JB Sherry

My son’s taken an interest in making some tracks. He’s downloaded some DAW software to experiment with but needs a controller. He seems to be gravitating toward non-standard keyboard controllers, but mpe rather than a button-laden thing to control loops/scenes. He played clarinet in high school and has learned some guitar, but has no keyboard technique. He has been reading about the low-end Keith McMillen stuff like the K-board C. I’ve read a few negative things about build quality but am also worried that at that price the playing experience and controllability will be lacking. The Osmose is off the table until he shows a sustained interest. The ContinuuMini is a little too rich, as well. Has anyone had experience with the K-board Pro? Anything else out there we should be considering? I’m thinking $600 is the high end. Thanks!

If you are set up to access your bank account online, check to see if they’ve already integrated Zelle. A lot of banks have done this.

You can send other MIDI messages as well, but for anything besides “Song Select” (it’s in the MIDI 1.0 spec) you’ll have to enter the HEX. As ImproKeys said, you’ll have to look at the docs for your device. The Yamaha forums may be helpful for this, as well. For completeness, I’ll add that in Forescore you can insert button(s) that can send MIDI messages anywhere in a score.

I believe the standard way to do this in Mainstage is to put a couple of buttons on your concert layout in edit mode, map them to the next/previous patch commands, enable MIDI learn on the buttons and press whatever you want on your controller. You should’t have to do any programming on your controller as long as MIDI transmit is enabled for knobs/sliders. It may require more thought if you’re controlling external hardware along with Mainstage. I believe some of the templates in the Mainstage wizard include patch change buttons, so you can copy those. @TommyRude I highly recommend you try Logic Remote to see if it works for you. It’s easy to set up.

I just wanted to 2nd the 5-pin MIDI suggestion for a reason not mentioned - line noise. USB MIDI connections are susceptible to line noise and rf interference, whereas 5-pin MIDI is opto-isolated and won’t introduce noise. I believe you can do longer cable runs with 5-pin, as well. Logic Remote on an iPad will control Mainstage if you need your computer at some distance.

You’ll never lose that remote!😜

Oh, yeh. The product shot on the Roland site clearly shows 3 plugs. That should pair well with PianoTeq.

True, but if the pedal input on the CME wasn’t designed for a continuous damper pedal, you should skip it (or remap it for use as the una corda or sostenuto pedal). The Audiofront looks like it definitely will do the job for both continuous and simple open/closed switches. There’s another piece to this - if the OP wants to use a pedal unit, for the ergonomics, it becomes messy, because none of the 3-pedal units on the market have separate plugs for each pedal - they terminate to a single proprietary connector, or 2 1/4” plugs for the 3 pedals. I notice the Casio S1000 and S3000 have a 1/4” trs jack for a continuous damper pedal, but also a single multi-pin jack for connecting the Casio 3 pedal unit. This Casio pedal set looks like a good candidate for a simple splitter that separates the contacts to 3 separate jacks/plugs. But that would require some custom work. It would be great if Modartt releases something that will support one or more of the standard brand 3-pedal sets on the market. -jb

I believe Organteq only models pipe organs and not tonewheel or combo organs. So it’s probably not as useful for pop music. Unless you’re doing prog. Love the pipe organ on Yes’s Going For The One album.

Back in the dark ages ( I mean the 70’s ) I used a Wah on my Fender Rhodes Stage piano. The output of that keyboard is similar to a guitar with passive pickups. My clav E7 is the same as a guitar with active pickups. With both, the signal level is much lower and impedence different (higher?) than a line level instrument. The Fulltone referenced above should help if part of your problem was overloading the pedal. Looks like it’s discontinued so you’d have to buy used. I have a Crybaby 535q, which has adjustable level, a boost on/off, and both adjustable center frequency and adjustable Q(resonance). There’s no input trim so you’d have to deal with that pre-pedal, but this might allow you to dial in just the sound you’re looking for. It’s still in production. I’ve only used on guitar, but I’ll give it a try on my mini-boog. Somone mentioned just using a controller pedal mapped to cutoff - that’s a cool sound. In that same dark age, my only synth was an Arp oddysey. I used the voltage control pedal for leads, usually with oscillator sync on, and the pedal mapped to both filter cutoff and osc. 2 pitch. This going into a guitar amp was a great sound. The Wah pedal is going to give you some different mojo, especially if you run it into something that gives you coloration ( amp or smp sim).

