CyberGene

How about Combo Piano? Similarly to combo organ which is a touring organ, a combo piano is a touring piano, the CP70 could be moved by only 2 very fit people compared to a concert grand piano that requires a team of weightlifters 😀 Thus “combo piano” is the predecessor term to “stage piano”. And then the Combo Synth CS80 since it’s not the modular bulk that one builds in the studio but can be toured. And we arrive at the Combo Keyboard CK since it’s not just a piano or organ or synth but all of it, so it’s all Keyboards in one Combo 😀

Indeed, the MODX is super intuitive. I was once able to make a split between a multipart Rhodes and a multipart synth pad for less than 10 minutes.

Compact Piano? Clavier Portable? 😀 And what about CS? S is for Synth but the C? Compact/Console?

Yamaha are not in my mind the company that wants to make it easy for you to have an iPad rig, i.e. use non-Yamaha solutions 😀 I used to have a KX8 at the office 10 years ago. Was an OK controller. A Casio CDP-100 entry-level digital piano was better and lighter though 😀

Isn’t the market already over-saturated with MIDI controllers? Not sure about the profitability of it.

Hmm, I just posted in the MODX+ that I would like to see a YC88 with the refaceCS panel and engine added to it, a Nord Stage competitor. Could this CK88 be the thing? Maybe it’s CP + YC + CS in one keyboard? Or just CP + CS?

The more I think about it (and knowing Yamaha of course, as well as owning and selling a MODX for being too awkward to work with) I have no high hopes for this hypothetical AN-X being integrated into anything intuitive and easy to use 😀 Most certainly it would need to be preprogrammed in advance rather then having a good hands on interface for real time manipulation. Yeah, you can route the knobs and faders to it as usual but still… I just think they should make a YC/CP type of instrument where they add the entire reface CS panel and engine 😉 Why not add it to the YC73/88, so that it becomes a Nord Stage competitor. Call it a YCS73/88, bingo 🎯

I think I've mentioned it a few times here, Hydra can be made to sound really warm and analog, just not by default. And it's not very difficult either, here are a few tips: 1. Increase "Analog Feel", I usually set it to around 20 (this function applies multiple offsets and intentional inconsistencies on multiple parameters) 2. Apply some filter drive, it thickens the sound a lot 3. Use "warm" mode 4. Use random phase (this makes the oscillators free running instead of starting from zero phase each time) 5. Add a tiny bit of amp attack, like 5ms, to remove the digitally fast and unnaturally snappy attack 6. Don't fully open the filter, vintage synths are always a bit rolled off in the highs 7. You may want to also use EQ in the FX section to reduce the highs. 8. Use the Fat versions of the filters. Well, vintage Moogs were not "fat" and lost the low-end when you applied resonance, but I believe the improved "fat" versions ironically make it sounding more analog 😀 9. Cloud reverb is what is closest to a spring reverb and we're hearing a lot of vintage records with spring reverb applied to Moogs and the others 10. Detune the oscillators slightly but I guess that's obvious 11. This is very important: experiment with envelope curves, for instance Glen Darcey (the mastermind behind Hydrasynth) suggested following curves to emulate a Minimoog, log 16 for attack, exp 45 for release 12. Stereo spread the voices 13. Apply a bit of chorus

The more I research about this, the more I'm convinced I already have all I need to make any music in the world I decide to 🤦🏻‍♂️I have a Mac with Logic Pro X and enough virtual synths + Hydrasynth, CP88, various MIDI controllers and hybrid digital pianos. No external hardware seems to add anything to that. It's about motivation, seems modern types of music are just about different mindset and not the different tools. Some say you need pads or an external groovebox to tap rhythms, yet Dr. Mix does it on the crappy MODX6 keyboard 🤣 Yeah...

I discovered this video and it seems pretty inspiring to me but I can’t really figure out if that I-Arpeggio is a silly gimmick or is varied and rich enough to not sound like those cheap keyboards with onboard styles. On the Roland website they say you can export the parts (arpeggios? Rhythm?) in a DAW, so I can imagine this serving as an inspiration for ideas that are developed further in a DAW. Any experience with the Xm? (Besides, my 5 year old daughter is still sad about me selling the MODX, she loved playing around with the sequenced patches. And this one even has speakers, is battery powered and lightweight) 🤔

Well, I personally reported an “issue” which I’m not sure if it’s really an issue or because the original was like that and they replied it’s what it is and they won’t fix it. Sounded like they knew it was an issue. Basically, when you increase the “crescendo” to a high value (a slow attack) and also increase the “sustain length” (slow release) and play a note, release it and play another note, it would cut the first one. Sounds like it has one envelope for all notes and so the first note is abruptly cut. Kind of logical but I read that original ARP Solina had separate envelopes for each of the 12 base notes, so that should happen only if you play octaves. Here’s an example: 1: Alina String Ensemble - 120 bpm - 002.wav

There’s a nice and inexpensive iOS app called Alina Stting Ensemble I’ve been using for a while.

Seems pretty reasonable that they will first release the updated MODX hardware, so that it’s ready for the forthcoming AN-X update. I wouldn’t be surprised if that helps in streamlining the firmware development and consolidating it into a single codebase for both instruments.

