HSS

I always dug John Lee Hooker's "old bluesman" voice. He could mutter a word out of key, and it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I'd give up my squirrely on-pitch voice for a voice with "character", like JLH's, in a New York second FWIW... I think JLH was born with an old man whiskey-drinking cig-smoking baritone bluesman voice. It hardly changed over a 30-year period. Jook Lee Hooker in the 1962: https://youtu.be/V1xcM3XCvPE John Lee Hooker in 1992: https://youtu.be/o_6SlT3Yy10

Sorry, OT: I wish Studiologic would fix the awful "washing machine-on-Methedrine" Leslie sim in the Numa Compact 2x in an update. Unfortunately, Studiologic, being a small company, is probably only focused on the current thing, the new Numa pianos. Oh well, such is life...

Just to mercifully put this thread I started to rest, here's a few videos of exploding pianos. https://youtu.be/veyWOXpy4KE https://youtu.be/_B3T1VOT26A https://youtu.be/p87xqCuQdBM https://youtu.be/CE8cyojTX_Q https://youtu.be/h1rXcm2mbKI

"Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Blues" by Johnny Rivers. It was originally by Huey "Piano" Smith out of New Orleans. "Blueberry Hill" by Fats. It was originally recorded by Sammy Kaye and several others in 1940.

A lot of women seem to dig James Taylor probably because he conveys melancholy sentimentality in both his material and his stage persona. It probably also helps that he's like ten feet tall.😉 Having said this, IMO J.T. is undoubtedly a really good acoustic guitarist and song writer, albeit a bit formulaic with the sentimental melancholy vibe. I had a good friend during the early 80's in New Orleans who hated James Taylor's music because he caught his fiancé boinking some dude in their apartment while J.T.'s "Fire and Rain" was playing on his stereo. The last time I talked to him was about ten years ago, he still hated James Taylor's music. The guy was so down afterwards that he quit his lucrative career as a petroleum geologist, moved to a shack on stilts on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain and became a short order cook at some greasy spoon. You have to wonder how many other dudes' relationships and careers James Taylor's music has destroyed. I smell a song in there somewhere. Anyway, I suspect SNL's Lady's Man would probably agree that playing some James Taylor on the stereo, along with Luther and Barry, will help get the ladies all lathered up. Back on topic... I really dig Sam Cook's cover of "Tennessee Waltz" and Bonnie Raitt's cover of "Runaway", even though their covers aren't the "go-to" versions.

"When the Saints Go Marching In" by Louis Armstrong. Several gospel versions of the song were recorded in the 1920s before Louis made it one of signature songs in 1938. "Everybody Loves Somebody" by Dean Martin, It had been recorded by several others before, including Frank Sinatra. "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" by Willie Nelson. It was written by Fred Rose and originally recorded by Roy Acuff. "Mr. Bojangles" by Sammy Davis Jr. It was originally written and recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker. "Hot Nuts" by Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts Band. It was originally recorded by Georgia White. "Congo Square" by the Neville Brothers and Meters. It was originally written and recorded by Sonny Landreth FWIW... This thread has to the potential to become long.

I drove nearly an hour for 40 miles through some pretty heavy traffic from SW Vegas to Boulder city only to find out that the gig had been cancelled. The plumbing problem at the club occurred before I arrived while I was in route. I was the first band member at the club and relayed the info to the others while they were still in route. The club, which I 've played at 10 -15 times since about 2018, was apologetic and promised to make it up to the band with some extra bookings and free meals. I just hope that no cadavers from Lake Meade were ejected out of the exploding toilets. Even though I wasted a lot of time and gas on a needless trip, there's no point in getting angry at misbehaving toilets.

if it hasn't been mentioned yet... A song for You - Donny Hathaway (written by Leon)

FWIW... Django Reinhardt was undoubtedly the most dapper guitarist with the best pencil thin mustache ever. https://youtu.be/gdZXAq2V0Lg

Here's a shout out to the ladies. Here's one of my favorite acoustic folk / bluegrass players and vocalists, Molly Tuttle. IMO her three solos at ~25", 1'05", and ~2' 05" are top shelf.

