Doug Robinson

Here's one I've never seen. No organ (or Frosty). But still cool and weird at the same time. You'll see. I saw Lee and Frosty four times in San Diego--they played the exact same show every single time and I loved it every single time. It always started with the giant THUMP and "Would you feel happy?" etc. The last time they were in the new San Diego Community Concourse which was still partially under construction. I had to pee so bad that before they came out I ran to use the bathroom but the renta-cop told me I had to cross over to the old section so I ran full speed--it seemed like a long way, like almost a city block. I was standing at the urinal hoping I wasn't going to miss the opening of the show and suddenly the whole building shook "THUMP!" and very lightly in the background I heard the opening lyrics!

Hee is one of the videos I recorded live in Mexico City with my wonderful fusion band called MO RITMO--you don't know these guys but they are some of the best players in Mexico when it comes to fusion. The best part, however, is how we all listen to each other even when things get hot and heavy. Plus I feel like our compositions are catchy and accessible without being simple-minded, so there is that. :) Here is MO RITMO doing "NEWMO" followed by "MR. SCO" on which I'm playing the studio's Boesendorfer Imperial Grand. NEWMO MR SCO

My gigs are almost certainly higher volume although not usually super loud. Here’s another vote for.Spacestation V.3 by Apen Pittman Designs. As long as you can put it at least 6 feet away from you. It sounds wonderful and fills the room. Up close it’s OK but I much prefer it further away. I was an early adopter of this when it was new and I’ve used it ever since. A couple of years ago I started thinking that maybe I should go the powered speaker route, simply because the space station is almost 40 pounds. I got two alto 408s and even though they sounded OK, I was very disappointed overall. I couldn’t find the position where they sounded good to me and good out in the audience. I thought I would get more stereo spread but unless people were sitting in the sweet spot it did not seem like stereo at all.

Mo Ritmo Live in Mexico City, recorded last month at Estudio 13. JuanJo Gómez on guitar, Jorge Servin on drums, Javier Regalado on bass, Victor Monterrubio on hand percussion and yours truly on keys, piano and Melodica. Really fun fusion.

I checked some kind of chart online and it seems I can still go up to Ventura on this model, although I might just go to Catalina or vice versa. I imagine that upgrading an entire operating system can be quite a pain in the butt, right?

Thanks, all. Sounds like I’m on my way to Costco soon. I can’t believe how quickly things go bad. I can’t open SoundCloud now with my browser. I can’t empty my cache— I give it the command, and it just stares at me.

I’ve have an iMac for almost 10 years and OS is Yosemite 10.10 something. Fir the past year certain programs refused to open unless I upgraded the OS which I could not, and safari started having problems. I switched to Firefox and that worked until I foolishly updated it—now it won’t open either! to make things worse, I live in central Mexico—my retail options are Costco and stores like Liverpool which is similar to a Macy’s. ordering by mail from the US is way too expensive due to duties and import taxes. i record and mix in logic. I’m not a power user but sometimes I’m mixing album projects with lots of audio tracks. Other than that, it’s Facebook and documents and photos. any thoughts?

Well, thanks everyone for your encouragement and stories. I Wish I had a more positive report, and it's true that I have not heard the mixes yet so there could be a surprise or two but I know that I should definitely have asked for an hour just to get used to the instrument before we started recording because at times--even though it sounded incredible--I felt like I was piloting a cruise ship through a tiny port. I could not get 100% comfortable and it interfered with my playing. Some tracks I abandoned after not being able to complete take without silly errors due to being distracted. But he was super gracious and invited me back any time I am up in San Diego, and I will take him up on that later this year. Oh well! Like I said, if he caught something good I wasn't aware of, I will be very happy.

Back in 2004, a wonderful eccentric enthusiast, recorded my trio in San Diego just for the love of doing it. The recording was lovely and we mixed it together, but I never released it because that evening the trio was playing a lot of new music, and we never really nailed anything to my satisfaction although the crowd liked it. But I became friendly with this man, and learned that he was a collector of rare of musical instruments. He wrote to me about a month later, and said “if money was no object, what kind of piano should I buy for my home studio?” Having just played this 9 foot bosendorfer with an extra bass octave at the Namm show and falling in love with it, I told him about it. At the time the price was $275,000. lo and behold, he found a used one for only $190,000 and he bought it! We’ve kept in touch over the years, but I’ve never played his piano. He records artists in his home and shoots video with four stationary cameras as well. He must be in his mid to late 80s by now. As fate would have it, I’m heading up to San Diego for some appointments and I’m going to spend next Monday in his studio recording some solo piano pieces. I’m very excited because I don’t get to play instruments of that quality very often at all. I’m also excited because I’ve got about 10 or 15 solo piano compositions that have never been properly recorded , and I’m going to use this opportunity to squeeze every bit of musicality out of them. that’s it. I’m trying not to get too psyched up and make myself nervous, because right now, I just feel happy and loosey-goosey about the whole thing. He’s a lovely and generous man and a true music lover, so I think it’s going to be a very enjoyable day on every level. I’ll let you know as soon as I have some tracks that I can share.

