CaptainUnderpant

I second the motion for Davinci Resolve - It is Pro level, on par with Adobe Premiere. AND it is FREE!!!! My personal budget would be more like $1,500. Below is a quick overview of a $1,300 budget. which would be towards the low end of a video build. - IMO. These are just approximate numbers. CPU 300, Motherboard 200, Ram 200, Case 100, PWR supply 50, M.2 NVME SSD 150, OS 100, GPU 300 (Min - More is better) - $1,300. My preferred brands are Motherboard - Asus, CPU - Intel Core i7, Ram - GSkill, PWR supply - Corsair, SSD - Samsung, Case - Lian Li, GPU - Nvidia by ASUS. Note: You may consider waiting on a new video card until later this year when Nvidia comes out with their new Ampere platform. RTX 3000 series. They are supposed to be significantly more powerful and more Watt efficient. AVOID Adobe Premiere at all costs if you care about money. While it IS the industry standard, it costs about $20 per month. After 5 years of use, this would be $1,200 and will double the cost of your project. And Davinci Resolve is Free. While I had always been a fan of adobe, my last upgrade was CS5, Their subscription model is VERY costly for anyone but a professional. I replaced their entire $50 per month suite ($600 per year, or $3,000 per 5 years) with Affinitiy Photo, Designer and Publisher and Davinci Resolve for only a one time fee of $150. $3,000 Versus $150, for software that is just as good. Adobe has taken advantage of their user base and other software companies have stepped in to provide alternatives. Adobe now only makes sense if you are a Professional Designer. For anyone that says well it is ONLY $50 a month for the suite. $50 per month is equivalent to $12,000 in the bank.

Paul, How long have you been playing? It takes a long time to develop piano skills and it take the right drills to develop those skill. Things like hand independence (Required for the Peanuts song), don't come naturally to anyone. When I work on a drill, I have to break it down into the most simple components. Over the course of several days I can feel my synapses connecting. My brain literally has to create new connections. Re wiring your brain is not a simple task. It takes lots of hard, well thought out practice. You must practice so that one item becomes automatic, so that you can do it it your sleep. Then you can layer a new skill on top of it. For instance, can you do the peanuts baseline and pick up a cup of coffee and take a sip. Can you play that baseline and talk on the phone. You need to drive these skills into your subconscious. Good luck

If I had to do it all over again. I would buy only Omnisphere/Keyscape, VB3, Ravenscroft 275, and (OBXII - needed for Rush Tribute). I have so MANY other synths, but only the previous get used. Philosophy: The real cost of software is NOT the purchase price, but the TIME spent learning it. If I were to value my time even at a paltry $20 per hour, the time involved in learning a new synth would far exceed the purchase price. For this reason alone learning one synth and learning it well is the most efficient path. The great thing about Omnisphere is that it can do pretty much everything. When you factor in the time savings from having to only learn one product, the purchase price of Omnisphere becomes inconsequential. Now if I could just get my time and money back from the 10 other synths I have purchased at anywhere between $50 -$200 it would be great. Oh well, live and learn.

My voice coach paid me a compliment, that at first I thought was a back handed compliment and was reluctant to embrace. She said "You have this great ability to smile even when you screw up". I was like "Thanks???". Then I realized that this truly was a compliment. Make the audience feel comfortable no mater what. Because we are going to screw up.

Wow, I feel pretty lucky. I have only been in two bands. No issues with personalities, drugs or alcohol. All great guys and competant musicians. BUT I CAN'T STAND LOUD !!!!!!!!! And it comes from the drummer and the guitar player. At this point in my life a loud drummer or electric guitar is like being hit in the head. I can't take it. I guess I feel lucky to be able to only write this much.

I have my lyrics scroll on an app called "BandHelper". Great Program, all you do is set the song duration and it will auto scroll lyrics. Bandhelper is the web enabled version of SetListMaker. The web enabled version is much better because you can work on a desktop computer to build our your repetoire. It works on both ipad and android. I would suspect you could build out the lyrics for around 100 songs in couple of hours. You may then need to adjust lyric formatting and song duration which will affect scrolling. BandHelper.com

Welcome!!! This forum along has been a cornerstones of my development into a performing musician. The wealth of information and forum members willingness to help has been indispensable. This truly is a unique and wonderful place A GIFT??? While part of my musical ability is a gift that other people don't have, many other people do possess musical talent. Yet 90% of my musical "Gift" or talent is based upon hard work. As Thomas Edison said "Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration".

