Adam Burgess

Imposing these limitations is a great way to improve and make you focus on certain things. Maybe the results may not make it into a finished song/tune/production - but guess you'll have learnt something! I think it's quite fun. Use one synth for everything - gets as much as you can from whatever you choose. How simple would the synth be? Live a little and let yourself use some polyphony, or give yourself hard labour doing mono lines only? Harmony and counterpoint are different and wonderful things… Use one note/chord - how many ways can you make this interesting? Same way as everything - timbre, dynamics, rhythm… More abstractly, only use sounds that say the 'colour yellow' to you, or remind you of a smell, or what a gerbil would play… Use mathematics to create patterns… They're all great as learning tools, for sure 🙂

Love these DIY things! Good luck!

I wrote above I had the Boss FV50, I actually have a couple of Boss FV-500H (mono, plus expression) and I have a broken FV-500L (stereo, plus expression). The H is for High impedance - for guitars - but I only every use the expression jack, and it works fine. The L is for Low impedance and is stereo - because we all know keyboards should be in stereo all the time 🤪 They're heavy, but feel great, IMO

My Gibraltar rack is stupidly heavy!! The Spider Pro, I agree is an awkward shape to stack on top of things on a trolley, but I don't think it's particularly heavy. Also, it's the only one that I found that would go tall enough. Maybe a Baby Spider with a single set of arms all the way up would do…

Used to borrow a friend's Kurzweil version of the NanoPiano. That was lovely and small, but the Fatar 900 controller was heavier than the moon. As @Reezekeys says above, if you want small, an iPhone/iPad would be the way these days. For me, at least. And, every venue will have an iPhone charger - and an 'aux' cable (hate that totally non-descriptive name!), but maybe not a spare 9v adapter for a little rack module…

I have a couple of Boss FV50s, and use them in Expression mode with a single TRS cable. I don't think I've ever used a volume pedal 'in-line'. My Stage2 had a 'profile' for a Roland EV5, and I used to use that… was always very happy.

I'm quite picky, and really like mine 🙂 Certainly well made. The keys are a bit 'sharp' side to side for organ smears, but for everything else, I find it great. Only recent board to really beat it is the keybed on a Kronos 61. I used to like my Juno-60's keys in the older days. Everything was smoother back then… blah… blah… 🤪

Same. Did hundreds of gigs with a Kronos 73. Bass splits and full piano stuff.

I did a residency gig a few years ago where they had a Roland V-Grand. I loved that thing. Sounded great and the finger to ear connection was excellent. Felt really quite natural to play. Guess they're using at least the same or better tech. I wouldn't say no!

After the nightmare downloading of an IK Multimedia Total Max Pro (or something) package, it seemed not to allow me to download the sample libraries straight onto an external drive; had to do literally one instrument at a time as, as you know, Mac SSDs are either tiny or silly expensive these days. Do I really want to babysit a machine rather than doing something useful? The whole point in computers is to do the same thing over and over - that's THEIR job 😝 I'd rather let the computer worry about that in the background while I do stuff! One more rant being after purchasing the thing, I had to wait almost a week to get a download link and serials etc. Not happy at all. I would indeed love to be able to install Native Access or IK Product Manager or whatever on the system drive, download a zip with the libs, and simply tell them where these are. Such a pain when you're dealing with 100s of GB! Sure they must have a reason!

Was really to learn new stuff and see how easy it would be! Not very, it seems haha! Don't mind carrying stuff around at all. I may play about a bit but will use the rack module on these gigs with the Kronos and a controller. Probably with a Mac in the way to look after some routing. Thanks for the heads up and experiences with SampleRobot. I shall have a look at it. I will set some Auto Sampling away in the morning. See what I can actually do with the files. If I test it enough, maybe I could run MainStage and the multi-tracks on one Mac, too… I still dunno! I'm not in any hurry, got a good few weeks yet.

Well, this is what I meant about clunky - as my original post. It took about an hour to download the Free app. Can't really check out how it works as it's so limited. Can I not even try ONE conversion? No. Seems very unsupported. Crashed on three different machines (M1 and M2) just pressing random buttons as there's nothing else to try!

Yes, the Kronos gets close enough, no doubt. Korg's pads and pianos are more than fine. Could do it on the Kronos and Arturia USB straight in. No laptop required. I did enjoy the D50 Fantasy / BellPad things from the Integra, though. Cheese is fine. It's a one off gig for three shows - I'm not too precious about it, but thought it would be a good project to learn about some sampling stuff. I could buy (or lease or whatever the deal is with Roland Cloud) the D50 and I'm sure I'd be happy, but since I already have the Integra… Maybe before I leave for my gig tomorrow I'll set the home Mac doing some auto-sampling from the Integra and see what happens.