I had success using the plastic straw method of re-stringing on my Clavinet E7. Unwind the string from the post then thread a straw over the string and between the strands of yarn till it’s poking out the other end of the loom. Pull the string out the of the straw and sttach and pull the new string through. Remove the straw from the yarn before threading the new string through the post. Repeat for each string. I’m throwing that out for anyone else who needs to restring. I agree with Doerfler that going the VV replacement is easiest for the OP at this point. It looks a lot more straight forward, though pricier.

I know you weren’t being serious, but it’s fun to see how Tchaikovsky did it (see attached): Just noticed the Cannon entrance is marked quadrupal-forte. Good thinking there, otherwise the munitions specialist might bring a pianissimo cannon…

Humans came out the year before Stranger Things, and also has the SynthWave (and minor-key) thing goin’ on: It didn’t blow up like Stranger Things, but helps illustrates that ST didn’t invent the synth thing. It actually seems more associated with Sci-Fi than horror (synth-heavy scores, that is). I highly recommend Humans. -jb

As someone mentioned, this price-drop is available from everyone. I went with the SWEET deal, because they’re offering an additional discount (check the website). Note that it’s not in stock there ATM, but I can wait. I’m getting it for Bass, not keys.

OhMyGod and the MakeItStops 10 Gallons in a 5-Gallon Hat Two-Eyed-Jack and the Normals 2 Legs Left Sure-footed Gary and the StumbleBums Mary and the Monsters from Marketing Canine Carrie and the Devil Cats Stuck In A Crouch

If I’d been looking at catalogs last weekend I miter saw that, too.

If you have a Mac in the house, you can use this free utility to back up your scores: https://forscore.co/backup-utility/ you can then connect the other iPad and restore the library to that device. Dropbox would work too. If someone gives me paper I scan to my computer with my document scanner, and throw it into Dropbox (free account). I can then browse Dropbox from Forescore and pull the scores into Forescore. For a big library, the utility will be much less manual work.

Someone mentioned in another thread that the full Kontakt is on sale and I went to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my purchase of the modestly priced Embertone - Walker 1955 Concert D Lite (which runs on Kontakt Player) qualified me for the CrossGrade pricing. If you've purchased any products that work with Player it's worth taking a look. All I had to do was log in and it recognized the qualifying product. -jb

From my son: GoldieBear and the 3 Lox

Panorama Drama Pan O’Ramen And the Tofu Steppers Panama Red And the Golden Locks Prior Future Event

A motorized potentiometer is more expensive than an encoder. Encoders Have a digital output. They can’t modify an analog electrical signal directly. So, in a synth with an all-analog signal path, an encoder would require additional circuitry to convert the digital output to the analog equivalent. I believe Dave Smith Instruments did an analog synth with encoders, and due customer demand updated the design to (non-motorized) pots. They even offered a retrofit kit. Personally, I’m fine with encoders, but then I always preferred sliders to knobs on my synths.

I was just typing something similar! Check out around 1:23 where Preston finishes a solo using that wow/growl sound, then comps 2-handed on the Clav, then starts playing a square-wave lead without touching any settings on the synth. You can also clearly hear acoustic piano in that rhythm break. It definitely sounds pro-soloist to me. It is interesting that the filter warble sounds much faster than the vibrato (on Space-Race), but the instrument is supposed to have 1 LFO. I think it’s possible that the presets had some extra circuitry. For example, the fuzz guitar patch is said by pro-soloist obsessives to use a 6 bandpass filter., which you dom’t find on any Arps. I lived with an Odyssey throughout high school, and its high-pass filter was limited by having no mod or controller routings. If an envelope could have been routed to it it would have been possible to create useful band-pass effects. Anyway, I’m thinking that maybe they used an octave divider to get the filter modulation double the speed of the pitch vibrato using a single LFO. i’m thinking this is also pro-soloist: Deodato - Skyscrapers This sounds like Deodato is working the filter cut-off (brilliance) after-touch and Transpose controls, and turning the growl on and off. The growl is used as an effect on low notes throughout. I really like how he milks the different qualities the patch has in different registers. According to the pro-soloist service manual there are 14 fixed filters in addition to a VCF (reminds me of Polymoog). According to the same manual there is a separate circuit that generates a flip-flop signal at 32hz which is routed to the filter for the Growl. If you want to emulate the growl and a separate slower vibrato, you’ll need to LFOs.

Exactly. I’m mostly practicing piano these days but at these price-points their stuff is hard to resist. This is more copy stuff, but looks intriguing:

Dionne Warwick had an interesting observation in the article:

That’s Beethoven Symphony No. 7, 2nd Movement (Allegretto). I don’t remember them bringing the Rhodes into Peanuts! when did that happen?