Greg Mein
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Posts posted by Greg Mein
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I imagine a lot of us are doing one. We're always trying to up our game and play to our audience. Typically we're a classic pop/rock kind of act with a slight leaning towards country rock which mostly works for us in the area we're at now although it's a smaller area than I'm used to and thusly the gigs are less frequent. We'll be doing our gig at the Elks Lodge.
I was primarily keyboards in the last serious band I was in but with my own group my wife is doing most of the keys while I play guitar.
Our drummer suggested Stevie Wonder - You Are the Sunshine of My Life. This was the biggest challenge, wow, with the jazzy chords and key changes. It took her a while to get it under her fingers and I spent a lot of time with the sheet music coming up with some comp chords I could actually make my fingers switch between!
It popped into my head to do Elvis - I Can't Help Falling In Love With You, it fits my voice well, easy chords/accompaniment and I expect this one will work well. We resurrected EC - Wonderful Tonight, that used to be in regular rotation with bands years ago and falls together fast. I'll switch to keys for Chicago - Color My World so my wife can play the flute solo. Country is a huge thing around here and in order to survive we've needed to incorporate a little. Johnny and June - Jackson has already been in rotation for a while and goes over great as a duet with my wife and, new for us, we're adding Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire which I plan to roll into a medley going forward.
At a Valentine show a couple years back when my wife and I were just playing as a duo we did G n' R - Used To Love Her as a bit of a lark and it was fun but I'm leaving that out, I don't think it will work with this audience and even our drummer and bass player weren't familiar with it.
Otherwise I cherry picked through our normal sets and tried to find the stuff I think will work best for this gig.
How about you, doing anything special or different?
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I've used Superior Drummer for years in the backing tracks I created.
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I know about a couple of other spreadsheet programs but Excel is the only one I've ever really done anything with simply because it's been so ubiquitous in my life for so long. The MS Office suite were the only approved such programs going back as far as I can remember where I worked and the MS home use program meant you could buy the package dirt cheap for home computers.
When Quicken decided to go to the subscription model I jumped ship and spent many hours creating a spreadsheet for my personal finances. As things have changed I've modified and continue to tweak that same basic layout I'd created.
When my wife and I started our duo I used Digital Performer to create midi backing tracks for external keyboards/processors. I used Excel to organize and document those efforts.
I remember actually using Excel once at work to troubleshoot a digital circuit board. Putting in what I was seeing compared to what I should have been getting allowed me to narrow my troubleshooting down to a specific chip on the board and discovered some unsoldered leads on that part. Something that would have been much more difficult and time consuming using the normal oscilloscope probe to board method.
I wouldn't call myself an Excel expert but I've learned my way around it over the years and have found it to be very helpful for a number of things.
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Many of us with electronics and computer experience can probably appreciate the level of tedious detail it required to do this, incredible! At this point in my life it's a bit of a distant memory but watching this brings back some of those tech school memories; flipping switches on the emulator boxes, creating little assembly language programs, I still have those Intel 8088 books out in the garage somewhere. And wow, he created this within Excel using formulas!
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5 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:
One approach is to treat the Amp Modeler(s) in the MFX much like a real Amp, which is to say, design an Amp Model (or two, or three) with settings that generally work for you, and build your User Presets around it, by adding effects to the initial Amp Model
This has long been my preferred method when working with these types of units and, I think, makes the most sense. It can be very tempting to get carried away with all the options and possibilities.
For recording at home I have numerous discreet pedals and devices, a wealth of software and also still have a Digitech GSP1101 with the Control 2 board. I didn't want to drag around a rack case for the GSP1101 and didn't want to build another pedal board so this unit is just what I needed. Our drummer was a long time employee of Digitech up in the SLC area and gave me this pedal so I'd certainly never find a better deal on one!
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1 hour ago, Larryz said:
@Greg Mein, This is a demo on the 355 which is an upgrade on the 350.
That was interesting to watch, a couple of significant changes in the models. This newer one has a looper and also the ability to switch between patch mode and effects mode. With only the three switches and the foot pedal it would require some practice to develop a tap dancing technique to take advantage of all that though! The amp A/B switch is a great feature they both have.
Fortunately for me the editing software runs on my old Win10 PC so I've been able to do my editing on the monitor where settings are very visible and without having to manipulate knobs on the unit.
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I don't really prefer using multi-effect pedals over discrete pedals but there are some distinct advantages to being able to create individual patches for songs when doing gigs. Recently our drummer gave me a Digitech RP350. It's just what I needed for our gigs; simplifies my setup and has all the effects and options I'm likely to ever need.
