Greg Mein
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Posts posted by Greg Mein
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Small stages, empty venues, disinterested/rowdy/fighting patrons, flights of stairs, electrical blowouts and technical problems are such a cliche, I'd seen plenty of it. It's impossible to pick out a worst. At the same time there have been enthusiastic crowds at packed houses on all different sizes of stages as well. As a general rule I prefer outdoor gigs.
Since "forming" five or six years ago my wife of seven years and I were a duo and I put a lot of work into creating backing tracks but I was ready for a change and now we're a four piece live band having added a drummer and bass player. Having moved to a low population area however, our gigs are further apart but the last couple have been really enjoyable.
We got on the bill for an annual three day jam festival that's a pretty big deal around here, just across the border in AZ. We came to watch a lot of it and our band clearly got the best response. Around the same time we played an outdoor gig at a fair/festival put on by our little city. Then we crossed a new threshold the Friday before last when we played an outdoor gig in Washington UT put on by the city with sponsors. That made for state number five that my wife and I have performed in.
Hands down my most unique gig was several years ago when I got tapped to play keys for a rock hits show with the symphony orchestra.
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On 8/15/2023 at 9:40 AM, RABid said:
For years we played a regular job at a club that did not allow stage lights for the band. goal was to keep the dance floor dark. They did not want people in the seating area to be able to see who was dancing with who.
Kind of like Tinder Live perhaps?
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5 hours ago, Dr Nursers said:
Hi Greg - never underestimate the power of iMovie that comes standard with MacOS. I know a lot of people love Davinci Resolve but I've never checked it out...
I'd kind of forgotten about iMovie. I've used that in the past and also had Final Cut Express years ago but I think it died with an OS update.
5 hours ago, NewImprov said:On researching for a video project that came up recently, I discovered DaVinci Resolve, and it seems like the free version is pretty amazing! I found could do just about everything I needed in the free version, and the interface was very similar to Premiere
4 hours ago, KenElevenShadows said:Davinci Resolve. It's easier to use than iMovie (for me at least, and I'm not a professional movie editor by any stretch), it's powerful, it looks great, it offers tons of options, it's deep if you want it to be, it has decent EQ, and much more. If that's not enough, the free version is so powerful that just about anybody here would feel it's more than enough.
You can ask this in The Big Picture Forum as well since that is where we discuss a lot of photography and video.
After watching a couple tutorial videos it appears that Premiere Elements may have a lot more functionality than I initially expected. I'd not seen Davinci Resolve until this thread, thanks for the suggestions. I really need to dig in and see what's what, plenty of options if I'll put in the time!
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After managing to resurrect my old Dell PC and having it run better than ever I tasked myself with trying to get some programs reloaded. The old Cakewalk Pyro Audio Creator is never going to work again and I'll miss it but other programs are working more smoothly than ever before. Among those is a small collection of Corel programs (Paint Shop Pro, Video Studio Ultimate and a couple others). I've never done much with those before but now I'm feeling inspired to try creating some videos for my songs. With any luck I might get inspired to do some recording of the new stuff that's been rolling around in my head for a while as well.
My three MBP's have programs I can enlist as well; the gig MBP has the last non-sub edition of Photoshop (CS6 I believe), my oldest MBP has a couple older animation programs (Anime Studio and Poser) and my newest MBP has Photoshop Elements which includes a video editor.
I'm sure that between PSP and Photoshop I have anything I'd ever need for photo editing but I figure I'm going to run into some serious limitations with the video editing programs. At this point I'm essentially a beginner with all these programs, even though I've had most of them for a long time, I've never put serious time into them.
I have hours of video I've taken through the years, mostly from traveling throughout the country. I'm currently gathering it all together and sorting by categories. Some of the video is shakey and I don't think the programs I have can help with that but there are apparently programs out there that can.
I know some folks here have a lot of experience in the photo/video editing area and I'd be interested to know what some of the best programs are. I'd like to use the most capable and full featured programs but at the same time this is only a hobby for me and I can't go crazy on my budget.
I'd welcome any advice from the community here!