And this is exactly why I DO almost always play a piano when I see one. To constantly work through the nerves of a live impromptu performance is invaluable. Yes you do have to read the crowd and the alcohol level. Sometimes the entertainment is really appreciated, other times you know it's time to wrap it up after a couple of songs. Either way, you work through those performance jitters and makes you a better performer.

I think it is a little hard to suggest songs not knowing your style. For me I am more a ballad / singer song writer type. Slower songs also happen to be a little easier to play and sing at the same time. The other factor for me is how well the song translates to solo piano. While my style is to mainly use block chords, it is important for the song to have some type of signature lick that makes it recognizable. My final requirement is how much I like singing the song. Is it in my range and can I pull it off. For the range thing you can transpose it if you like. Then there is also the idea that how you might play a song in the context of a band will very greatly from how you would have to play it solo. I try out a lot of songs, sometimes they work sometimes then don't. I can however say that Piano man will work, but not for a baritone, this is more a tenor song. And Subdivisions, nor will any Rush songs translate to solo piano, unless you are a master and making something your own. But then this pretty much states the obvious. Maybe start with artists you like to sing. For me this would be Elton John, Billy Joel and Jackson Browne. Then look at their repertoire.

For me, YMMV, I approached piano like learning a sport, and I am good a learning because I am good at drilling. They say practice makes perfect, but this is only true if you practice the right stuff. This is where I needed a teacher, what should I practice? Backing up to what some others have said, you have to know where you want to go. I wanted to be able to perform live contemporary songs, either with a band or solo. This was my goal. At about 2 hours a day practice, I was able to perform with my band after about 1 year. At 2 years I was able to play well with my band. At 3 year I was able to play and sing and the same time. At 4 years I was able to sing lead and play. Now at 7 years I can sit down at an accoustic piano and entertain solo for a couple of hours. So what did I need to practice? My practice regimen was several pronged approach. 1) Basics - scales, chords, arpeggios, pentatonics, chord progressions, riff, syncopated left hand right hand drills. etc. 2) Listening to songs and trying to play along 3) Transcribing songs and performing. It was the #1 that I needed help with. How and what should I practice. Now a lot of people on this forum have said that they didn't see the value of drilling. But my definition of drills are patterns that regularly recur in modern music whether it be jazz or blues. Before you whip out some awesome solo or comp behind your vocals with a cool pattern, you need to drill these abilities into your hands. These drills should be things you will use in your playing. At first these drills may be more basic. As you move up the food change the drills may be actual portions of songs, like playing a funky left hand herbie hancock base line while soloing with your right hand, or practicing different ways to arpeggiate chords based upon a billy joel, she's always a women to me. My point with the drilling is the skill needs to becomes second nature. Practicing should be done to a metronome. Practicing should be transcribed to many other keys if not all keys, so the structure of what is being playing is understood. Then practice should be varied, as different practicing can support the learning of other items, jumping from one drill to another, then playing songs. All improvement is Global. I find the process of taking a drill that is awkward and not doable to the stage where the skill, riff / pattern becomes automatic and subconscious to be fascinating and rewarding. This then falls back on what to practice. This is where the teacher comes in. I have always looked for a teacher that has live performance chops and comes from the Berklee Music School / Jazz live performance school of thought. If they are just a sight read notes off a page, I would be out of there in a quick minute. Good luck in a search. It is all about finding the right match. So a little soul searching on what you want to learn and HOW you want to learn will help you find the right teacher. Then it is just an interview process.

For some and at a certain stage of life. It's honestly not really mine; I like being close to home and I don't think I have the fortitude or drive to flourish under the spotlight of being an artist in my own right. I enjoy the different aspects of what I do: writing, different gigs, teaching. I'd be bummed if I had to do only 1. Ahh, good point! I got a degree in engineering and did that for 5 years out of College. Hated the monotony of the job. For the last 30 years I have sold Real Estate. The opportunity to go from the many different aspects of the job provides a great outlet for my ADD. I can see how performing, teaching, writing all work together to add more value and appreciation of the total package.

