allan_evett

Blues band out of Hammond, IN. Live at a brew fest in Michigan City, IN. Keyboardist is wicked on clonewheel…. Just took all of us to church. His rig? Roland VR-09B and Integra 7. Sorry purists…

What a life! I’ve been a fan for a long, long time. And have had the privilege of gigging with two different Jimmy Buffett tribute acts since 2015. So much fun playing that music! I remember a rehearsal a few years ago at which we were working out, “I Will Play for Gumbo”. The band leader remarked about the piano part I was playing, saying that he didn’t hear any of that on the album recording. I played the version I had learned from at home; turns out it was from a ‘live at Wrigley Field’ album, on which Bill Payne guest starred. Frank - the leader - decided to work from that live version. So when we play it, I attempt a piano part that on good nights bears a slight resemblance to Bill Payne’s memorable playing😅. Rest in peace, Jimmy Buffett. Your hard work has earned you that!

Had a similar situation with an XK-1, in 2010. I put this together with components from a local electronics store (Might've been a Radio Shack, or someplace similar). I would guess you could do something similar with a box slotted for a slider. Once plugged into the volume pedal jack it worked smoothly.

That's a slippery slope. It's not politics, religion, etc... Things related to the playing of music, gear and so forth should be allowed, provided they don't involve ad hominem attacks or promote unethical/illegal behavior. Jim's entitled to his views here, which are largely accurate and do evoke concern. But in the end, everyone's opinion should be welcome - even ones that some might find too strongly worded. I'd feel better if a majority of Behringer's products were original, or more derivative - like the Deepmind synth series; that's one I have considered a few times. But that's the company's choice, along with the receipt of some negative feedback and a handful of lawsuits. Meanwhile, back to the original topic: My choice of a Pro-800 ended up not being the most practical for my application. Would I consider one in the future? Possibly, though I'd prefer a Sequential Rev 2 Desktop if doable.

Yep. Same as 1991...That's why I gigged with A DW-8000 and Prophet-600, vs DX7 and Prophet 5. The DX had to come much later. Getting a little OT, but good point.

My reasoning for the Pro 800 is simple teaching tool for the few people that want to tweak knobs and learn basic synthesis - on a polyphonic instrument. And preference is analog. Also a cheap pricepoint is ideal, in that I don't want to sustain a significant loss if the instrument up and 'walks' from my teaching space. Security is a concern there. I've alternately considered the Minilogue XD desktop; could probably live with four voices. What other options, fitting my criteria, would you suggest?

They've been trickling into this market. I was waiting to pounce this past week, but the few that had arrived in Fort Wayne flew out quickly. My sales guy is saying six weeks for the next batch, so I locked in a spot in line. Have been wanting a poly-analog module for awhile now. Had been focusing hard on a Rev 2 16-voice desktop, but wallet reality says "Pro-800 + basic FX pedal"; so here we are. Will miss the 2-pole/4-pole filter choice, but I have a MiniFreak - which has a luscious SEM-style filter. So for relatively low $$ I get to relive my OB/Sequential 80's rig a bit. I had a Prophet 600 and Pro 1 for most of the 80s, and their overall vibe still holds a special place. I'm intrigued with the Gli Gli-style mod and more that's been added. And I'm especially curious now, as well, about who here has experienced the Pro-800.

Funny coincidence! Roland's SN being SuperNatural: their take on emulating acoustic instruments , and strangely enough emulating other synth sounds...

Great story! Slightly similar experience here. I'd thought the SN fiddle on my Roland JP50 was okay, at the time. I was able to get some expressiveness from it, and the band seemed to like it. But around the same time I was with that country group, a Celtic-rock act in the area hired me as a sub for a weekend gig in Salt Lake City. I suggested to the violinist that we try harmonizing on a couple songs. In fairness, she did let me play the fiddle sound for her, then promptly said, "Umm... no!"

Don't get me wrong, prominent fiddle parts are fun to play on keys; other instruments too - as long as essential rhythm parts are covered well. Roughly 2009-13, I covered a fair amount of violin lines for a country band in Denver. My Jupiter 50 got quite a workout; the electric violin patch I'd tweaked was quite good (Love that SN/behavior modeling tech). We did have the luxury of a lead singer who covered acoustic/electric guitar rhythm parts, along with a lead-focused electric guitarist in the act. So I got to attempt all kinds of extraneous parts in the band. But since returning to the midwest I've been in 3-4 piece groups, so covering extra parts has gotten trickier; more pick and choose.

I like all of these instruments. What I don't like are band members saying: " By the way, while you're covering the essential piano and/or organ parts, could you also concurrently play those fiddle, steel, harmonica and accordion lines? And that little, buried EP riff at the end of verse 2, you can grab that too. (That one was actually requested by a rather clueless, deep-in-the-weeds bassist ).

Fun discussion, learning a lot! I've done this a few different ways, thinking that the audience isn't going to be on the edge of their seats analyzing my keyboard tones😉; rather, keeping the groove and signature notes the priority. Initially I used a clavinet sound with an auto-wah effect (Yamaha Motif, or S-something...), then switched to doing the same with a Kurz PC3. I've been covering this more recently with a slightly grunged Wurli patch on a Stage 3; being able to quickly grab and tweak FX parameters is great. Planning to try an Odyssey-style patch for the initial lower note groove, though I'm keeping that right hand bluesy riff on the EP tone. Meanwhile for the rest of the song it's rock piano time.

