yannis D

May 23

The great difference between this small community of musicians and the rest of the social media, is that here, people are not only genuinely kind but really want their peers to succeed, something you don't see too often on the rest of the social media circus.

It's very sweet the way you have talked about this young, talented and skilled musician

Kudos to both of you

April 26

Liberace was a classical pianist, so I guess his chops were superior to Elton's. I would say his chops were equal to piano virtouosos of his era.

Then it's a question of the music itself-there, Elton John wins hands down...

April 17

22 hours ago, J.F.N. said:

KlockenspieL 🤣

Actually I bought a Glogenspiel from Thomman a month ago. Got it to a pop songwriter gig in an Anglican church too 😃 for a couple of songs. I need practice 😉

April 15

Enjoyable: my Yamaha silent piano

Useful: Nord Electro 5d

Fun: stylophone. It generated more positive reactions from the audience than any other keyboard I've ever played 😉

April 14

McCoy Tyner had a very similar approach to the piano when doing fast runs. Just great non legato technique (not really staccato which can not be applied to such fast runs)

April 13

To my ears

Neo Soul Keys Rhodes

Pianoteq acoustic piano

and

VB3 organ

are far better than any hardware emulations out there..

April 4

Don't break the bank if you're not sure you are going to use soft synths for a long time. It's a long process and I would advice you (as someone who uses software for more than 20 years) to go one step at a time and take the time to learn the workflow. Mainstage is wonderful and very cheap, and has plenty of very useful libraries to start with. If you need more horsepower, you can go unlimited third party VSTs.

Just my two euros

April 2

8 minutes ago, ProfD said:

Most of the analog synth resurgence has been fueled by nostalgia and deep pockets.

IMO, analog synths are no longer the music-making tools they were back in the 1970s and 1980s.

Nowadays, musicians of a certain generation can afford to indulge in synths they could only dream about back in the 1980s.🤣

The younger generation of musicians have been tricked into believing there was something magical about old analog synths.

That led to folks spending exorbitant prices for a Roland Juno 106. 🤑

Manufacturers have been able to cash in with synth reissues and *new* subtractive synths.

The smoke will clear and dust will settle soon.😁😎

Your first phrase was the bottom line for this whole topic!

Thanx

March 31

I don't know if Nord electro 5 is considered "a synth", but this is pretty much my workhorse for all my gigs, for organ/ep/clav/piano and the occasional synth. Depending on the gig, I might use my Mainstage rig with my Korg bluetooth 37 or Axiom 49 for additional synth sounds, or even my iOS rig as well (mostly Mainstage though). Whenever i need a proper 88, the production will backline it for me. If there's no production to take care of it, there will be no 88

March 27

11 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

I've been playing left-hand bass in a project pretty regularly for the past six months, and ergonomics are SO important. I also like having a dedicated bass board (I've gone the analog synth route in this case; gives me some Stevie Wonder energy, but like if Stevie's synth bass parts were toddlers still learning to walk...) but getting it positioned in a way that is comfortable and intuitive for my left hand the whole show is paramount.

I'll let you know when I've finally figured out how to nail it!

This will be like finding answer to the great mysteries of the universe

March 27

2 hours ago, Stokely said:

If you have your computer there anyway, maybe plan on MS and have the Electro bass programmed and ready as a backup (I don't trust computers at all live, though I use them at home for all sounds and effects )

Thankfully I do not have to play bass, but a buddy does. He ran into that same Electro dilemma when he was using one. He's tried all kinds of things, and finally has settled on kind of the old school Ray Manzarek solution--a smaller keyboard that does nothing but bass. In his case, the Poly D, which is is a bit of an odd choice but he got a great deal on it, and it sounds great. Doesn't sound exactly like a bass guitar, but I personally wouldn't shoot for that anyway. Stays in tune, which was a concern!

Unfortunately the second keyboard will be a controller a fly-easy Korg bluetooth 37 and an Axiom, so there are no internal bass sounds. I thought of maybe using the Korg as a sole bass controller from Mainstage but there's another problem in this scenario: playing bass on an upper keyboard while seated is gonna hurt my left hand.

I was thinking maybe a stand that allows me to bring the Nord and the Axiom close together, and then having the bass from Mainstage in order not to sacrifice the Nord's stereo routing...

March 26

1 minute ago, AnotherScott said:

If you play a Nord bass sound on the left, which is a sample/synth sound, the only Nord sounds available on your right will be organ or piano library.

Yes, and the Mainstage synths which will be played on the Nord keyboard.

March 26

1 minute ago, NewImprov said:

Would you only be using Mainstage for the bass parts? If you're already taking the computer/Mainstage to the gig, I'd definitely go with sourcing the bass from MS, you'd have more sound options, and you could still run the Nord in stereo. But, if you could do the gig with just the Nord, I'd probably do that out of convenience/laziness.

I'll have my Mac onstage either way. I prefer the simplicity of the Nord but the fact that I have to run the rest of its sounds in mono if I play the Nord bass, is kind of disappointing

March 26

So I got this gig in Hungary where I'll be playing keys and bass, and I have these two options

1) I either play the internal Nord Electro 5 bass on the left chanel, organ/ep/keys on the right chanel

Or

2) I use the Mainstage bass through a different output from my sound card to a bass amp

Normally I would prefer to use the Nord's bass and drive the rest of the Nord's sounds in mono to the FOH. But something's telling me that the Mainstage bass will be punchier and it will free up the Nord to run its sounds in stereo

PS: in either scenarios the Nord will be my main keyboard and there will also be an Axiom and a Korg bluetooth 37 key for additional sounds, leads etc for Mainstage.

