Greg Mein
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Posts posted by Greg Mein
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3 hours ago, harmonizer said:
But on my FA-06/07/08, the terminology changes:
The FA-08 was a bit of a paradigm shift for me. I was still in the band when I got it so had to get busy figuring it out quickly. It didn't turn out to be overly difficult to learn the basics and I soon had all the studio sets that I needed to get through the night with the wide variety of music we were doing. Whereas before I would switch between patches or performances as needed to maximize efficiency of user locations, it didn't matter whether a studio set was a 16 part multi-sound extravaganza with splits, octave shifts and effects or if it was a simple piano patch, the amount of storage locations made it a non-issue. I also used the pads for some samples and the only feature I would have wished for was multi-sampling but I also missed not having an editor/librarian program for the computer.
The FA-08 is the centerpiece keyboard for my studio now but sadly hasn't seen much action for a while. The studio time lately has been dedicated to updating and tweaking our live gig where, aside from a couple guitars, I take my Korg Krome 61 while my wife is using her new Roland RD-88.
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After four moves inside of the last 10 years I developed an ability to let all kinds of things go, the more you do the easier it gets.
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I would argue all day that a piano is the baseline standard instrument for a musician. With the top propped open our baby grand easily drowns out my acoustic guitar, an amazing sound that fills the room.
Yours looks fabulous and I'm sure it sounds incredible. I hope it provides great joy and musical inspiration for many years!
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On 1/5/2023 at 7:58 AM, Sundown said:
it was great when the JD-800 came along and made tone memories local to a patch (as opposed to shared across patches which previously led to all sorts of surprises when tones were modified).
Don't quite understand this, whenever I've modified a patch it had to be saved to a user location in the user bank. I never knew it to be possible to alter a patch in its original location.
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I've always been a Roland fan, they're arguably at the top of the list in the category of 'working man's keyboard'. I bought an XP-30 new, must have been around 2000 and played it at a lot of gigs up until I sold it six or seven years ago. It was a step up from an older model ( possibly an XP-10) I'd bought at a pawn shop. Back then keys weren't my main function so these really did the trick for me. As much as I liked the XP-30 though the pull of more preset storage eventually got to me, especially after I joined a band where my main focus was keys.
At one point I even bought a used JV-1080, the rack mount version. I can't even remember why I thought I needed it but kept it for a couple of years.
The old bank/patch and performance method always worked well for me and I don't fully understand why they've drifted away from that. Thinking about it brings back good memories.
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On 12/26/2022 at 10:41 PM, The Real MC said:
There was a weight limit, and I had to give up the upright piano I learned to play on. Moving a piano is pretty risky anyway, and I can find another one here.
When we moved from IA to NV in late '21 we knew we'd need a specialty company for the Steinway (legs must be removed and all padded, crated, etc.) but it turned out that same moving company could also move all of our stuff which really helped simplify things. They were a great bunch of guys and did a stellar job moving us. My guitars and some other gear got priority in my truck though of course.
I certainly never had as much gear as you do, at least not at any one time, and I've never had most of those high end keyboards you do, nice collection there!
Over the years (starting with my introduction to MIDI) I wholeheartedly embraced adapting to ITB; it was convenient, cheaper, took up less space and working with computers was a big hobby of mine. Even so, I've cycled through a great deal of outboard gear as well.
Best of luck as you get your studio up and running again, some great looking stuff there!
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On 12/28/2022 at 8:03 AM, GovernorSilver said:
Dell Ultrasharp 27" monitor - A nice upgrade. Easier on the eyes.
I just recently purchased a Dell 27 Gaming Monitor G2722HS to replace an old 27" Samsung that's had intermittent problems for quite a while. I was amazed at the $150 price tag, expected to pay a lot more and looking now I see the price has shot up significantly.
I jumped on it without enough thought, the monitor has only HDMI and Display Port input while the 10 year old Dell XPS I was connecting to was DVI-D single link and HDMI outputs. Wouldn't have been a problem except I'm not happy unless I can dual monitor with my 43" LG. I ordered a DVI to Display Port cable without realizing they are one way, the opposite way. So I had to actually do a little research and discovered that a DVI to HDMI cable is bi-directional. I returned the first cable, got the one I needed for a couple dollars less and am real happy with the speed and sharpness of this new monitor.
