eric

The Neutrik looks like a great solution and it wouldn't seem like you'd ever run out of channels/options here! I'd like something like this if it had fewer channels and an option for MIDI patching. I'll have to search and see if there is anything like that. Otherwise, it's DIY with Redco parts. Remarkable value as well!

Yes, that's it! I don't have one quite that decked out, though I have a few different Redco rack plates and still a ton of extra parts to use for experimentation. I love Redco!

Back when I first started playing loud music 15-20 nights a month, well before my blessed era of IEMs, I was using wax swimmer earplugs to protect my hearing for many years. This seemed to have been a great solution, with the tradeoff being not having the world's highest fidelity filtering, LOL. In more recent years, I'm 100% IEMs and cannot think of another better gear investment ever. I have custom molded Ultimate Ears (several different sets) and they make my live shows 1000% better. For hearing protection when I go to shows, I use custom molded Ultimate Ears Microsonic earplugs and they work amazing. They retail at $199 though I recall paying less and also getting two sets with my order (which was a surprise to me). So I have one set in my live rig briefcase to have available for shows with other bands and I keep the other set right next to my wallet and keys on my dresser, as a reminder to bring them to any kind of live music event that I attend. So much better than those wax earplugs!

Redco makes these.

We have a Sam Ash across town right next door to a Guitar Center. I haven't been to either in years...supporting part of the narrative that brick and mortar music stores are not thriving in most cases, due to ease of access via online ordering. There was an era when I would drop by Sam Ash or Guitar Center when I needed a last minute XLR or patch cable. Nowadays, I can order this from Amazon and it arrives often the same day...soooo convenient. I am an occasional Sweetwater customer for larger items and like a few other people here, I'm within driving range of Chuck Levin's and that's where I've made some memorable purchases in my lifetime. I haven't been in quite a while. I do remember my first interaction with Sam Ash in the early '90s, well before we had one locally. This was the time when you'd see the advertisements in Keyboard Magazine for Sam Ash in NYC and it was like this magical idea of how cool a store it must be. Anyways, I was trying to track down a new Dynacord CLS-222 and Sam Ash had one. I believe I still have the bill of sale, though the Dynacord is long gone. It was a very good investment of $695 at the time, as that Leslie simulator was amazing and served me well for over a decade. I couldn't locate the list of which stores are closing.

That's a great old video! I love seeing things like this. The Roland JP-8 is pretty fancy as well.

GREAT TOPIC!!!! I joined an original ska/reggae/pop band called Fighting Gravity in 1987 as I was wrapping up my high school years. We toured significantly for well over a decade and recorded 10+ original albums. We were "almost famous" and disbanded in the mid '00s. The band was known well enough to attract crowds for big reunion shows 3-4x per years over the last 7-8 years. I am still very close to these guys after 35+ years and consider them my musical brothers. Something magical happens when we get on stage together. Early photo from about 1989 and recent photo from 2023. We have several shows we are prepping for 2024. It's really good for the soul.

I believe there are a few forum members with a K250...I am digging deep in the crevices of my brain to remember. I think maybe The Real MC and @Marzzz might have one or have had one. Those are off the top of my head.

It really only matters if anyone is sending you a 1099. I've been all over the map since my touring days in the '80s and '90s, where my gig income was a pretty decent % of my overall income vs. day job and there was an LLC plus lots of reportable income. Nowadays, music is a very small slice relative to day job, yet still there is a 1099 burden to bear for earnings above a certain threshold. I believe now if you sell gear on Reverb or eBay, they will 1099 anything from $600+ and similar rules apply for income from gigs, completely dependent on the bookkeeping prowess of the venues where you're playing. You didn't hear this from me, but if you're being paid in cash and your 1099 burden is low, then you make your own decision on how you're claiming your income. If you have a lot of 1099 burdens, it is helpful to be very intentional about your write-offs to help defer some of that burden.

I've learned a lot from Rick's videos and enjoy most all of them...I was keeping up with them a few years ago when they were newer. I've totally lost track - he's very prolific and has a TON of different videos between the song deconstruction and various interviews. At our band river retreat last month, we watched a lot of his things and after a while we concurred that it's best in small-medium doses as his voice/style can start to grate on you a bit.