I agree with all the previous mentions. I would add some of my current favorites; Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, Tommy Emmanuel, Billy Strings, Paco De Lucia, Albert Collins, Junior Brown, and Wes Montgomery. Just like with everyone, it's very subjective, and, for me, my "favorite" musicians on any instrument are a moving target dependent on what I'm into at the time and my mood. FWIW.... When I was 15 - 20 years old and into rock, I thought Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Beck, Johnny Winter, Alvin Lee, and Leslie West were the Guitar Gawds. Who knows what I'll like in another 10 years when I'm a dirty old man filling my Depends. Someone mentioned Roy Clark upthread. I stumbled on this video recently. Damn! He was cutting up while he was shredding like a Mofo. https://youtu.be/xlrcNtH5pu8

This is still my favorite music video. It ain't got scantily clad hotties, fancy CGI graphics, witty humor, a complex "deep" story, etc., but damn it hits me upside the head me with its raw emotions, camera angles, and even the cig smoke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pui2zoH2VlI

The Studio Grand 2 using the mono button is my go-to AP in live loud bands on my Nord 5D 73 when I'm not using a lower dedicated piano board. IMHO the new White and Royal grands sound relatively good in mono as well, but for me they don't cut through loud band mixes as well as the Studio Grand 2. The Bright Grand cuts through but it's too clangy and thin for me and the Uprights decay too fast and sound thumpy I really like the Royal and White Grands for solo work or ballads, but I agree with you about the White being a bit weird, especially in the upper octave where the notes were sampled with too much sustain, reverb, resonance, or something(?) and they run together a bit even without using the sustain pedal. It's not a big issue for me though. IMHO it adds some "character". FWIW... I play in mono because I want to hear what the audience hears and, to be honest, I'm too lazy to mess with stereo for the $75 -100 dive bar gigs I do. When I use only my Nord 5D 73 for band gigs without a lower board, I use the mono button, although I have used right out on occasion.

In February 2018 I picked up a NE5D 73 for an excellent price. If the board hadn't been such a good deal, I probably would have never jumped on the Nord bandwagon mostly because I'm a very "thrifty" dude. For the first year I had NE5D, I only played it sparingly for gigs because its SW springy action was very difficult for me to deal with, especially when playing AP. In fact, I thought about selling the board. But I kept it and after about a year I forced myself to get used to the action. Since then, the NE5D 73 has become my go-to single board for band gigs which are short in duration, have difficult load ins-outs, and /or I'm just feeling lazy. Now that I'm used to the NE5D's action, I find it to be OK for playing AP in a band situation as long as the AP isn't too exposed. FWIW... I've tried various NEHP's over the years and I find their weighted actions to be pretty bad (i.e. mushy and slow), ironically enough even worse for me than the NE's for playing AP. Having said all of this, IMO finding specific sample section sounds on-the-fly is a significant potential downside to the NE5D in a live performance situation. I recall doing a gig in 2019 with the NE5D by itself and the band had a request to play "Can't You See" for $50. The band waited for an embarrassing minute or two for me to find a flute sound in the NE5D's sample section. I gave up and had to play the song's flute lick using the organ draws with CV and percussion turned off. After that bad experience, I used Setlist Mode to set up an AP /flute split on the NE5D, along with other common splits and layers. As fate would have it, a couple of months ago a band I was playing a band gig which had a request for "Can't You See", and I easily pulled up the AP/flute split in Setlist Mode. On the same gig the band decided to play on the spur-of-the-moment the Neville's "Yellow Moon" and I easily pulled up a Rhodes / sax split in Setlist Mode where I held my nose and covered the sax which, lacking pitch bend and mod controls, was even more cheesy than usual. The moral of my long-winded verbose the story is that IMHO NE5D's (and I presume 6D's) are great portable "meat & potatoes" live performance boards as long as one sets up splits / layers in advance, doesn't require lots of high-end synth and rompler sounds, and one can deal with their springy actions. If I had the dough, I would possibly consider picking up a NS3 Compact for the pitch bend / mod controls and additional Midi / editing capabilities

What Al and Steve write works for me. It may not work for others. I know this may sound selfish but, having spent most of my adult life in the corporate oil industry, the last thing I want to do on stage is think when I play a solo. I play music mainly to relieve stress and let my Id out. Even though I'm just a weekend warrior hack, the bands I play with, which are mainly blues and soul dive bar bands, usually give me solos on most songs. I do my solos with my brain turned off, letting loose emotions in response to the groove the band is laying down around me and even reacting to the vibe of the joint/ audience. It's controlled chaos and sink or swim and that's part of the thrill of playing music for me. Maybe if I did music for living, I would be more circumspect and work solos out in advance

