C.J. Lewis

Can anyone identify the microphone that Joy's singing on? Looks like an old Shure?

Hey Keyboarders (I was called that once by a non-musician and I find it hilarious), Thought you might enjoy seeing pics of a cool Juno 106 I bought a few years ago during that time when the world ended. Technically, I bought 2 of them from the same seller along with a JX-3P, K1 and DX100, but I digress. I took the two 106's and sent them to Al Coppock @ Synth Spa in Nashville for a clean up / tune up. He did just that and then offered to send one back in a different color, which I gladly took him up on. I'm especially happy tonight because Al talked me through re-seating one of the voice chips that had been intermittent (learned something!) and I'm having a ball playing with her. The 2nd one was restored simply to its original state and returned to the factory box with the manual and such from 1983. I'll hang on to that one for another few years until our youngest heads off to college! Introducing: RED...

Found an RD-64 for less than a grand out of Japan with a little knick on one of the corners - looks pretty mint otherwise. Thankful for eBay's buyer protection if something doesn't work right, but what a cool concept (and hotel keyboard so I don't have to unload half the trailer to do pre-gig touch ups!)

1000% agree. I can't quite figure out why Kurzweil is going the direction it is. I love the weight of the PC4, but would gladly heft my PC3 or X around if it depended on the action. Actually, I'd just take out my CP88 and Sparrow fader controller and smile the whole way.

I've never done that - what are you talking about!? LOL

I've gigged with V-Stands for years (original VS80 and current VS88) - both as a bed for an 88 and my current Forte 7 / Kronos 2-61 rig in the Journey trib. I will say that the 2nd tier is a 100% fail on this stand, which is why I modified mine by cutting the metal just above the curve. This moves the top keyboard away from the player enough to still see the bottom keyboard screen, but may be too far away for someone with a short torso and/or arms. Also, I'm 6'1". Stability has never been a problem for me, but I also don't generally pound too hard on my boards, I just turn up my IEM mix 🤣 I won't say that the stand is 100% solid, like a QuikLok WS at its lowest setting, or the Solid Stand in my studio, but the slight movement doesn't bother me much. See attached pics of said rig with CP88 bottom / Kronos top and Forte bottom / Kronos top.

Thank you all so much - just getting back to this (I'm less and less enthralled about the internet as I get older). Lots of great suggestions, but I think my main takeaway is that it's not an exact science, and the tools out there that do exist will give me an approximation of what needs done when, which will vary from gig to gig. Thankfully, we have a level of consistency in that we're 100% IEM, the venues we play have high powered (mostly) line array systems, and as long as the band is happy with their IEM mix, I try my best to remove what FOH may or may not be doing. This is also one of the next steps in our band evolution - hiring a full time FOH engineer who knows Journey's music and our interpretation thereof and can dial in a mix accordingly.

This post is exactly what I needed to read, for this issue seems to have alluded me relating to equal-ish volumes from multiple boards and/or virtual instruments. I play in a Journey tribute band, so the variety of patches I send to FOH is quite large. My current rig (that does exceedingly well considering the catalog) is a Kurzweil Forte 7, a KRONOS 6 v2 and various virtual instruments (largely True Pianos, Omnisphere and Roland’s Juno 106). I have the Forte’s sliders set to control volume per zone as follows: 1. Forte 9ft Bright Grand 2. Forte Dyno EP 3. True Pianos 4. KRONOS (ALL) 5. Omnisphere VI 6. Triton VI 7. Juno-106 VI 8. K2600RS (unused right now due to weird MIDI receive issues which may be covered in a future post) Both keyboards (via Mogami TRS-XLRM cables) and all virtual instruments are routed through PreSonus Studio One v6.latest via their Studio 192 interface. Virtually flawless when set up correctly and maintained. One of the challenges I’m running into is that in using “Setlist” mode on the Kronos, every time I change sounds - whether Program or Combi - the volume defaults to whatever the patch was set at, which is generally higher than I want! I did apply a 0dB limiter on Studio One’s main output bus, but that didn’t seem to make much of (if any) difference to the mixer input. I know that I can simply set the Forte sliders to only send only a % of ‘full’ per zone, thereby getting everything equal output volume from everything…and this seems like the way to go? Anyone have any other thoughts?

This is a great thread, folks - I appreciate the info. I, too; recently joined a tribute band (Journey) that I start playing with next weekend. I'm working through details on many songs I've 'played' for 30+ years, and am coming to appreciate Mr. Cain's live production capabilities (I'm guessing he has 4 hands sometimes?!) I know how to get around most keyboards at a moderate level, but I am not a synth programmer. The Kronos 2 61 that I have has 4 out of the box Journey programs that work quite well for the iconic riffs. I'm working on programs for some of the deeper cuts: 'Ask the Lonely', 'Girl Can't Help It', 'Chain Reaction', etc., and they're proving more challenging. Are any of you Kronos owners good at and willing to do some paid programming work for tunes that I'm stuck on? At this point, the tunes I mentioned above would be the first 3 needed. Interested to know costs for this. Thanks so much!

A Coleman 2 man tent, or something more substantial, like a 12 man hunting lodge? 🤣

Nice! Love my CP88. Not sold on the YC yet - just seems like there are a zillion ways to skin that particular cat, and most of those ways are on the CP.

So…I’m ordering a Zaor Miza X2 Flex today… 😎 been gassing for this desk for a few years. Finally decided to pull the trigger after moving some other gear!

Bro, mine fits in the back of my full size SUV (Yukon) with a hard case without having to lay down a single seat. That’s a winner in my book.

There’s a Kurzweil K250 in the market where I live, and it has been listed for a few months now at what I think is a fair price. As technology has moved on a good pace from where this keyboard lived in 1983, I don’t believe I’ll be using it in the studio alongside 2 K2600’s, a Forte 7, Kronos 2, CP88 and a load of VI’s, but I can’t help but wonder about its value 10 or 20 years from now? For those of you with first-hand experience with K250, what other peripherals will I need to truly enjoy this beast while I caretake it? Will I need to source an early ‘80’s Apple computer to fully realize its potential? What potential pitfalls have you / do you see? TIA

Looks great!