This is how I feel for anybody who makes a living at music, sport, arts or anything that falls more so into the hobby / passion arena. What actually shocks me is that there are people out there that go to music school or art school and think that there is more than a shot in the dark that they can make a sustainable living performing music or selling artwork. Yes you can make money teaching, but that falls more into the category of a job and it IS WORK teaching students. As others have stated, you can take on students, run a church program, maybe compose sound scores for film etc. But getting paid strictly for performing ones music that they love on their own terms. This indeed is the dream. I come from the competitive sports world and grew up with great summer jobs teaching tennis. But never in a million years did I think that competitive tennis could provide me a living. Yes teaching, running a sports program etc. might pay the bills. But not pure performance. Maybe it is the fact that you get a chance at a young age to go head to head with the best players in the country to realize just how few will make it. And yes I have beaten kids that did go on to become top 10 in the world, and still was very aware of the limited opportunity and extreme odds. Yet the volume of music school programs that cost 20k plus a year and pump out thousands of students is out of line with market needs. 99% of these students will never make enough from live performances to justify the time and expense. The fact that there are even music schools to begin with kind of flummoxes me. Great athletes with promising NBA and NFL careers go to college and study something and then play sports in addition to school and are required to maintain grades in other studies. It is unethical to allow a college athlete to skate by on just their athletic ability with out getting grades in some other discipline. But why is it OK to graduate with just a degree in fine arts or music? Last night I was watching Jacob Collier and truly astounded by his talent and musical understanding. There will obviously be a place for him in the music world. I don't think I could attain his level of talent even in 3 lifetimes. So I will restate my opening line. If you can make it in music (or any of the arts or sports) in the capacity of performing live for people, I salute, I honor and I respect your achievement. You have succeeded in a profession where the odds are against you. And yes it does suck that today's pay scale is a fraction of what it was in the 80's. P.S. - My income from music, less than the cost of equipment and lessons, ie - net negative. Not going pro anytime soon.

is Cantabile V3 Windows/PC only ? Yes, I believe Cantabile is Windows only. Us Windows guys need to get some of the good music stuff, after all Mainstage is Mac only.

Reezekeys - You may not realize that M.2's have throughput of around 2,500 mbs while SSD's have about 500 mbs. So 5 times faster. Your 30 second load time drops to less than 6 seconds. By the time your drummer says 1,2 1,2,3,4. The patch is loaded. On a side note, I did install Keyscape last night. The host is Cantabile V3 (great product). With Cantabile set to load entire set list, the switching between patches is instantaneous. With my system there is NO issue in running Keyscape in a live setting. Not sure if this is because I have a relatively fast computer or because Cantabile just manages the program well. Keyscape will be my new go to Rhodes for next Friday's gig. Love the Rhodes sounds, much better than Pianoteq or Lounge Lizard. The Yamaha C7 sounds nice in the upper registers, but the bass notes sound very flat. I will be sticking with Pianoteq for piano. System Asus Z87 MB, i7 4770, 16gb, 512gb Samsung 950 M.2 boot and storage drive.

The combined boot time of my computer and starting my VST host and pre loading all instruments used for all songs is as quick as the boot time of my Yamaha S90XS. Switching patches is instantaneous with patches pre-loaded. My system is a 2 year old Z87 MB with a 4770k processor and a 512GB Samsung 950 NVME drive. Fast but no longer state of the art. Hey underpants. What host are you using and what primary VSTs? I don't know that Keyscape would patch change any faster within the host. Unless you are suggesting opening more than one instance of Keyscape preloaded with the patches you want to jump to. But multiple instances would use more resources no? Elmer, I am running Cantabile V3. Absolutely love it! Was using Forte, which was ok. But Cantabile is just so damn functional and so very stable. In Cantabile you can choose to preload the entire setlist/Rack/all patches (or whatever term applies). Then patch/song changes are instantaneous. When I load all the VST's 19 in all. Only Chris Hein Horns takes a while to load (sample based). All VST's/Patches/Presets load in about 20 seconds with CHH taking about 5-7 seconds to load. The list of VST's that I load is as follows. Pianoteq, Omnisphere 2, CHH, OPX-II, Kontact Player (to run CHH), Lounge Lizard, Real LPC, Amplitube 3, VB3, Komplete 9 (but don't use much) (not quite sure if that is it?). When pre loading the patches, Cantabile shows that it is loading 19 VST's. Not sure if this is due to multiple instances/patches of different VST's, or because I really do have about that many VST's in my system being registered by Cantabile, but not using all. Ominsphere 2 in certainly loaded several times. Would Keyscape Patch Change any faster within a Host? .... If Keyscape is anything like Omnisphere 2 then it should be instantaneous within Cantabile (if pre loaded). I should have a copy of Keyscape in my mailbox tomorrow if I am lucky and will be able to test out within a day or two. I don't know how running multiple instances affects resources. I have 16GB of memory and never come close to even using half of it. Cantabile seems incredibly well written. As a side note I didn't seem to get as much of a boost from the NVME M.2 upgrade as I would have thought. Went from a Samsung 840 Pro (Sata III) to a Samsung 950 Pro (NVME M.2). This maybe due to the Z87 MB, where support may not be as developed?. But it certainly wasn't slower. My live system for performing is a small form factor desktop based system with a small touch screen monitor, so desktop performance with tablet like form factor.