Thank you everyone for your help and your words of advice. There’s a lot of really good information. I guess I’m just spoiled by what I like about the space station. Oh well!

Just a quick update… I did two gigs with the Alto TS 410 speakers. Even with a long sound check, even using the stands on one of the gigs, I could not feel relaxed and happy with the system. It’s so directional. If I angle it too much towards the drummer, he was upset. That forced me to angle it a little bit back towards me and then it was just too in my face. for the last gig, I ran a line out from a sub mixer to the house, and just use the altos as my own personal monitors but I couldn’t get far enough away from them to feel comfortable. And if I did get them far away from me, I couldn’t really hear that well. Happily, a friend of mine, who is a keyboard player was in the audience and asked how I liked them, and when I told him I was returning them, he said, let me buy them from you. That’s happening, now I have to go back to my space station.

Alto TS10 Well, after a couple of weeks messing around with them in my house, where I thought I had made a really brilliant decision, I played my first gig tonight. Granted, it was outside, which is never my favorite place to play. No complaints whatsoever about the sound that the speakers re-created. But playing with two separate speakers as opposed to my SS3 was frustrating. First, I positioned the speakers in the wedge position and the drummer, after the first song came and scooted one of the speakers so it was angled more towards him and he could hear me better. At almost the exact same time my girlfriend came and told me that the piano was not loud enough. it sure sounded loud enough on stage, and I’ve gotten used to gauging that with my old amp, so that it never happens – I’m never too loud, and I’m never too soft, at least not usually. So then I turned both speakers all the way up and my Casio PX5s all the way up. It just wasn’t loud enough. And believe me, we were background music while people were talking, so it’s not like I was trying to overpower the party. But every time I moved one of the speakers, whoever could hear it before started having problems after I moved it. I was remembering how brilliant I thought Aspen Pittman was when he invented the space station. Because it was tri directional, my band mates on stage never had a problem hearing me (and in close quarters, it was often too loud for them ) and the people out in front got a big full sound. When someone was playing my SS3 rig, the sound was better the further I moved from the amp including to the back of the room. I’m not sure why i didn’t expect it to be so different but I was overall disappointed. With the SS3, running it through the house PA was always just an option and always just for a little fill. Tonight it was a necessity and because the mixer for this outdoor birthday party with about 60 people was a tiny one, all we could do was take the output of one speaker and plug it into the system which felt crazy and unbalanced to me. did I put them up on poles? No, because I didn’t think I would need to so I didn’t bring them. If I get another gig in the next couple of days, I will do that, but I’m still going to have the problem of how directional traditional speakers are. I’m used to filling up a room. Just felt… Strange to me, and not in a good way. I don’t know, I just thought I would like to experience more. I’m pretty sure the guys in the band couldn’t hear me very well at all, based on the way they were playing :-). I know this set up works for a lot of you guys, and maybe if I spent a lot more and hired someone to schlep my speakers I could find something that comes closer to what I’m looking for. I do like the way these speakers sound in my home, and they would be terrific for a rehearsal room as long as it wasn’t too big, and if I positioned the speakers so that they worked for most of the people most of the time. But it sure seems like some of the people are inevitably going to be sitting outside of the zone where they can hear the keys really well, and that’s not a problem I’m used to having. Not sure what I’m going to do, but I’m pretty close to sending them back.

apropos of nothing when I read your comment about turning off all of the effects that a keyboard company uses to create what they think is a realistic sound, because you favor the “raw sound“ kind of seems like telling a chef to leave off all the seasoning, because you want to just taste the raw flavor.

I’ve wondered about this for a long time. I also avoid clothing with logos on it, but I don’t feel the same way about my keyboards. I think back to when I was eight years old watching the Beatles on TV… I barely knew what musical instruments were, but from that moment on, I was obsessed by Hofner And Greta he and ricenbaker and Ludwig. I like to know what pianos my role models are playing as well. Today my keyboards are Korg, Casio, Hammond, and a Yamaha S80 at home that I bring to certain gigs. Even though I understand peoples comments, I like to promote that the sounds my audience are enjoying came from a Casio, for example. I think of young people out there, who are getting turned on to music, and to see the various options being played live is a good thing for them. I do understand the point about not giving free advertising, but every time I see black tape covering the logo I can’t help but feel like the keyboard player either had a personal beef with the company or just worries about the wrong things in life. I feel like the statement should be made by the music he is playing, and I find the act of covering logos to be an attempt to make a secondary statement. A lot of musicians use the stage to make political statements, and while I am definitely a liberal, more than one sentence along those lines and I start getting antsy. I came here to listen to what you have to say with your instrument, so please get back to playing.

