Mark Schmieder

A very welcome addition. I had already decided not to get the modular version, but didn't expect it to go standalone, much less as a freebie!

He was the primary influence behind a celtic/punk fusion band I was in for four years in Boston in the late 80's through early 90's. I saw him perform at a celtic festival in San Jose in the 1990's and he was amazing as a live performer. One of the festival's highlights.

Good to know. I'll have to look into that next year. My intern just finished weaning himself off of the Apple ecosystem and is thrilled at the improved productivity, stability, and performance. And being young, he's way more patient than I am in my old age, when it comes to wasting precious hours on configuration related stuff. At any raye, this new Ventura update is the best so far on my "ancient" six year old iMac. 🙂

I just did the 13.6.1 upgrade and it's the smoothest of any point releases from the past few macOS versions. I looked at Sweetwater's site for Sonoma notes last night, and the cutoff for hardware compatibility is 2018 for non-pro models and 2017 for iMac Pro, so this means Ventura will be my last macOS upgrade ever, as I am hoping to move away from the Apple ecosystem due to its enforced obsolescence and a decreasing budget as I head into retirement sometime in the next few years.

I guess Oates won't be a guest anytime soon... https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/entertainment/daryl-hall-restraining-order-john-oates/index.html

Do you think they'll send notices to loyal customers? Maybe I'll see something in my email box tomorrow. Being near the end of the alphabet, I'm usually one of the last in line.

Don't forget that both John and Paul got a bit pudgy for a short period there, so this may be why you didn't match the body profile.

A greatly underrated keyboardist, always musical and melodic. Also great to hear Mel Collins in that set! I forgot that he played with Camel in between King Crimson stints.

I bought a bunch of Squeeze albums in the U.K. a number of years ago that I never saw appear on US shelves, and all of them were great. As for Daryl's House, today's posting is Robert Fripp, who looks like a punk rocker these days with his spiked haircut.

So was the band Camel known for using the ARP Soloist?

Maybe it's because I've been recording a lot of my saxophone parts this week, but for the first time ever, it occurred to me that I would like that "Slippermen" part much better on sax than on synth!

I always enjoyed the "demo" of the song that appeared at some point on a reissue disc or maybe a compilation, but also love Carrack's take. The song is so wonderful that it can withstand many different interpretations, including Philly Soul. I didn't realize that Carrack was Holland's replacement though; I thought he was simply a guest artist for part or all of that album, just as he sat in with so many other bands over a 20+ year period. I can see though how the label might have wanted to "introduce" him via vocals.

Yeah I found that one the other night but couldn't remember if it had been posted already so didn't. Very well done analysis.

Yeah, I was surprised when I noticed his bass choice, given the sound on the recordings. I rarely use my jazz Bass, and I've gone through a number of them before settling on the Made in USA Geddy Lee model with 70's pickup spacing and maple fingerboards. I just find the P-Bass works on everything, and quite well, and have moved away from modern basses and even J-Basses for most material. But I suppose the amp was the main sound back then, and probably overpowered the bass sound, just as with Vox guitar amps where its personality dominates every guitar played through it..

I was really amazed at the passion, musicality, and incredible singing in all of the clips I watched, as I had recently watched some Squeeze tour clips from this year and felt the energy was relatively low and the vocals not exactly stellar. very curious now why that is, but perhaps older musicians get less worn down by a one-off and really bring their A-game to the fore. Anyway, I then watched other "Live at Daryl's House" video clips (I never knew about these!) and was equally blown away by every guest he had!

I found the Gator one not too stable with the legs flared out, and sold it. I still use the K&M stand and have an excellent one from Stagg that is similar, which I use for my Hammond XK4.

I think I prefer the original demo. It sends shivers down my spine to hear John's voice in such an intimate setting. He's one of the few musicians I can listen to in such flawed recordings and not be bothered, because his soul shines through everything that he does.

It can be very interesting to see the bookends of a tour, on so many levels. I saw Peter Gabriel's start to his "Shock the Monkey" tour, in Boston back in the mid 80's, and then the end of the tour in Worcester MA. By then, he had stripped down to a rock group sans Burundi drummers and other adjuncts. Both shows were out of this world, but very different from each other, and you could tell the thought process Peter had gone through during the tour that led to shifting things up by the end, including the set list. I'm still debating on seeing DM as I saw recent clips and still feel Gahan hands it off a bit too much, but the "Everything Counts" rendition really blew me away -- always one of my favorite songs in their repertoire. I was a huge Alan Wilder fan (as a musician, not a person, but that could be said of many musicians), but just as with Siouxsie Sioux's current tour, I think the DNA is pretty well baked into any session or touring musician hires who grew up admiring the musicians and the music. The current DM crew is stellar.

Yeah I think it's a veneer but I could be wrong. It could simply be "manufactured wood". That might be what my XK-4 has. It seems slightly more upscale, but fairly similar. As mine came chipped, I can tell that it has a particle board or manufactured wood sort of texture underneath the finish.

Sure seems like metal to me, but it's amazing what can be done with hybrid materials these days.

I hope someone has Bosendorfer examples soon, as the CFX examples make me cringe (so harsh sounding!), but I am otherwise interested in trying out this board due to the new keybed action.

I've been through a lot of guitar amp sims over the years, and to my ears nothing even comes close to the organic sound, three dimensionality, and realism, of TONE-X! I only wish there were less aggressive choices for bass, as I sometimes am handed DI-only tracks (or did some that way myself). But probably someone has posted them somewhere, as it's also about a community and not just factory presets, in terms of the IR's.

Yep, Full Compass is the only place I found a listing for a replacement mic clip for the stand (one got lost at a dark gig), so it's not surprising they would have replacement screws as well. I had hoped that Front End Audio and other pro audio shops would carry these parts. I never heard back from Full Compass and have been too busy to call. One of these days...

Hah, the previous articles I had found only had the super tiny photos, and I assumed the color blocks were rocker switches. Your article has some closeups, and now I see that they are simply weirdly designed drawbars! Arturia did model a rocker switch model though. Not Hammond, apparently.

Thanks, and I now remember that the UK site is where I grabbed my backups files and PDF's for the XK-1c. 🙂