MPN21

Thanks for your post. I will definitely look for past discussions about the finger issue. Yes, I will probably ditch my NC2x and replace it with a Korg Liano. A fellow musician's wife is a retired surgeon. She said I should see a hand specialist. I might do that down the road, but since I don't use my left hand pinky on heavy action, it has gotten so much better. Watching my diet/supplements seemed to help a lot, too. In my case, it seems to be just wear and tear. So playing on a light action like the Casio S1 is much easier on my pinky.

Thanks for the chart. My CT-S500 will arrive on Tuesday. I didn't even know it is equipped with BLE MIDi and an expression pedal input! As for the Liano, I understand it is available in 6 colors, but most vendors have only black.

Thank you for your confirmation on the Liano action. Definitely I am getting a Liano. I will have to request a special order for a different color. Looking forward to my CT-S500 this Tuesday!

I used to pound really hard with my left hand playing ragtime type of stuff. It must have taken a toll on my fingers. The arthritis in my left hand pinky got worse. Last year a forum member suggested that I buy a Casiotone when I mentioned I was looking for a 73 key for gigs, travel, and the like. I bought a Casio S1. I began to use it more and my fingers are happier. At the time, I should paid more attention to Anotherscott's posts on the Casio CTS-500. I wanted more of the Casio S1 and just ordered a CTS-500. It sells for $379, but noticed that my favorite store B&H has it for $349. Plus, I used their Payboo card so that they take care of the sales tax for me as long as I pay it off in the first month. I dropped the idea of getting a 73 key, but instead I am looking at the Korg Liano 88 for its semi-weighted keys due to my arthritis. I have a Numa Compact 2x, but I think the keys are a little too short; uncomfortable to play pianistic pieces on it especially the black keys.

Arturia always has good deals on updates/upgrades. If I remember it correctly, I always paid $99 for a new version, but sometimes I would skip a version.

I run Gig Performer both in Windows machines and Mac. It is so easy and intuitive to control all my plugins in Gig Performer. I purchased Mainstage just because I already had my MBPs, but I don't use it. I want all my sounds available in Windows machines as well. I always think that MS is an Apple's way of getting you locked in their ecosystem. Right now Proaudiostar has Arturia V-Collection 8 Software Instrument Bundle Software for $59 instead of $599. I have V 9, but I'll say this is a terrific price. I only purchase sounds that I can run in Win and Mac. https://www.proaudiostar.com/catalog/product/view/id/99056?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign

Great info. I didn't know such cables existed. I think the mini USB connector is much worse than the micro. I had a Softstep midi foot controller with a mini usb power connector. The connector broke and even a professional tech person couldn't solder it. I have a Line6 wireless system that has a micro USB connection, which makes me nervous every time I use it. I bought this USB magnetic cable.

I have three Yahoo email accounts including an Sbcglobal/ATT which is essentially Yahoo. What browser or mail app do you use? Of course, you don't see any ads using the Windows app, but it will be replaced by the new MS Outlook. I like the current one much better. I do not see see any ads in my browsers when checking my Yahoo email; Firefox, Edge, and Chrome. I have installed some ad blockers such as uBlock Origin. You lose a little space on the right side where there there used to be adds. The same with the Youtube site. I think my VPN blocks some of that, too.

Seriously, don't stop. I like companies like Alto; good tools for good prices. A lot of times, musicians become an expensive influence on one another. The human mind is complex; sometimes people try to rationalize their own expensive purchases by making other buy the same thing. Maybe it was some of you posts that influenced me to purchase a pair of Alto TS12s when they were on sale. I like them a lot. I try to stay away from companies that create an image/name and make people pay not only for the product but also for the image.

Ha, interesting! I try to do multitasking at times, but this would make my brain bleed! The 12 pedal setup starts from $3,595. Here's a much cheaper one though it's digital.

You mean the BA330 by Roland. I have one. I never cared for the SA300; it was too boomy and not clean. The BA330 is a battery operated, stereo amp. The AP sounds very good; low, mid, and high all good. I don't know the inner working of the two 6.5 speakers on each side. However, nice and tight bass, but I won't run a bass guitar or anything like that. The stereo, though not a wide L/R separation coming from one box, offers very noticeable depth that is very pleasing to the ears. The BA330 seems to check just about all the boxes for the OP with rooms to grow except that the price is slightly over his budget. Then again, Alto seems to get a lot of love here on this forum, and I ended up buying a pair of brand new TS312s a year ago or so; they were cheaper than the TS308 . I liked them so much that I was going to buy TS308 also, but I heard about the TS408 and decided to wait. I heard someone say that TS308 has a warmer sound than the TS408. What about the TX 308 for $139 each? Several members mentioned it. Well, if it does the job, I won't let the low price bother me. As for me, I considered buying a Motion Sound, but having read a few posts here, I decided against it.

This is a free app - donationware. I like how it uses Yamaha styles - thousands of them are easily available on the net. Also available for Windows and Mac. It seems to be very capable. https://www.jjazzlab.com/en/

Bad musician sound bad either with or without backing tracks/arranger. Good musicians will learn real quick how to interact with backing tracks. Once I heard a top notch Jazzer talking to a "long-time" musician who has to have his arranger for his performance; don't fight the machine. Let it do the work for you. The arranger musician couldn't even hide himself behind the arranger backup. He was "fighting" it. It will drive you up the wall. The Jazzer himself used the Roland VA-7 arranger keyboard years ago. Of course, he is very skillful in interacting with the machine's backing and the long ending. He made the machine sound better than what it is!

I was using Forte 4, Contabile, and a few other VST hosts when I stumbled upon Gig Performer ver 1. GP was so intuitive, easy, and flexible that I uninstalled all other VST hosts except for a free vst host called VSTHOST only to check out free plugins. Out of curiosity, I just installed VST Live. Just like many other hosts, the GUI gives me headaches, menus/fonts are much smaller than GP, and mostly importantly it can only activate Asio4All driver in my Windows 11 Pro at 512 buffer, still crackles a lot while GP exposes Windows Audio at 144 buffer. Windows Audio is also multi-client meaning that while playing plugins, I can listen to Youtube and so forth. Asio4All is not multi-client. By the way, my PC is a $300 mini pc with a Celeron chip! No audio optimization done with all kinds of junk running in the background including Phone Link and WIFI midi going everywhere. I was shocked that GP could run Virtuoso Ensembles by Kirk Hunter very well. It's the most CPU intensive plugin that I have. Even one of my old MBPs has a hard time running it.

It is certainly a nice board, but heavy at 40 LBS.