linwood

I think my friend Norm Kinney mixed that record.

I never played it when it was out and I never got to play any of Sheena's tunes either. That's what makes gigs like this fun. You get to sit with a tune and have to get into it all alone and make it groove. That's a two day-er for me. The first day you play it all in and the next day you tighten things up and spend a couple hours on a mix and you're on to the next one. Life in the fast lane, but that's the gig. I hate to jump in with another one, but some might be interested in the process…This thing bugged me for the past few years. It’s an arr I did for them for the orchestra, but the sound of the original broadcast was pretty bad. The mix was outta whack big time. You couldn’t hear the orchestra at all and I understand it. In a venue like this and the type of show, how do you handle all the open mics? I’ve seen plenty of shows where the strings are on stage for show and the audio is played in the house to a click. All the singers in show struggled with intonation and some more than others. I'm sure it was a bad monitor mix and they couldn't hear themselves. It wasn’t like a bad note here and there. It was consistently out of tune. So…LALAL(dot)AI to the rescue. I was able to separate the vocal from the band and then I had the ability to tune him and also widen his vocal a bit. I used izotope to bring the drums up a couple db. Then I made a tempo map and sweetened the orchestra with the new update to SSO that came out last week. I already owned pro so it was an easy update for me, but I hadn’t given it a spin yet and this was a good reason to try it out. Took a full day to do it, but now I can live with it.

It is what it is, Theo. Maybe next time she'll call you.

Thanks. I like the other version, too. They chopped it up and extended the intro and put a breakdown in it for audience participation…show biz stuff. I use LALAL(dot)AI to grab the vocal. I did 5 tunes and used it for all of them. Some of the tunes were ones that she recorded in the 80s/90s and we needed to lower the key. So I’d grab the vocals and pitch them down where I needed them and built the tracks around it. Fun gig. She’s as nice as can be. Hadn’t played this type of thing in a while and never covered these tunes so it’s fun to sit with them and go there.

The last couple months I was doin' some demos for Sheena Easton. She's going back out this week and wanted to add some new tunes to her show. On this tune that she wanted to add I was asked to do 2 different versions of it right up front. This is the one she did not take. She went with the one that was really close to the original. For this one I used software to lift Lisa's vocal off the original so that I'd have a vocal to work with. The demos go to the band to learn. They don't want paper. I guess that way you actually have to learn the tune and you get an idea of the feel, intent, and sounds to play. Hit Me Band

Maybe I should try dancing.

That was a great one! Here's another doc that's worth a watch.

Steve...I've got a 200 out in the garage that King Errisson gave me. he said he got it from Neil. When my ship comes in I'm gonna have it done.

1980....

Soon we'll long for the days of backing tracks.

I'm doing tracks for an '80's pop star right now. Just finished one today and used the Hitmaker machine kits in Toontrack, a lot of M8x, touch of Jupiter X, and Mini Moog bass. I think they use Ableton in the house.

You are correct. I don't do any seq or sampling with workstations.

Hi Steve...In my case it was. My ES8 had never been played outside of my home, but it got played all day long and was just worn out. There was a lot of play and wiggle in the keys in spots. I had replaced some problem keys, but it still bugged me and I put up with it for years. I don't think I had the audio outs hooked up to anything for the past several years. Maybe 10. I was just using the keyboard. It's so nice having the M8x to play now. The action is light and fast, but solid. The sounds are great. I have a ton of sounds in here already though, to be honest. These are a welcomed addition. I wasn't even thinking about the PAT or wondering if I wanted/needed it. Now though...Man, it's a wonderful thing to have on those CS80 type pads. Beautiful what you can do and express. I wish the sliders would transmit cc like the knobs, but that's not a big deal. I can do that other ways. It's an expense, but over 20 years it's nothin'. Damn near free.

Nothing's for everybody. You gotta find what you can connect with and make music with and run with it.

The action is quick. When it was still in the box and I had just peeled the paper back and touched it I was kind of surprised. The texture on the sharps is unfamiliar and all. It took a minute to warm up to it. The ANX sounds really nice. I haven't done any programming on it. Just playing and tweaking presets. It's very nice though. Not cheap, but what is these days?

I’ve been playing the M8x for two days now and love it. The sounds and action work well for me. I’ve always liked to have Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and Moog represented in my setup. It’ s been like that since the 70/80’s. The M8x replaced a Motif ES8 that I’ve been sitting at for close to 20 years. I’d been looking for a controller to replace it, but couldn’t find anything I liked and I knew I’d be happy with the new Yamaha under the fingers. The sounds are great and the control you have over them and how quick you can get to what you want is great. It’s easy to play the filters and things in real time. It only took an hour to adapt to the action, but now we’re old friends. I find that every thing in the M8x responds really well to the keybed ( even clav and B3) as do things like Keyscape and all my other sample libs. It’s wonderful. I’ve got 4 different keyboards in here and all of them feel totally different. Sometimes if I’m playing a synth thing with the Omega 8 I might play it from the Matriarch because I like the action on it. It’s tight and a bit heavier than the JX and I like where the wheels are in relation to your left hand. They’re close and the reach feels natural. Other times I’ll go with the M8x if it’s two fisted. This is a fantastic center piece for “me”. Very happy with it.

Mine is out for delivery today. Woohoo!

12 tone. Everything is available. Go nuts.

LH G F and then arp B E G# Bb Eb G A D F# Ab Db F

I grabbed the new Scarbee Sun Bass today. Killer!...and tons of good presets

I'm with you. My 88 says "Ready to Ship". Looking forward to it.

Get down! lol LIW.mp3

Holy smokes!