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SpaceNorman

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Everything posted by SpaceNorman

  1. I bought my personal tour bus and retirement home! http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj251/spacenorman/Our%20Motor%20Home/P1018052_zpszqgl9o0f.jpg
  2. There are a couple of rooms where I set mine on the floor as well. They're typically rooms where the stage has so little depth that I've forced to set up such that my back is tight against a wall. In those instances I set my rack (a 6u Road Ready "anvil style" case) on edge up against the right side support of my "Z" stand. My only issue with this set up is that I can't make any adjustments without standing up and moving my bench so that I can bend over to first get to the knobs and using a flashlight so that I can actually see the knobs. Fortunately, aside from minor tweaks to volume/mix on my line mixer, I don't typically need to change much in the course of the evening ... so I can usually get by. However, I prefer using the stand - so that I have the option to make adjustments mid-song if desired.
  3. +1 to CEB's suggestion of the WS540 "T" Stand. I use one for my keyboard rack and love it. One of the things I've discovered is that with a little creative placement - I can set up the WS540 such that it straddles one of my two Yamaha DSR112 floor wedges - allowing me to place the rack over the floor wedge for more efficient use of floor space when the stage is tight.
  4. I use my a wireless keytar (AX synth) for this. It's certainly not high quality practice time ... but it can have it's place.
  5. I'm listening to some board recordings from my last night's gig - and am pleasantly surprised at both how good the recordings turned out (they're "dirty" recordings created by routing a rough "AUX mix" of all instruments to one channel, a rough "AUX mix" of just the vocals, and two channels captured from ambient mics placed one on each side of the stage into a little 4 Zoom recorder) - AND - how decent our raw performance was (disregarding the mix completely). In the big scheme of things, what I'm hearing on the recordings pretty much aligns with how I felt about the gig when I was actually playing it.
  6. I spent the day listening to my "Tommy Castro" channel on Pandora. It was a good day!
  7. I'll be 100% honest - and state that I'm not absolutely positive that the rear monitor jack is truly a "stereo" send. I know that the manual says it's a stereo send - BUT, if I recall correctly, when I first wired mine up - I tried to confirm that it's truly stereo by using the balance knob to pan the signal between left and right channels - and found that the monitor output did not respond to movement. I also tried calling up a patch that has lots of "stereo movement" in it - and recall feeling that the "stereo movement" of the patch did NOT translate as well through the rear monitor send (which was wired with a 'Y' cable to two seperate powered speaker inputs). I have no doubt that it uses a TRS jack (which can be split using a 'Y' cable to send it to seperate amp channels/powered speaker inputs). I suspect that it is essentially hardwired internally as a "dual mono" send (with equal amounts of left and right channel being sent to each channel. Not being an expert on what must be in place in order to constitute a "true" stereo setup ... I'll simply say that I'm a little skeptical. I will say however that if it's summed to mono or simply a "dual mono" stereo send - the output of the rear monitor jack is clean and does not have the same crappy sound you get when playing a stereo patch played out a single "L/Mono" output of a keyboard. Regardless of what it is "technically" ... I've been very satisfied with how it sounds in the FOH. I don't know if this helps or if I've just muddied the waters for you.
  8. I play in 3 adult ice-hockey leagues - which translates to 4 games each week (1 of my leagues plays 2 games - back to back - every Tuesday afternoon). I the Winter/Fall, Spring and Summer sessions of all three leagues - which means I skate close to 200 games each year. On the days I'm not playing hockey - chances are good I'm schlepping 400+ lbs of keyboard rig in and out of somewhere. On gig days it's 400+ lbs of keyboard rig plus a few hundred lbs of PA gear. I try to view the gear schlepping as part of my exercise regime - and really put my all into it. When it's time to load and unload - you won't find me "cherry picking" the gear pile for light items and trying to look busy while others grab the heavy gear.
  9. To me, it becomes "vintage" the moment it ceases to be manufactured. It's prime "vintage" the moment the technology it's based on is no longer in production in any major product line. I'll go further and say that for me "vintage" applies to things that actually create sounds (i.e., keyboards and modules). Things that shape sound (i.e., pedals, amps, speakers), I consider them to be "vintage" - but that they're prone to simply be considered old, especially if there are a dozen current production devices that are equqally acceptable.
  10. It's "pro-sumer" electronic gear that's at least 20 years old - long out of production and manufacturer's support. If you plug it in and it works - great. But it's certainly not anything I'd look at purchasing to be the cornerstone of my gig-rig amplication.