So I got to creating some patches but there's a little issue I've ran into before; getting levels consistent between various patches, for example, when you kick in an overdrive it often seems louder because of the added compression and harmonics but it might actually be quieter overall.
So I set up my amp, put a Rode NT1-A on the speaker and plugged it into my Presonus SL1642 mixer to view levels as I created and adjusted patches. I think that worked pretty well. Today I was at it again and for convenience sake just plugged directly into the mixer, I think that probably worked ok also but I'm thinking I might get better accuracy by plugging the pedal into my 828x interface and then viewing levels in one of my DAW programs like Digital Performer or Logic.
Is this anything others here have wrestled with and if so have you come up with any kind of go to method for getting levels tweaked in?
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I had an email about it today, been wondering when that would happen. I have some history with the 828 series having used them for live backing tracks going back a number of years. An mk3 was the first one I had and then later sold it when I switched up to the 828x. I liked them and they've worked well for me overall but I did have one situation that still lingers with me.
My original 828x suffered sudden death one day where the screen would come on but was blank. At MOTU the deal was you pay to ship your out of warranty unit in and get a factory refurb for around $100. When the refurb arrived I discovered quickly that output channel 3 had excessive noise. I messaged right away and they responded that this replacement had a 90 day warrantee which is, you know, ok, but how is it you sent me a faulty one? In my world I needed this thing like now so I worked around the CH3 noise issue and soon actually bought a new 828x for subsequent gigs and so I'd always have a backup. That new one continues to work fine although I haven't needed it for the last year or so. I have never sent to defective refurb back.
I sure do like the looks of this new one and it would be great to eliminate the TB2/TB3 adapters. I need to revisit my backing track system, update it and have it at the ready but for now I'll have to continue with my 828x. I can't justify shelling out the $995 at this time.
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I've been messaged already by several people about getting those EWI 5000 files so I'm going to eliminate the need for going through me and just post the link to get those files here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/o4bvc6l7f22t5ruem1cio/h?rlkey=llcia9me1eixm3cxypnh03xv0&dl=0
Leave a message on this thread if there's any problem. I wasn't really using that Dropbox account for anything else so I'll just leave those files up there and anyone who needs them should be able to download.
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4 hours ago, Paul Woodward said:
I dont really need the sequencer etc. as I use Logic on my Mac for music,
This is something that has bothered me a bit with the typical modern performance boards from Roland & Korg. Instead of the sequencer I'd much prefer multi-sampling.
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I can't imagine using an ipad on stage although I know it's become pretty common. Even though my vocal range is somewhat limited there seems to be a never ending list of popular tunes that fall into it. I listen, practice and try to capture the nuances and inflections. For me that would all be lost if I were trying to read from an ipad. I do have a pretty good knack for being able to memorize lyrics. The times I've felt I actually needed to have a lyric cheat sheet I found that if I just have the first line of a verse, the rest falls into place.
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9 minutes ago, Ibarch said:
Once the scene/zone/tone design is understood, everything should slot into place. Roland use this on other boards too such as the Fantoms.
Whilst the RD-88 offers a lot, the programming interface is poor. Menu upon menu, no jog wheel, no touch screen, a tiny display. It makes it harder to setup that it should be. Plus the lack of any proper library app for a computer. It isn't even possible to backup/restore individual scenes, it is all or nothing.
Take a look at the Fantom 0 series for how it should have been done.
I still have the FA-08 that I was using in the last band I was in. It's different from past Roland keyboards I've had but sure is a lot easier to work with than this thing!
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My little band that includes my wife did a gig at our favorite local spot. We were surprised and a bit concerned when they wanted us to go from 9pm - 1am. This is a sleepy little desert town where the sidewalk typically rolls up at 10pm but wow, did we ever have a great night; people hung around all night and were incredibly engaged and just having a blast!
We've only lived here for a couple of years and have been trying to break through. I think we're finally doing it and I knew we would, in this little town we pretty much leave the competition in the dirt.
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I'm very interested in this and thanks, will take a look soon!
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21 hours ago, Ibarch said:
The Favourites feature is for shortcuts to scenes, not sounds (tones).
So, to save a tone, you need to create and save a scene, then add this to favourites.
1. Find an empty (initial) scene.
2. Set the selected sound for bagpipes into zone 1.
3. Rename the scene and save it.
4. Press Favourite [Bank] button then your chosen bank number, from 0 - 9
5. Press and hold the Favourite [On] button and the choose the number to save to, from 0 - 9.
Thanks, we got it! My wife is currently doing all the keys in our band and doesn't have the history with these things that I do. Problem is they've changed a lot and the things I know about Roland keyboards seems to be a bit obsolete these days.
