CyberGene

Now for something (Nothing) serious. This company has a pretty cool smartphone (Android based but one of the founders is a former Apple VP) and different earbuds. I personally use the Nothing Ear Stick for conf calls at work with my Mac and all people say my voice is very clear and ask me what headset I have. https://us.nothing.tech I’m an Apple guy, but if I had to switch to a non-Apple device, the Nothing Phone would be my first choice.

I’m all for people having fun and feeling good, as I said previously, and there’s a lot to love in a nice vintage analog synth, however expensive it is. But I have no delusions regarding its sound. Software models are as good sounding as an analog nowadays.

Not to preach but watching YouTube, especially stuff like multi-million-sub channels, is bad. It’s the new TV. Do you mindlessly watch TV?

Synths are like cars. You can get from A to B in any car but people still buy expensive cars 😎 I’ve dreamt of owning an Alfa Romeo since I was a kid. But I could never justify one. Well, last year I said f*ck it, and I bought my first Alfa and I’ve been feeling like a child in a candy store ever since 🧸 Yeah, it’s just a car but it makes me feel good! And I toned down my stance towards expensive synths too. Let people buy expensive synths if that would make them feel good! Life is short, I can be yet another cancer victim tomorrow… I’d rather spend my life enjoying rather than killjoying myself.

My New Year’s resolution was to stop watching YouTube. I’m happy to announce I actually did and haven’t been browsing YT mindlessly for months now. No wasted nights (that I felt empty after) anymore. No BS like this one. Highly recommended!

It’s a Nord Lead A1 clone and that has no aftertouch either.

This keyboard looks good on paper, however it seems all YouTube demos are of hip-hop music. What am I missing? Is that keyboard targeted at hip-hop only, or it's a coincidence that hip-hop musicians have somehow found it appealing for them, compared to other workstations?

Don’t take offense. One or two people in the world who still do won’t make a difference 😀

I’m not a gigging musician. I can speak from a user perspective though. Like it or not, streaming is the norm. Nobody listens to MP3-s and CD-s anymore. It’s so much easier with streaming. You pay a very small subscription fee and can listen to anything. Somebody makes a playlist and sends it to you. You click on the link and you already listen to it. When I get in my car, my iPhone wirelessly connects to CarPlay in the car, then I can just say “Siri play Animals by Pink Floyd”, etc. With that in mind, nobody owns MP3-s anymore since it’s just too awkward to use and obtaining them is often illegal. Giving them away certainly is. When everybody listens to Spotify, it’s almost impossible to rip those into MP3-s. You have to be at a computer and upload them and whatnot. Much easier to make a Spotify playlist even on your phone and in the bus. And send a link to it to other people. Who just click on it. World is moving on and while I understand the tendency of people to stick to what they are used to with age (I’m 44 and know that very well myself), it’s beneficial to try to learn new things. It will not only help you work out your brain, it will also bring you closer to younger folks. BTW, I’m on Apple Music and not Spotify. In Apple Music you can download offline files. They are ACC which is the same and can be opened in Transcribe as far as I remember. You have to play them on an authorized computer but that’s usually the case.

Congrats, the Trigon is one of the most desirable synths for me. I can afford it and I can’t find a fault with it but I’m at a point of my (amateur) music journey where I try to enforce myself not to buy expensive synths 😀 Let’s see how long I can stick to that plan…

It may be me but on a lot of modern pop/rock music I can’t really say if it’s in the major or the relative minor key. Especially when they (intentionally?) avoid the dominant to the minor key that would be the ultimate hint of this being minor. With that in mind, whether something is i-bVI or vi-IV is really vague to my mind unless hearing dominant sevenths and other apparent hints.

Technically you’re right. However in that Mystery Achievement (that I’ve never heard before) I hear that it changes keys. First it’s C# minor then it’s D major. While in C# minor the following chords repeat: C#m - A (and that’s exactly i-bVI that this thread is about!) Then it injects F#m followed by A which is treated as dominant to the key of D major and thus we modulate and go to repeats of: D - G (which is I - IV) then it goes through: D - Bm - F#m - G - A (I - vi - iii - IV - V) and suddenly goes back to the key of C# minor.

I've owned Hydrasynth, Novation Peak and most recently the Take 5. I’ve kept only the Hydrasynth because I realized I hate pots. You load a preset and then you have really no clue about the actual pot values. Seems like not a big issue but to me it is since I always want to dissect sounds and I’m a lot about programming. And even if you match values (which is a tedious process), on the Peak some of the envelope controls were shared between two of the envelopes, etc. I believe there was a similar situation with the Take 5 but can’t remember which one. If you’re mostly a preset player with only occasional touch-up, then I guess it won’t be an issue. Besides, polyphony of 5 is just too low for me. Having no FX is another deal breaker for me. I love modulating FX and having no FX on an expensive Prophet 5 is an odd decision to me. Also, I’m a heavy aftertouch user. Not necessarily poly but even with channel one, I prefer smooth control. The one in the Take 5 was not smooth. Not sure how that is in the Summit but I doubt it can be as good as the Hydra. However, as you correctly observed, it’s a bit harder to make the Hydra sound analog compared to the pure analog synths. But I’ve learnt all the tricks and it’s not a big deal to me anymore, the Hydra can sound very analog too.

CK61 is certainly among the most useful keyboards I’ve had. Not the best in any single area but the greatest all-rounder taking in mind also price, weight, size, speakers and battery-power ability.

Thanks, immediate purchase! Will test it later. You’ve done a nice demo 👍🏻