Great job and strong camera presence! Thanks for sharing!

I saw it with my wife for Valentine's Day date night and we both really enjoyed it. We rarely go to the movie theater. This wasn't really on my radar until we saw a feature on CBS Sunday Morning a few weeks ago and this totally hooked us on it. Check it out here. https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/thKYFW6u6hqVH8v66fDovMq7erooSmYM/ I love that Ziggy Marley was heavily involved in this movie and it even starts with him giving a brief introduction, indicating he was on site every day to be sure that the movie was an accurate depiction of his dad's life and story. Also, the son of original bass player Family Man Aston Barrett played the part of his dad, which is cool. It was a good mix of music, history, and Bob's journey. Kingsley Ben-Adir did a very nice job playing the part of Bob, aka Skipper. I highly recommend it!

No joke!!!! I bet he had that piano sketch down to muscle memory! I have nothing that cool...this is as close as it gets for me. My touring band from the '80s and '90s eventually became "almost famous enough" to sign autographs and we actually do an annual cancer benefit where our items are auctioned off to benefit the charity, so we are STILL signing posters, t-shirts, and guitars, etc. I realized about 30 years ago that I needed to up my signature game and so what you see here is about the best I can do. It's nowhere near as cool as Liberace!

There's an extensive five page thread on this topic from last year. I wrote a long answer there. TLDR: This occurs in commercial settings due to sponsorship agreements and not allowing free advertising. It happens in personal settings due to personal preferences.

I thought the forum might appreciate this story. It's one that I've heard about most of my life, though only recently some more of the details came into focus as we are working to move my dad out of his house into a senior living facility. My dad will be 82 this year and is still quite lucid mentally, though he has lots of physical/mobility challenges. As we've been clearing out his house, lots of memorabilia bits have been found, and it has generated new interest and recollection of stories from the past. My dad is an accomplished pianist, having earned a music degree and some post graduate work back in the day. He was my primary inspiration as a young child when he would play piano daily as I played with my toys and rode my rocking horse. He was mostly a jazz guy and had the Dave Brubeck Time Out repertoire committed to memory. Anyways, in 1960 my dad auditioned for the chance to perform with Liberace, who was doing a thing around the US whereby he would travel to state fairs and put on a big "Piano Pyramid" show where 50 pianists were playing grand pianos on staggered platforms, with Liberace at the top platform leading the whole thing. My dad was one of the 50 pianists in Kentucky to perform in the 1960 Kentucky State Fair with Liberace. As we were clearing some closets out, we found a signed Liberace print that had been rolled up in storage, and also have tracked down the local newspaper with a picture of my dad on the front page with Liberace. I found all of this to be very interesting and plan to have the signed print framed and put alongside the Kawai grand piano my dad has just passed along to me as part of the moving process. It would be really cool if there was a recording available. I attached a few pictures. That's my dad on the right side next to Liberace.

I must be living under a rock or this is extremely obscure. I've never heard of any of this and I'm fascinated by it. I will be digging deeper. The interesting grooves and use of multiple keyboardists, the horn section, that bass player definitely has the cool facial expressions, LOL. I didn't come away with any memorable hooks, just sampling several of the videos in this thread. I was entertained!

Very cool! He is part of my wife's tennis club in Richmond and I guess it was at least ten years ago that I met him. I gave him some advice in early days that led him to getting a Nord (I think NE5) - shocker that I'd recommend a Nord to someone, LOL. Then, next thing you know he has the VV EP and is playing cool gigs all over town! Sorry to take the thread slightly OT...just mainly that people in weekend warrior bands are gigging with VV pianos that meet the criteria of "expensive" for sure.

You are correct! Small world!

If I had an OB-X8 I would love to use it live! Probably just for very special types of gigs. I got a Prophet 6 several years ago with intentions of using it live. I had worked out a cool stand solution and everything. Then the pandemic shut down gigs for a long while and I kind of forgot about wanting to use the P6. I have it in my music room and have been low key thinking of selling it since it hasn't been getting much use. Back in the '00s I used a real vintage Jupiter 8 at gigs for a while. I have a friend that uses a Vintage Vibe green sparkle flake EP at all of his gigs and that's a pretty expensive instrument. Looks and sounds great!

