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Cool Geoff. You're lucky. Thanks guys for the welcome. What's with the ultimate reality thing? Dave

Yes, Nick is the guy. What a drummer! I was actually asked to play with them once. I turned it down for some reason. I forget why. I actually think they are really good. I think after doing the Lamb show and playing with other bands at the time (I was in my girlfriend's band the Weeping Buddahs and Kevin Gilbert's band, Thud. I also turned down playing in the Eels at the time) that I was overloaded. When it rains it pours. Now I only have my own cover band that I play with. I basically got a bunch of guys together to do authentic classic rock and funk tunes for our own enjoyment, a little side money and some good musical challenges. It's no pressure, no one is trying to get a record deal and the audience loves it which makes you feel good on that very important level. Fame is bullshit really (keyboardists never get famous anyway) and I've seen a lot of "successful" musicians be miserable. That's what I've learned from living in L.A. for 10 years. Do it because you love it and if you start to not love it then something is wrong...do something else to bring in the money so you can go back to doing music because you love it. Otherwise you can lose something special and great. The ones that are fortunate to be able to work on music for a living and love it are very lucky. There are lots of compromises one has to face though. Some can deal with that better than others I suppose. Anyway, some philosophical ramblin' from da kerz. Thanks for the welcome! Anyone even know what the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is?

Geez, I guess I am late to do an introduction since I got on here and started posting like a madman. I suppose it's not too late... I'm Dave and I am a keyboardist, songwriter (producer, programmer...bla bla you know all that sort of talk). I'm 33 years old and live in Florida now but was in L.A. from 1989-1999. I own a sound development company called Sonic Reality. We make sample libraries that are distributed by ILIO Entertainments. We also make a bunch of new VST sound module plug-ins with IK Multimedia's SampleTank engine. I've played on and programmed on various albums over the years. I'm not going to name drop till you want to puke but you can read some of that stuff if you're interested here: www.sonicreality.com/aboutus.html I have had a diverse range of experience in the music business (from alternative to world music to prog rock to tv scoring to R&B to adult contemporary). Lot's of potentially interesting stories in the studio or on tour, but I can see that I am not the only one here with that! I've performed in some high profile gigs but my favorites have been the ones that were the most musically satisfying. My favorite all-time performance was actually doing a little one-off tribute to Genesis 20 years since the "Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". It was in a band called Giraffe headed by the late Kevin Gilbert. I played the keyboards (ok for fun the rig was: Arp ProSoloist, Hammond C3, Novatron, CP70, RMI EP and MXR pedals). The drummer for this show actually ended up replacing Phil Collins on drums in Genesis for a few minutes as well as playing with Peter Gabriel and Tears for Fears. Anyway, we played about an hour of authentic 70's prog rock (the Lamb) at a thing called "ProgFest 94" (the only appropriate place in L.A. to EVER do this!!!). It was so much fun - I am really glad I did it. It was a challenge to be able to pull it off too because we only had a few weeks to learn it since it was a last minute decision to do it (we were in the middle of promoting Kevin's solo record... he was in the band Toy Matinee and co-wrote a lot of the tunes on Sheryl Crow's first record). Oh, the funny (slightly name-dropping...sorry) thing about this gig is that just a year before I was flying in samples from a keyboard live with Barbra Streisand in Vegas. After the Progfest show in '94 I actually did a little interview with someone from Keyboard magazine (the same mag this forum is related to) and told him briefly about the Streisand gig. He wrote it down that I was her keyboardist (which actually wasn't true- just flying in samples on it) but the "blurb" in Keyboard's article was "Barbra Streisand's keyboard player enjoys playing the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on the side!" I thought that if anyone read that they would be puzzled beyond belief. What the ....? Ok, but back to my introduction... as you probably know by now I am of the "mammoth post" variety. I am glad to see I am not the only one though I have a lot of experience with gear (both vintage and new) and with programming and sampling (my main gig now). I chime in when I can be helpful. I guess you can label me "manufacturer" but I think that I am objective in my opinions and I consider myself more of a friendly musician who enjoys a good discussion. I noticed you guys salivating over R's gear set up. I was tempted to list the equipment of my old studio in L.A. because it was like a gear museum! I am not kidding. Lots of rare instruments and delish studio equipment. But, I've gotten rid of most of that now so I guess it's not as relevant. Now I have a lot of samplers and a few vintage synths still. For keyboards I use a Yamaha Motif 8, Alesis QS8, Yamaha EX5 and a Korg Triton Pro. (plus some vintage keyboards). I can talk about gear for DAYS unfortunately. I was way too into this stuff at one point! It can be a sickness. And, by the way, I don't think most people need all of this equipment really. For one thing, it can get in the way of your creative flow! I get a lot more use out of the lighter set up I have now (plus moving is a lot easier!). I've seen a few guys I know already on this forum. For those of you that don't know me- hi there. I tend to talk about stuff I know the most which is samples and synths. I am also here to answer questions about this kind of thing in general or even specific questions about products or music I've worked on if you are interested. You can always email me too: dave@sonicreality.com