Bobadohshe

Last month I spent more on gear than I ever have (and I didn't intend to). -Yamaha Montage 7 -Yamaha Montage 7 SKB case -Replacement EV ZLX 12P -Replacement Yamaha CP4 (don't ask) -Gator case for the CP4 -Gig bag for the Moog Sub 37 It will be a WHILE before I buy anything else. Except maybe an iPad Pro.

I know you said 'YMMV' but I think this warrants further comment. Chord symbol functionality is vitally important. From church musicians to guys in top 40 bands to big band arrangers and educators, they are boxing themselves in without prioritizing this. Hell even if they wanted to write figured bass they'd need em. Furthermore, I think that chord symbol functionality is one area where they could really leapfrog Finale. Finale's chord symbol implementation has come a long way but is still sorely lacking in some basic areas (try smoothly changing fonts or easily respacing your chord symbols. Both possible and I've done it many times, but both a hassle).

That must have been an interesting juxtaposition.

Dude it's a serious journey to get into these wonderful styles of music and learn them and be able to play them. Outkaster's right, it's about culture and history both in the narrow scope of the music and the broader scope of food/dance/political and ethnic and sociological history. It's about record labels and certain studios and styles and certain titans of each style and what they did to further the art. Who ended up where and what happened when they moved to this part of the country. And it's a wonderful and fun course of study in any music. Reducing it to a casual couple licks does it a great disservice.

Have never heard this! Wow. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out though writing it out would be a pain. You need to understand close jazz voicings and harmony to be sure. If you didn't have a background in that it would make the process much more difficult.

I wrote out something that's pretty damn close that I play on gigs. PM me.

Sounds good!

I got one 4 months ago and it's been an awesome upgrade from the old Apex I had been using. The wobble factor is not gone entirely but is is greatly mitigated (probably 25% that of the APEX). It shouldn't bother you. I've played Great Balls of Fire on this stand and not had any issues. It is heavier than the APEX, but if you get the $30 K&M bag you'll find transport is a total breeze. (Once you realize the bag will only zip up if you put the stand in the right way). My few issues: -Unlike others here, I'm actually having a bit of an issue figuring out how to configure my pedals. I have 2 sustains on the right and one volume pedal on the left. I can't seem to get everything optimized and feeling right under this thing. I didn't have problems with the Apex. -The writing on the side is annoying. I used black gaff tape to cover it up. But now I have black gaff tape on the side of my stand. I wish I could figure out how to remove the lettering. -I wish I could adjust the tilt angle for the top tier. It's hard to play super technical stuff on the top angled tier.

Excellent

Awesome pics everybody! I am inspired to try my hand at some of this.

Anything that helps me learn the keyboard 10x faster I'm all for. THANK YOU for this tip.

YES

"Shine", the academy award nominee from 1996 about David Helfgott, was one of the movies that inspired my love of piano. I highly recommend it.

Okay here's another one. A Bach invention over Coltrane changes. [video:youtube]E0W-ga8GbfI

Thank you?

Here's a tribute to one of my greatest influences on piano, Richard Tee. I recorded a piano/drums duo arrangement of 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' a la Steve Gadd, Richard Tee and 'Stuff'. I used a ton of Richard Teeisms which was a lot of fun for me. [video:youtube]GGWgSCU1PB0

I'm blown away by the many 'yes' answers in this thread. At least put the damn thing on a stand.

Not a good idea. You just don't 'hold' a keyboard like you do a guitar or bass.

Dude, I blame YOU. You're the one that started me on the quest to have the most streamlined sexy setup with this thread (alas the pic links now seem broken). LOL! P.S. Said rack is the aforementioned rack I am now trying to eliminate. It's the circle of (gear) life.

Dude, I blame YOU. You're the one that started me on the quest to have the most streamlined sexy setup with this thread (alas the pic links now seem broken).

Well I finally got to play a CP4 myself today. I had already recommended it to 2 students solely based on the comments in this thread. I went over to one of my student's houses to try his new instrument. I took my EV ZLX12P to hear how it would sound through the rig I'd be playing it through. I also brought my headphones. Based on everything I've ready in this thread (18 pages for me) I had high expectations. I am really happy to say that this instrument exceeded them in every way. Action: Very solid and extremely playable. Based on what some people were saying in this thread I was worried that it might be too 'heavy' of an action. I don't know what they meant, but the action was extremely pianistic and I was very pleased with it. I'll have no problem playing quickly and easily on this beast live. Piano Sound: I am so thrilled with the brightness of the new sample. This will likely be my go to for live stuff. Bright enough to cut, but substantive enough to stand on its own. Sounded awesome and FFF and PPP. Other Sounds: Rhodes were very inspiring for me. I am not a Rhodes aficionado, but I think I have everything I need. I was really pleased with the dynamic response as well from a whisper to a banging FFF. I was also very happy with 2 other inclusions. I am thrilled with the amount of synth sounds included. They aren't really editable, but they will be very useful I think when I couple this board with my XS6 for Top 40 playing. The second thing that blew me away was the HARPSICHORD. I stumbled upon and was floored with how great it sounded and the awesome release samples. I couldn't help but play all the Bach I had memorized. I wish I had brought some more to play because it was a real joy. I was impressed with the evenness of the sound and response throughout all registers. Jazz lines sounded great through the whole range of the instrument. Lastly, I was really impressed by the simplicity of the layout. It was so easy to do everything I wanted to do. Setting up a split was a cinch, and even routing reverb to different parts of the split was so natural. They really make the most of that little display. In short, I will be buying one ASAP. I think Yamaha has a huge winner here, and I would expect this to become a benchmark for years to come. Great job Yamaha.

If everyone changes their pics and names, to the newbie poster this will seem like a macabre goth forum.

Whoa.

Yes. Great idea.

Awesome Darren. Sounds great.