Adam Burgess

One thing about living in the UAE, is that theft really rarely happens… the punishments can be severe. I leave gear in the car all the time. Always spares of most stuff to hand. The heat doesn't seem to affect stuff at all. In bars, it's customary here to leave your phone on the bar/table to let people know that someone is sitting there, if you need the bathroom or whatever! Would I dare do in the UK? Not a chance. Have to pack everything away if I'm doing stuff on a laptop, or whatever! Only ever had two things stolen in my life. A massively heavy Yamaha 3-way keyboard amp and a bag of cables. First one I knew who did it, but couldn't convince the police it was mine, even though I know the guy's signature and date it was last serviced - only known by a sticker inside! Second was a car thief who drove onto the pavement and just grabbed it. Not particularly valuable, but a massive annoyance! Having said that, when I was playing regularly with a band, we used to leave a Sprinter van full of gear (PA/lights/instruments) parked outside the guitarist's house and never had a problem. Not a particularly posh end of town, either!

Had a last minute call late Saturday night to cover a biggish gig all this week including Christmas night (in the tax-free UAE). Good little unexpected earner so I may treat myself to something new and shiny 😀 Or, be sensible and save it… (probably to buy something new and shiny down the line!)

Indeed, the market for wireless stuff is all mono - brass/winds, guitars, mics… Becomes quite expensive when you need two sets of 'stuff' for stereo! Maybe there should be a stereo/mono debate… 😛

Well, I migrated everything from an M1 Mac mini in about 30 mins. All seemed totally fine at home. Tried a load of synths and audio plug-ins and all good. Did a simple rock gig with built in B3 and Arturia Piano V2 - with pads etc. from Roland ZENOLOGY on the Friday night. Needed it to work for a performance of Les Miserables the next day (in a hurry… long story) and decided to keep it simple and only used instances of Roland ZENOLOGY and the stock EP/Clav plug ins. Actually, a couple of free Kontakt ones for Dulcimers and stuff which I just didn't have. Sporadically thru a band call, I got the error "A plug-in has caused a problem… please quit and restart MainStage". Checked the plug-in manager and most stuff was all ticked ready to go, and validated etc. So just went full hog and removed everything from the Plugins folder apart from the Roland. Forced a re-validation of the folder to make sure. Couldn't see anything that made it consistent or timely so just to get me thru the gig, thought that was the best option. Worked great for the shows, thank goodness. But, again - all was fine on my M1 Mac mini and the (now dead) M1 MBA at home. All security settings etc. are either off or bare minimum on the new M2. In the Terminal… csrutil disable etc… and, also Reduced Security settings on startup same as my other machines. Allow ME to choose what to open, please! I have a few hours tomorrow, so will add stuff back in slowly, and try and find which plug-in(s) were causing this annoying error. Sometimes a press of the Recover button would work, other times just got the spinning beach ball of embarrassment. Tough when it's not really repeatable. Specs are M2 MBA, 8GB RAM, 512SSD. Using a OWC USB C hub for data/power, Arturia Keylab 88 & 61, XR18 or iConnectivity Audio2+.

Yup. Just got a new M2 MacBook Air. Logic and MainStage working ok… had a few issues with a few plug-ins but in the main, quite happy.

Known Ed, the singer in that band for years. He's from my small hometown in NE England. Almost joined him in his Bowie tribute band, but ended up in Dubai instead! Tom is insanely brilliant. It's some dedication to take out rigs like that. What a guy!

I've been in pit bands where the tuba player, for example, plays about 5 bars in each act, and they are sooooooo disinterested 😝 Quite happy to read the news or do a crossword until the fight scene or Finale, play their 10 notes and go to the pub. Don't think I could do the West End or Broadway thing full time for years, but people do! Maybe machines are better for that true consistency? It would drive me batty doing the same gig every night for 10 years!

As always… look forward to seeing the results, David. Love this stuff!

