tunaman

If all you"re looking to do is hit presets and play, then the Kronos may not be the right board for you. It is still the most advanced and capable workstation overall, all these years later, and really still does not have a true peer. But with that ability comes a learning curve, and depending on what you wish to accomplish it can be quite steep. Yes, it is heavy. I have two K2 73s, so I am able to keep one in my home studio and take the other out for rehearsals and gigs. I"m getting ready to head out in the morning to drive 400 miles up north for several days of practice and a gig next weekend. For less arduous trips where I"m transporting my gear in my Tahoe, I have a soft case which helps ease the heft. I also have a heavy duty flight case for those times it needs to be loaded in a trailer, or on a plane should that be necessary in the future. A good collapsible dolly helps immeasurably for those times I need to lug it in the flight case⦠I"m a 60 year old man The performance aspects of the Kronos are worth it to me. When I"m performing, there"s no need to menu dive. I use the Setlist with my voices in their proper order, and the real-time control surface allows me to make whatever tweaks I need live. I love my Kronos and couldn"t imagine not having it (them).

That"s what they make hats and sunglasses for

I"ll refrain from sharing my views on the subject, but I will just point out that I"m old enough to remember them predicting our impending peril at the hands of an ice age, the collapse of the ozone layer, and now extreme temps melting the ice cap⦠and suggest that you look at the actual data and see how much 'change' has actually transpired over the period of years and factor in how much more change might occur in the time frame you are worried about. You will likely come to a conclusion that eases your worries a little (or a lot). Bottom line IMHO is that there are far more significant things to worry about, and that the Serenity Prayer is your friend.

I don"t agree that they should be painful, but they should certainly fit properly and that means snug and not real easy to insert. My UEs are snug, and I have to pull on my ear lobe and rotate them to get them to seat, but they are comfortable and seal extremely well.

I realize that my situation is somewhat unique, but here is what I am using for my audio and ears needs. Here is what I currently have: I bought the Mackie DL32S at first and was using it for my ears as well as for band practices. I bought the 4U flight case and installed the power strip, the used QSC amp, and a half shelf to hold my AKG transmitter. I also bought and incorporated an Esinkin bluetooth adapter and a small Rolls interface, which you can see mounted on top of the DL32S via velcro: The BT allows me to connect any BT audio source and route it to my ears and/or amp for practice or live performances (intermission and such). The band decided to incorporate ears, so I got the DL16S (used off of Reverb) and leveraged it for the ear transmitters and the personal monitor mixes. I repurposed an old Netgear wireless router, so both mixers are cabled into the Ethernet ports. That allows anyone to connect to the router, then running the Mackie Master Fader 5 software they can connect to the DL16S to manage their personal monitor mix. I now have two half shelves in the 32S enclosure, each holding two AKG transmitters so everyone who needs wireless monitoring has their own device and mix. The drummer uses a channel on the 32S to feed his Senn wired belt pack. It"s elaborate for a keyboard player, but I"m set up for whatever situation I encounter and can use this setup for the entire band audio for rehearsals and small gigs, integrate whatever is needed for FOH scenarios, and anything in between. The Mackie software allows me to reconfigure on the fly, save and manage any number of permutations of I/O and call them up on demand, and provide custom monitor mixes which are unique and accessible to each member. I have a laptop which is connected to the router via Ethernet so I don"t have to worry about wireless dropouts. I typically have the laptop connected and controlling the DL32S, and my iPad on my stand connected to the DL16S.

I do when the wife is home, so that I don"t disturb her or have to play extremely low levels. My bass player lives across the street, and we use our ears in the evenings when we get together to practice or play to tracks.

Yep - got set up for IEM about 10 years ago myself. Like you, I felt my hearing was worth it and made the investment on a set of Ultimate Ears and the AKG IVM4500 and never looked back. I now have a new set of UE7s which I bought last year during NAMM, and I have two more AKG systems I bought used for use with some band members - it really helps to have everyone on ears. I really love the versatility of the AKG system, as I can run stereo, mono, or dual feed simply, and have separate volume control via a balance feature so I can have a partial FOH mix in one ear and my keys exclusively in the other, and adjust how prominent each of those feeds are in relation to each other right from the remote pack.

