Ashville.Guru

There is an answer if you have an iPad... real-time "drawbar" control, albeit as onscreen sliders... http://mididesigner.com/qa/3093/roland-fa06-supernatural-synth-editor?show=4239#a4239 Alternatively: Use the phone/tablet as a CC->SysEx converter. Which means you can use a controller with physical sliders (Behringer X-Touch? Nektar P1?). - Guru

There's some DAW-specific stuff which I wouldn't know much about. Adding markers to tracks, that sort of thing. For live players, the one significant thing that comes to mind is that the LEDS light up in response to external MIDI. Which fixes an annoying bug in the original, really. Don't know if there's anything else that's useful. - Guru

Yes - at least in the older NK, where there were 4 scenes, and a scene button. You could have the same control mapped to a different CC for every scene. However, Korg has removed the Scene button in the NK2, and I don't think there's an equivalent anymore. You could process the NK2 through Lemur on a smartphone/tablet to recreate the 'scene' effect. Or ditch the NK altogether and use touch sliders. - Guru

Was the MIDI output as advertised? I.e. would it trigger subsequent Note Ons without Note Offs inbetween? - Guru

Scott, did you test the MIDI output or just the audio? - Guru

You don't need to rely on guesswork, and it's easy to provide the evidence that Andrea is asking for. Mojo MIDI out->Any other *hardware* keyboard. Record one channel each from the Mojo and the other keyboard. Strike a key, record. Fire up a DAW, or Audacity (free) if you don't have one. The difference in attack onset between the Mojo and the other keyboard can be precisely measured by zooming in on the start of the sound. Repeat with AP and non-AP sounds, and you have your objective evidence that can be replicated. - Guru

Looks like Spectrasonics wants live users to use Keyscape within Omnisphere if they want to switch between different models instantly. See here for how this would work. Not quite. Omnisphere without any sounds loaded doesn't consume significant resources. So given enough RAM, this should be a very viable option for instant switching of Keyscape sounds. That being said, multiple instances of Omnisphere work well on older i7 machines. I wouldn't be surprised if Keyscape works the same way. Another way to preload, and switch instantly. - Guru

No audio demos yet, but there's this video: [video:youtube] Keyscape Boxed: $399 / 349 Keyscape Download: $399 - Guru

There's an unmistakable trend in today's mid-range boards - great sounds, poor action, poor MIDI implementation. The Numa 2 bucks the trend, and is a refreshing step in the opposite direction - good action, good build quality, good ergonomics and control, and good MIDI implementation. Perhaps the best way to look at it is as a great controller with arguably good built-in sound. Which is a rare thing on the market, these days. - Guru

Certainly not a bug, and the Numa implementation actually makes a lot of sense. To understand it, you need to look beyond the Numa, and at how MIDI works. Face it, every MIDI signal sent from a controller can potentially have unintended consequences. The solution is not to silence the MIDI signal at the source - that would mean preventing every knob, button, fader, aftertouch, expression pedal, pitchbend, ribbon from sending MIDI. Effectively denying control options to musicians - with no scope for workarounds. The sensible way of preventing unintended consequences is through MIDI filters. High-end sound engines like the Kronos have built-in filters, if I'm not mistaken. Or you could always use a tiny MIDI solutions box to filter out CC7, which is what the volume knob would be transmitting. And if you're controlling software, there are just so many ways of filtering out unwanted CC. As @AnotherScott points out elsewhere, the Numa 2 is perhaps the best controller out there right now - for a VB3 rig. And that's precisely because all the hardware controls transmit MIDI! - Guru

@cphollis - The question was a tricky one, and it's not easy to express the answer. But you've put it into context, in a way that is easy for me to relate to. Yes, that's exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. Thank you! - Guru

Chuck, thanks for the very informative, balanced, well written review. It answered most questions that I had. I'm hoping you can answer a couple more. AP sounds are what I'm primarily interested in. You say that the SS imparts a certain color to the sound, in contrast to your high-end powered speakers. Yes, there are always tradeoffs, but let's simplify it to one hypothetical question: If you were forced to choose between A single (mono) powered speaker which is transparent, yet mono The SpaceStation, which is colored, yet stereoWhich one would you go with? (1) is faithful to the tone, while (2) is faithful to the spatial image of playing at a grand piano. In other words, is the stereo spatial image rewarding enough to compromise with the slight coloration the amp imparts? I would value your insight in this matter. - Guru

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen. Very interesting indeed. - Guru

A couple of questions about this very interesting product: Would the 300 degree dispersion cause feedback issues for those of us also using a mic for vocals? As I understand, stereo implies two different things: the spatial image of a large instrument like a grand piano, and phase effects (panning, ping pong, etc.). From what I've seen in the demo videos, the Spacestation does a good job of recreating the first. I'm curious as to listeners anywhere in the room would still hear a stereo effect the way it was intended.I'm sorry if this was already answered earlier in the thread...! - Guru

The Roland Integra is an external module that will add very authentic and expressive accoustic sounds to any digital piano. This is the simplest and most practical solution in your context. This works through MIDI, i.e. you play the sounds from your DP. It will not improve pre-recorded tracks, and I don't think there's anything that can do that practically. - Guru

I guess I went expecting a James Bond movie. And got to saw a movie about James Bond movies. Perhaps celebrating all that makes a great James Bond movie, but still. I had the same issue with Superman Returns. Went to see a Superman movie. Had to put up with a movie about Richard Donner's movies. Which I'm a fan of, but still. Could be 'cause I'm not as familiar with the classic Bond movies as most of you folks are - Goldeneye was the first movie I could watch in a theater without an accompanying adult . But I get where you guys are coming from - I was tingling all over watching The Dark Knight Rises, with every reference to a classic Bat storyline/graphic novel. The big difference with Skyfall - even people with no prior exposure to Batman got their money's worth at the theater. That's how it should be done, IMO. - Guru

Resurrecting the thread to say this: Skyfall made the bottom of my list. - Guru

You have no idea how universal this is. I remember the first Bach piece I heard years ago moved me to tears - before I even knew who the composer was. And I come from a very different musical background - western music forms a very small fraction of my listening. I still can't tell one piece from another, why the key scale is mentioned, or what the heck a fugue is. And I've seen similar reactions from friends who are accomplished musicians in the Indian classical tradition - even the die-hard purists who don't listen to any western music. Thanks for this thread, and the posts in it.

One or two Sufi tunes often figure in my gigs. Do keep us posted. Great thread, BTW...!

Hello everyone, Longtime lurker here. Seriously long time. Over the past couple of years, this forum has hogged so much of my online time, that I'm afraid I'm going to start dreaming of polyphonic turntables, singing pigs and chainsaws running through Roland KC amps... . ...I tell myself I hang around here cause I have a lot to gain from the wealth of experience and sheer talent of most of the regulars, but it's more to do with the folks here being a bunch of (more or less) decent people . And yes, I have gained quite a bit from the discussions this forum. I play keys and sing in a live context, though I'm very much a beginner w.r.t. Western music. So my musical world is rather different from most of you guys - I come from a musical tradition where the concept of harmony is virtually nonexistent; I've *seen* a grand piano only a handful of times in my life; I've never even seen a B-3, or a Clavinet, or a real analog synth or... you get the idea. Still, what's really nice is that I can relate to a lot of the discussions that go on here - it would seem that our musical worlds are more connected than not. I mostly use a laptop running VSTs on stage. Oh and I play keys sitting cross-legged on the floor, with a small custom-made stand. And I operate a sustain pedal with my knee (I'm not looking for ideas about expression pedals...). Looking forward to lots of interaction here... Cheers, Guru