WheelHead

Reminds me of the John Lewis 2018 advert featuring Elton John. At the end of the video it depicts elton as a child getting a piano for a christmas present

Very sad about the drummer. What struck me hard with an artist dying after I discovered it happened, was 22 year old Christina Grimmie who was shot 4 times signing autographs sitting at a table with a line in front of her in FL by a deranged person in 2016. Her brother wrestled the gunman to the floor where he turned the gun on himself. Christina had millions of hits on YouTube and was making it, winning TV talent shows (3rd place on The Voice when she started out, I believe) opening for big acts and I read connected to the likes of people like Justin Bieber. She's from South Jersey originally where I live. What really kind of shocked me, though unpublished, I discovered I knew her family (grandfather, grandmother, mother) when I was a child. Her family (2 men) then were music teachers and were in a recording late-50s group though retired from the group when teaching (that even were in a movie) (grandfather and great-uncle and another family member or two, perhaps were in the group - her relatives) WH

Chopin, the great genius, wrote the Revolutionary Etude in 1831 out of his infamy and disgust of Poland's failed uprising that was occupied. He was also angry at France at the time for not helping Poland with the Russian occupation. Though Chopin was Polish he lived in France though he died young at 39 and had his heart removed. His sister took to Poland that is now in a church in Poland. He is buried today in the same graveyard as Jim Morrison in France. Here is Horowitz performing the Revolutionary Etude WH

This is very, very sad. A legend departs the music world. I live near Philly so I know people who have known him. Last time I heard, he lived on Wolf street in Philadelphia. (this is not far away from the famous Pat Steaks and Genos Steaks, I believe) Pat was a fine gentleman. I have also heard his dad who I believe was a singer took an important role since he was a little kid in Pat's interest in guitar and encouraged and pushed him from a child. I have heard one local guitarist copy/do a cover of his 'Just Friends' with Trudy Pitts on the Hammond in his single act. Pat was copied as best as one could sometimes. I have a book called "The Virtuoso" by Ken Carbone. Among other people of different things and instruments, Pat is featured in the book as a virtuoso guitarist. "cerebral, even mystical, the musician speaks joyfully of the pleasures of the here and now and the irrelevance of material attachments. "The guitar is like a fork to me, " he declares. "It's a tool. Once I eat the food I cleanse the fork and put it away. And that's what music is to me, a vehicle to reach a destination." The contemplation he so values keeps the music business in perspective. "In fact", he adds, "I don't even feel that I have a career. I feel that I have a gift" Pat is another Philadelphia musician who studied with Dennis Sandole along with John Coltrane. (I have known many who studied with Dennis in the way-back. He wrote an 'outline' for each students "ear" and they were expected to know it in all 12 keys for the next lesson. If the person did not practice they were dropped or dropped (at first) to one of his advanced students he called "my stars" WH

Who knows what the future holds. (perhaps on-topic being today is Halloween) It could get weirder and more creepy with high-tech medical science. What if they cloned Chopin, Lizst even Lennon - Orbison? Would the offspring have the same music talent? If singers, would they have the same voice? Could a cloned Paganini play the violin near as good? They could get DNA from Chopin's heart pickled in a Polish church. This is controversial and rejected notion today but who knows the values of the future. WH

The first time I saw Palmer play before 'Atomic Roooster' was when I was a little kid and was able to get in The Electric Factory in Philadelphia (non-alcohol club) to watch, 'The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown'. Vincent Crane's Hammond organ playing was impressive. Palmer did a drum solo that was long and fantastic I still remember almost Buddy Rich-like. (I said almost) (I also viewed live Buddy Rich at Steel Pier in those days and was only several feet away during his 'West Side Story' drum solo) . I got Buddy's autograph (long lost) and told him, "I have all your big band albums!" (I was a young teenager). He said back, "GOOD FOR YOU, KID!!" Lol! Andre Watts and Jay Corre were playing saxophone WH

I use a curtain rod a couple of feet long (and cut and adjusted) bought at Home Depot that has a plunger and a spring that I painted black. One end of the rod goes on the pedal and the spring side (or reversed) goes up against the keyboard. It's worked well. It pushes down on the pedal with the spring. It can hardly be noticed. WH