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18 hours ago, Anderton said:
Re backing tracks, I sort of split the difference in my turn-of-the-century-musician-meets-DJ solo act.
It's hard to visualize what this performance must have been like, is there any video of you doing this?
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4 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:
That's when I decided to use mp3 files instead of bringing backing track modules to the gig, and to bring two computers with the tracks on them. In case both computers die, I keep all the mp3 files on a flash drive, so I can head on out to a store and get a replacement.
This has been at the back of my mind for a while, I really need to mix all our backing tracks down and have them on a player for a backup. We honestly haven't done many gigs this year and I often hesitate to fire up that system at home and work on adding new stuff, tweaking, etc. in favor of just writing and trying to record my own stuff for my own satisfaction, fun and because my creative impulse compels me.
It would be a pretty big project. Currently I use my Korg Krome to play midi backing tracks with SD3 for beats. To do it properly I'd prefer to use Sample Tank for the sounds and mix all those midi tracks to audio. I keep telling myself I'm going to do it but honestly gigs aren't that important to me anymore and I don't actively pursue them myself. I can't explain what happened to my motivation for live gigs other than I dislike hauling, setup/teardown and dealing with the publicity end at my age.
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My NY resolution couldn't be more cliché, get back to the rec center where we have membership and also spend some serious time with the weight machine on the back porch.
Things changed a lot after I retired, it was hard to develop or maintain a fitness routine. While I was still working it was basically robotic; get up at 5am work out and then prepare for work everyday. It's something I've got to get back to albeit without the early rising.
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Ever had one of those times when something failed or needed replaced just days before a gig?
It happened to us yesterday when the old Casio Privia PX-3 flaked out beyond a simple power cycle reset. I bought this keyboard probably 10 years ago because it got rave reviews and sounded great but mostly because it was way lighter than most 88 key boards and so was easy to transport to jams, parties or similar laid back fun time events.
When my wife and I started doing our duo gigs a few years ago she took to it for the same reasons; it's light, has good sounds and is easy to operate. We knew however that this one would need to be replaced when it began to have intermittent issues that required a power cycle. Yesterday though something weirder started happening with odd pitch bending like every key had some kind of portamento going on. A power cycle didn't "fix" it right away.
No more gigs for that thing and we have NYE!
So we needed a replacement and fast. Now, she could have been using my Roland FA-08 for a while, it hasn't seen a gig since I got out of the last band in 2018 but it's more complicated, bigger and heavier and she was completely intimidated by it. The Privia PX-5S would have been a familiar update but I kind of thought we needed a step up from the Casio with better MIDI implementation and after a little research began to zone in on the Roland RD-88. Guitar Center wouldn't answer the phone but we were able to talk with someone at Sam Ash in Las Vegas who was very helpful. We drove down there today, they had one on the floor to try out, she liked it and we brought one home. She's managing to get up to speed with it quickly and seems to be taking a real liking to it in no small part due to the helpful youtube videos created by Ed Diaz at Roland. Ed did a great series of helpful videos I absorbed back when I bought the FA-08 and I told him how much I appreciated them when I saw him at Sweetwater Gearfest a few years back.
So it seems that she'll be able to find the sounds she needs and get them placed in easy reach to get through the NYE gig without my assistance which is great news because I have some other issues I'm still working on. Not long ago we bought a couple of the Xvive U4 in-ear monitor units which work great but are a big change for us and required me to make some extensive and time consuming alterations to our DP sequences file. Also today I changed the channel on my Line 6 G90 guitar wireless unit because I believe all those things are operating in the same frequency range and could cause problems. In addition to these things we've also worked on a few songs we'll be performing with a local guest singer and now one of our musician friends is flying out to surprise my wife and will also do some performing with us.
So I'm inclined to stay positive and believe this will be a fun and interesting gig, I'm quite certain it will be anything but routine!
