Bosendorphen

Yes the new version has a bigger screen and better layout. I use mine all the time along with the real thing in my studio.

I have every issue of Keyboard and I'M KEEPING THEM!!! Love the ads (the Mellotron giveaway in the first issue was fun!) and the articles and interviews. They only take up about 4-5 shelves in my studio so why not. I enjoy perusing them now and again. But I agree it would be nice to have digital versions online available. Archive.org has lots of PC Magazine, monster magazines and stuff. The Comic Book Archive has tons of (non-Marvel, non-DC) comics available for free (I am enjoying the Fawcett Captain Marvel issues). So the scanning for an online music archive that Dr. Metlay noted is interesting.

Agree with that! I had a KS32 and loved the piano sound. I got an SQ1 Plus, near mint for $113 a few years ago.

I first got the QS7 back in 1998 and still have it and still use it on occasion. At the time one of the best (yet only 8 MB) piano sounds in a synth. Still holds up live IMHO. I got the Classical and Synth Q-Cards. Love Dave Bryce's programs. I later got the QS 8.1, 6.2 and QSR. Still have the QSR in my studio for "legacy" work. I have some cool Mellotron samples on a burnable Q Card and a CP70 sample. Also used the MIDI file playback feature live playing original music sequences for the band to play along with. A workhorse for 23 years! The QS7 still works fine and is a tank, yet only 25 lbs. Never let me down!

Me, too. With keys I had to/still have to work a decent amount on my blues voicings and soloing. On guitar, I have to work NOT to go there. Way interestingly, all the guitar playing I've been doing over the past year or so - hours every day - has most definitely had a noticeable (I believe positive) effect on my keyboard playing. I seem to be feeling it mostly in touch and voicing. dB For me playing blues licks on keyboard has come naturally since I was probably 9 and started composing. On guitar oddly I gravitate towards more modal playing. It's also funkier. And my timing in guitar is more on the beat than my keyboard playing. I tend to play ahead of the beat (rush) a bit on keyboard. On guitar I'm usually spot on. Weird since I've been playing piano longer (almost 57 years) than guitar (48).

This is the opening song from my band Aethellis' most recent release. It's actually the first part of a two-part 15 minute suite. [video:youtube] The full song is here - [video:youtube]

Such sad news. I was just last year enjoying his livestreams on Facebook. I remember a classmate in my Jazz Workshop class turning me on to Chick and RTF back in 1974. Blew my mind. RIP.

Agreed! It obviously worked fine for Cars covers but the "Chorus II" waveform (actually PWM) did a good mono string sound which through the echo box worked well for playing the Mellotron/string lines in Nights In White Satin for example. I'd do that and do a quick switch to a triangle wave for the flute part. It also did a decent sax sound for Year Of The Cat. Or synth trumpet for Only Time Will Tell. Very versatile indeed!

I may just get the reissue! It would be nice to have MIDI, spring reverb and aftertouch not to mention programmability. I still have my 1973 MiniKorg. I got one for Christmas in 1976. I used it in my bands for 9 years. Here's a pic of it at a gig in 1981. It's sitting on top of a Farfisa Matador organ (that I put through a Mutron Phasor). To the left is my Roland MP600 electronic piano with our guitarist revising a songlist on it. The controls underneath the keyboard worked well with it sitting on top of the organ. I'd put the MiniKorg through a Univox tape echo unit in those days. http://flyboyfilms.tv/Ellsounds/Mark%20with%20Ells%20keys.jpg

I guess the first game changer was my first synth the MiniKorg (1st version 1973) that I got for Christmas 1976. I'd always been wanting to orchestrate my original music and already had a Yamaha D3 Electone organ with the built-in drum machine that I got in 1973. So the MiniKorg added to that and my acoustic piano and Univox Compac electronic piano gave me some decent timbral resources back in the mid 1970s. I added a Crumar Performer in the early 80s to my band rig which was serviceable but the next game changer was the Korg Polysix. Programmable and quite versatile - great at strings, pads, squelchy synth leads (in mono mode) and pretty good at emulating bells, vibes and harpsichord. It could sound a lot like a Prophet 5 thanks to the built in chorus and ensemble effects and had 4 LFOs - one routable to the VCO, VCF or VCA, one for PWM, one for the arpeggiator, and one for the effects. Another game changer was my next synth the Korg DW8000, my first synth (1985) with a built-in DDL. 16 digital waveforms too! It could do DX7-type sounds quite well.