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So we bought the RD-88 last year just before our NYE gig. We had it sort of figured out and usable. It's actually my wife who uses this keyboard and today she's trying to figure out how to save a sound (bagpipes) from the CMN into a favorites location/bank whatever it is? She's having trouble, is it not possible to do this? Any help appreciated!
I sure do miss the old Roland keyboard days when there were Banks, Patches and user locations with a jog wheel and usable display. That seemed like it began to change when I bought the FA-08.
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It reminds me of our trip to Hawaii in 2018. We started out on O'ahu where my wife was attending conferences in Waikiki. After a week or so we headed to the big island, I really wanted to check out volcanos. From our Air BnB near Kona we drove to the huge lava field at the end of highway 130 south of Keaau.
Back then they would set the compass on your phone, make sure you had some water and turn you loose to wander the lava field which we did for about four hours. It was an amazing experience and something I'll never forget. Less than two weeks after we got back home that volcano went wild, spewing lava all over, destroying roads, homes and infrastructure in that area. Wow!
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I still have a Presonus SL16.4.2, the original Studio/Live model with firewire 400. It's hands down the most high end mixer/interface I've ever bought and still works great, stand alone or with the 2012 MBP I bought around the same time shown in this thread. I had big plans for it when I bought it; had just moved into a really nice house with a huge basement I started turning into a studio but alas, life circumstances got in the way and all those plans fell apart. As a result the unit never got any real use.
It would be fine to still use for recording but I've long since moved on and all those channels are just overkill for anything I'm doing now. I probably still have at least six FW external drives as well. We actually used the mixer on a live performance a couple of months ago when I had someone who could run sound while we used in-ear monitors. I keep it because it's a great piece of gear I could still use. With six aux channels it's all I'd ever need for live performing and resale value is in the toilet anyway.
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2 hours ago, Anderton said:
giving the finger to the customers.
Apple has a long standing tradition of doing that. I've become extremely cautious of doing OS updates on my Macs, rarely does it actually offer any real improvements for users.
I recently updated my newest MBP (Intel i7 bought new in 2021) to 12.7.2 because I upgraded from Photoshop/Premiere Elements '23 to '24 and then discovered it was the minimum requirement. The update went smoothly but could very well be the last.
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8 hours ago, analogika said:
They removed Firewire from the first Macs in 2008 — FIFTEEN years ago.
The last MacBook to come with a Firewire port was the 2012 MacBook Pro — which they sold until late 2016 (but only because it was the very last option with an optical drive).
The 2008 MBP was the worst dog in my history of using Macs. Mine was dead within a couple of years. something died on the MB and it was all over. Mine wasn't an isolated incident, apparently it was a known issue but of course it was out of warranty and I was out of luck.
The 17" 2012 MBP is a solid computer and I'm glad I held onto it. It has ethernet, FW, display port, USB x3, an optical drive and an express card slot. I wish I hadn't updated it to 10.13 because I lost some expensive software but otherwise the computer runs fine and I still use it. It will never get another OS update.
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On 12/14/2023 at 11:37 AM, RABid said:
I got me a label maker. Plan to print labels in the format, example: "MIDI type A ... ... MIDI type A
The dots will go around the cable and the printed sections will come together, giving me a label that sticks out from the cable and it easy to read. The trick is matching the ends up so there is no exposed sticky residue.
You might check, my Brother label maker has the cable label feature as an option.
Key gigging items for me include the label maker, cable tester and an engraver. Pretty much any gig gear that leaves the house is either labeled or etched.
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I remember when I was a kid, getting into the guitar a bit. I got a few dollars in my pocket somehow and headed to the music store to buy an effect pedal. I saw the compressor and thought, 'wow, that seems cool' so I bought it. I took it home, tried it out and thought it really didn't do anything so I took it back and got something that would actually do something like a delay, chorus, wah, etc..
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Sad news, my condolences.
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On 12/3/2023 at 12:31 PM, Anderton said:
Haven't needed to try Slate's yet. Good luck!!
Just to follow up, they responded to my email offering to do a "Teamviewer", some kind of screen sharing session. I thought that was a bit over the top, seemed obvious to me they hadn't authorized my license with ilok. I mentioned that in my responses and I guess it finally lit a spark. He got the license sent over and I had no more problems after that.
Roland FP 10/30/30x/ Bang for the buck on used market
in The Keyboard Corner
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I gotta say I miss the old Roland keyboards logical layout with Performances and Patches. The one I had that I liked best was an XP-30; when I bought it new it even came with an OEM version of Sound Diver which made creating and organizing patches and performances so freaking easy. If only they'd had more memory!
I bought the FA-08 and it was quite different but it had enough display to where I learned to navigate it reasonably well but the RD-88 my wife bought last year is a bear to navigate and work with.