ksoper

Thank you very much!

Peter Gabriel says, embrace it because it's here and it's not going away. But use it as a tool to inspire. My neighbor's son Rory is getting his Masters in computer science at the University of Chicago and plunks around on the piano a bit. His father, a professor of computer science gave him an idea for a prompt and using that Rory came up with a Country song in Suno. He tweaked it by trying the same prompt in Gemini, as it's a better lyricist, and dumping that back into Suno. The result is amazing and terrifying. I played it for my wife. When it got to the chorus she threw her hands in the air and said, "F@ck me!" This damn song could be a hit. "Could" is doing some heavy lifting here, as the output is a little wonky. The vocal, as you'd imagine, sounds greatly autotuned, though with a convincing Southern twang. The phrases are different lengths so it doesn't flow. It rhymed a word with the same word once. There's no intro, outro or solo section although it has a nice bridge. It could be the frame upon which a real song is built. I made suggestions as to how it needed to be fixed. Rory came back with better results. I put it into my DAW and put it under the microscope. Something interesting is the fact that the "drummer's" time wasn't metronomic. It got slightly slower and faster, though not at places where a real drummer might push or pull the tempo. I had to straighten some of that out--not quantized, just positioned more normally. Similarly the vocals needed to be shifted around a bit. Suno creates phrases it can't sing. The instrumental track is a vague sounding mess that only slightly resembles a mix of guitars, fiddle and banjo. I made some cuts and did some rearranging of phrases and sections. It's sounding better. The lyrics still need fixing but it's sounding like something I might present to my guitar player buddy as a demo to be recorded by live players and sung by a real vocalist. Once that's done this damn song could be a hit. Seriously. In the mean time, until these programs can pass Adam Neely's musical Turing test, proceed as planned.

I just had this conversation with my doctor. He knows what I did for a living but he confessed to me that he just didn't "get" music. He can't tell one note from another and while he can appreciate that some level of skill is necessary to play an instrument, he can't tell a good player from a bad one. I can't fathom that, but these people exist.

The SX is a 23 year old instrument and it was worlds better than the RD-700, though I liked the finger/ear connection on both. Lots of ways to adjust the feel. Given a choice I'd also go for the GX. A leap in sound quality. Real-time controls are obvious and there are "one-touch" buttons that will bring up an AP or EP. Simple.

I bought an XP-30 not for its sounds, though it had a ton, but as a midi controller to replace the fragile and generally frustrating Studiologic SL-161. I can't say I was a huge fan of the sounds on the 30. Grainy, gauzey. But it could do splits which is what I needed. Built like a tank and very affordable. It made an enormous difference in my rig.

Point taken. My bad.

Where was Beato in 1991 that he hadn't heard the #1 song (for 2 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100? Amy Grant's "Baby Baby" was enormous.

"Bury me beneath the willow, Under the weeping willow tree. So she may know where I am sleeping, And perhaps she'll weep for me." But seriously, my boards have nail scratches from enthusiastic glissandi but I've never encountered anything like that short of blunt force trauma. No help here.

Moog One and done.

Much of the "New Age" noodling we heard in the 80s sounded, to my ear, like it was machine generated. This isn't any worse.

Not bad at all! Alicia's Keys was my go-to for quite a while when it first came out. I ought to revisit it.

Not to derail the thread, but I've always felt that Robin Scott (M) should've sued Huey Lewis for ripping off "Pop Muzik." They're as close as Ghostbusters is to I Want A New Drug. Unfortunately it was widely known that IWAND was the temp song and Reitman et. al. told Parker to "copy" it.

I love how Ronald Mael (Sparks) turned the "Roland" on his JP-8 to "Ronald."

Beatles: Why Don't We Do It In The Road?

I've got a project that I need to finish and then...nothing. I'm terrified that I have nothing left to say and that from here on out it'll be mindless noodling. Historically most of my creative process is done away from the studio and primarily in the car or while doing yard work. But I'm just not hearing anything lately. It'll be ok, though. I love what modern film and commercial composers are doing and even snippets of those kinds of things set me off in new directions. But again, I chase rabbits in my head away from the keyboard. When I did commissioned tracks and needed to do 4-5 in a two day period I was able to accomplish that. I work well with a deadline. However that work has fallen off and my new deadline is an actual dead line. Without getting too morbid it's clear that the hourglass is getting bottom heavy. I'm opening myself up to anything that can be used as inspiration--the sounds of nature, industry, conversation, etc. It's all music. But if I don't have an impetus the gear doesn't get turned on. And that's ok. I'll get back to it. Interestingly enough over the last 20 years I had the foresight to run red anytime I felt the urge to noodle. Going back through ancient files I've found a few things that could be fleshed out. Deep breath. It'll be ok.

