synthizen2

I've certainly been playing rock covers for ages now, and I also used to be involved in a local Jazz ensemble with workmates, back when my jazz chops were in much better shape (it's gone sideways lately, haven't kept up my jazz chops, it will require a couple months of re-study and practice to get back there). So, while I'm still doing lots of rock and country covers, at least I'm not in a "tribute" band. Both my bands do covers, but a good number of them are unusual ones (not the usual Mustang Sally, Gimme 3 Steps, etc.) that make it interesting and fun for us, but not super-obscure tunes that nobody ever heard before. This element of what I do makes it fun enough (and $$ enough) to continue doing it.

Very true, and very relevant to our times. Yes, go out and have some fun making music, and support others doing the same. It's what people have been doing for thousands of years.

The chorused/slightly-detuned Piano sound comes up in my playlists from time to time. While none of my bands do "Don't Stop Believing" or any other Journey tune (yet), that sound gets used for the Beatles "Birthday", and the Doors "Love Her Madly" and "People Are Strange". Like the MODX, my MOX8 gets that sound by moving the mod wheel up on just about any stock Piano sound. I can think of lots of other tunes that use this sound that I don't play yet, that I'd like to... ELP's "The Sheriff" comes to mind. (Although that one would be a little more than just "slightly" detuned!)

I love the transistor organ sound when used on TexMex Border/Tejano music (like the stuff from Sir Douglas Quintet in the 60s/70s). In fact, Ray Manzarek was digging that sound in the latter years ('70-'71) of The Doors. The song "Love Her Madly" is essentially a take on that TexMex style. Funny thing: Just over the weekend I was watching an old favorite movie, "Cicso Pike" from 1971 starring (or "introducing") Kris Kristofferson. There's a scene in the movie where he goes into a studio to make a drug deal, and meets up with Doug Sahm (leader of Sir Douglas Quintet) who was recording in there. I love Doug Sahm's comments when talking to Cisco (Kristofferson's character in the movie)... Kris asks him, "When are you gonna get out of that Border shit?", and Doug replies, "Man... I'm just not into that San Francisco psychedelic stuff, this TexMex stuff is where it's at, man, like... (and does an 'air guitar' gesture)... funny as all hell. My country band currently does "Oh Lonesome Me" by the Kentucky Headhunters... in which I get to get my TexMex on. Fun stuff!

I looked at Guitar Center general used keyboard stock. I am not at all impressed with the pricing. Seems most used keyboards/synths are only about 8% under the price of a NEW one. Certainly a used Yamaha MX88 shouldn't be up around $880. I bought a used MOX8 (newer, and better features than MX) for $850 about 6 years ago on Craigslist. I am sure better deals can be found elsewhere.

I am not questioning the sound quality of these keyboard amps, they're probably very good. The issue I run into with them, is that they often don't have a long enough "throw". Often the sound will not reach to the back of a large room if you're not also hooked into the PA.

If you look at it from the back, it basically looks like a boat. Put a row of 4 coffee cups (in-line) on top of it, and it's basically the Titanic. I guess that's why they went with 'Nautilus'. Something to do with boats, perhaps.

I would just call his music "pure impressionism". Something to create a mood. Good for soundtracks, hence his success in that area (helped out, no doubt, by his family connections).

Even in small bar rooms and clubs... if the drums and guitar are still LOUD, you will probably best be served by running your sound through a conventional PA system, or at least a pair of your own powered cabs (JBL, QSC, EV, etc.). If, on the other hand, you are in a small space with an acoustic, semi-acoustic, or jazz trio band (or similar) with quiet drums... Then these lower powered alternatives for keyboards can come into play. I don't know a whole lot about Bose and Motion Sound systems... but from personal experience dealing with other bands' sound systems on double-billed shows that we do, they don't deliver very well in standard 'loud band' situations, even in small spaces.

I think Gibraltar had the right idea, but I don't like any of their pre-assembled configurations for keyboards. If you want to go Gibraltar, but don't like their popular configurations (like the infamous "Key Tree" design, which gets in the way of your pedals way worse than an Apex Column Stand or an X-Stand)... then you have to know which type of stand you want to assemble, and which parts you'll need for it. But, similar to popular X and Z stands the world over... all of these stands have a plethora of small parts, nuts, bolts, and flanges... that nearly always come loose or come off, and get lost. Which is why I really like my long-out-of-production OnStage Aluminum 2-Tier Non-Adjustable Z-Stand. Very few parts to get lost. Most of the stand is simply welded together. And being aluminum, weighs in at about 14 lbs. No wobble, no bounce.

A 73-key Nord **OF ANY KIND** for under $700 is a good deal, if that eBay listing is legit.

Also, any of these alternatives (used) should work fine for what you want... - Yamaha: MOXF6 or MOX6 - Korg: Krome or Kross or Triton - Kurzweil: PC3-61 - Roland: Fantom (orig. series, 61-key) Many of these are older models, but are probably well within your budget. For best B3 and Farfisa among the above, Kurzweil is best (also great EPs) For best EPs, I'd go with Yamaha. Korg and Roland are really better on synthy sounds, but decent enough on the sounds you want.

After doing some research on this, I see that the VST3 format (when originally implemented) had problems with MIDI Program Change messages. Steinberg may have gone in later and corrected that. But what people say is that, as long as your Plugin supports the Program Change message (and some don't)... VST2 or earlier plugins that DO implement it will still work fine inside a VST3 based host.

Exactly. This happens to the Pro's all the time. There is a reason why individual songs on Live Albums are typically drawn from different live dates during the tour. There is no such thing as a perfect concert. But you can create the "closer to perfect" Live Album by not taking all the songs from one concert.

What keyboard are you using? If it's a workstation, chances are you've already got effects in there that will cover those bases (if there isn't already a prepared Rhodes preset in there that has those effects).