CyberGene

How's the Numa Compact 2X keyboard compared to YC61? I really loved the feel of the YC61 even for Rhodes and piano. I wished there was a 73/88-key version with that waterfall keyboard.

I think both are required. You need a certain amount of cumulative high noise exposure after which a single burst would be enough to trigger the tinnitus.

Well, even those half-dressed chicks learn complex choreography and the entire act is usually the result of a lot of work for a huge team of very talented people. These artists wouldn’t sell millions if they were half-acts. I’m not sure the amount of work is the thing that should be the deciding factor whether we criticize or not.

Glad you’re recovering, make sure you consult blood thinners with your doctor. Blood clots are a common complication after a severe Covid. I see most of the knobs are pots and not encoders. This makes it a bit awkward to see the actual values at a glance and require that you start turning them (in catch mode). It is the reason why I sold my Novation Peak, for instance, and why I love my Hydrasynth so much. I have no doubt the Iridium is a great synth though 👍🏻

I also do that! 🤣 One of my favorite classical works! And it’s a hell of an idea to make a synth arrangement of (some of) it. Might do some day.

Thank you! 😀❤️🍻

We were invited to a kid’s birthday a week ago. Went there with my kid, was at a small closed space and a stage that’s used for rehearsals of bands too and as part of the party musicians demonstrated to kids their instruments. The drummer hit them so loud my head almost exploded and my kid instantly covered her ears with palms. And we were not even that close. The guy just kept banging these f****g drums like it was his last day on earth, so I grabbed the kid and we got the f*** out of there in anger. Just remembering this makes my blood boil again 🤬 What the hell is wrong with drummers?! These were kids, he was playing solo and still banged them to deafening levels. Poor kids that were left there…

While it was me who suggested Kurzweil (without even owning one ever) I agree with others that you better spend some time researching how to approach the sounds with what you have.

I haven’t owned a Kurzweil but I have researched the subject of recreating Pink Floyd sounds and found out that most tribute bands use Kurzweil boards (PC3 gets mentioned a lot) and one of their engineers has even posted on this forum something around the lines of how they had PF tribute bands in mind when designing the factory patches. I found those through Google searches, so I can’t give you ready links but this topic has been discussed on this forum years ago, so there might be more specific advices in regards to factory patches or third party ones.

I think Kurzweils are your best bet.

Jupiter Xm is a VST in a box which is hard to program and has too few controls to be worth the hassle. IMO. What I like about it is the fact it’s a portable synth that runs on batteries and has decent speakers. You’re basically amputating these three advantages.

SP were the guest of an open air jazz fest two months ago, held annually in the nearby park to my home, free admission. Since that’s Bulgaria, they didn’t send their top guns. As I described in another thread, I managed to stay through two numbers and left. It was just too boring and dull. Those “pieces” are just a frame for improvisation and are not something really interesting in itself. Without top improvisers it becomes a mundane experience.

I listened to a few MiniFreak demos on the YouTube and I can't help but notice some slight noise and clipping/distortion all the time. Not sure if it's an inherent thing with the sound engine or they just use too much noise and distortion effects in these demo patches but it's not my cup of tea.

MiniFreak is not bad although at first glance I don’t see why I wouldn’t prefer a Hydrasynth Explorer for the same price. Yeah, real analog filter is great but I’m not sure how big of a difference that makes anyway.

Maybe it depends on the actual app but judging from the VB3m, the UI is exactly the same. Since the two devices have different screen ratios, there are two black lines above/below or left/right which I guess is an automatic thing in iOS, not something he had to do. I would assume you can reuse one and same UI without any change whatsoever but again, maybe it depends on the actual UI. Here are the two screenshots.

I’d take my Hydrasynth over any Kurzweil any day or night, even if it counted things in Roman numeral 😀 That being said, I agree that 0-127 is a bit awkward and could be changed. Even a percentage 0-100 is more intuitive.

I’m wondering if he would also provide iPhone apps, not just iPad ones. VB3m is available for both. The latest iPhones are more powerful than older iPads. For instance My iPhone 13 Pro Max is so much faster than my iPad Pro first gen. And I’m really happy with the VB3m on the iPhone, so I would also purchase the other apps if they get iPhone versions.

Apologies, didn't mean to cause any problems, feel free to delete the posts, I won't mind.

@EscapeRocks I agree with you but your comment is more a general position. I was rather wondering literally about this Rhodes. What/which members are really going to buy it and if not a secret, how/where they are gonna use it. I’m not arguing or questioning their choice. It’s entirely out of curiosity and for my personal psychological surveying, if I can call it this way.

There was no real alternative to the CP70/80 at the time. It was the the only “portable” piano that kind of sounded like a piano. Nowadays there are enough stage pianos and workstations that are lightweight, portable and would arguably give you all possible keyboard sounds and effects for 2500 bucks.

BTW, to clarify my own point of view. I'm not a real musician, I'm a software engineer and have purchased (and sold) way too many expensive keyboards and pianos that are above my level of musicianship or deservedness. And I do love Rhodes! I might even purchase this one without leaving a huge dent in my wallet (well, rather risking a divorce for turning the house into a keyboard museum 🤣). But even so, I'm not convinced... Just wondered if I'm alone and how many people are really gonna buy these. It's just pure curiosity on my side. I'm for capitalism all the way and for companies selling whatever luxury products they decided for whatever price they want. Not arguing the raison d'être of this product or its price. I'm just attempting to realistically (and statistically) establish the target crowd for this product. That's all. As I said, I think these are rich people (only) but I might be wrong.

That's not funny 😢 Are you sure about portability though? And are you going to bring a fine 10k instrument to pubs and stuff? 😀

I'm not trying to understand the price from the manufacturer's perspective but from the buyer's one 😉 I don't care how expensive it is for the manufacturer to produce these Rhodeses (can I pluralize it like that?), they might as well use pure gold, diamonds and unobtainium to justify the price. The real question is, how do buyers justify that price to spend? Or, let's say, given a 10k upright piano and a 10k Rhodes piano, which one would the average keyboard player buy? And no, I don't believe he/she would get them both 😉 So, ultimately that's what I said: it's rich people who buy them. Some of those rich people are probably musicians too, there are rich musicians after all, at least that's what I've heard 🤣

Here's what I posted on another forum: I still think the sounds and the user interface are the best I've encountered. And the action is probably among the best on a digital piano. That being said, no digital piano feels like a real acoustic piano. If one becomes aware of that fact, the CP88 is a hell of a stage piano.

This will come as nagging but people often say this Rhodes is expensive because it's a real quality instrument comparable to why a real acoustic piano is expensive. Well, I have some issues with that analogy. People predominantly play acoustic pianos solo at home and there's a vast solo piano repertoire. Even in jazz there are solo piano albums. But I'm not sure that can be said about Rhodes. How many people sit and play solo Rhodes for hours? How many records there are on a solo Rhodes piano? With that in mind, Rhodes is almost exclusively used as a band instrument, often going through effects. I understand how inspiring it is to play the real thing and I have no doubts those are mind-blowing instruments but I just don't buy the notion of how this is anything different than an instrument for rich people 😉