Dave Bryce

I’m kind of the same. I can wander around on guitar playing cover songs and just exploring chord changes and scale fingerings on guitar more easily/longer than keys these days. Probably because I’ve spent way less time getting guitar songs ready for bands or recording, so my expectations aren’t as locked in. I don’t read as well as I probably should, so classical music past things like Bach inventions or Hanon exercises aren’t something for which I typically reach. dB

Exactly my problem. dB

I’ve actually just acquired one of Royer’s R10 mics along with one of their dBoosters. I’ve been using it on my piano, and have been surprised and delighted with the results. Really natural and full sounding, and way easy to position. I've been A/Bing the dBooster with one of my Cloudlifters, and frankly the dBooster has a cleaner, sweeter, more coherent sound. Been switching back and forth between the +12dB and +20 dB setting, and I think I like the +12 a bit better - feels a bit more dynamically sensitive. Also, I’ve found that the channel compression from my SSL SiX that I would normally use on my piano mic isn’t really necessary with the R10 and dBooster. dB

I’m having an odd situation occur. Hoping I can get some help/suggestions from y’all. I’m not really playing in a band right now so I don’t really have any tunes to learn or practice, and I’m not working on any recording projects. Consequently, when I sit down to play keyboards or pick up a guitar, I’m having difficulty choosing what to play. I don’t feel like doing scales or exercises, and I’m not really inspired to sit and improvise (which is what I usually do when I sit down to play with no immediate goals). I’ve even tried working with newer instruments to try and learn more about them…but I’m having trouble coming up with material to play while I’m exploring. Is this a problem any of you come across? If so, what do you do to move past it? dB

I was motivated by a bunch of factors. First of all, Amazon. I couldn’t help but notice that a whole lot of people buy gear from them, and there aren’t many sales ….nor the ability to bargain on price, or talk to anyone about purchases being considered. For the most part, I intentionally kept the product listings to affordable offerings in an attempt to make that decision even easier. I also tried to keep the selections more towards utility-type products than things like instruments (except software, of course). I was even able to add one of my favorite lines: Strymon - a way cool boutique brand that (as far as I can tell) never goes on sale and is only carried by a few select dealers. Another factor is that I don’t love selling banners. I couldn't help but wonder if the folks who come here would consider buying some gear here instead to help support MPN…. 🤔 I also figured - incorrectly - that when it came to stuff like software and the available discounts on planned dates (Black Friday, etc) that if we offered the same prices here as the software manufacturers and dealers did that it would make a difference. It didn’t. Neither did free shipping on the hardware stuff. Lastly, there’s a long-standing vision for this place that’s kind of like a digital town. We have virtual bars, town halls, schools, libraries, theaters, concert venues, and a trade show hall, so it seems logical that having a local store here could be a good addition. Boy, do I hear ya. 😬 I appreciate you saying that. ☺️ I didn’t kid myself that pretty much everyone who comes here already has a bunch of familiar and comfortable options to buy gear already. It was probably a better idea to find an established retail partner and figure out a way for them to open a “store” here. I sort of tried making that happen with the Kraft folks, but that didn’t pan out. Not sure they were the right partner… I sincerely hope that y’all don’t take any of this as any sort of complaint or guilt trip. Hey, I made no secret of the fact that I considered this an experiment. Honestly, I feel it was worth the effort, because now I know the answer to the questions that I had about how well it would work. I’m one of those crazy people who believe that the only way to learn is to try. 😎 dB

IIRC, Mr. Lange was married to Ms. Twain when he produced her record. dB

Audacity rules. 😎 dB

So, Waldorf is offering the MPN Shop their software products to add to our lineup; however based on the extremely low sales of the other software (and hardware) lines we currently carry, I’m not inclined to take the the time to add this line….or any other lines, for that matter. Truth be told, I’ve already turned a couple of the lines off. As far as I can tell, we’ve managed to keep up with the specials and discounts offered…but for all intents and purposes it does appear that the MPN Shop in general has not been a desirable addition to the community. Any comments or feedback would be welcome. dB

All pretty much fine in Thousand Oaks…but then again, we live up on a higher elevation than most of our valley. dB

Seems pretty on topic to me… 😎 👍 dB

Just watched it (brought COVID home from NAMM, so I’m catching up on TV time). Very cool and interesting documentary. Brought the amount of effort it took to pull this off into a whole new perspective for me. dB

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Deep props to KC’s D - they were awesome today. As previously mentioned, not sure why BAL abandoned the run… 🤔 Looked like Detroit might have run away with the NFC game, but SF is right back in it now. dB

Jerry K, Michael Whalen and I got a demo of this bad boy and had a chance to play with it for a while. Lotta fun to be sure…but the $13k price tag is out of my price range. Korg sez they’re gonna build these to order. They also said they weren’t limiting how many they could build. dB

Unforeseen circumstances resulted in my leaving the show a bit earlier than I expected. Sorry for not having more pics… dB

The K2088 was also at the show. \ dB

More keys... dB

Keys... dB

A few pics... dB

Yes. Better booths too. I have a feeling more than a few attendees may come away from the show with it. Both days so far have been quite busy. I was in several booths today that were packed, and very few people were wearing masks. dB

Okay, so it actually does look like a NAMM show. Clearly more people in attendance than were at any of the Anaheim NAMMs during COVID. I didn't even have time to take very many pics yesterday because I kept bumping into friends and colleagues. A pleasant surprise, to be sure. dB

I use Kali’s WS-12 sub in my home theatre. dB

The JBL 305s were designed by Charles Sprinkle, who left JBL to start Kali Audio. dB

Kali Audio makes outstanding monitors, especially their IN series. Three way monitors with dual concentric tweeters and mid drivers. They punch way above their price point. dB

You and me both. VAST is such a cool engine. dB