CyberGene

https://apps.apple.com/app/synclavier-go-app-and-plugin/id1378108734 From the same company, using the same code as the original. Runs on iPad and iPhone.

One refers to the action and the other to the travel weight. It’s pretty obvious to me but I’m not a native English speaker, so might be missing some grammar related issue 🧐 With the above in mind, there are hammer-action controllers and pianos that are within the 15kg limit (if I remember correctly that 1kg = 2 pounds). I’d suggest a Numa X Piano 73 or 88. They are both lightweight and have the newest Fatar TP110 hammer action that is IMO much better than the TP100/LR in the SL73. They have USB audio interface with USB-audio, so with one cable to either an iPad or a computer you can have a well-integrated rig. Plus, they have internal sounds, 4-channel audio input/mixer, aftertouch, 3 separate pedal inputs, etc. Maybe not the most advanced MIDI-controllers out there with “only” 4-zones but it’s still among the best there and I’m wondering why would one need more than that? Or why is that needed at all when you have your iPad or computer where you can route everything even when using a dummy single-channel MIDI keyboard?

Here in Bulgaria we have the ethnic Turkish and Roma minorities living along the Bulgarian majority, however due to various reasons, there’s not any real integration/mix of music (with a few exceptions) and as a result there’s the phenomenon of people being exposed to both western ET and the Turkish/Roma (but actually Arabic) Maqam modes, but mostly adhering to only one of them which is specific to their culture. And people would even go as far as to declare the other system as “out of tune” which I’ve heard from musicians on both sides, but take my opinion with a grain of salt since I’m no scholar, or a music ethnologist. It’s rather anecdotal. Why am I saying the above? Being also exposed to the Maqams, but finding them “out of tune” for most of my life, I’ve researched them a lot on an amateur level to discover why and how. And I think what I can say is this: The maqams are meant to be used in a predominantly melodic way, with no underlying harmony, which is why the given note “detuning” (from ET point of view) is not chosen to make for pure intervals or chords but rather to produce certain mood which is utilized by the specific melodies. That’s why mixing ET and Maqams as in the example above is jarring. At least to me too. Western intonations, such as e.g. Just intonation or the various historic Well temperaments try to solve different problems and the offset from the ideal math-based ET is much smaller (e.g. a few cents) compared to just splitting the semitone into a half, or even smaller intervals. With the above in mind, I’m not sure what microtonal really tries to accomplish. A harmonic (interval) purity, or melodic moods. The harpsichord example I started with, plays jazz (highly harmonic music) with some pretty drastic interval offsets (compared to ET) and is IMO just serving no purpose, it’s just an attempt at originality for the sake of originality. And the barbershop/string quartets are the opposite, where a careful on-the-fly adjustment is made with the sole intent of reducing overtone beats. It’s not like they chose just intonation for the sake of it, nor it is fixed throughout and constant in regard to specific note pivot. In summary, one needs to think of what they are trying to solve/achieve. Blindly jumping into some microtonal intervals and exotic tunings, just because ET is “boring” is IMO silly. YMMV 🙂

I’ve grown up in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and although I’m not religious and abandoned it as a grown-up, I remember these guys and how they were held in a very high regard in the church (they are SDA members). Singing like this can make me religious! 😀 It’s simply divine, no other explanation! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RZDstjqSmPQ Unfortunately the above live video cannot be embedded. Here’s the studio version:

I'm a huge fan of Wendy Carlos' Bach releases and even created a few synth arrangements influenced by hers, however I have never stumbled upon that BITB record. Can't find it anywhere besides a pirated website. I downloaded it and would gladly donate some money directly to her if possible, because I hate piracy, I stopped pirating software and music 15 years ago but seems like this time I can't find any other way for this particular recording 😕 P.S. Ohh, the last track is based on the Bulgarian folk song Излел е Дельо Хайдутин (Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin) which is a huge pride for us Bulgarians since it was chosen as one of the tracks on the Voyager golden records that were sent in space.

The Yamaha P90 stage piano. It just had the mojo I couldn’t find in the other stage pianos I’ve owned since.

I’ve owned the reface CP and CS and I loved them but ultimately they were more toys than usable instruments for live playing. With the CK61 I feel the reface vibe (for good) but it’s also a very usable instrument too.

Barbershop quartets sing in a dynamic just intonation, tuning aurally each chord as pure as possible.

I haven't owned a Nord 😛 But one of the most popular gigging keyboardists here is a friend of mine and we regularly discuss stage pianos, workstations, synths, etc. He has had issues with most of his Nords and thinks they are quite overrated but he also says there's this prejudice among people against keyboardists who don't bring the red on stage as less professional, less successful (because if you're successful you are rich, hence can afford the most expensive). Not sure how that is in other countries but here you're judged by if you own a Nord or not 🤦🏻‍♂️

I love the Roland choir sounds especially this one. Many choir sounds on many boards are pretty cheesy and obnoxious. Wondering what virtual synth has similar sounds, however I don't want to subscribe to the Roland cloud to get the XV-sounds, so what alternatives are there? P.S. Remembered that I recently purchased the complete Korg bundle and went through the Triton/Extreme choir presets. There are a few that are pretty good.