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I touched on the topic of my PC crashing in the AKAI EWI thread. I desperately tried to resuscitate but it was a catastrophic failure of the hard drive and there was no patching or repairing, it was toast. This is a 12 year old Dell XPS 8500, a little long in the tooth but it's only used for what I'll call administrative tasks; Excel spreadsheets, PDF manuals, playing DVD's, hosting a couple backup drives and other rather mundane things. I mostly use my Macs and I could get by without it but it's nice to have around.
I couldn't justify the price of a new PC and didn't want to spend a lot of money fixing this one. I had a couple of older HDs around so I grabbed the larger one and managed to bring the PC back to life using a USB optical drive (the one in the PC hadn't been working right for a while) and the Win 7 disk that came with the computer new. That was great and I don't mind Win 7 but it's a dated OS now and won't run some of the modern versions of programs I use. I'd upgraded to Win 10 quite some time ago when that option was offered for free. I wanted Win 10 back on this machine and also decided it should have a new SSD and optical drive before I button the thing back up.
I found a 1G SSD for $35 and an optical drive for $25 so the upgrade/repair investment was minimal. Where I ran into a problem was trying to get Win 10 installed. There must be 1000 Microsoft webpages but there is one where I should have been able to get Win 10 reloaded. I had the account, was authorized for it, got the downloads but the two seemingly relevant programs just wouldn't install, they kept throwing errors. I went around in circles for a while trying to figure it out but you know how frustrating that can be.
Later, for no particular reason, I went to that Win 10 webpage while sitting at my Mac and wow, it recognized that I wouldn't be able to install Win 10 and so offered me the ISO image file, yes please and thank you 😀. Things went real smooth after that; I burned the ISO to a disk and installed from that, easy peasy.
That computer is running like new now, perhaps better with that SSD. I've got programs reloaded and am mostly back to where I wanted to be. Could I have fixed it without the ISO image file? Perhaps but it sure was going to be a hassle trying to get support and figure out what the problem was.
No real point to the story except for the irony of using my Mac to fix my PC and I'm hoping to get several more years of use out of that computer.
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Now that we live close to Las Vegas we've taken advantage of that on a few occasions. The 600 seat Golden Nugget Showroom has become a favorite venue, we've seen Lita Ford, Tommy James & the Shondells and the Grass Roots there. Fremont Street has a free concert series where we've seen some good shows.
The best show I can remember ever experiencing however was The Who last November. It was their last show of the tour, they had a huge orchestra, performed amazingly and the state of the art acoustics and sound in the Dolby Live indoor amphitheater would be hard to match.
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It's a good feeling to be able to help, my wife is even ok with it in retrospect, 😀. And yes it's true, having these files now backed up in a secure location could be invaluable someday.
It wasn't a big issue, really only cost me a little time. I'm far from adverse to digging into electronic gear, during a 30 year career as an electronic tech I tore into some of the world's most sophisticated avionics and communications equipment on a daily basis.
I'll add this to my list of positive things I've experienced here on SSS. It's high up there but I don't know if anything will ever match the time I sold an accordion to a gal who's search lead her to a topic I'd started here.
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I opened up the EWI today and pulled the SD card. I uploaded the files to a dropbox location, message me an email and I can give access.
I put my wife's EWI back together and it seems to be working although she's rather unhappy that I took it apart for this. Hope that helps!
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I have returned home and am catching up on some new and old issues around here. In regard to this I have a problem I'm working on; before we left my 12 year old Dell XPS 8500 desktop crashed. It's a pain of course but I actually use my Macs most of the time. The problem is that the Dell had SD card reader slots whereas my Macs do not.
On the PC front it looks dismal for repairing my Win 10 install but fortunately I had an old HD laying around and have brought it back to life with the Win 7 disk that came with the computer new. Also I was able to go to my account on the Dell website and download all the drivers for this computer which should be a beautiful thing.
I might even be able to use my Mac. I'm sure I have a USB SD card reader around and it's just occurred to me where I might find it.
Anyway I expect I'll be able to pursue this within the next couple of days.
