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Are Keyboard Players Unhappy People?


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Seriously.

 

Often when scrolling the forum, it sure seems there's a handful of people who just don't seem to be very happy.

 

It usually manifests itself in threads about new boards, software, or company doings. The thread introduces the news, and like clockwork that same group of people I alluded to above chime in with every negative thought about it.

Are people just unhappy and use this to vent?

 

To be clear, I'm not talking about real critiques of things...just the automatic not liking ANYTHING that comes out.

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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But no. Personally I usually hate every new weighted action board I get. The best action is the one you play. S90XS set a record. I only hated it for 4 days. It was too light coming off the Kawai boards I had. I hated the RH-3 on the Kronos for a week and a half. Once I put in reps I adjust and the new board becomes the new norm. Play the board until the board plays you. Change sucks.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Seriously! A quick glance at this and some other boards would make you think these are the most miserable bunch of whiners on the planet. Most of them complaining about equipment they don't own and will never own.

 

We have more options than ever. Full size keys. Mini keys. 24, 37, 49, 61, 76, and 88 key keyboards. The ability to control one keyboard from another. MIDI. CV. Real analog (polyphonic, too! for cheap!), virtual analog, FM, wavetable, wave sequencing, sample playback. Don't want to buy a physical keyboard? You can get whatever you want as software. Which piano do you want? A Steinway? Yamaha? Bosendorfer? Fazioli? No problem. And no need to spend $100,000. Need orchestra sounds? You can get samples of the best players in the world (most likely far better on their instruments than the vast majority of the people using the samples) recorded in the most famous studios in the world for a few hundred dollars. Use them right and virtually no one will be able to tell you didn't use a real orchestra.

 

And yet, something just came out that doesn't have polyphonic aftertouch.

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Why would lack of sex make anyone unhappy? Talking about keyboard players but the same question could apply to married people I guess, and of course married keyboard players.

 

I think a question that gets more to the point is: do people who post frequently on forums like this tend to be unhappy? I don't know. Certainly there are exceptions to any such rule.

 

I've been on a lot of motorcycle forums and its the same on all of them. I do think it says more about the complainers than the object of the complaint.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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Easier to grouse at length isn"t it?

 

As an 80s kid, I really appreciate the amazing and relatively affordable synths and other keyboard instruments available every-damn-where.

 

That there"s a thread about all the CP80 emulations available....What a time to be alive.

I make software noises.
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The forum here does seem to go negative pretty quickly. I'm guilty of doing it sometimes, too. I was pretty disappointed about the YC73 having weighted keys, but in my defense I actually wanted to buy one and may still get the original 61 key version.

Keyboards: Nord Electro 6D 73, Korg SV-1 88, Minilogue XD, Yamaha YPG-625

Bonus: Boss RC-3 Loopstation

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I suspect it has more to do with other elements of the demographic than being keyboard players.

 

Age, gender, profession, overall health, state of relationships, economic status, that kind of thing. That, and the relative ease of saying negative shite to a faceless computer monitor where no one treats you like you just farted in an elevator.

..
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I'm ok with people occasionally feeling the need to vent here and elsewhere. I keep firmly in mind that we live in a golden age of keyboard instruments and tools. Someone wants a clav sound on this song? Here are a bunch of different ones, each with your choice of effects and modulation. Ditto for almost any instrument you can think of.

 

Speaking strictly for myself, I'm a generally happy guy. And married.

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

 

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Haha, they're too smart for their own good, right? All those neurons firing. ;)

With great knowledge, comes great misery - you have to know how bad things are to realize it? :)

 

:cheers:

 

Chin up, mates. If you're still breathing and pain is tolerable, it's a good day!

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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I think maybe dissatisfied rather than unhappy. Particularly gigging keyboard players more than others. So many forumites own a Hammond, Rhodes and even a nice acoustic piano but for gigs have to spend a fortune on something that is an electronic copy that is good but doesn't quite nail it etc. etc.

 

On the other hand the explosion of new synths in recent years should be making some of us very happy.