My favorite, but ABSOLUTELY NOT SAFE FOR WORK. NSFW!!! DO NOT PLAY THIS AT WORK. In high school my friends were all band kids who'd get together at parties, get trashed, and sing filthy songs, many of which were original, penned by myself. One evening a guy who wasn't ever really part of our group quietly spoke up and said, "I've got a song." This was it.

Same lenses, pretty much identical experience. Our package included a YAG laser procedure that removes scar tissue. Well worth the upcharge. The price was stunning, Like, phasers set on stun. Down you go and you shit yourself. But like the famed "pennies a day" sales close, the longer I own them the cheaper they get. And it's one less damn thing I have to worry about in the next 20 or so years.

While not a keyboardist per se, Jo-El was the undisputed master of the button accordion. He was the first major artist to hire me when I was new to Nashville. His rehearsals were legendary. He came to my house and the two of us sat in my little studio working out the show for eight straight hours. Later I found out that everyone in the band had been subjected to this same method. But it worked and the band was tight. Jo-El's show was probably the hardest show I played during my touring years in Nashville. Such a mixed bag; the obvious Cajun material, some rock, and the incredibly beautiful Randy Newman song, "Louisiana 1927." The show also involved far more synthesizer than I would've imagined. I loved every minute of it. Jo-El gave everything he had during a performance. And I mean everything. After a show he was totally exhausted and had to sit for about an hour in the dressing room to collect himself. And he seem genuinely moved that the audience would respond in such a positive manner. He'd break down in tears after the last song before the encore. His very last show he played "Tear Stained Letter" and went back into the dressing room to rest for a moment before going back out fore the encore. He complained of being exceptionally tired. He did the encore, went to the dressing room and coded. He was Lifeflighted to the nearest hospital but they were unable to revive him. My heart goes out to his wife Bobbye who was not only is partner in life, but in business. She really loved him and took care of him. I'm proud to say that I played on his Grammy-nominated album "Cajun Blood." Thanks, Jo-El, for everything. Here's a great version of "Tear Stained Letter" performed on David Sanborn's show.

On the KBR-3D the output gain from the XLR connectors is determined by the main volume of the amp. In order to record the KBR from the XLRs straight into the mixer I had to throw a blanket over the amp because to get any kind of signal it was screaming loud. You can experiment with channel gain, but this was my experience with this particular amp.

Don't forget his score for the vastly underrated sci-fi film "Silent Running." I saw Schickele live in Philadelphia not long after the release of "The Intimate P.D.Q. Bach" which included this spit-out-your-coffee classic, "Please Kind Sir."

Ditto. Within days of initial coverage I had a keyboard stolen out of the jazz club on Pleasure Island/Disney World. Happiest place on earth my ass. The AFM insurance had my back.

While I'm shamelessly plugging a new album in the appropriate sub I thought I'd play one of the cuts here. "Miu" used the Midjourney-generated album art to inspire lyrics which were fed into ChatGPT for more lyric ideas. Even with the help of a professional prompt engineer getting poetry out of Chat was a dismal experience. I could've gotten more out of a thesaurus in less time, but I had to see for myself what it could do. For example, if I asked for a 5-word line ending in "moon" it would write Neil Armstrong's biography. But through endless "keep this, get rid of that" type of prompts, I got maybe a dozen words that could be strung together to make sense. In the end, the lyrics are about 90% me and 10% ChatGPT. For cranking out recipes that remind you of your Italian grandmother's cottage off the coast of Sicily, lazy Saturday mornings with the smell of fresh bread in the oven and the soft barking of puppies outside your window, ChatGPT is just great.

My neighbor sewed as easily as she breathed. I had her make me a couple of pairs of black drawstring pants using a pattern for medical scrubs. The fabric was very nice, a wool blend. Being drawstring they didn't lend themselves to tucked-in shirts but shirts were worn untucked anyway. They were slightly baggy in the leg for a nice flow when I walked and had extremely deep pockets which always came in handy. The drawstring was helpful when we were overfed at dinner. I still have them somewhere. They're excellent pants and wear like iron. I think these could be made for you within your budget provided you can sew or know someone who does.

Why would all my other iLok plugs work and not the UVI product? Like I said, this is a new development. It worked two months ago. Frankly, I'm a little scared to download a new version. ILok has given me no reason to believe that it would be as simple as that. It's bad enough just trying to activate a plug. I'll simmer down now.

1. Walk more 2. Play board games 3. Drink less