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Dig My Rig--Let's see your setup!


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With all due respect to paint-master Escape Rocks-- whose work I respect and admire greatly-- that is one of the most beautiful cosmetic mods I've seen. Kudos!

 

Thanks so much. What I did is nowhere in his league. If I recall correctly he actually disassembles the boards and repaints the individual pieces. I did mine by adding pieces over top of what was already there. The endcaps are basically shells made of a very thin wood veneer that can slide on and off, though I've got them adhered into place. Same with the strips in the middle; they're attached over top of what was already there. I got lucky in that the user manual had a scale drawing of the front panel, which I was able to import into a graphics program and basically trace over with vector shapes, then save it as an SVG and sent it to the cutting machine.

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I don't want to be presumptuous - already super generous of you to share all the info that you have - but is there any level of detail about those Mojo 61 risers that you could send around to help others get something like that made?

 

Sure. Here's the file I used:

 

keyboard-bracket-outline.jpg

 

Actual size is 8.072" x 5.787". (The file I uploaded was actual size at 300 dpi, but it looks like the software has scaled it down. Message me if you'd like the original.) I had that shape perpendicularly extruded to 1.5" wide, and that's it. You could have it done at Shapeways or similar, or do what I did and find a helpful friend with a 3D printer.

 

I didn't have the specs, but I designed it just by getting out a ruler and measuring the required parts of both boards very carefully. Then I designed the shape in a graphics program, printed it out, and used the printout as a stencil to make a prototype out of corrugated cardboard and Gorilla tape. It was ugly, but it did the job and let me know the design would work. The channel that fits over the Mojo is just slightly (like 1/16") deeper than it needs to be, to accommodate some rubber pads that I stuck to the inside. The resulting fit is as snug as an anatomical simile that I'm too classy to use on this forum. Ahem.

 

Here's another pic that shows the measurements of the parts that fit over the Mojo:

 

Screen-Shot-2020-12-28-at-8-25-20-PM.png

 

(the IK iRig Pro 2 Keys fits on its own, but just barely).

 

That's funny, I got one of those specifically for that purpose. Used on top of my Mojo for one gig and hated it. Never used it again, although it's come in handy for note entry with the laptop at home. For kicks I just tried it on the brackets. It's about the same depth as the MicroStation, so it fits them too.

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Josh:

 

Beautiful job. So glad to see you getting what you need from the Microstation. Jack Hotop always felt that his work on those sounds was the culmination and best work he had done with the HI synthesis engine in that family of products (Triton family, Karma, and so on), but it was lost in the specialized audience who was willing to even try that configuration (and the even smaller MicroX). That veneer really looks great.

 

Jerry

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Thanks, Josh - appreciate all the detail here! Definitely going to look into adding those blocks to my rig. And yes, agreed that the IK iRig Keys 2 Pro isn"t much of a keyboard - mostly I"ve got it relegated now to hotel room practice or small gigs in a pinch.

Numa X Piano 73 | Yamaha CP4 | Mojo 61 | Motion Sound KP-612s | Hammond M3

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I seem to recall Dr. Lonnie Smith also putting a Microstation to good use above his Hammond.

 

I thought that too when I saw him. In fact he had what I thought were two of them up there. But I later learned they were actually just controller keyboards ("Microcontrollers" maybe? It's been a while) that he had hooked up to a laptop running VSTs.

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So glad to see you getting what you need from the Microstation. Jack Hotop always felt that his work on those sounds was the culmination and best work he had done with the HI synthesis engine in that family of products

 

You know, what really amazes me about it are the brass section sounds. They blow away every other board I have ever used, as well as everything I have in VSTs. They're so good that they almost make me sad that I have virtually no use for brass section sounds in what I do. In fact I remember being so impressed with them when I got the board that I thought "Wow, I'm so glad that sound designers have finally figured out how to get really good brass section sounds. I guess from now on pretty much any pro-level board from any company will have brass sounds this good, right?" WRONG! Including Korg! The brass section patches in the Grandstage can't touch them! Kurzweil? Nope! Roland? Nope! Yamaha? Nope! Logic Pro? Nope nope nope! Whatever your boy Jack figured out, he was clearly more than a decade ahead of his time. So kudos to him. Even if I had no other use for this board (which now I clearly do), I would hold onto it just on the off chance that I needed a good brass section sound for something.