I had a (long) rehearsal yesterday for Les Miserables (School Edition). It's a 2016 arrangement that's different to the older one with lots of DX7 stuff. Took a full day's programming to get basic sounds, splits and stuff sorted in MainStage. Tweaked as I went thru the show. Not that there's much chance - again there's around 300 changes, and that's cheating slightly. I did miss a few out as I didn't feel it was worth changing patch to a 'similar' sound for 1 bar. All live band with 1x Vln., 2x brass and 1x flutes/recorder, 2x keys, plus the rehearsal pianist filling in missing cello/oboe bits, and drums n bass (played by students(!)) Definitely a stressful thing the first time around. Everything including the kitchen sink is on keyboards (including Electric Guitars, and I hate playing electric parts on keys! Can just about articulate acoustic guitar picky stuff). But, then again, it's a challenge and quite fun all in all. I can see why those MainStage files exist for all these shows - although I can't help but wonder if the arrangements could be better spread between players - some very awkward stuff that's only possible with seamless patch changes and a patch change finger/foot that has to be as precise as the actual playing. Suppose bringing 4 keyboards would make a difference, but pits aren't huge for a lot of these school/arts centre theatres. So, can definitely see why these 'auto' orchestra things are around. Never come across one in real life but the $$$ savings are obviously huge if you're having a long run and can save on anything from 3-10 and above players per night for years, and those savings are important for a short run where ticket sales are so limited to a few nights worth. Lots of rehearsals are done with full backing tracks, but seems they're not permitted for the shows a lot of the time. Got to hire those scores and patch files out……! Guess we're all doomed! Although - people DO love live music 😀 Much more than I thought after the plague. People who came out to see our covers band had REALLY missed the band, and that proper social experience! I honestly never thought we'd have that much impact on people's lives, but it's true.

There are apparently too many chords around, for sure! Had a rehearsal for a one off Postmodern Jukebox type gig a few weeks back. Guitarist: "Haha! Look at you with your expensive chords!" Me: "Erm, you mean the correct ones?" Drummer (turned up late): "I'm not a jazz drummer so these songs might sound like shit." Me: "…" 🚖🏃‍♂️

I'm pleased gigs are coming back, as I had to grab a new laptop in a hurry after a catastrophic accident with my last one (only a year old 😞 ). It's fixable, but needed one in a hurry for a few jobs. A totally necessary expense which I would rather have not done until things are more stable. Having said that, my little lobby piano day job gave me an extra day and a slight pay rise recently! The hotel is getting busier, for sure, and there seem to be a lot more people around town. Hope it carries on this way. The plague time was toooo long, and, now not really affecting anything here. As said above, if I buy anything 100% music, it will probs be software. I have a Kronos and a few other hardware boards that are a bit tired, but they all work fine. I'd have to spend a lot to get new stuff to do what they do, and that's just not justified. I admit it would be lovely to buy something a bit different and special to cure a bit GAS, but not at the mo!

I like doing easy gigs with orc-hestras. Play less notes than in a jazzy duo. As for orcs, can they transpose at sight or do they have to press that button?

Those look lovely 😊 £2000 for 12 in a case is £160 each… actually not too bad for battery powered bright little things if the software is great and they’re reliable. Wonder if there are any clones around yet… 😈

No. I bought a 61 and an 88 a while ago. The 88 sees little playing! Just can’t get used to it!

I loved my Stage2 (and a Kronos 61) rig. Only sold the Stage as for around 2 years I did more or less piano only gigs. Just stayed in the case. Thought that was a waste. I did buy it in 2011/12 when I had a free hotel room and F&B getting paid relatively well, however. It was a bit of a self-indulgent purchase for sure, and did I feel a bit special? Yeah, I think I did! Build quality was really very good, I thought. It did have that finger/ear connection with me, although it didn’t feel the best. Almost an oxymoron, there…

These “aha” moments always feel amazing. Opens up so much more stuff! It’s tough practicing when you feel you’re on a plateau and not improving. Makes it all sweeter. Nice one

Love all this custom stuff. Great work, David 👏

There are a few guys who seem to love them on the soundonsound forum. I’ve never seen one in real life!