What's your take?

March 20

Just now, Reezekeys said:

Agreed, if you just want a very capable music-making laptop for gigs, the M1 Air would be a great choice. Some iPads cost more - a lot more – and need the various doodads to get midi in and audio out. Of course there are some positives for going with an iPad (had to say that since that's what I'm doing for my local gigs now! 🙂 ) but at least with that $700 Air you'll have the keyboard, trackpad, and access to a great selection of productivity software not necessarily in the tablet world (yet).

+1

The iOS instruments are not yet there compared to the Mac endless libraries, both within Mainstage and others.

I use both as sound sources for fly in gigs, but Mainstage always has the lion's share.

March 19

BTW I am still trying to assign my Nord Electro's 5 volume pedal (Roland EX5) to Camelot and I can't find my way around... Anyone knows the step-by-step procedure?

March 8

7 hours ago, tapes said:

Some really fantastic Rhodes soloing on this track! "Trip" from the album Ad-vo-cate, (1999)

I've been recently getting really re-interested in this whole Y2K era of jazz, when a lot of artists combined drum loops and electronics with improvisation, so I have to check this out!

He also played on Victor Bailey's (R.I.P.) 1989 album Bottom's Up. I've always loved the track "In The Hat", even though Jim is more in a supporting role obviously. Such a killer tune. Sounds weatherreportish, but not really.

I was listening to Devil's Advocate yesterday and this exact Rhodes solo. I believe though, he was as good an all around keys player/sound designer as he was a soloist in a purely jazz way. That's why he was so busy playing with many greats on the jazz and pop world.

March 2

13 minutes ago, CrossRhodes said:

Occasionally Mehldau will throw the jazz police a bone just so they don’t’ revoke his license.

Some years ago a brave guy posted the full transcription of a Charlie Parker solo by Brad and his trio. He was playing somewhere in a hotel, many years ago, and the story said that he attacked the piece right after having breakfast 🥞😄😄😄😂 In each of the many choruses, a different jazz piano era pases by his solo, all with perfect accuracy, crazy speed and taste. The guy simply knew since his early 20s the full jazz piano literature in and out but he also commands newer music hipsters like AND classical idioms. His sense of polyphony and voice leading comes straight from Bach. I can't think of a better Keith Jarrett successor in our era

February 29

I use it for Ipad and it works flawlessly. I had some minor issues in the beggining but Camelot people are very fast and friendly to help me on line or through their Facebook page. Camelot, just like any other DAW, has its own logic and it's pretty simple when you get it, but you have to invest some tine to do so...

I am an old Mainstage user on my Macs, but as long as Mainstage is not there for ipads, Camelot will be my choice and, so far, it works without any issues live.

February 15

Brad Mehldau has certainly shaped the way for myriad jazz musicians under 40-45. Of course it's not a horse course here. We all adore and worship Herbie, Chick Corea, Jarrett and countless others. But still Mehldau is younger of all these guys, so generation under 50 can easily identify with. And he has picked to record many staple non jazz songs of our times, so younger listeners from different genres can relate easier to (something Hancock did at his day)

my two euros

February 2

"If a bomb drops in this studio, John Denver will have a new record career" 😂

December 27, 2023

Τhese two cheap Korg bluetooth mini keys are my latest purchase. Very lightweight and combined to my ipad 9th gen, almost zero latency. Less than perfect for any jazz or "serious" playing, but excellent for my 90s/pop/nu disco gig that needs a variety of sounds and minimal playing. The whole thing is no more than 5 kg and the pack-unpack time is near nothing-ideal for a crowded city. I'll even go to the venue with my Vespa Let's see how this is gonna work live

December 27, 2023

4 hours ago, UnderGroundGr said:

I had 2 Nord instruments, one stage 88 and one electro 3. I changed 3 stages and then took my money back and bought a kawai MP8 and i change 2 electro 3, used it for 2 years and sold it...for me, the most overrated company out there, pricey and very bad construction and reliability...i had kawai and Kurzweil all my life so, i can understand the difference...

And many of my friends had problems, sold the Nords and never looked back...

This is a dead end discussion, we both know it 😉

I was primarily talking about Nord offering new sounds, which is a good customers service. The rest takes us off topic

December 27, 2023

8 hours ago, Docbop said:

Nord doesn't have a great reputation from what I seen when it comes to service, they pawn it off on their distributors.

I use Nords since 1999 and never had a problem with their service, both locally here in Athens and in Sweden, when I had to send an old Electro for repair. They have high prices, but this is Sweden I always had my instrument repaired on time. But here we're mostly talking about how they are renewing their arsenal constantly. I like the fact that they're not sitting in their laurels (they sell products one way or another...) but trying instead to give more new and fresh sounds to their customers.

December 26, 2023

I want to invest more time to learning properly the accordion (mostly left a hand voicings) and, eventually, buy a new and better one if I become a better player.

I want test my two bluetooth controllers/ipad rig for my pop band. No heavy keys, no cables, just nice sounds and zero weigh to move around. Especially for this project, I mainly need the sounds and nothing too fancy on the playing side, so small keys is not a problem. Next week I will know if this is just a dream or a new reality (Korg micro key 61+37+ipad 9th gen)

Being healthy is not a resolution, but it helps for the rest 😉

Merry Xmas to all

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