  11. Here my gig rig: My keyboards - a Kronos 88, CP300 and AX Synth http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj251/spacenorman/Keyboard%20Rack/026.jpg My rack - Motif ES Rack module, Motu MidiExpressXT Midi interface, Samson SM10 Line Mixer, PSM200 IEM Transmitter, M-Audio Wireless MIDI Receiver (hidden in the dark to the right of the PSM200) My MIDI setup allows me to control any sound engine (Kronos, CP300 and/or Motif ES Rack unit) from any keyboard (including the AX Synth). http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj251/spacenorman/Keyboard%20Rack/006.jpg Rack with custom keyboard snake: http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj251/spacenorman/Keyboard%20Rack/007.jpg Keyboard Snake Connections: http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj251/spacenorman/Keyboard%20Rack/014.jpg Stage Monitors - Yamaha DXR112s http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj251/spacenorman/Keyboard%20Rack/015.jpg
  12. Worst load in for me was a wedding reception we played a couple of years back at a place called "A Matter Of Taste". It was a gorgeous room ... not too big, not tiny ... cozy sort of room with a glass wall overlooking a lake. The bad part was it was on the second floor with the load-in being through a service entrance off the kitchen and up a set of greasy metal steps that had two 180 degree "switchbacks between the floors. One of the landings on the switchback had some metal lockers on it. Band member "day gig" workschedules, the wedding party's plans and the venue's demands seemingly conspired against me - and it ended up that the best solution was for me to bring my teenage son and schlepp the PA and my keyboard rig in with him. Oh well...you do what you gotta do right? He and I were halfway loaded in - when as we carried a bass cabinet up the steps, I slipped on the greasy steps and fell. In the process - I sliced my left wrist but good on the edge of the metal lockers. The slice was roughly 2 inches long and literally wrapped itself around the bottom of my wrist. It was was deep - completely through the skin - exposing the muscle below but not so deep that cut the muscle itself - meaning that it barely bled at all. I wrapped the wrist in a clean towel, finished the load in - and then left my son to babysit the gear until the rest of the band showed up - while I drove myself to a nearby hospital. Fortunately, the E.R. was pretty much dead. When I sat down with the registrar and pulled back the towel to show her the slice - she took one look and immediately took me back to a treatment room. I let it be known that how it happened and that if I didn't get patched up quickly there would be no reception entertainment - the nurses and female E.R. physician really shifted into high gear. They did some hellacious multi-tasking. At one point, I was laying on my tummy with my arm outstretched at my side as the doc was stitching it up while signing paperwork with my other hand as nurse held the clipboard. When it was all said and done - I was in and out in 27 minutes - while recieving a tetanus shot, 15 stitches and a "to go" order of vicadin in the process. I made it back to the venue in time to finish setup, do sound check and get changed in my tux and start the gig on time!
  13. Although I don't have a ton of experience in the musical audition game - I've done a ton of interviews in my time. Not getting a call-back doesn't surprise me in the least. Even though the thought that it's rude that they didn't take the time to say thanks but no-thanks might cross my mind (especially if I thought that the interview/audition went real well) - I would NEVER hold a grudge about it. I can't count the number of times I've interviewed for a position that I didn't get - only to have somebody who was part of the interview process call me back days/weeks/months later - with interest created by that initial interview. You never know if/how/when a seed planted in an interview or audition is going to bear fruit for you.
  14. A blonde and a brunette are riding alone on the elavator that stops and a handsome young man gets in. As the elevator continues up - both women can't help but notice the poor guy has a real dandruff problem. The elevator stops and the man exists. As the women continue on their way alone - the brunette says, "You'd think somebody would have given him some Head & Shoulders! The blonde thinks for a second and asks, "How do you give shoulders?" The SpaceNorman
  15. Oh boy - my turn to do the Keyboard Corner 12 Step! Here goes.... My name is Patrick and I'm from the Metro Detroit area - Madison Heights to be exact. I just celebrated my half century mark with such a damn good party that plans are in the works to make the one at my century mark even bigger and better! I picked up the nickname of SpaceNorman while working for my Uncle Sam in Ansbach, Germany back back in the 70's and haven't completely shaken it yet. I've been trying to pass myself off as a keyboard player for nearly 30 years - and have worked with a long string of cover bands. I've got no formal training - although it's hard to kick around as long as I have without learning a little something. For me, playing is alot like bowling. It's a great excuse to get out and make a little noise with the boys! I don't write, I don't record and don't really have any strong feelings one way or the other any particular artists or genres. My enjoyment comes from playing with friends - and find that my greatest satisfaction comes from the execution of our rendition of whatever tune we're playing. I'm an IT (Network) guy by day - and avoid doing anything that feels at all like programming on MY time (thank gawd for presets!). If I'm not playing music - you can find me off playing ice hockey (There's something about putting on the pads and hitting folks that's downright cathartic!) My keyboard rig consists of the following: Yamaha P200 Digital Piano Yamaha Motif ES Rack Mount Unit Roland RD700SX Yamaha MG12/4FX Mixer QSC 1450 Amp DOD Graphic EQ Pair of JBL JRX 12" Floor Wedges My idled keyboard collection (they've long since been retired from my rig - but in the basement none-the-less) Fender Rhodes 73 Key Stage Piano Hohner D6 Clavinet Yamaha DX7IIFD Yamaha DX100 I recently stumbled into this forum - and have been a daily reader ever since. There's alot of good stuff in here that an old musical hack like myself is finding helpful! Thanks for the 15 seconds! The SpaceNorman www.rhythm21band.com
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