 

YUMV!

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And yet, something just came out that doesn't have polyphonic aftertouch.

HEY! I resemble that remark.

 

:deadhorse:

 

Nothing focuses one's attention on imperfections like 20+ years of reviewing gear for an industry publication. You give credit where it's due and call out where things could be better. Things are better now for keyboardists than they have ever been, by a long margin, but nothing is perfect for everyone and many things aren't perfect for anyone.

 

People here all have tastes and preferences and sore spots and pet peeves. I air mine as much as anyone else does, maybe a hair more, I don't know. But do I hate the world of music gear and everything in it? Of course not.

 

In a field with all too few touchdowns, it's painful to watch a fumble at fourth and inches that anyone could have seen coming.

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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Probably more to do with the inability to gig in this pandemic and being prevented from going out and doing anything to replace that activity. It's definitely got a lot worse over the last year. Add to that the fact that all are getting older and having a good moan is a privilege that comes with age. Of course, no one cares or takes any notice except you lot. Ha ha!
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Some people are just better at pointing out flaws in things :)

 

I admit that--partially due to my job as a database engineer--my default mode is "looking for problems." I figure there are more than enough people who assume everything will work correctly, so I take the role of "what will blow up" guy.

 

There's a good way to do this, and a bad way, and it took me a long time to realize this. You don't want to come across as a negative person, even if you truly feel it's the best way to help the company succeed.

 

Not quite the same thing of course as music gear is all about personal needs and taste, and corporate IT projects are not or shouldn't be :)

 

It's definitely disappointing when manufacturer X brings out product Y after you've been waiting for it for five years and you realize that it's almost perfect except for some show-stopper that makes it useless to you :D

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Are keyboardists/instrumentalists inherently trouble shooters?

Maybe so, I always look at why I can"t play some new passage cleanly and break it down, slow it down, perfect, speed it up, clean up, connect to what comes before and after. Hack at it until it runs like it should.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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Happy keyboard player guy here, reporting for service! Who needs a hug?

 

As our friend Geoff says, "Enthusiasm powers the world" and that's what I'm here to do!

 

I love keyboards, I love music, I love the forum, and mostly, I love all the people that I've met on this forum who have become lifelong friends!

 

Eric

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Seriously.

 

Often when scrolling the forum, it sure seems there's a handful of people who just don't seem to be very happy.

 

It usually manifests itself in threads about new boards, software, or company doings. The thread introduces the news, and like clockwork that same group of people I alluded to above chime in with every negative thought about it.

Are people just unhappy and use this to vent?

 

To be clear, I'm not talking about real critiques of things...just the automatic not liking ANYTHING that comes out.

 

I reject your premise. Negativity does not equate to unhappiness.

 

The problem is that those negative comments make you unhappy and not the person making them, so in the words of the immortal Nathan Thurm, "Why don't you ask yourself that question?"

J a z z  P i a n o 8 8

--

Yamaha C7D

Montage8 | CP300 | CP4 | SK1-73 | OB6 | Seven

K8.2 | 3300 | CPSv.3

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Happy keyboard player guy here, reporting for service! Who needs a hug?

 

As our friend Geoff says, "Enthusiasm powers the world" and that's what I'm here to do!

 

I love keyboards, I love music, I love the forum, and mostly, I love all the people that I've met on this forum who have become lifelong friends!

:yeahthat:

 

I think the issue Dave is bringing up is that we're perfectionists and/or picky, and we work/play in a field where compromise is too often necessary. For example, we want to bring one board, but playing piano on an organ action sucks and vice versa. In other cases, we want our cake and to eat it as well. If the new Casiorglandweil just had this one feature it would be exactly what I was looking for. Instead they added three things I don't want and it costs too much because of that.

 

We're not unhappy, we just know what we want.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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And another thing dammit!

 

I"m always happy but if you ask for info on a board I"m going to give you every negative because that is what I want when I ask. The sales and market info from sellers and manufacturers push all the positives already.