I have the Mac Mini M1. I wrote previously that it would not take activation due to running Monterey Beta that there is bug. All fixed now. The Macmini M1 (to me) is super fast and I have the 8GB Ram. Right now I have it running Pianos on my VPC1 controller. Pressing the button and it is almost instantly on it is more like a digital piano only with my selected software. I had CPU issues on Pianoteq Pro when playing very fast passages/cadenzas when I was playing classical with the Intel. Now with the M1 it hardly effects the CPU and I run on 64 samples with no problem and about 0 latency. Pianoteq feels like an acoustic. Pianoteq looking at 'performaance' the north/south graph hardly moves from the bottom where it was high before. Hammersmith runs about 3 to 5 percent of CPU when playing a lot of notes. Unfortunately, Ivory II pianos standalone is not compatible yet. WH

I did not mark this OT because many use Macs for DAW and instrument software. Be aware that if one purchases a used M1 particularly if it has the Monterey Beta that activation (even though it has a new reset and downloaded OS) may not work. I purchased a Mac Mini M1. It would not activate. It hung for like 20 minutes then put up a couple of different error messages. Then if one tries again, every attempt is on the log-in screen but the entered OS password does not work and every attempt in the setup menu has a log in icon. (like your name, 3 times or 4 times). So when it doesn't work one can try 'reset password with Apple ID'. That doesn't work either. It is documented at this site https://beebom.com/fix-computer-account-creation-failed-error-apple-m1-mac I did not have a 2nd M1 so I took to the Apple Store. Like the article says they do not admit there is a bug. It had Montery Beta. They were supposed to install Big Sur. They did not and before I left the store I asked for a monitor, keyboard and mouse. It did not work after service. I left again. (this was Firday). They called me Sunday and I went in and did the same thing with monitor, keyboard and mouse. This time it worked. I researched this a bit and there are multiple websites on how to fix this bug WH

It is reported that Charlie Watts drummer of the Rolling Stones has died at 80. No cause of death has been given yet WH

I got a set of 25 pedals that look like B3 pedals from eBay for the B3-P. Portable version of what they used to call the new-B. I got the cable that goes to the B3-P with it and made, after I studied the circuitry, a plastic conversion box with a Midi PCB in it. Plugged the pedals in the conversion box with a momentary push-button to change midi channel. Works like a charm and pedals looks good. (they were almost new when I bought them and selling alone without the organ can be cheap because few have the B3-P) I did this some years ago. I forgot how I made it, I think. If I made another (for myself) I would have to reverse-engineer the soldering I did and the circuits of the little box, These are heavy. Would have been expensive to ship. I had the seller take it to a Greyhound Bus station and got it shipped across the US very cheaply and picked it up at a station near me. Huge original HS box. (have no idea if they ship freight today have not checked) WH

Believe it or not, I still have the iPhone 5S (first with fingerprint reader) I am a bit of butt of jokes for having an old iPhone with my friends. I have put 3 batteries in it (this is a main reason people upgrade when their battery goes bad) The older iPhones come apart easy. Newer ones are glued and a taller task to put in a new battery. I have changed tablets also to HP's that come apart with fasteners (plus have a flash like an iPad) for a fast battery change. iFixit categorizes the difficulty of repairing different phones One (who does own repairs) should review that before buying a phone, imo. It does everything I want it to do very well. When wide-band 5G (mmwave) is more prevalent I will upgrade the phone

I thought "jazz is F#" (tapping the F# key) as Pete Barbutti said [video:youtube] How about a little 'Moonlight in Vermont' on an accordion by Pete? WH

As soon as the make one with a matching notch I'M IN!!!! WH

and don't forget Harvey Olsen in 2016 . . . Hammond Master Tech WH

This one were aliens WH

I have had the full version for a couple of years. I was just comparing to a model (Pianoteq 7 Pro that is also great) I like to use it (Hammersmith) with the volume up on the close mics. The high register seems to have more cut. This is a great sampled piano, imo especially when tweaked to taste. I have no idea how adjustable the the light version is. WH