Ras al Khaimah, northern UAE… A lovely marina view apartment overlooking the Arabian Gulf. I've woke up in worse places! Only an hour or so down the motorway to the metropolis of Dubai, but the peace and quiet here is beautiful. Makes a great change from making noise all the time 🙂 But, when I want to at home, neighbours are all out 👍

It's just familiarity (or that word that I heard a long time ago… practise) …and knowing lots of voicings. A few ramblings if I may. May make sense and be related, or not! Sometimes a chart will say C9/E, but sometimes playing that chord without a C in it works in context. For example (as a Gm/E, or an Em7(b5)) Sometimes a simple song in Eb where block 1, 3, and 5 triads would sound too thick, with different bass notes, playing just Bb, Eb, F or Ab, Bb, Eb notes together in the right hand would give you a certain, more open quality of harmony. (Eb2 or Ebsus4, Fm7sus4, Eb2/G, Ab6/9 or Ab2, Bbsus, Bb7sus4, Cm7sus4 or Ab2/C…). If a particularly chord is too 'spiky or sparse', throw in a third or something to soften it. Again, context matters a great deal. The quality thing really makes a difference. Try playing a tune with lots of 'watery, thick' 9th/13th chords and then at a climactic/cadential point - play a normal triad. The whole piece loses it's harmonic feel. If you're careful about bringing out individual voices, and again in context (what's before and after), I think it's perfectly acceptable to play chords with all the notes of a scale. Many more similar ideas are easy to poke around with. Having said that, I'm fine with most stuff in all keys, but for some reason… m(Maj7)s almost always get me. Are they rarer than Maj9(#11)s which are fine to me? 🤪 QUICK EDIT: Yes, when Sibelius or iReal writes Cb/F# - I really have nooo idea what that means!

Still having issues resurrecting a Frankenstein Kronos 2 (made from my old one and the several I've repaired in the past), I may repurpose some bits (maybe make a dedicated organ rack with my NI B3X or something with the PC somehow) and resign it to a project that just took up too much time and grab a Nautilus 61. Had em all - Triton Classic (with ZIP disks on SCSI - revelation!)/Extreme (USB drives - revelation!)/3x Kronosesseseseses. Not much that you can't coax out of the Kronos with a bit work - guess the Nautilus is the same. Still enjoying my 2x controllers and laptop thing, but sometimes I miss a dedicated screen! And, here's to hoping that Korg keep bringing out new engines, as well as samples.

On a Whitney Houston tribute gig I did a while back, I used my XR18. Was perfect for the job. Over USB, I had multitracked loops, BVs, some synthy stuff, click, etc., and had a few hardware boards going in some analog ins. Sound guy got 6 XLR outs from me. All mono 😈 1) Loops/percussion (Mac only) 2) Synths (both from the Mac and hardware) 3) Brass (ditto) 4) Strings/Pads (ditto) 5) Pianos (only hardware if I remember correctly!) 6) Anything else Output 7 went to the drummer's headphone amp locally. Click and a little keys mix. If I was using my IEMs, I'd have taken a feed from FOH, too. Had an XLR output spare. Not sure how the prices are at the moment. I got mine just as the plague stopped all gigs and was a no-brainer price wise. It's come in useful sooooo many times for little duo gigs when the house mixer turns out to be a broken Mackie, for example…

I sometimes look at my own fingering and wonder why 🙃

Correct in every way

Just take your time. Take lots of photos (and add a description if needed), keep a record of different sized screws, be very careful of flat flex cables, use the correct screwdrivers. I've serviced many a Roland, Yamaha, Korg… they are seriously well engineered and it will take a lot to actually break it. The parts really are designed very well. Even cheaper MIDI controllers aren't that bad, but they are more plastic-ky and need a bit more care. Again, just take your time. And the Juno is really light and small. That is in your favour!