 

The Kronos is my favorite live performance board but if you ask I"m going to tell you.

The action is too heavy in the bass

File and Sample Management sucks. (Compared to the Fantom G)

Boot time is long and grows longer as you libraries increase

Its friggin heavy

Etc .... all the stuff Korg don"t tell you.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Personality traits, including unhappiness, tend to be normally distributed in the population although I seem to recall reading that those in "artistic" occupations (musicians, artists, actors, etc.), for a variety of reasons (e.g., unstable income) have higher incidence of mental health issues, including depression. So it is quite possible that we here at KC are indeed a bunch of unhappy blokes. ;)

 

I think discussion forums that involve critical analysis can sort of inherently generate the perception of having a negative bias. It is also true that negative information tends to be more salient than positive information, perhaps further contributing to this impression.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Maybe some people are happy being critical and see themselves as providing a service.

'Yeah, this new board seems cool, but let me tell you what sucks.....'

 

You can"t tell a person"s state-of-mind behind their posts.

 

So, the original question is two-part:

1- Are keyboard players unhappy? No, I don"t think so. Maybe gigging musicians in general are unhappy right now.

2 - Are keyboard players people? Yes.

Professional musician = great source of poverty.

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Personally, I'd much rather hear people's reservations about a product than dive in based on fanboy crowing and discover the flaws myself $2k later--or flip side, decide that if those are the only concerns, they don't diminish the product for me.

 

I'm a rip-the-bandaid off type. Tell me the bad stuff up front so it doesn't get doled out drip-drip-drip over time.

 

Like Eric, I'd rather hear our brethren's grouchy dismissals than most people's duck-lip selfies or pictures of mediocre street tacos.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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Personally, I'd much rather hear people's reservations about a product than dive in based on fanboy crowing and discover the flaws myself $2k later--or flip side, decide that if those are the only concerns, they don't diminish the product for me.

 

I'm a rip-the-bandaid off type. Tell me the bad stuff up front so it doesn't get doled out drip-drip-drip over time.

 

Like Eric, I'd rather hear our brethren's grouchy dismissals than most people's duck-lip selfies or pictures of mediocre street tacos.

 

My interpretation was that the OP was was claiming keyboard players were unhappy people as a trait

 

I could be wrong, though, because he seemed to be generalizing based upon his small number of "the usual suspects", which doesn't seem consistent with the thread title.

J a z z  P i a n o 8 8

--

Yamaha C7D

Montage8 | CP300 | CP4 | SK1-73 | OB6 | Seven

K8.2 | 3300 | CPSv.3

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I wouldn't say keyboard players are unhappy in general. Many of us have very specific needs and it can be frustrating to have products that would be great to use on stage come out, only to have a few things missing that make them useless. We're also kind of picky about things sometimes like action, build quality, etc. Things that have a real impact on how we can express ourselves via music and perform. But that doesn't equate to unhappiness. I try to not complain too much about new products, though I do have my pet peeves (pitch/mod placement particularly). I usually only comment about that if a board is something I would actually be interested in.

 

 

Just to play devil's advocate for a second, in a way it might not be a bad thing for there to be a lot of feedback, one way or the other, on gear. Otherwise how are the manufacturers supposed to know what the market wants?

Yamaha: Motif XF8, MODX7, YS200, CVP-305, CLP-130, YPG-235, PSR-295, PSS-470 | Roland: Fantom 7, JV-1000

Kurzweil: PC3-76, PC4 (88) | Hammond: SK Pro 73 | Korg: Triton LE 76, N1R, X5DR | Emu: Proteus/1 | Casio: CT-370 | Novation: Launchkey 37 MK3 | Technics: WSA1R

Former: Emu Proformance Plus & Mo'Phatt, Korg Krome 61, Roland Fantom XR & JV-1010, Yamaha MX61, Behringer CAT

Assorted electric & acoustic guitars and electric basses | Roland TD-17 KVX | Alesis SamplePad Pro | Assorted organs, accordions, other instruments

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