I usually keep my keys pretty low, and when they mention it I tell them to turn down so they can hear me⦠no need to rehearse at 11. I have a set of in-ears, with a good set of Ultimate Ears molded monitors. If possible, I use my monitor system so that I have control over the volume I hear. If I"m not using the monitor system, I still keep the ears in and can put them deeper or less deep as necessary to help moderate the incoming volume. I always try to encourage the band members to keep the volume down every chance I get, but the ears help when I am less than successful.

THIS. Each Program or Combi on a Kronos will need to be individually tweaked via the Master volume (TFX/MFX page) to balance them out as needed. Certain P/Cs will be louder than others, and will need to be brought down to the lowest common denominator. Then the overall volume level can be set by the player or FOH as required to sit within the overall mix.

I"ve been working on that concept for two years now, but unfortunately personnel has kept me from getting there. First attempt had a few good players, but a drummer who dropped beats and couldn"t motivate himself to practice. Second started off in the right direction, but due in large part to a singer who wouldn"t put the work in, and a rhythm guitar player trying to become a lead, it moved too slowly and we finally had to try to just incorporate songs the singer knew. Finally had enough. Now we are working on a third iteration, but everyone appears to be too busy to commit to a rehearsal schedule. With my pending retirement plans, the wife and I are now talking about relocating out of this State and moving to the Vegas area. I"m hoping I can find plenty of more serious opportunities there. It didn"t used to be this hard

Ditto I"m also in tech, and may be retiring soon myself now. I wasn"t planning to ever, but circumstances are now changing and I"ve also changed my mind. I think I"m going to make the shift and finish my life as a musician, as my parents had hoped for long ago. Sage advice - we are in similar situations. Life is short - live it to the fullest, be the best you can be, and have no major regrets if at all possible.

I picked up a 61 key Nauty, must have been a lightly-used demo, off of Reverb several weeks ago⦠price was too good to pass up. I bought it to use in place of my 61 key TeX which I"ve been using MIDI"d to the Kronos. I was prepping for a gig at that time, so opted to just do the same (MIDI) and use it as a controller. Since then, I agreed to go play a gig with my old band up north so I"ve been in crunch mode - going to take the same approach. I did have a few chances to poke around and test out some of the voices, and what I did check out seemed to be decent. There appear to be far more differences than similarities, from what I saw. I don"t care all that much for the new UI. Some parts are better, perhaps, but as I"ve been a Kronos owner for a couple of years I"m very fluent with it. It is prettier in some respects, sure, but it seems more cumbersome with the page layouts. Also, the smaller screen is a step backward IMHO, and the screen is less sensitive as I"ve seen many reviewers note. I started to dig in to see about the compatibility, and find this to be a significant challenge. Going through the VNL, there are enough differences in voices and locations that simple reorganization or methodical Prog/Combi arrangement will be challenging. Also, the installed sample libraries are different enough to make voice porting a struggle. I"ve tried using the newest version of PCG Tools to help with migration and organization, but find that I can"t even copy and paste a Setlist slot between the two PCG file versions. Again, these observations are all made with extremely limited time spent. Once I get through the gig next week, I will be able to dedicate more quality time trying to determine how I can incorporate it into my rig in a more native manner. The key bed feels fine. The lack of physical controls is a major drawback, having become accustomed to the voluminous control surface on the K2. The fact that they included only a single USB-A port sucks, and the fact that they placed them squarely in the middle also sucks as I use Ultimate Apex stands which block access when it is fully seated on the rails. That"s about it from me so far.

I like the idea of reaching out to him as a courtesy⦠may get to have a conversation with him, which would be cool and likely good for a bunch of laughs I would guess. Then you could compose the foreword as suggested and include a tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to Rick.

I use Ultimate Ears. I bought my first set nearly 10 years ago, and it was life changing when coupled with the AKG IVM4500. Last year, my band mates and I took advantage of discounts during NAMM. I bought a new set, a couple of steps up from the model I started with. Our guitar player and drummer went with the lowest cost model, and our bass player went a couple grades higher than mine. Our singer already had them. Good IEMs are worth their weight in gold, as they will help save your hearing for years to come - awesome to listen to very low levels while maintaining projection for FOH.