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So glad to see you getting what you need from the Microstation. Jack Hotop always felt that his work on those sounds was the culmination and best work he had done with the HI synthesis engine in that family of products (Triton family, Karma, and so on), but it was lost in the specialized audience who was willing to even try that configuration (and the even smaller MicroX)

Okay, hang on, the specs say that Microstation has the EDS-i engine! So maybe it was that the MicroX was Jack's best work on HI? I'm guessing that that's more likely than the Microstation being his best work on EDS-i, since that was near the start of the EDS-i era, while the MicroX was near the end of the HI era. (OR the Microstation is really HI and the specs page is wrong?!)

 

To me, there were three "obvious" things that would have made the Microstation exactly what I wished it were: (1) straplocks on the ends to permit easy keytar use, (2) an optional snap-on-the-back battery pack, (3) an optional snap-on-the-back speaker. To me, it was the start of a fantastic board that was never quite completed, in terms of all the ways it could have been most useful.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

In another thread, Drawback and I sidetracked into a conversation of what's currently in my stable, so here's my current Big Setup, largely revised just this past week...

 

IMG-6408.jpg

 

Bottom to top, that's a Casio PX-500L, Vox Continental 73, Nord Stage 3 Compact, and Nord Lead 3 on the left; and on the right, it's a Kurzweil PC4, Yamaha MODX7, and Korg PA1000.

 

Boards not pictured that still have pretty high status at the moment:

 

Roland AX-Edge - because everyone needs a keytar (it's also a nice sounding lightweight board with aftertouch, and good patch selection functions including MIDI zoning, and now it has the zen-core compatibility/expansions, too).

 

Korg Microstation - best knock-around travel board (good traveling iPad MIDI controller, too).

 

Nord C1 - there's something about playing a double manual (but I may have found a very close substitute in the pic above, with the Vox under the Stage, which is a new experiment).

 

Casio PX-5S - this one has popped in and out of my gig rigs with some regularity. It seems that just when I think it's out, it pulls me back in.

 

Viscount K5 - I keep meaning to spend some more time with this and iPad/Surface Pro integration. (Though the Kurz is a really nice controller, too.)

 

As for the future, I may be looking at how a PC4-7 and/or a Hammond SK Pro could change the equation a bit...

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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In another thread, Drawback and I sidetracked into a conversation of what's currently in my stable, so here's my current Big Setup, largely revised just this past week...

 

Scott, is that a EuroRack against the wall? Tried zooming in, just wasn't enough focus for me.

:nopity:
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In another thread, Drawback and I sidetracked into a conversation of what's currently in my stable, so here's my current Big Setup, largely revised just this past week...

 

Scott, is that a EuroRack against the wall? Tried zooming in, just wasn't enough focus for me.

 

 

Looks like Behringer Model D and Creamware Minimax ASB (up the wall).

SOS_Creamware Minimax ASB

 

A.C.

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Looks like Behringer Model D and Creamware Minimax ASB (up the wall).

Bingo! And no, I haven't compared them yet. ;-) I keep meaning to, which is why they're both there atm.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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So I am curious, in which room does your setup reside? Home office, spare bedroom, living room, basement, attic? Master Bedroom? Converted garage? How does your significant other feel about it- is your rig dominating your living space? Tucked out of the way?

 

I"ll update with a pic of my setup later today, but it is going to undergo some major changes in the (near?) future- it might have to go from an 'L' to a 'U' and it already takes up half of my home office. My wife tolerates it, but once I left my speaker monitors and sub out in the hallway for too long (several weeks) and she went and sold them to a contractor! I have to admit she did warn me....

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So I am curious, in which room does your setup reside?

It's hard to explain. The room was designed to be (and was) the living room, and I used to have my gear in what you'd probably call the den or family room... until my S.O. realized that the den/family room was really a much nicer room than the living room... bigger, with a fireplace and cathedral ceiling... so she decided we should switch the functions of the two rooms. So the LR furniture went to that room (which I suppose would now be called the living room?), and my gear moved to the ex-living room. The nice thing is, that's always the room that had the grand piano in it anyway. The down-side is that I've got less space (especially since that piano takes up a good chunk of the room).

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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It's hard to explain. The room was designed to be (and was) the living room...