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My wife has the EWI 5000 I bought for her birthday three or four years ago. We actually had to order a new battery for it that I installed recently. I'd be glad to help you out but the timing is bad, we're leaving tomorrow for a cruise and will be off the grid until late this month. If you can wait until after the 29th or so I can help.
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For simply syncing between drives; connected drives or over my network, on Mac I've been using ChronoSync for years. I bought it once and it's been free updates ever since.
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To learn guitar you really need to start with the "open", often referred to as cowboy, chords; major E, A, D, G, C, F, Minor E, A, D and 7th chord shapes. Obviously there are 1000's of songs derived from just those. As you progress you take some of those shapes and learn to play barre chords but if you're just interested in chord accompaniment you can cheat quite a bit by just using a capo.
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The solder you've listed contains lead so be sure to have some decent ventilation where you're working.
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The only time I took a guitar on a flight it caused a problem. We were headed to Ft Lauderdale for a cruise. Timing was tight to catch a connecting flight at O'Hare but I had to wait for them to bring up the guitar and we missed it. We had to catch a later flight and ended up seeing New Years as the plane was landing.
On the upside I got to watch William Shatner in 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' during the Twilight Zone NYE marathon a bit higher, around 30,000 feet.
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Installing the EXZ011 Classic EPs wave expansion turned out to be the quick fix. Costs $20 but there are a couple of far better Clav sounds in there that will work for me and now I can stop worrying and whining for a while.
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On 3/31/2023 at 9:08 AM, ChazKeys said:
I'm not an expert on Clav samples but some say the Classic Keys expansion EXZ011 which is the same as the SRX Electric Piano has good or better(?) Pianos and Clavs (different pickup settings). Both are available in Roland Cloud.
This turned out to be the easy fix for me, found a couple that are way better. Thanks for the suggestion.
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On 3/29/2023 at 4:17 PM, David Emm said:
I'm not a candidate for an RD-88, so my knowledge of its particulars is only so deep, but since you're not keys-oriented, I'd say tweaking the sounds it came with is the most pragmatic path. I'd want to pack it with layered Xenology patches that sounded far larger than the slim package would suggest. That's an amazing option. The reality feels more like this being the piano version of a VR-09, with potent abilities you can only access while standing on your head. Before you toss it, bite the bullet of the limited display and see if you can get your clav up & running.
This is my wife's keyboard that we bought for live gigs after my old Privia PX-3 became unreliable. It was my idea to buy this one and I did it on blind loyalty since I've owned a number of Roland boards over the years including the FA-08 which has been retired to my studio. Overall it has the sounds she needs, plays great and is solid. She got up to speed with it quickly which was great because I didn't want to have to be messing around with it.
The issue arrises because I'm going to walk over to this keyboard and play Superstition while she plays the EWI-5000 and I discovered the Clav sounds on this thing are the worst I've ever heard. Before, when we were a duo, I had my Korg Krome 61 always in front of me which I used to play a few songs and it also was the sound generator for the DP midi backing tracks I'd created. It has fantastic Clav sounds but now that we're moving into full live band territory I didn't plan to take it.
So now what to do for such a singular little one dimensional problem? I believe I'll try the free trial membership but first I need to watch the import/export video that I hope will be helpful in understanding how to transfer sounds between the Zenology plug-in and the RD-88. If I could get that to work for me it's likely the best route. the idea of trying to tweak things on that tiny little screen makes me shutter.
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I find the Clav sounds on this thing to be incredibly lame, the worst I've ever heard really. Odd for something that is a stage piano. Folks are saying there are some deep editing capabilities but wow, I've got to try and do that from the little screen?
Anyone else dug into sound editing and found a better way to get into it?
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25 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:
If I understand correctly the Zenology software is where you load and tweak all your sounds that run on that engine. You then send those patches over to your hardware - RD88 or Jupiter-X what have you.
So that's what I was just exploring with the hope that I could perhaps use Zenology as an editor for RD-88 sounds. I can buy Zenology Pro from the Roland Sound Cloud app for $229. Turns out that Zenology is apparently some sort of plug-in synth emulation. It appears sound editing tools are there and there are patches that can be tweaked but since it has to run within Ableton, Logic, DP, etc. how would I send my tweaked sounds out to the RD-88? The more I uncover the more confusing it gets.
