The Real MC

Single and I like it that way. No desire to have an intimate relationship any more - divorced from a bad woman since 2004, that ruined it for me.

Famous last words Congrats, good choice on the Trigon-6

This Room Needs An Off-Topic Sub-Room.

I have the XK3c with XLK3 lower manual, it's the closest authenticity to a B-3. I had a Calzone case made so that the whole assembly sits in the bottom lid. Place the top lid on it and it's ready to cart to a gig. But it's not light and I only gig it when I'm playing lots of Hammond. I use the single manual XK3 for the simpler gigs. I don't used the overdrive for grunge distortion, not the same as overdriving a 122 or 147. But I found the XK3c overdrive is more useful if you monkey with the tube settings and apply tube overdrive lightly - it can make the organ tone better that an EQ cannot do. Agree that the onboard Leslie sim is its weakest point. I use my 760 or one of my simulators (CLS-222 or Vent II Pro).

Happy 29th Birthday! (That looks like a LOT more than 29 candles...) 🎂

This is why I stopped listening to broadcast radio since 2004. There's a lot of good music that is not getting broadcast, and I find them through peer recommendations like this thread.

My webpage has the details, it will be updated as my stage system is currently going through a change. The diagram below shows the new system. My Andromeda is starting to show its age by crashing in the middle of a song so I am replacing it. Anyone who knows the Andromeda knows this is a tall order, and I refuse to use a laptop or mobile on stage. That's the change I am going through now. I played a lot of genres over the years so I decided to divide strategic components into separate racks: Base analog rack Kurzweil rack Minimoog rack Polysynth rack Polysynth Effects rack This creates a modular system such that I only carry the components I need for the genre. IE if I'm playing blues or R&B, I don't need the synth racks. It also keeps the weight of the racks reasonable. This also minimizes the keyboards I use onstage (I'm down to two keyboards and a set of bass pedals). Another goal was to minimize cabling so with the exception of the Hammond all cabling between keyboards and racks is MIDI. The cabling is 25ft so I can set the racks offstage (I do not need to access the racks while playing). I built this in 2016, it has worked so well that I wish I had built it a long time ago. A convention is my stage system is my Universal Effects System Anyway, the synths: Moog Voyager RME. Used for classic rock or prog synth solos. Minimoog is hard to beat for solos. This is the closest thing in a Minimoog with MIDI in a rack format. I also use it for sound FX. The RME has its own Universal Effects system. Moog Minitaur. I've used Moog Taurus bass pedals with some bands. Until the Minitaur, I had never been able to get the Taurus growl and solid low end out of any other synth. I worked with a sound guy who loved to pump the Minitaur through his sub woofers to shake the room. I retrofitted a set of Taurus II controller bass pedals (no synth engine, controller only) with MIDI so I can play the Minitaur (or other MIDI gear) with my feet. No effects needed, the Minitaur sounds so huge. Many of the Andromeda patches I used onstage were 70s/80s analog and bread-n-butter sounds. I noticed that the typical layer/split I used on the Andromeda consisted of 2 or 3 Oberheim based patches and 1 Moog based patch. So to replace the Andromeda, I selected two Oberheim OB-X8 and one Sequential Trigon-6 all in desktop module formats. The desktop modules are too wide for standard 19" rack mounting so I am ordering a rack case to accommodate the modules which will be mounted on drawers. The Andromeda only has a single digital effect, other patches often needed other effects. I used to route separate splits to the AUX outputs of the Andromeda then to two sets of my Universal Effects System - that was a powerful and flexible polysynth. To duplicate this convention, I configured one OB-X8 as stereo eight voice, the other is configured as split with each split routed to separate L/R outputs then to the dual Universal Effects System. The Trigon-6 does the Moog polyphonic patches and already has internal digital effects. While the OB-X8 in eight voice mode doesn't use any effects, the random stereo panning creates a nice stereo effect. That's how I replaced my Andromeda. The solution isn't smaller but a modern hardware clone of the Andromeda is not likely today. The solution doesn't have the deep feature set of the Andromeda for patches, but I covered 90% of what I used on stage. Other non-synth sound modules: Kurzweil 1000PX and 1000AX ROMplers. Great samples of bread-n-butter sounds that aren't possible on the polysynths. Each ROMpler has their own digital reverb. Alesis DMPro drum ROMpler. Besides the excellent drum library, it includes a very good effects system and has four AUX outputs. If I need to, I can configure six separate outputs for kick, snare, cymbals, percussion, then stereo pair for effects and everything else. All this is controlled from my master MIDI controller. For every song, my Kurzweil MIDIBoard has MIDI configurations for patch, volume, etc of each MIDI device and split/layer of its keyboard. I have yet to find a MIDI controller with the features of the MIDIBoard. The Hammond has a dual role, I can use it to play organ (also configured via the MIDIBoard), or with CANCEL preset selected the Hammond becomes a MIDI controller for the polysynths. I used to play in an 80s top40 band (Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, etc) using a drum machine and I played bass synth with my left hand. I wanted to plan for that genre so I included an Alesis Datadisk to play back MIDI drum/bass sequences to the drum module and Minitaur. I may be exploiting that in the near future.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but starting in 2016 MB/MBP the SSD and internal RAM can no longer be upgraded. Those components are soldered to the mainboard and there's no expansion ports. Plan as much SSD/RAM space that you will need and order it through Apple when you purchase the MB, because it has to be built to order out of the factory. I doubt that custom MB orders can be done though Walmart or Best Buy, they probably only offer the base model.

In short it's not what you know, it's who you know. Just like the engineering profession of my day job.

Alesis Andromeda. Does Oberheim and Moog timbres very well with a deep modulation feature set. Doesn't have the girth and bite of a Minimoog, but the Andromeda covers so much. The deep modulation feature set gets sounds you would least expect from an analog synthesizer. Yes I still gig mine. Runner up is the wonderful Oberheim OB-X8, if you don't need the deep modulation features this is the definition of "analog".

I no longer do them. I'm a competent player and can comp, but I'd rather be in a steady gig with a band.

Ray Kurzweil's utopian fantasies are not going to happen as long as there is a population that neglects their health and diet. Viral diseases like polio that have been "eradicated" have a nasty tendency to resurface. And Kurzweil is not an authority on medicine. I had a book that Kurzweil authored in the 1990s. While preparing to relocate 1100 miles to a new job in 2021, I purged many books and the Kurzweil book was one of them.

After the suicide, Greg Lake had said that Keith's depression started during the making of "Works". It wasn't just his pinky - I saw a late picture of Keith with his thumb visible on his right hand - it was grossly curled back and it was not pretty..

That's a good patchbay, I use one in the studio for the hard disk multitrack. Just make sure the plugs are FULLY inserted in those points.

I've made my own I/O panels for 30+ years. Have never found a generic 1U panel pre-drilled for 1/4" interconnect. Yes there are the Neutrik XLR format but I need denser I/O for my systems. This is one of the most dense I/O panels I have made with my powered hand drill. I just picked up a drill press for future work.