Well, most are pretty sanguine about this, I have a different opinion. You guys hired him. He works for you. Tell him exactly the note and exactly the point in the timeline where it happens. It would take him all of 20 minutes to go into your tracks, and just pull that note down to where it’s not audible and then run an automated mix down again. End of story. It’s your album, not his. I’ve left clams in my own recordings, but that was my choice. I can’t imagine surrendering that kind of control to a producer.

Me too....I have to say that if it is growing on me, it's doing so very slowly. I don't know, I think it's just my grumpy mood right now, but aside from moments of obvious brilliance, I'm feeling like he could have picked songs I would have liked him reharmonizing more. Let's see how I feel after my second listen.

Yes, I think I was misusing the word. I meant a bigger sound because of the larger speaker.

I just ordered a pair of TS 410s, and at about 26 lbs each, I think I'll be ok with the weight. I can use one for rehearsals and two for gigs. Combo xlr and phone jacks. paying about $775 usd for the pair new and delivered to Central Mexico--if you don't have to worry about import tax like I do, they'd be even cheaper.

Thanks, yes I know. But another 67-year-old here mentioned that he had no problem carrying the 410s. And I took it as a challenge. 🙂 but seriously, the weight difference didn’t seem that much of a problem, and I figured that for situations where I use only one it would be better to have a little extra power.

Oh my goodness--that snippet from the ending of I Am the Walrus in the interview!

Thanks cphollis--that happened to me once but this ain't that. I pulled the trigger on a pair of Alto TS410s and I'll report back once they show up. I have to be deprgrammed from my SpaceStation training--I loved the fact that it was tri-directional and you didn't have to be sitting in a sweet spot to get the benefits of the stereo spread. Anyway, we will see how I do.

I read it years ago, just before my first big time recording session in NYC with a couple of major jazz musicians playing my tunes. It really helped me. I never got into the meditations and even though I've read and recommended it several times ever since, this is the main thing that has stayed with me: I believe it's the perfect tool for those millions of people who say they used to play something and wished they'd never stopped. This will help them get rolling again, imo. A small child thrashes away at a piano, for example, and has the time of his life even though he sounds terrible. Then we get him lessons and he gets pretty good but ultimately quits because he gets bored or isn't as good as he thinks he should be or as his teachers think he should be. I try to get back to that infant stage when I'm playing with a good trio. Feel good and have fun making music, nothing more. Even if I played better, if I didn't feel good and wasn't having fun, I'd probably retire.

For those who have never or only recently heard of him, I can only say that you're missing an already huge and influential body of work from this amazing cat! Listen to the song below, an original composition called Unrequited. Make sure you stay for his solo and tell me how many brains, arms and fingers he has going at the same time, and yet...it's still so musical. My least favorite Meldhau projects are the ones with Metheny, not sure why. Both are my faves. And here is an unsentimental yet poignant version of I'll Be Seeing You: And check out his confounding killer solo on this tune based There Will Never Be Another You--all of the solos are great, but his takes the cake and starts at 2:30:

That's great, thanks. Gear selection is limited down here, but I just happen to be headed to a town this afternoon where I know they have Altos.

Hello friends. I was an early adopter of the space station by Aspen Pittman and it has served me really well. One of the drawbacks of it is that if you are playing too close to it, it doesn’t sound very pleasant to you or the people on either side of it. In a big theater it’s been amazing, because I can put it 6 feet behind me and run a line out to the house system for a little bit of fill. But more and more I find myself playing in cramped quarters, and I’m not enjoying the sound of my keyboards, plus I’m getting some complaints from my fellow band mates. To make things worse, I’m getting distortion from time to time now and because I live in central Mexico, sending it to a qualified repair person is a huge hassle and very expensive. and so, I reluctantly need to switch things up, find something new that suits my current venues a little better. I’d like to stay around $800 or less. And that 67, I have to stress that I need it to be as light weight as possible. I love my magical town of San Miguel de Allende Mexico, but… The roads are cobblestone. Parking is often a problem so fast load in and load out is a way of life. Often I can get someone to help me but not often enough. What I’ve loved about the space station was how it handled my two keyboards, a Casio PX 5S for piano and electric piano sounds, and my Hammond SK one for Organ and more. Out in the room, it’s really beautiful how it handles those two boards. The sound is non-directional, and just as advertised, it fills the room. I played last night to a packed club of about 85 people and I had a friend sit in, and I loved the way it sounded from the back of the room. I don’t want to rule out another boutique amplifier just because it will be a hassle to get it serviced down here, but I am leaning towards something where that would not be the case. so what I’m looking for is something that sounds good to me even if I’m close to it, somethings that can fill a house of up to 100 people without any other sound reinforcement, and something that does a decent job of representing stereo. Two powered monitors might be the way to go, although my back is telling me to tread lightly. anybody using a rig that might work for me, given these parameters?