Tones (ZENOLOGY Pro / ZENOLOGY)4,106 Tones
109 Drum kitsTones (ZENOLOGY Lite)240 Tones
10 Drum kits
*ZENOLOGY Lite cannot save or write user data
*ZENOLOGY Lite cannot Import or Export User Tone/Drum Kit dataHost ApplicationVST instruments (VSTi) version: VST 3.7 compatible
Audio Units (AU) version: V2 Audio Units compatible
AAX CompatibleThe Zenology Specs tab allude to being able to read/write, import/export with the pro version.
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19 hours ago, David Emm said:
Wow, those are two extreme polar opposites. Greg, I'm sorry your experience smells of dead fish.
A lot of the frustration for me is that I didn't really want to dig into all this software. My situation has changed and I'm back to being a live band leader, I just want to have the gear making the right sounds so I can concentrate on other things. I'll be playing guitar and will only take a couple of turns at the keyboard.
This leads to a slightly different but related rant, what happened to editor/librarian programs? Way back when I bought a new XP-30 it came with a disc that included samples, promo material and a fantastic OEM version of Sound Diver. You could deep dive into tweaking patches and saving presets from the full size screen of a computer and then save it all with a midi connection to the keyboard. I was really surprised when the FA-08 didn't include any software.
So now the RD-88 only came with a manual, it's like de-evolution. They won't take any time to create, or commission, an editor program but spend all day telling you how great their sound cloud is. It's a confusing space where the lines between hardware, software, plug-ins and wifi blur.
Others are writing that the RD-88 is pretty deep in regards to being able to edit sounds (the Zenology engine whatever that means). This is probably where I'll go but it will be a pain having to do it all on the little display, ugh.
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Roland sound cloud has quickly become my worst nightmare. I tried to email support to get some information but this guy is worse than a bot that is only programed to sell sound cloud.
I downloaded/installed roland cloud manager. Under the heading Hardware Instruments it pops up with a huge list of wave expansions/sound packs I can buy for the RD-88. Email tech bot person writes, "You could use the 30 day trial of Zenology Pro and audition the Clav sounds that come with that. You'd just purchase a membership and cancel it if you didn't like any of the sounds."
Ok, well, Zenology Pro doesn't show up on the huge list of wave expansion/sound packs for the RD-88. It does appear under the heading Software Instruments but I don't see an option for "30 day trial", however, there is a Zenology Lite that is a free download. So I download that and poof!, where did that go? It's possible that it's just an AU/VST that only shows up as a plug-in in Ableton, Logic, DP, etc.? How does this have anything to do with a hardware instrument?
It's a shame I didn't dig into this sooner or I'd have packed up and returned the RD-88 pronto. I used to be a huge Roland fan but after all these years I've quickly become disillusioned with them. I wonder if they've forgotten that someone might actually use one of these instruments in a place where you can't connect to the internet?
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Ugh, I'm probably going to have to download the software and see if I can find a better clav sound for the RD-88. I only have a peripheral knowledge of what I need to do and I'm not looking forward to it. What annoys me is that I'll have to download and install software I don't really want or need in order to waste time looking for something that should have already been there without even knowing if I'll be able to find it.
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I dug out my Beatles Complete Scores (the big white book) and did a dive into Get Back today. Some great licks that aren't complicated but yet have taken a little while to get under my fingers.
Editing Video, What Programs Are You Using?
in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage
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So far just getting my files categorized is a huge task, roughly 200 gig of files recorded with several different cameras and iphones over the years. Part of it is getting video into a format that works equally well on PC or Mac. Right now it appears that MP4 is a good choice.
A funny story, I was converting one at a time on a website called Freemake, very tedious. Later I went to the website from the PC and it had a downloadable "free" program. Well it worked a couple of times and then became unusable by just popping up ads. They advertised the program for $59. I didn't really want to do that, I went to un-install it but then it popped up an ad to buy it for $10. Well ok, I went ahead and did that hahaha.