Having one machine do both jobs gives me no redundancy, that's all. And, having never done it before, there's no harm learning new stuff. I mean there's no complicated patches. Be a couple of synths or a piano and pad… Got plenty time to test! Thanks for the link. I'll give it a download and see how/if it works! But, the Kronos' file system is yet another rabbit-hole!

Yes, the amplification thing is sooo important. Anyone with any experience of a real piano feel has an expectation of how loud a note should be when the finger goes down on the key. When amplified, this has to 'sit' somewhere in the (unknown/different) mix, and allow you to play comfortably in that range. If I can hear properly, I can play quieter, or less notes - but, I can accent when I need to. If I can't everything is at 100-127 velocity 😞 This is hard enough on a weighted board, but not impossible on a 61 if things are consistent. Consistency is hard with different bands and stages, which is where IEMs really come in. Like the airplane announcement says - sort yourself out first. When sound guys compress the s*** out of piano sounds live as a matter of course, it breaks my heart.

Totally agree with all of this. I kinda want one - but that price is unjustifiable at the mo. I've got too much stuff as it is, but I still want one. The Yammy teaser is interesting, for sure!

Just been booked to do a Whitney Houston tribute for the second time. Last time I had an SV1 and Arturia 61 MIDI'd to my Integra-7, with an original Triton doing some other bits and bobs. Plus a totally unMIDI'd i3 as emergency backup. Mac was running multitracked BVs, 808 loops, and click so didn't want to bother it with MainStage, too 🙂 I have, of course, mislaid the USB drive with the Integra patches I'd programmed; so would have to redo the patches anyway. (Still a bugbear that this thing has such little storage!) My Kronos 88 is back up and running, so was thinking about getting the D50-ish stuff sampled from the Integra with Logic's AutoSampler then using the Kronos and the Arturia only. Never done this before, so looking for anything decent for Mac to do a nice conversion to a KSP(?) or SF2? The things I've found seem to be a bit unsupported, and clunky. Should I just re-program the Integra, and use the Kronos for the DX7ish stuff, or have the Kronos as a big controller? I do also have Parallels and Windows 11 on the M2 MBA which seems to be working ok with some legacy stuff programming older BSS install DSPs - although, again - clunky 🤪 I'll use Windows only if I have to! I do have an M1 MBA I could MainStage with - but, I really don't want to worry about TWO laptops on stage! Cheers, and, as always, looking forward to the usual diverse workflows and opinions! Adam

Hope you had a great day! Amazing 🙂

I do miss my old Stage2 88 and Kronos 61 rig from about 10 years ago… Maybe it's time for another Nord. I did love the connection - yes, organ wasn't the best - but I found it easy to play - which makes you sound better!

Yes, I almost loved my Arturia KeyLab 88, but the TP100 is just abysmal 😞 Only thing letting it down was the keyboard haha. The TP40 in my old Stage 2 took some getting used to after my CP33, but that did not take long at all. Tried the TP100 for months and - nah! The Yamaha keybeds on a couple of P120s I had, and the CP33 were lovely to me. Not played a Yammy in quite a long time, but generally the CP73 seems to do well. The Numas I've had through my hands, I just never connected with. Also - if all 61s played like the Kronos 61, the world would be a much better place. Korg should do a Fatar and put that action in everything.

Thanks. Really interesting! Doubt I will find one in the Middle East, but ya never know! Maybe an USAF band brought some over in days gone by and they're still around! Yes, deceptively strong they must be 🙂 Cheers

Genuinely interested - having never laid eyes on one… Could it hold a Fantom/Kronos 88 plus something else?? What's the weight limit on these things with a load of dynamic forces on them? Looks like they're made from knitting needles. I feel bad putting two keyboards with 2x M10ish bolts on a 2 tier X-stand when I have to!

Had a CP33 when they first came out - loved that action. Lasted me a good few years until I changed to a Stage 2. Also had a couple of P120s… were they the same action? Certainly felt the same. Played those to death on hundreds of gigs. Volume on full for that vibration! Maybe I need a new Yamaha at some point!

Lovely playing and accompaniment, @Aidan as always. It's an amazing lesson to watch for any wannabe accompanists on this forum - Feel is everything. Doesn't matter how simply you play* - just play it gorgeously and breathe with the vocalist. *hitting notes at the correct time, in order, and in time expected

Most pro desks' jacks are balanced. Even my favourite little mixer, the XR18 has balanced jack ins.