Good thoughts. Rick's comments about the lack of artists that can truly serve a SB halftime were interesting. I'm surprised he forgot about U2. I think they are one of a few true rock bands that could command a worldwide stage. In fact, there was some brief U2 footage from their residency at The Sphere. I'm surprised they didn't consider them for the SB show, though they have done it in the past. The days of real rock shows seems less common. I remember loving Tom Petty, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen...and The Who just played it a few years ago...usually we host big SB parties and the game plus halftime are hard to see based on the loud people in the room LOL. This year, my wife had the brilliant idea that we should DVR the whole thing. Last night, we watched JUST the commercials up through halftime and then the halftime show. We'll watch the second half commercials in a separate sitting. It was very enjoyable to watch this in a quieter setting.

I thought it was a highly entertaining show. Very complex and well-produced with so many dancers, roller skating, set changes, guest artists, etc. I always find myself wanting a little more or different from these shows, yet this one was very good.

Look on the used market for an Invisible brand stand. They have been out of production for quite a while, though they do show up on Reverb and eBay etc. This is my all-time favorite stand for having the top keyboard ride right on top of the lower one. This is an older picture of me using one so you can get the idea. I may have one taken from above to show how the upper keyboard sits perfectly to allow access to the lower keyboard...which is an issue with many of the more current stands.

Thanks for all the fun responses and interest in this topic. I may be going through a phase - we'll see. The main thing I'm looking to do is to expand my sound capabilities. I've been using a NS3 Compact for EVERYTHING since about 2018 and it has served me well. There are certain songs and use cases where I simply max out the capabilities of the NS3. It has been fun working within those constraints and now I'm excited to build upon them with a solid rack synth. The XV-3080 is chock full of so many sounds and there is a special "Roland" quality to the sounds that will sit in the mix a bit differently than my NS3. I think in a good way. I'll keep you posted once I have a chance to get some good programming done and have this thing integrated into my rig. I also just ordered a small Redco mini snake to easily link this new rack unit into my existing rack (stereo audio and MIDI in a short cable...I'm a stickler for keeping all of that neat and clean).

I've had this on my mind for a while and have created more than one post on the topic over the past few years. Quick background is that back when I was actively touring for a decade from late '80s into late '90s (and part time after that), I was dependent on rack modules for a large portion of my show. Early days included the Korg M1R with a Emu Proformance module, then I had the Roland JV-880 and Dynacord CLS-222, plus a few various rack mixers and MIDI gadgets like the JL Cooper MSB+. All of it took a lot of time offline to set up as my MIDI controllers at the time weren't sophisticated. Fast forward to latter years and I was using a Yamaha Motif XS Rack for a number of years and downsized from a big 6-space rack to my current 4-space rack, which is just for my wireless IEM rig, my Vent, and my Radial KL-8. I've really been wanting to add another sound source to the equation without adding a keyboard and I'm not a soft synth guy for live shows. This past week @Legatoboy enabled my rack cravings with a nice deal on his Roland XV-3080 with Session card on board. This week I dug out my old 2-space rack that I was using on the road with my JV-880 and CLS-222...it's a bit careworn, though it is perfect for the XV-3080. I've got it set up and have been working through the sounds, making notes on the various MSB/LSB settings needed to access banks and programs remotely, saving Favorites and figuring out how I will use this in my live rig, mostly with my new cover band. I'll have some overhead related to programming External settings into a bunch of NS3 Programs, though once I get into the flow it goes quickly and is fun! It's early days of testing sounds and deciding what will bring newness to my rig, though first impressions of the classic Roland poly brass/synths, strings, big stacked sounds, great leads, some cool sound FX and hits, etc...lots of territory covered in a rompler that throws me back to my JV-880 days. It's a fun little excursion that was a great value and scratches an itch I've had for a while.

Not bad. Sounds like FM harp blended with FM piano on the sound they were using. Cool form factor! Are you getting one?