Adam Burgess

Use my XR18 constantly out and about. It's in a 4U rack with a OWC USB-C Dock. PowerCon in. For my MainStage rig, I take a trailing USB-C cable from the Dock to the Mac. Powers it and sends audio, Ethernet down the one wire. I have 2x USB B cables trailing out of the rack also for 2x keyboards. In the rack, Ethernet and another USB B go to the XR18 from the Dock for audio and control. I do quite a bit of stuff where there's clicks and multitracks, works amazing for that. Can give FOH separate XLR outs for me, clicks, and the tracks. Easy. The built-in WiFi is abysmal, however. That's the only downside I can think of. I made a similar rack for a singer/sax friend of mine. I put a little access point in there so she can mix from her iPad.

I like the Boss FV500s. Had a few over the years!

In all my 30 odd years playing, I've never owned a Kurz. I really feel like I should one day. A good quality 61 I could be tempted with. Need some more gigs to justify... been a crap year so far!

I've done charts for a few (very good) tribute acts' sets. I get money from the promoter/booker to do them - once they're done, I really have no problem 'giving' them to the artist for future shows at a small cost. Not gonna charge per song, to be honest. I had to do them as MD. Cheaper for the promoter to pay me to do really good sight-readable parts than hire a rehearsal room/PA = engineer/ 5x musicians etc. The sound check is the rehearsal so has to go smoothly, and everyone has to be happy. As a bonus, I know the parts backwards after a few days on them so can not worry about playing the keyboard and just being able to accompany. A Whitney Houston act (just starting out in her 40s, but a fabulous performer), got a set of 25 tunes written out for a four piece, plus some 808 loops/string parts I'd reprogrammed etc for free. She kept it quiet and I've had a few more arranging/transcribing jobs from her agent… Not a bad loss-leader. If I'm not on the gig the next time, I'd quite happily send the link to the PDFs and tracks for another MD. But - I made sure I got paid for them initially. I did some chamber orchestra arrangements/transcriptions last year (mix of Arabic and western), and that was a LOT of work in a stupidly tight time frame, so I insisted they cannot touch those arrangements without me being paid, or getting me to conduct the gig. For simple band chord charts, I would hand them over and not worry about it.

Between the black keys of the bottom octave 😇

Been on both sides of the desk/keys and, yes, flat should be good enough for a starting point. Treat LH bass and keys differently, if possible. Have good arrangements. Unless you want a compressed piano, get good monitoring and play normally. Volume is not the same as hammering the thing. Usual (impossible) caveats apply about levelling patches out, out of context!

I find it hard work doing LH bass. I like to think I'm ok doing it, but the concentration really tires me out! As above, having fewer players does simplify things, and can be a lot tighter.

Just trying out the keybed manufacturer Matsushita…

It's a bug bear, but sometimes you gotta bite the bullet and use the proper (expensive) Apple adapters now everything is on USB C/Thunderbolt connectors. Not all USB C > USB B cables are created equal. They might power stuff, but will not handshake, or pass data. Was in my local bar one day after they got a new LED wall. Macs would just not see the controller using Amazon level adapters. Had 6 guys on site trying to fix it for an event. Told them a hundred times to go get an Apple Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter - after many man hours, they did, and it worked instantly. Been working for a year. Same with Ethernet adapters etc... you just don't know what you're gonna get. Although I've had success with UGreen stuff in the main.

You will notice saturation on anything bass heavy with cheap DIs like Samson/Behringer etc... I'd go with your gut and get a Radial. I grabbed a JDI Duplex years ago and it's been brilliant.

I've always been able to hear a chord and get it 90% of the time correct. Single notes usually 100% if I'm having a good day. I sometimes reference what, for example, an F# looks like on paper, sometimes I just feel an F#, sometimes it's correlating it with an F# if I was sitting at a piano. If I'm wrong, it's a fifth out. Some harmonic filtering going on? Don't know. Singing a pitch on command, I can't do. I can tell it's wrong, but I think it's just 'cause I'm a crappy singer. I get bored long before I've slid up and down to be happy with it. I have massive synesthesia, too. Sometimes this F# maybe a certain shape and colour on the 4D space that seems to exist in my head. One strange quirk is that if I wear shades, my hearing drops by about the same level as my eyes… Not volume level, but it its perception. Think that's one of the important words in this thread. I wouldn't say I had perfect pitch at all, and can't say whether it's learned, in-built, or other, as I've hit keys for as long as I can remember. But, I'm good at it after 40 years of having a connection between touching something and hearing it. If I wasn't a piano player, I doubt I would be able to do it, even if I knew WHAT it was I was trying to do!

It took a good few weeks of getting out of Korg and Yamaha mode into finding out what a Stage 2 could REALLY do with some careful forethought and programming. Sold mine cause I had maybe two years of piano only gigs, and hated the waste of it sitting in a case. I loved that 88 and have been recently thinking about a new Stage. It popped up on a Facebook memory thing last week. Positively slimmer, lighter, and shorter than the current Kronos 88. Having 16 parts on hand makes programming stuff easy, but, as above - with some careful programming, the Stage, especially the new ones, can do a lot.

Can't remember! Sure there were a couple of extensions that required this. Maybe Loopback…? On the latest Sonoma beta these days!

I was looking at something lighter than a Kronos 88 for just piano gigs… And, a Kronos 88 JUST doesn't fit in a Dubai taxi in a wheeled case, which is fine apart from transporting to a stage which could be miles from the nearest road 😞 Used to have a P120 many years ago, and I always liked the action, and it was slim and light! No joystick etc to the left, so quite a bit narrower, too. May risk something that has the GHS keybed. Think that will be fine (MX88, CK88, P225 etc. etc) - they're cheap enough and can't be any worse than that god awful Arturia Keylab mkII 88 I bought and sold in a couple of months or a Numa piano I had the misery of trying for a while, which I basically gave away to a church so they had a backup or to give someone as a practise instrument. Mind, I did a conducting only gig last night. Carrying a laptop to put on the stand and walking straight outta the gig was life changing haha. Usually I'd be conducting from behind a rig of some sort, so always be out later than the flute player…

Good! About time!