zephonic

It does have the Combis, yes. Not the particular one you mention, though. That must have been LE specific. It's not on the Triton nor on the Extreme.

I bought the Triton $99.

Yes, these resistive touch screens are awful and need to be sent back to 2001 where they belong. Even my $400 aftermarket head unit has a capacitive display.

So if I buy a new Fantom today, is it automatically an EX, or is it a cost upgrade?

Is that only with Ultimate? I'm on the Pro plan, and while happy with it, Galaxia is insufficient reason for me to upgrade. But lifetime keys could be...

The S90ES piano is actually available in Steinberg’s HalionSonic.

I stand corrected, Herbie does play the middle section live, forgive me, Maestro! Or at least an adaptation, but certainly not watered down! He's friggin' 82 years old and you can tell he's physically not as strong and flexible as he used to be, but his mastery has not abandoned him!

Yup, pretty much. Not exacerbated, but also not better. It's about you'd expect from a one-size-fits-all approach, but I'm being told it's getting better. The world will be a better place once it is up there with the likes of RME, MOTU, Lynx etc. At what buffers do you have them? Also, if memory serves, you mostly run Kontakt in Bidule? Kontakt is pretty efficient, although it is also library-dependent. In my case, having layers of Keyscape/Omnisphere in combination with Zenology, HalionSonic, Kontakt and whatnot, 128 is too ambitious for many audio interfaces. When I use a Montage or Fantom as audio device, I'll keep GigPerformer's buffer at 256. From the laptop's 3.5mm out, I'll leave it at 128, no problem. The internal audio is really pretty good with low buffers, and it doesn't sound terrible.

It ranges from acceptable to unusable at 128. How is it for you?

Just my $0.02, I am not super impressed with class compliant USB interfaces at low buffers. I'm told it's getting better, but IME you shouldn't try at anything lower than 256, and usually they default to 512. This doesn't bother everybody, of course, but I guess I'm OCD like that. I can make 256 work if needed, but 512 is no bueno for me.

Been saying this for years, it's a covert subscription scheme. I'll keep 12 Pro running as long as it goes, meanwhile trying to get up to speed with Logic.

I brought my interface on the first few laptop gigs, but now I don't bother. If you don't absolutely need a dedicated volume knob, the headphone out on your MacBook will work just fine. All you'd need is a USB-MIDI cable. Just my $0.02 YMMV etc. For the price, MOTU M2 seems a solid bet, but I have not used one myself.

^^^ Man, even Herbie doesn’t play the tricky part live!

Been on Cubase all my life, know it like the back of my hand. Currently on 12 Pro. That said, I’m leaning more and more towards Logic these days. Main reason is MIDI timing, beats feel tighter and punchier. It has other great features like ‘Bounce In Place’, but Cubase is just second nature to me and hard to unlearn. Right now I have adopted a hybrid workflow, where I do the rhythm in Logic but audio and MIDI editing in Cubase. I hope Steinberg takes a good look at their MIDI time protocol and revises it.

This is a very good point, and I hadn't thought of that. What's more, my 2005 Fantom X7 has USB that works up to OSX Mountain Lion, so for the last ten years I've been using -you guessed it- the DIN out. Class compliance has solved that problem, of course, but still, it's good to have DIN because it's the one thing that has proven to work consistently for 40 years.

The Korg D1 is exactly that, an RH3 controller with some perfunctory onboard sounds just in case. But the absence of USB is a dumb one. Of course, they are releasing an update. After all, I just bought mine only a few months ago...

Really? I would have thought that is one of the most iconic Rhodes solos ever. I think more than any it defined how the instrument should sound.

Stuck in a hotel room and I have no keys here, but I'd prolly do this 2-1-2-1-2-3-1-2-1-3-2

I had never heard of Ben Bove. Thanks for sharing.

Tried and failed! I didn’t figure out it was 7/8 until much later, always thought it was an anticipated downbeat, like the 16th note before the one. Messed me up until someone finally pointed it out to me.

Herbie Hancock's all-time masterpiece "Head Hunters" was released on October 26, 1973. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_Hunters https://thegrio.com/2023/10/26/the-future-of-fusion-is-funk-50-years-of-herbie-hancocks-head-hunters/ It's hard to overstate how this album changed my life. It echoes on in every sound I create. That is true for pretty much all of Herbie's 1970's output, Thrust, Man-Child, Secrets, Sunlight, and even Feet Don't Fail Me Now. But it all started with Head Hunters for me, and my life has been better for it. Thank you, Herbie!

I like it, neat one stop shop for computer musicians. The plate can also be used horizontally, hope it is big enough for a 16" MBP, but prolly not. edit:

I think “practice” and “thinking about practice” are reversed

on behalf of all musicians: “What is a mortgage?”