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My wife bought me a pair of Sony MDR7506 for Christmas. She found them on my amazon wish list. I'd forgotten I even had them there but I certainly put them on my list after reading a review or recommendation sometime in the last few years.
I haven't unpackaged them yet but I plan to use them when I'm working in the front room with a MBP and the UAD Apollo Solo recording and/or mixing some things.
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I feel the need to give a shout out about this movie. The star of the show, Curran Barker, is the son of a guy I went to high school with and his dad makes a brief cameo in the film as the "chicken pot pie guy". The movie is available to watch free on Tubi.
I last saw Brian at our high school reunion a few years ago. My wife and I set up some gear and did some playing there. Brian came up and jumped on keyboards for a tune at one point, he's quite good.
I told my wife I wanted to watch the film and she was a bit hesitant, afraid it would be boring or cheaply done but that is not the case at all. The production and acting rival any comparable feature film and it's quite entertaining and fun. It doesn't break any new ground in terms of an underlying story and there's not a great deal of action or drama but it's not that kind of a movie.
It's set in the post WWII big band era, 1947/48 and follows a group of high school students who, with the assistance of teachers/administrators, set out to form a swing band and enter a battle of the bands competition in southern CA. This is where the show really excels, the musicianship and presentation of the music is simply outstanding! I'm not a big band guy at all (my mother would have loved this movie) but I really enjoyed this show a lot, my wife might have liked it even better. I'd like to give a hardy recommendation to my fellow musicians and music lovers to seek this show out!
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On 12/10/2022 at 5:19 PM, Dave Bryce said:
Acoustic piano, preferably grand.
dB
We have the 1920 Steinway model O baby grand, it's really not even a question.
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17 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:
I used the website support contact and got a reply in my spam folder that it didn't reach them.
So I would recommend calling them on the phone tomorrow, that's what I plan to do.
Guessing they are going through some IT process or a virus or something. It happens, I've been in a couple of companies that got compromised that way.
I sent a reply to my man, Keaton, from the original email. Received a response today from Mark (Keaton is out today he writes) with a new link however that one didn't work either. I wrote back and got a response right away, "Apologies.. let me check back with merch on this for you."
Update: they fixed the link and I've downloaded now, cool!
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4 hours ago, Anderton said:
Thanks for making me aware of this. In theory, you download from your Sweetwater account using the same activation code you used originally. I've bought a few of my own books to test the system, and it's always worked for me. I just tested it again, and Max Your Mix! version 1.3 downloaded as it was supposed to.
Try this:
Go to your account, find the product, and click on View Invoice. In the Invoice, under Description, you should see the Activation Code . Paste the activation code into your Browser, and download the book.
If this doesn't work for you, let me know and let your Sweetwater Sales Engineer know. @Greg Mein, I do know that if you bought the book early on (it was the first one, and they were still working out some issues), some of the links are dead. They'll set you up with a new one if needed.
I'll include more explicit instructions on how to download updates in future revisions so people don't run into issues. Thanks again!
That leads to the same dead link as the original email, I'll need to message my bud Keaton there it appears.
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Update is not available at the Sweetwater site or in my order history where the only alternative is "Buy It Again". The activation code from the original email is now a dead link also.
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Radio is only listened to in the truck where most trips are around town short anyway. There is a classic rock station from Vegas and another from St George that come in decent most of the time here. Yes, it's the same worn out stuff but traffic reports are helpful if I'm headed to Vegas.
I have a USB stick full of tunes in the truck as well which is very convenient and gets used a lot on longer trips but now the phone is also becoming more of an option as well. On cross country trips it's nice to download some podcasts or playlists but it requires pre-prep and I often drop the ball on that.
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There were a few that caught my attention but generally it seems that things I'm looking for don't go on sale.
Not specifically a BF/CM deal but there was a 15% off deal from Guitar Center I used to buy a couple of Xvive U4 in-ear monitor units. These came to my attention just two or three months ago when I was researching options for our duo gig. I didn't leap on them then because we didn't have anything scheduled at the time. Back then the price was really appealing at $183 but between now and then the price had shot up to $225! Now we're scheduled for a NYE gig so I used the GC deal to get them back down to within about $10 of their original price.