I tend to agree. As I said, the guy is a genius and he just can’t help but show off “see what I can do” and it’s impressive in itself but only in itself. That's a nice choir patch you use. Is that a Roland JV sound?

We started watching it with the wife. I’m the classical music fan, she’s not. She didn’t even know who Bernstein was. Which is why she looked bored after 30 minutes. What’s worse though, I also got bored. I will probably finish it solo some other time.

This. Before being endorsed by Nord, she used to play some MIDI keyboard hooked to her Mac and many other keyboards.

@Tusker yeah, I remember seeing this and other transcriptions/analyses of microtonal transitions by Jacob and they are so natural I couldn’t have guessed he’s outside the equal temperament notes of the A440 tuning (I don’t have perfect pitch though, so it tricks me perfectly, no pun intended). The guy is a genius! However stuff like that harpsichord video I linked are just bad to my ears and I see so many comments praising it, I wonder if there’s something wrong with me 🧐

I stumbled upon some video of a guy playing jazz on a microtonal harpsichord and (if the latter by itself is not outrageous enough) it sounds awfully out of tune to me. What's all the fuss about "microtonal" music?

I’d ask myself to practice those scales. I never did and it still shows nowadays.

I think it was Rush, not Yes. But I have to watch them again.

@RABid that's a very interesting perspective, thank you. And I love that song!

@GRollins thanks, I think I get it now 🙂 BTW, not sure if "I'm Gonna Getcha Good" by Shania Twain counts as Country but my daughter (6-year old) asks me to play it in the car every frickin day on the way to the kindergarten... It's not a bad song, I like it but I really need her to switch to a new favorite song soon.

Hmm, can you elaborate more? Of course, unless it's some touchy topic for you US folks? While traveling on a long road, my wife and daughter ask me to play the Country station on Apple Music and to be honest it's very nice and pleasant music, albeit a bit samey and I often have to ask the girls to change the station after an hour. But other than that it's kind of OK, my English is not perfect which is why I rarely listen too much to what they sing, I mostly listen to the arrangement, production, etc. But I think they mostly sing about love and stuff which I find pretty boring anyway, I'm more of a dark type of lyrics guy, but yeah, one boy vs two girls in the car is a lost battle 😀Mind you, we're Bulgarian, so we might be missing some context of that socio-political stuff, which is why I'd be interested in hearing more about it. But again, I think there's some tabu topics for you over there, so maybe not good for me to ask.

To me it looks like one of the three diminished scales but this one has G# instead of G. As you said, it’s also pretty close to the altered scale (C# melodic minor) but then it has an A added. So, part of it is diminished, part of it is altered. They both suit the C7 in either C7b9 or C7alt variants. I think a mixture of these both chord-scales were recently discussed in another thread.

Still not sure if this is about music that we love but fear to play. Or just music that we hate 😀 If it’s the former, I actually fear all the music because I am afraid I’m not good enough for anything 😕 If it’s just for the h8. The first that comes to mind is Reggaeton, it makes me pretty aggressive about why that music is so popular and what that means for humanity. P.S. BTW, I came up with a third category: music that I love and that I am completely unable to produce myself. Like this one. It’s just so beautiful and weird at the same time, and I simply admire how one can create something so unorthodox. I’d give a kidney to be able to do so:

We’re huge fans of Fargo with my wife, waiting for episode 6 of the current fifth season to become available later today. Not sure if it counts as guilty pleasure though. Maybe Yellowjackets does (not the great jazz/fusion band) on Sky Showtime.

We’re digressing, but I’ve discovered Scriabin a few years ago and he’s already become my favorite composer. His music is actually very close to jazz, but in a different way than Debussy, for instance. I think Chick Corea used to dig Scriabin. Here’s one little piece that I play and showcases his fondness for jazz-like harmony, long before jazz was a thing: I have recorded a lot of Scriabin in my YouTube channel.

Yes, that was my point. Well, yes, it’s a very subtle difference indeed and a chorus would yield almost the same sound. But if you compare them, you’ll hear it, there’s something more gloomy with the harmonizer whereas chorus is a bit more unobtrusive, natural and mood-less, for the lack of better words 😀 Thank you! That was in 2012 and soon after that I experienced some self-disappointment and switched to classical music, so my jazz abilities have gone from mediocre to none nowadays… 😕 There’s some jazzy stuff: compositions, arrangements and reharms on my SoundCloud there from these old times.