It was a shock to me too! The original MiniKorg was my very first synth that I got for Christmas in 1976. It was already 3 years old at that point. I hear ya! Vintage is so in now. But the original looks very much the same with the controls beneath the keyboard. There was an update adding the 2nd oscillator and ring modulation to a model the following year (the 700S in 1974) which is what this new reissue is emulating. But of course the new version is adding MIDI, spring reverb and programmability. And aftertouch! The MiniKorg was used by Kitaro and Greg Hawkes of The Cars. Yes, I saw one in the store too and felt the same way - more affordable than a Prophet 5! But I got one used for $600 2 years later and loved it. I still have it and used it with my MiniKorg at gigs along with a Roland MP600 electronic piano (64 keys with velocity and 5 band EQ) back in the mid-1980s..

I still have the original MiniKorg 700 (without the 2nd oscillator and ring mod) but this looked interesting. What's next? A Polysix reissue? Didn't see a thread specifically devoted to this although it may have been mentioned in the NAMM thread along with other items. Korg debuts MiniKorg 700 FS

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I'm using one of the standard line outs. I don't mind it being hot, just have to adjust my amp levels accordingly which is simple enough now that I determined the ratio betwen the other instrument(s).

Thanks for the confirmation! I have to be careful with swapping cables myself!

I've seen threads here on the Numa Compact 2 and 2X but don't recall anyone noting how hot the output signal was. I have to dial back the Numa on its QSC amp channel to about 30% relative to my Mellotron Micro or Alesis QS7, or anything else for that matter. Anyone else note how powerful its output signal is? I know Korg stuff was pretty hot.

Wow so THAT'S why the magazine folded. I really enjoyed the 4 issues and at the time also heavily read Music Technology, Electronic Musician and of course Keyboard. Exciting times.

This wasn't that bad a load-in but there was a major issue with my gear. 1984 - My band was playing at the top floor of the World Trade Center in Baltimore. However we had to park in the underground garage and take the service elevator. Like other stories we had to deal with the caterers hogging the elevators which slowed things down. But the main issue was my gear was in the trunk of an old 1970 Dodge Coronet. It picked that day for the trunk lock to break so my 3 keyboards were locked in the back and due to their size in cases they couldn't be brought through the back seat. So I was cussing F-bombs loud and clear which reverberated throughout the garage quite nicely. Our drummer secured a crowbar from somewhere and we proceeded to pry the trunk open. We got it opened but put a big dent in my Mini-Korg synth in the process. Fortunately it was solid metal on that side of it and it worked fine. We managed to set up in time and gig went quite well and we received a lot of compliments through our agency. I guess the scariest load-out was packing up our gear during a gun fight a block away in Curtis Bay, Baltimore back in 1981. We went very quickly!

Thanks for the comments, folks! I know that with the number of teachers and pupils many people can make the claim of their "lineage" going back to Beethoven or Liszt. And some people on the Piano World forum responded to my post there with examples of their "lineage" which I thought was quite interesting. Others were a bit dismissive with comments that it wasn't really interesting since many people can make that claim. That wasn't the point. I discovered new insight into pianists like Ernest Hutchenson and his relationship with Gershwin; or Austin Conradi's repertoire and career. Then again there was an entire thread on that forum devoted to the same subject. So there is interest. Another poster had a similar lineage to mine up to Bernard Stavenhagen (a Liszt pupil) but he started it earlier with Bach > Homilus > Hiller > Neefe > Beethoven, etc. Someone posted a cool link if anyone is interested - PIANO GENEALOGY

A friend of a friend had done research into pianists/composers Austin Conradi and Liszt's pupil Stavenhagen. Turns out they have a lineage that led to my piano teacher. Sort of interesting. John Mason Evans Hasslinger - Famous Piano Teacher Precursors

Enjoying all these videos! Here's a recent one I wrote performed by my band Aethellis, "A Home In Your Thoughts," the first section of a 15 minute piece. [video:youtube] And here's the full 15 minute song - [video:youtube]

This is a Rick Wakeman-ish piece I wrote at age 20 back in 1978, originally for a short film I worked on, The Power of Frankenstein. It's called "Tema di Victor" (Victor's Theme - for Victor Frankenstein). I incorporated it as the first movement of a suite, The Oratorio of Lycidas, a studio release coming later this year. This live version was recorded last month. [video:youtube]https://youtu.be/u6llpoqePOQ

My cover arrangment for piano of Genesis' "Burning Rope." [video:youtube]https://youtu.be/y130LPMrSIc

I'm right handed but sort of ambidextrous on the keyboard. I think the Bach inventions helped my hand independence. [video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y130LPMrSIc

This is from a recent gig - thought I'd see if this rig would work out. My lightest rig ever - Studiologic Numa Compact 2 and Mellotron Micro. Our electric viol player takes over a lot of the leads I used to do - he can sound like flutes (for Lowdown), wawa guitar, brass, anything! So I can get by with fewer sounds. http://flyboyfilms.tv/Aethellis/Ells%20lite%20rig.jpg