Then yesterday I saw that Amplitube 5 Max was on sale for $100 at the online retail outfits so I went to the source where I'm a reasonably well known customer and they let me use 30 "jam points" out of my pile there to bring it down to $70. I thought that was a good deal and look forward to trying it out.
How about you, did you jump on any good or great deals?
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I'm sure I have less than a couple hundred CD's and about as many LP's. I put my wife's Bose radio out in the garage when we moved here with the idea that I would play CD's while working out there and I did, but after a while I became more aware of streaming and that is just easier. Now if I'm out there I gravitate towards listening to 'modern new wave' on Spotify using my iphone and a bluetooth speaker.
A local guy, who is a drummer, gave me a record player and at some point I'll listen to some old records when the mood is right but as long as I have the storage space I'll keep all that stuff for nostalgia or posterity if nothing else.
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19 hours ago, RABid said:
So, is anyone else addressing the issues of becoming an aging musician? How are you handling things? What is your major focus? Any tips on remaining productive?
I don't much entertain the idea of learning any new instruments although I have a fiddle and banjo I might still tinker with. I'm happy with my skills on guitar, keys, bass and vocals while home recording is only getting better as computers and software continue to become more powerful. It's the inverse of an aging problem and is more fun than ever although I probably spend too much time learning too many programs.
The aging problem definitely comes in for live gigging however. Slogging all the gear for our duo is annoying and the system I put together requires a lot of setup/teardown time. I'm looking at moving to in-ear monitors for us. Although I've had a love/hate relationship with in-ears in the past I believe I can eliminate both our instrument amps and the little monitor we use (which also provides our click) if I switch.
I don't want to hijack the thread but today I discovered the U4 In-Ear Monitor Wireless System. My research is leading me to believe this could be a great solution for us and the price can't be beat. Anyone have experience with this brand or system?
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On 8/30/2022 at 3:26 PM, Tusker said:
Chris Vandeviver's Why Logic Pro Rules is a very helpful YouTube channel with a high signal to noise ratio. I am not affiliated with him in anyway. He just seems to anticipate my questions and he puts up videos to address them. Nice. 👍
That's a great tip, I just subscribed, thanks!
I've been a member of the Logic Users Group for many years although my visits there have been rare over the last few years. Just a little while ago I went to pull out a book on Ableton Live I knew I had stashed away and happened upon a book I'd forgotten I had, The Power in Logic Pro written by Dot Bustelo. She writes that she was part of the "worldwide logic team" working for Apple and Emagic before. It's a bit dated perhaps but I hope to find some useful info in there.
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I've recently started using Logic again after a several year absence. I had used Logic Pro 9 enough to get a couple songs completed and then I "upgraded" the OS to 10.13 and it killed the program! I'm still not entirely over that but I had Logic X preinstalled on the MBP I bought in 2021 and have finally started working in it a little. It's comprehensive and reasonably easy to work with so far but I'm a relatively experienced DAW user having created many songs over the years most notably with 12tone/Cakewalk/Sonar, Reason and Digital Performer (which continues to be my preference due to my experience with it).
The one I still haven't accomplished anything with yet is Ableton Live where I've gone from ver 8 up to 11.
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My “New” Baldwin Baby Grand
in Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage
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Ah, the reason I bought the old Casio Privia PX-3 although in that event I can go even smaller and lighter with the 61 key Krome!
I certainly didn't intend to insult other instruments or players, after all, I also have a respectable little collection of guitars, a bass, a five string banjo, several harmonicas and a fiddle that will send cats running for their lives while, aside from keys, my wife also has/plays a couple of mandolins, a flute and the EWI5000 electronic wind instrument.
The indisputable point about the piano however is that with 88 keys, no other instrument has its range. When I played keyboards for the rock hits show with the symphony orchestra the conductor had me play an A note for the orchestra players to tune with.
At my age though, I'm not in competition with other players/instruments or whatever. I'm not interested in being the fastest player tossing out the most notes with technical perfection. I just enjoy having fun playing.