That's absolutely fantastic! I only wonder if it would have been too difficult to also add a reverb to it... But anyway, it's still great, especially with the phaser.

Hydrasynth is marketed as a proud digital synth and it sounds digital. Most factory patches are made to be like that. It’s a certain disappointment if you’re relying on factory patches and expecting warm analog sound by default. I love my Hydra and I wouldn’t part with it and I only care for analog types of sounds but I would recommend it to other people with caution.

I can do that however I just sold my MacBook Air M1 and am currently waiting for a heavily back-ordered MacBook Air M2 to arrive which could take up to 3 months 😕 But there are certainly many other people on the forum who can test it and I'll be more than interested to see a comparison between it and an Intel-based Mac. I use a maxed-out company-provided MacBook Pro 16" with M1 Pro but I'm not sure if I am allowed to install personal-related software on it, so I will have to check that first.

Saul was sure it was fake too.

My impression from watching all these YT videos is the MPC One is probably my best bet since it’s closer to a traditional DAW workflow. I’m eying the Live 2 in particular since it has acceptable speakers and is battery powered but what bothers me about MPC products is some people say they are buggy and unfinished and feel like beta products… 😕

Warren Bernhardt passed on Friday. He was one of my favorite pianists some time ago when I discovered him through Steps Ahead. He has terrific solo records and I can't recommend him well enough. We already discussed that in the Steely Dan's PEG thread since he is also involved with them. He was also a close friend of Bill Evans. I'll post one of his pieces which is absolutely not typical for his output but it is a profoundly sad sentimental piece which I remember used to bring to tears my then girlfriend (a classical pianist), so I find it suitable for this sad occasion 😢

That's really sad 😢 May he rest in peace. Ironical indeed. He died on Friday. The first comment about him on this thread was mine on Saturday and in that comment I also mentioned how I checked his Wikipedia page but I didn't notice anything about his passing. Checking the page's edit history reveals it was updated about his death on Sunday...

OK, this is another of those threads where I have difficulties putting a proper title... So, I'm mainly a classical and jazz pianist. I've always worked in a traditional DAW (currently Logic Pro X) where I lay some MIDI and audio tracks, apply effects, mix and master, you know the drill. Now, I'm interested in creating more modern and experimental music, such as some mix of EDM, trip-hop, electronica, house, alternative, experimental, generative, etc. I'm somehow lost at how I can create such music with my current background. Apparently that music isn't notated and not played or entered note by note through tracks 😀 Or at least I'm not very successful in thinking this way. Ask me about chords and progressions, scales and modes, that's me. Recently I also discovered virtual analog and analog synths, so I'm already pretty advanced in programming synths. But I don't have a clue about how they create modern music. I don't even know how to properly create a drum rhythm, let alone one with sampled sounds. Anyway, I love modern types of music, even those that are predominantly rhythm and pattern based, and I'd be happy to learn how it is created. So, I've been watching some YouTube videos of stuff like grooveboxes, drum machines and the likes and I'm wondering if they would somehow give me the creative boost due to the entirely different workflow and concepts? Or am I a lost case? 😀 Has any of you stepped into these new territories of modern music from the traditional background. Have you found that you like stuff like Elektron Digitakt, MPC One, Deluge, Ableton Live, Novation Tracks, Polyend Tracker, etc? Any recommendations about such gear that can change my mindset and get me some fun? Or should I stick to what I'm good at? 😕

Apparently he meant the firmware versions, not the hardware. And BTW the hardware of MODX+ can also be viewed as MODX v2.0, so we already have some "evidence, expectation and reason" for a hardware update, if you insist on being strict 😉

I discovered Zeeon last week entirely by accident on the App Store but it was cheap and after I read the description of how it was specifically modeled after vintage synth emulation, I said: ohh, that’s great. And purchased it without even reading reviews or researching it. I could immediately see how great it is after installing it though. Highly recommended. Some months ago I discovered Mood in the same accidental way on the App Store. It’s probably my favorite synth of all. It’s a Minimoog on steroids. You have the sound of Minimoog (I think it’s better than Moog’s own Model D app) but you also have a lot of improvements and additional modulations (even a sample manipulation oscillator where you can load and loop your own waveform). It’s 16 voice polyphonic too.

Get an Apple Silicon equipped Mac and you would be able to stack as many instances of U-He plugins as you wish and play them in real-time without a single glitch. Here’s an arrangement of an excerpt from Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony I made entirely with U-He Diva in Logic Pro. I used close to 30 instance of Diva for each orchestral instrument there (even string section was made of multiple instances) and it could play in real-time with the maximum selected quality:

^ That’s a good advice. With the introduction of MODX+ the used Montage price may go further down since more people will be more interested in the new MODX+ and thus a used Montage will make a lot of sense because it has nice features such as aftertouch which would be great for AN-X. The 8 endless encoders with LED rings will also be super useful for that. I’m wondering if a used Montage can be bought for the price of a new MODX+ or slightly more, that would be a great deal. I’m wondering if Yamaha implemented a custom UI screen for the AN-X. One that would be familiar to people who work with VA-s. Because their FM-X engine is just a rehashing of the AWM2 screens. If they went the lazy road and repurposed the AWM2 for the AN-X too, for instance using the element screens for oscillators etc, it would be very silly.