joegerardi

In my research, I have found that there are CIEMs with -20dB, and -15dB of attenuation, if you want more ambient sound. You get to pick how much you want when you purchase. And of course the ones with mics built in for ambience. ..Joe

I've been looking at CIEMs. I've narrowed it down to Alien Ears or Eartechs 2 Questions: 1- will dual-driver work well for keys, or do I need more? 2- which is a better driver type- Balanced armature or Dynamic? Thanks, ..Joe

This is kind of embarrassing for an old fart like me... I have become completely hooked on BABYMETAL. Such a freaking weird combination of J-Pop and Metal, and a manufactured band at that, yet I can't stop listening... ...watching rather, They have such an awesome stage show, that it's more than just the music. ..Joe

Not very good as a master controller when it won't (can't) transmit AT... Even my 30 year-old Yammie KX76 can do that. ..Joe

I still really like the QS' "Dark Classical" piano. My QSR is a go to when I want someone quick, down, and dirty. ..Joe

So, I'm guessing you don't, and wouldn't ever use any ROMplers, because well, you know- they sample LOTS of instrument from people that are alive and well and making synths... ..Joe

I just wanna say I think it's awesome that people are still playing Renaissance! I always loved that band, and the modern-day Divas could all take lessons from Annie in how to use a 5-octave range voice. ..Joe

I did it way back when. This was a killer when it came to keyboard mapping- it was one of those rare songs where I never played a sound from the keyboard I was playing- it was always from something else because of what had to go where... IIRC, I re-mapped the Korg M1 drums to have the sounds on the lowest octave so it could be played on my MKB-300, and I played it with my left hand whilst the right did the choir accompaniment under the melody. I think I mapped the sounds to C, D, Eb, F, because the chord for the verse was Cm. You're right: it's not very difficult- it is one of the easier ELP pieces, on par with "From the Beginning," I'd say ..Joe

One of the biggest lyric mistakes was from "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" by England Dan & John Ford Coley. I can't count how many people thought the line was "I'm not talking 'bout your linen," when it was actually "I'm not talking 'bout moving in." So much so, that they even used it in the movie "The Long Kiss Goodnight," with Samuel L. Jackson singing the wrong lyrics. ..Joe

A company called NovaMusik is selling them on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Studiologic-Numa-Organ-2-STUDIO-KIT-/371183016520?pt=Keyboards_MIDI&hash=item566c3b5a48 ..Joe

Sure they are: http://www.kraftmusic.com/studiologic-numa-organ-2.html ..Joe

Geez! In my band, every one of us would take out our guns and say: "So, where's the rest of it?" ..Joe

Ah, the good old days when every piano sound was good and it was still okay to have a synth on an X-stand... ..Joe

You folks that travel and take photographs: If you ever get the chance, go to Cinque Terre in Italy. You'll be in photographer heaven! ..Joe

Thank you Mike. That first bird photo categorically proves that even in the animal world, the married male is always wrong! ..Joe

Odyssey never really blew my skirt up. But, with Korg also owning the SCI rights, what's next? A new Prophet-5? They could actually do that... ..Joe

Ah, the aging rock star. It's not so much that Emo needs glasses, but I remember a "Making Of" for DSOTM, and when David Gilmour was going to show the "On The Run" sequence, out came the reading glasses so he could see the panel of the Synthi AKS. ..Joe

Anything that requires a solo wind or string sound is a quick easy example. How do you get the vibrato in there when, amd at the depth you want? Use delayed modulation? that might be okay for someone that just bangs on keys, but for a musician trying to work with color and feel that same boring old static mod is pretty dull. Listen to a violinist, or pro flautist: their vibrato changes depth and speed to enhance the mood and feel of the music, as well as when they start it- sometimes it's right at the beginning of the note, sometimes they delay the start to create a different feel; sometimes it starts of shallow and gets deeper, or slower and faster. Same for an oboist, and even many keyboard players do this withing their music. The modulation wheel? Possible, but a musician is generally playing with with both hands and hasn't one available for that. SSM: Absolutely correct. But then aren't you writing about instruments that were designed in the '40s and '50s of the last century? I'm not: I'm talking about the newest, bestest design touted as a brand-new "performance" instrument. Apples and oranges, man. ..Joe