 

I'm in the same situation. Since my wife and I are both musos, our "living room" is our music room. You walk in our front door and right in front of you is the piano, with a computer desk adjacent to it and usually some other stack of keys (currently the rig pictured above) forming a U shape. Across the room against the far wall are the A100, Leslie and Wurli. Hanging from the walls are my wife's more decorative and uncommon stringed instruments (most of which I still can't identify), and on the floor past the Wurli is her stable of more frequently-used axes â her bouzoukis and basses. Across the room from them is a wall of built-in bookshelves that has conveniently become her livestreaming backdrop, so we generally leave a mic, her bass pedals and bass amp set up there. Then way in the back of the house is the room that functions as our "living room," in that it has a couch, a TV and a coffee table. And those things only take up half the room; the other half is storage for instruments, cases, and stands. Definitely not a common setup, but one that very much reflects our life.

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I have three gear rooms. Studio upstairs has most of the gear. Like Josh, my living room is also for music these days - it's more of a "live" room - acoustic piano, Hammond/Leslie, Forte7, Pro2 live there along with a bunch of guitars and a PA - and the small rig in my office (SX-P1000, Alesis Ion, Telecaster, Supro8 Blues King amp).

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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Everything for me is currently in one former bedroom, including grand piano, A-100, Leslie, Wurly, Grandmother, as well as a few guitars, basses, and an electronic drum kit. It's only 11'5" x 12'7"!

 

We keep beating around this idea of buying another house, since we've discovered that some later, slightly larger ones have a formal living room and dining room up front, and a den in the back. The formals would become the studio space if we bought one.

"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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Here's the latest configuration of the modular. Now set up for my Mac Mini. This is in the seated gig position

 

L-R: Arturia MiniLab. Handles all my knobby and button needs for the VSTs. Then my YC 61 over MODX8 Finally an ultra-thin portable 15" monitor HDMI or USB-C

 

yXpdgX.jpg

 

I mocked this up to see how things will be connected, so cable spaghetti right now. The rack is over on the right, for now. It will sit under the rig. I got a cool TrippLite power strip that has outlets front and back so my rack gear plugs in, and then I have the front for my boards, and other things.

 

NZAn2D.jpg

 

Yes, I have massive redundancy, and that's okay. I use Mainstage or GigPerformer to handle lots more than just VSTs. Scripting, click tracks, signals to our DMX light control, and so forth.

David

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

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Picture of my most recent setup before heading off to college last August.

 

IMG-4882.jpg

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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  • 4 weeks later...
@Husker are those JBL 306 monitors? How do you like them? They are at the top of my list for my upcoming home studio build.

 

They are actually the 308s. I like them fine - I'm no monitor expert, but they work for me.

 

 

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@Husker are those JBL 306 monitors? How do you like them? They are at the top of my list for my upcoming home studio build.

 

They are actually the 308s. I like them fine - I'm no monitor expert, but they work for me.

 

Even as a non-expert opinion, do they have meaty bass with good tone reproduction? Are the and highs still crisp and clear?

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

Bonus: Boss RC-3 Loopstation

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Made some recent additions, and reracked/recabled everything:

 

v2kmQA4.jpg

 

m8XfnLP.jpg

 

lVQJPY6.jpg

 

2wBqgFD.jpg

 

5kcbeWR.jpg

 

 

Nicely done ! Dig the inclusion of the Essence and the Hydra, I really enjoy them both.

 

Have been considering the Rev2 for a while... not sure why I can't quite pull the trigger on one.

 

Manny

People assume timbre is a strict progression of input to harmonics, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timbrally-wimbrally... stuff

 

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Here are pictures of some of my live rigs:

 

My most common live rig for the past 5 years or so: Roland FA-06 and Roland VR-09:

 

u3J7rJb.jpg

 

...and when I also bring an accordion, it is most often the Hohner Student 48 bass:

 

JRptwOL.jpg

 

A more specialized rig for a particular song set - Roland FA-06, Roland VK-8, and Roland Jupiter-8.

 

TINMEKh.jpg

 

My most common rig with newer stand: FA-06, VR-09, and PC-200. Stand has power, lights, Yamaha MG06X mixer, speakers.

 

NrPO6Wg.jpg

Mike Kent

- Chairman of MIDI 2.0 Working Group

- MIDI Association Executive Board

- Co-Author of USB Device Class Definition for MIDI Devices 1.0 and 2.0

 

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