I bought a Midi-capable Konix 61 key folding "kids" piano at an auction site (Nellis Auction) here in Vegas that resells a lot of Amazon returns. I picked it up essentially new for only ~$5 (including tax and 15% seller's fee). Being notoriously "thrifty", I certainly wouldn't have paid ~$150 retail for it. It was mislabeled on the auction site and I matched the photos to those on the Amazon site. Note: this is not the really cruddy "roll-up" piano or the almost as cruddy "carry-on" piano. Needless to say, the board crappy internal sounds and a horrible onboard speaker but it folds in half to ~18" long, and fits in a carry-on for flying, which I plan to do this Thanksgiving on a family plane trip back to Missouri. I also have an 88 key version of the foldable board that I bought for $15 on the same auction site about a year ago but it's too big to fit in a carry-on. Anyway, the board is velocity sensitive but with only 3 maybe 4 layers. It has standard width keys, but they're a little less than 5" in length with short vertical travel. All-in-all, I don't find the action to be that bad especially for the 5 bucks I paid for it. I've played worse SW actions on much more expensive boards. The good news is that the board has both wired USB and wireless Bluetooth Midi capability so I can easily hook my Iphone or Ipad to it loaded with AUM and Ravenscroft, VB3m, Korg Module, Numa Player, etc. I apologize if I took up too much KC bandwidth on such a cheapazzz thing, but I really dig cheap. https://www.amazon.com/KONIX-Keyboard-Beginners-Electric-Function/dp/B09PD53NDX/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=267E2BUFDIALE&keywords=konix+61+key+foldable+piano&qid=1668559019&sprefix=konix+61+key+foldable+piano%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1-spons&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

At the end of 2017, I was gigging weekly with a crappy band at a lonely dive bar that went out of business. Just before the bar made a public announcement about having a fire sale, I picked up a lot of house gear there on the cheap (e.g. QSC K12, Mackie mixer, Shure 58 mic, mic stands, cables, etc.). Since then, my MO for buying gear on the cheap has been to gig in crappy bands at dive bars with no clientele. 😉

Same here. I've switched to" mic" gain on my QSC K12, Yamaha DBR10, and on my JBL 515xt's and never a had problem. I just make sure I've dialed the gain all the way down and then ease it up gently a little bit. I suspect it's no problem on about any powered speaker that has the line/mic switch, assuming one is not an idiot and dials the gain knob way down before doing it. Having said this, I've only switched to "mic" gain no more than a few times on each of my powered speakers when I don't have the time or I'm too lazy to hook up a mixer for the extra gain. I do wonder if the output is a little noisier using mic gain but in a loud band in a noisy low-brow bar setting I usually play in, it's probably not discernable anyway.

I have a Yamaha DBR10 and a couple of Alto TS310's. IMO they're both good deals for the money and can get pretty loud, both with stated max SPL's of 129 dB. IMO either works well for keys with a few limitations. The Alto TS310 has a little more lower end and IMO cuts through a loud band mix a little better than the Yamaha DBR10 although it can become a bit harsh unless you tame it a bit with external EQ. The Yamaha DBR10, IMO, sounds a little smoother out of the box for keys. The Yamaha DBR10 has a line/mic gain switch that can generate a significant volume boost but it only operates on channel one. The Alto TS310 doesn't have a line / mic gain switch with both of its channels being the same. FWIW I think the new Alto TS410 does have line / mic gain switches in addition to Bluetooth connectivity as previously mentioned. In terms of connectivity, both the Alto TS310 and Yamaha DBR10 have two input channels with xlr / 1/4" comb jacks, with the Yamaha having the added option of stereo RCA combo jacks on channel 2. Another minor difference is that the Alto TS310 has a ground lift switch while the Yamaha DBR10 doesn't. In terms of portability, both the Alto TS310 and Yamaha DBR10 are compact with the Yamaha weighing about 3 lbs less (~23 vs. ~26 lbs). The Alto TS310 is, however, IMO a little easier to carry however with handles on both sides while the Yamaha DBR10 only has only one handle on the top. Again, for the money, IMO both speakers are good deals for the money and could work well for keys. In either case, as with all powered speakers, you'll probably want to get a small mixer for additional connectivity, EQ, and gain.

Damn!

I currently live in Las Vegas, NV. I'm originally from the Ozarks near Rolla Mo., a couple of hours SW of St. Louis . After college in Rolla, I moved to New Orleans from 1982 - 1989. I then moved to Houston TX for 2 years until 1991, and then on to The Hague, Netherlands until 1997. I then moved back to Houston until 2010 when I bought a cheap foreclosure home in Vegas and moved there where I still reside. I'm now a retired oil industry geologist and crappy weekend warrior musician. When I'm not trying to generate musical noises, I enjoy my family and play with rocks around the southern NV region.

RIP Jerry Lee. I actually enjoyed his country honky tonk playing and singing more than his R&R.

I occasionally go to Taco Hell to use free Wi-Fi, take a whiz, and steal straws

Damn!

I bet Johann Bach would have had big fun with this keyboard, at least until the batteries went dead.