Not for me. No aftertouch, so sale. We are letting the companies get away with this. The keyboard is our interface to the music, not the layout. They keep trying to make the layout do more, and the keyboards do less. The feel is getting worse, the performance is getting worse, the quality of the keybed is getting worse, and the features (i.e.: aftertouch) are disappearing. And we still buy them. Look: if Kawai could market the K1, and Yamaha the DX11 with aftertouch back then for a grand, then the other companies can do it now. I understand that simple keyboard players don't care about it, but musicians absolutely do, and as such, expect to see it in the keyboards they buy. Why am I forced to always buy the top-end workstation just to get aftertouch, paying hundreds more for features I *don't* need or want (can you say Karma?) just to get aftertouch? It's akin to guitarists: imagine how a guitar touted as a "performance instrument" (as this is) would sell today if they omitted the wiggle stick... ..Joe

A part-time hobby of mine is digital art. This in NOT a photograph, there is nothing real in it, everything is CGI models. It is a virtual porch created in a free program called DAZ Studio. I was going for as much photo-realism as possible as an experiment, and that was only possible to render realistically using a program called Luxrender, which renders everything in world format, which is pretty realistic. I'm actually pretty proud of how it turned out. ..Joe http://www.joegerardi.net/Photos/reality_031_AB.png

I am widely acknowledged as being the best at one thing in the world: that is being the worst photographer imaginable. When my children were young I was frequently investigated by the police for killing them because there were no pictures of them with heads on the kids... That said, I'm actually proud of this photo. It was a quick grab on my Galaxy SII last October when flying in my plane at about 3000 feet, doing about 110 knots, just south of Tybee Island (Savannah) over the marshes at sunset. It's shot through the plexiglass side window on the door of the plane, which is actually starting to milk over and craze with age. ..Joe (Edit: sorry- I didn't realize the photo was that large. I've scaled it smaller.) http://www.joegerardi.net/Photos/Savannah_Sunset_10-11-2013_2.jpg

A teacher was asking her students about their parents' jobs... "Mary, what does your daddy do?" She asked. Mary replied "My daddy's a doctor. He makes sick people better." "Robbie, what does your daddy do?" "He's a lawyer. He puts bad people in jail." Robbie replied. "Little Johnny, what does your daddy do?" she asked, thinking this couldn't cause problems... "Nothing. My daddy's dead" Little Johnny replied. "Oh, I'm so sorry." She said. Thinking she might be able to save an otherwise embarrassing situation, she said "What did he do before he died?" Little Johnny replied "He turned blue and crapped on the carpet." ..Joe

More to The point, the Brandenburgs were little more than a throwaway album of music composed over several years. Bach wanted a new job, and thought that the margrave of Brandenburg would be more likely to give it him with a little "grease." Read the fawning dedication, and how many times old Johann used the term "Your Highness..." Didn't work though: he had to stay at Köthen. ..Joe

The interpretation doesn't bother me too much. The sissy-boy spangly shirt? Yeah. That should go. For me it's the Bach Aria from the 3rd Orchestral Suite. That piece can move me at any time. It can be either celebratory, melancholy, or just plain sad. Played quite loudly, it never gets harsh. To me, the best single composition out there. ..Joe

The cantata No. 29 from "Wir Danken Dir Gott" has probably the most famous Sinfonia, but a bit of trivia: Bach plagiarized from everyone, even himself- that is actually the Violin Partita in E Major, a major performance work for solo violin. (Also the first piece on Walter Carlos' Switched-On Bach.) ..Joe