaboard block.

It is great to play something so "physic". Learning to breath, forgotting the chords and just focus on the solo lines.

Used a Mac for effects (delay, reverb).

 

Maurizio

Nice! How did you choose this Suzuki? I've got the Yamaha Pianica 37, and have been curious about other melodicas for a difference in tone and playability. I can play chords without running out of breath immediately, so it makes good use of my breath power, but its not the best keybed, it gets harder to play towards the fallboard. Tone wise I don't have anything to compare it to, I enjoy the sound thru a fair amount of reverb but not too much without it. Have considered getting one of the Hammonds that plug in to an amp.

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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A Suzuki M37C melodica. Gigged yesterday, with my Nord electro and a Roli seaboard block.

It is great to play something so "physic". Learning to breath, forgotting the chords and just focus on the solo lines.

Used a Mac for effects (delay, reverb).

 

Maurizio

Nice! How did you choose this Suzuki? I've got the Yamaha Pianica 37, and have been curious about other melodicas for a difference in tone and playability. I can play chords without running out of breath immediately, so it makes good use of my breath power, but its not the best keybed, it gets harder to play towards the fallboard. Tone wise I don't have anything to compare it to, I enjoy the sound thru a fair amount of reverb but not too much without it. Have considered getting one of the Hammonds that plug in to an amp.

 

Mostly by reading all the available discussions on melodicaworld.com and listening Youtube recordings. I tried to find people really playing the instrument and not demoing it.

I was initially oriented toward a Honer; being my first melodica, i wasn't even sure i was going to like playing it, so i first considered a reduce budget melodica; in demos i find the sound nice; but listening real music pieces, it is clear that phrasing is not as fluid as the Suzuki and Yamaha ones, more breath is needed to move from one note to another.

 

The short list included the Pianica 37 and the Suzuki; i heard the songs i could find, Jazz and Tango oriented, and i finally decided on the Suzuki on the sound, more accordeon like; i find the Yamaha sound a bit too bright, like their upright pianos; but i know youtube recording could not correspond to reality.

 

I am very happy with the Suzuki sound and playbility: i start to practice Jazz standards using iRealBook or play-alongs, and i was surprised by the realitive easyness of the transition from the piano to the melodica; ok, after the first half an hour i needed

time to recover my breath, but the second time was easier. I mostly do solos or rythms patterns not many chords; keyboard seems fine, good response but fast. But again, this is my first melodica, i cannot really compare to others :).

 

Following some discussions on melodicaworld i bought a piezo K&K Big Shot mike; it is nice because not very sensible to feedback/larsen. I had different results with my AR8 home studio mixer (very *very* clunky, pickup the key noise very well), and with my live setup iRig Pro Duo, that

for unknown reasons (input impedence ?) it a lot more forgiving and give a usable sound; i then use MainStage to put it thru a Replica XT delay and a ChromaVerb.

 

Maurizio

Nord Wave 2, Nord Electro 6D 61,, Rameau upright,  Hammond Pro44H Melodica.

Too many Arturia, NI and AAS plugins

http://www.barbogio.org/

 

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My Yamaha MODX7 was just delivered. The plan is to have it serve as a backup to my Nord Stage 3-88 and as an alternate board to take to rehearsals. Looking forward to going through the sounds and getting my songs programmed. From the threads here and reviews/videos posted on the web, it seems like a great value. Also looking forward to loading my old DX7 patches and hearing them again, this time with onboard effects.

Ok, it's arguable that the MODX is by far the best value in an all-in-one gigging board. I absolutely loved the sounds, weight and keybed. Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to be able to recreate my NS3-88 programs with effects, splits and morphs, so I reluctantly had to send it back as I had no practical use for it.

 

So, I cut to the chase and got an NS3-Compact. It's 2/3 the size of the 88 and just a little more than 1/2 the weight. I have some programming to do as a lot of my splits use keys outside of the E1-E7 range of the 73-key keyboard, but at least I don't have to recreate sounds. The waterfall keybed offers significantly more resistance than the MODX7 synth keys, but it's a lot better than I thought it would be for piano. Sort of reminds me of what I liked about the keybed on the Roland S-50 I used to have. Anyhow, I'm hoping to restrict the 88 to gigs and practice at home while the Compact will be for everything else. It's more than I would have preferred to spend, but it sure beats the tension of not having a workable backup every time I power up at a gig.

 

Nord Stage 3 HA88, Nord Stage 3 Compact, Casio CT-S1, Radial Key Largo, Westone AM Pro 30, Rolls PM55P, K&M 18880 + 18881, Bose S1 Pro, JBL 305p MKII, Zoom Q2n-4K

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just got a few new toys in yesterday: an Arturia MicroFreak and a Make Noise Mimeophon.Fun boxes both. The MicroFreak is a really inspiring little box, the capacitance keyboard is amazingly responsive, the digital oscillator models make no pretence at sounding analog, and are full of bright, clangy, highly tweakable sounds. The Mimeophon is a Euro-rack delay/looper module designed with Make Noise's usual commitment to going beyond expectations. Hooked both of them up in the studio for a few hours before work this morning, and had a blast.

 

[video:youtube]

 

[video:youtube]

Turn up the speaker

Hop, flop, squawk

It's a keeper

-Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow

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My last couple purchases have not been anything that makes any sound, but supports my playing.

 

I bought a cover for my truck bed to protect my gear while traveling, and a locking tailgate latch to keep the gear safe

 

Sometime back my Gator GK-88 case failed on me. The zipper got stuck, and there was no way to get it open, so I had to cut it off in order to get the board out at a gig. I just replaced the case with a Gator GKB-88

 

Tomorrow I'm purchasing a Gibralter 9608MB Throne. I've been using an On Stage foldable bench, but my back has been really screaming at me, so I'm changing to something that will give some back support.

 

I'm looking at a Rock-N-Roller R12RT in the near future

 

Although I have started looking into using either my iPad Pro or my Galaxy 10 tablet as additional sound sources, so I'll be needing interfaces and software.

 

"In the beginning, Adam had the blues, 'cause he was lonesome.

So God helped him and created woman.

 

Now everybody's got the blues."

 

Willie Dixon

 

 

 

 

 

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Forgot to mention that I got a pair of RCF EVOX J8 speakers several months ago.

 

I was looking for a purpose-built lightweight band PA setup that sounded great for not much $$$. I am pleased to report that I got more than I expected in most aspects. Sounds better (and is lighter/simpler) than the usual sub-and-stick gear from QSC et. al. Also cheaper.

 

The sub units are decent (but not awesome) and the line array tops will surprise you with how loud and clear they sound. Gets loud enough, clean sound and much easier to schlep. No regrets, highly recommended.

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

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My first fretless bass guitar.

Keeps my left hand weirdness going strong.

 

 

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL96/792815/24788044/414316017.jpg

 

Jake

 

1967 B-3 w/(2) 122's, Nord C1w/Leslie 2101 top, Nord PedalKeys 27, Nord Electro 4D, IK B3X, QSC K12.2, Yamaha reface YC+CS+CP

 

"It needs a Hammond"

 

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This funky metal contraption. Finally found one with the short upper tier brackets included.

 

~ gonner

291.thumb.jpg.05621cf64b12ab9adfd4ecd443e9b8ad.jpg

Gear:

Hardware: Nord Stage3, Korg Kronos 2, Novation Summit

Software: Cantabile 3, Halion Sonic 3 and assorted VST plug-ins.

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