How about an 'in-between' wood like OSB? (kidding) WH

And don't forget Pianoteq (not affiliated) All types of Black Friday sales on their site AND Pianoteq 7 is out now as most know I would think I just downloaded it. I ran it on a tablet. (Pro version) An HP Elite X2 1012 G2 with a VP1 with an i5. Pianoteq ran effortlessly and I played some very, very fast phrases trying to get audio errors and pops - none. (and this isn't the newest model the latest G4 is quad-core) (this HP is like a Surface Pro except it has a flash like an iPad). The HP comes apart in minutes with fasteners to put in a larger SSD or change the battery, broken screen, etc. I will put a TB SSD in soon. The HP runs better with an i5 than my Surface Pro (running Pianoteq) does with an i7 and twice the memory. The SP does run any large sampled pianos effortlessly though with very low CPU percentage (so does the HP) WH

Not to mention: Not all programs are improved with later versions of OSX. Preview in Lion is far superior than later Previews in newer OSX operating systems, imo. I use a Lion Preview to do PDFs for a side thing I do. This involves working with PDFs. I annotate them with text, arrows, lines, circles, boxes, narratives etc. Later Previews you have to make a box. Slide the box. Click on the box etc, etc. Its a chore to do one thing (and the early Preview is WAY faster than Acrobat, imo) Lions Preview *one click* - put text and annotations anywhere with one click takes half the tine. No dragging. No making boxes. I recently rebuilt an older MacBook just for this with an SSD, new LCD etc. Early Mac laptops like 2008 are still great computers with an SSD. Apple had to nuke them by denying an updated operating system so you had to buy an newer computer, imo. Then the browsers, other apps had to follow - etc - WH

I have a MacBook Pro and a MacBook that I like HOWEVER I will not buy another Mac until they put touch/stylus on the screen and get up to date.. I do things with a Windows 10 computer with touchscreen I really don't have time to fuss with trackpads/mouse for general computer use. Touchscreen computers are much faster to navigate/do work no matter what you are doing and when you get use to it (mixing the touch with trackpad features, etc) when you are on a non-touch computer one still presses the screen by habit I do this on the Macs all the time when I use them. Lack of touchscreen is another lack-of-feature like the right-click lack of button that Apple likes to hold on to like it makes sense. WH

Which brings up the notion of a 'brain-lock-to-keyboard' - I have this. If I play a piano keyboard I have difficulty playing (but I can struggle through) if it is not weighted like a real piano. My fingers strike dynamically - loud-soft looking for the hammer-action-feel. Conversely, when I play synth or organ my brain goes into 'accordion-mode' brain lock. I played accordion (like a lot of organ players) as a child. I play this mode completely different (pressing) and it is automatic and mentally locked to the keyboard - or my tactile, touch-response is 'brain-locked' WH

Yeah, I think that's mostly all it is. That counts for something, though. Also gloves can be cleaned (I wear 7mil all the time and can be reused) in your car after leaving like a food store or hardware store. I use Purple Power that is a 'nasty' automotive cleaner (sold at Walmart and auto stores). Purple Power (along with cleaning oil) unbeknownst to most who buy it, will kill insects, ants, flies, etc beside being a fantastic cleaner. (if you buy it you will always buy it again - I started with Castrol Super Clean that Purple Power copies but is cheaper) I spray PP on my gloves (it will make your bare hands red if not rinsed almost right away) and then have a Windex bottle full of water to rinse it off. Takes like 15 seconds. My gloves are now clean in the car and if I rub my face not to worry. Far cleaner than what soap will do. I also put sandwiches in my air fryer for a couple of minutes to heat the bread surface purchased from a fast food joint. I have also taken my propane torch and 'skimmed' quickly over the outside of the sandwich in case the worker has the virus or was on the food associate gloves. WH

Just an update to this thread I have been meaning to mention though this is not that interesting: Since Windows 10 has done a couple updates my Surface Pro 4 i7 that is a rather dated tablet now (that ran all the sample pianos always perfectly) now runs Pianoteq Pro effortlessly without ANY mods running on a balances default power scheme even connected to the Internet. No dropouts, no CPU errors, etc. Nice to have a versatile touchscreen to operate the pianos on the controller. WH