Adding that A natural will help a lot. I think of this one as 6-5-4-1 in F#. So using the D#m blues scales with that progression is a solid starting point (can also be thought of as minor Pentatonic in F#: F# G# A A# C# D#. I find thinking in Eb minor blues works best for me though; easier to visualize. Also the varied use of melodic ideas Reezekeys mentioned will do a lot for your soloing. Switching to a B3 sound was suggested as well, which is likely how I'd play this. Piano can work okay too. That particular scale doesn't fall as smoothly under my hands either, but that causes me to come up with different approaches to soloing.

Powerful, and inspiring. Such sensitive playing...❤️

Such a soulful singer, who expressed so much over decades of sensitive, loving artistic craft. A true example to all of us. Thank you, Mr. Bennett!

Nice, ProfD! We're thinking along the same lines...

From reading the thread title, I thought this was going to be about the Barbie movie...

There may not be a 'Kronos 3'. Nautilus - with a remote function-control device (Nano, or otherwise) - may be it for this particular family of digital keyboards; especially now that the Nautilus has AT. But no doubt we'll see the Kronos/Nautilus nine engines in play for future instruments. Thinking Korg might go a slightly different direction for their next 'big thing'. With latest CP, YCs and now CKs Yamaha appears to be challenging Nord, yet without a strong VA onboard. Wondering if that's where Korg might head, especially with the KingKorg discontinued. And look what Arturia's now doing with the 'Freak series, especially with a genuine 2-pole analog filter as a choice. Imagine a full-size 'Freak-type keyboard that includes lots of front-panel control and several of the Kronos engines. I'd like to see Korg be adventurous in that way. Meanwhile my Nautilus 61 - updated with AT - will be a potent combination with the MiniFeak, especially when used as a 61-key controller.

Well, nothing is perfect for every player; so it seems every company does come up short somewhere. Not to stray too far OT, but from another search - a few moments back - it's very clear that Roland is going to do nothing with regard to replacing its aftertouch sensor strip on the Fantom. It triggers slightly better with the global AT set at 64 (on a 0-127 scale), especially when playing other AT enabled sound sources via MIDI; but its own sounds AT triggers are still rather 'jolting'. Based on experience with the Kronos, I suspect the Nautilus AT upgrade will be much smoother. If so, I may take a long look at off-loading the Fantom, then using the Nautilus to control a Roland module or the basic Roland Cloud.

Most of the maunfacturer's do inexplicable stuff with gear releases. Take one of the the main reasons I'd do the Nautilus AT upgrade: it'd be my only full-sized synth action with usable aftertouch. I do have a Fantom, but it's action's AT is terrible.

From the Korg Forums. Hopefully the retrofit is available globally. I'd definitely do that update for my Nautilus 61. A new Korg Nautilus AT was announced today. The Korg UK mail I received states: Available in 61 and 88-key versions, Nautilus AT extends our Nautilus workstation line-up and offers musicians powerful levels of musical expression with the addition of aftertouch. A hardware and software modification for "non" AT old Nautilus is offered, unfortunately only in UK and Ireland: ...we're also introducing an upgrade service to transform your Nautilus 61 or 88 into a Nautilus AT. Available exclusively from Korg UK to customers in the UK and Ireland.

I finally found the username/password to my old iLok account, then logged on successfully. Since I don’t have the old computer(s) registered to iLok, I do need to request a new iLok license number from the plug-in vendors. Just sent in a request to VI Labs; will be doing one for Synthogy shortly. From studying iLok’s site and my account info, it’s not the most intuitive place to be. Why not do enter/copy/paste with challenge codes, like Spectrasonics: Soooooo much better!

I downloaded the latest version of iLok’s software. So I’ll be writing up the issue for their support department to review. Right now I feel like a law enforcement officer who’s witnessed an epic fustercluck, and now have to go through the drudgery of writing up the report…🤮

Ravenscroft275 now appears unusable on my new MacMini. VI Labs login and downloads went smoothly, but iLock is hanging things up. Apparently my old password didn’t work, and even after confirming a new one the login didn’t work - due to the original email address being ‘invalid’. So the original account was never logged into. Meanwhile I set up a new account (one option offered on iLok’s site). That went smoothly, but then when I attempt to authentic Ravenscroft 275, I get this message, “Another user already registered this serial number”. What the squat?! Considering iLok’s abysmal support history among the group - since I joined in 2009, is it really worth the time to go down this rabbit hole, or should I just find a quality software piano that is ‘iLok free’. I’ve owned one other iLok required piano since 2010, and don’t even use it - due to attempts to deal with the same crap. Maybe it’s time to cut the VI Labs pianos loose as well…It’s not like them or Synthogy have been a money-maker here.

I just posted this issue to the Arturia community as well. If they have any additional insights, I’ll post those here. Thanks, so far, everyone!