MAJUSCULE

Yes, they will charge you. Whoever is hiring you should factor that into their costs.

Two people died. A teammate and a recruiting staffer. They were in the other car.

Also, fair to say that a large part of me over-thinking this is probably due to having my time called out by clinicians when I was in school lmao. But also feeling inadequate almost any time I hear a recording of myself playing anything that involves feel/improv/etc. It's always close but not quite good enough. And I know that'll never change and it's what makes the journey of a life in music beautiful, but hey, that fill that didn't quite come off right in the second verse or that fourth bar of the solo or that other little thing is still gonna bug me anyway.

Not really looking for a "right answer", moreso just looking for discussion... Piggybacking somewhat off Tim's excellent recent thread, but this is something I've been mulling for a while. For this reason, I may ramble a bit. 😛 Something I hear a lot from people when criticizing modern music is that everything is tempo-gridded, which robs the music of its humanity. While I'm not necessarily arguing that, I'm mulling over the thought process behind that statement. What makes someone or something feel good/natural/human? How do we determine whether or not the musicians we're listening to have good time? Can top-level drum programmers get something to feel 100% human nowadays, and if not, how much is good enough? How much of all this is tied to listening only vs listening and watching? I fondly remember our dearly departed D-Bon deploring ?uestlove "trying to sound more like a drum machine than a human drummer" (or something along those lines). I also remember reading about how Al Jackson Jr.'s internal clock was so solid that the Stax engineers could superimpose takes from 9 AM, 12 PM, and 5 PM and play them all at the same time, and they'd all line up, no need for a click. There may be some embellishment in that, but nevertheless. Watching the Victor Wooten Prosessions video in the other thread, his time is rock-solid. As he says, his goal is to use the metronome (a grid) to build his own time to be as strong internally as possible. Even on his hardest exercise, he notices as soon as he's off and locks back in right away. Of course, in Tim's other excellent recent thread, we found ourselves admiring, among other things, the fabulous rhythm section of Louis Johnson and Jeff Porcaro. I mean, fabulous. I'd contend a large part of their magic is how consistent and confident they are in their time-feel. It's obviously not the only reason, a lot more goes into that elite level of playing, but it's often the foundation for it. No wonder it was sampled so successfully. Without meaning to disparage anyone, since I actually probably would have enjoyed the live version that was posted later in a live setting, as a direct comparison to the masters on the original recording, it simply didn't measure up. Again, I'd say a large part of that is very minor discrepancies in time resulting in a slightly more unsettled foundation. Again, no disrespect, but there are clearly levels to this kind of pocket playing. Now, as usual, context is everything and there are many different pockets to live in. You can't tell me Prince and his Linndrum weren't funky, even if a lot of that funk is about what's going on around the metronomic backbeat he often used. Likewise, I'm pretty sure James Brown wanted his band to be about as locked in and "gridded" as he could get them (at the time). I've also seen and heard the great Zigaboo play and, well, his pocket is rather wide and seemingly, resides on a different plane than most drummers. Isolated, it might not always sound "right" to many ears, but it works perfectly for The Meters and the hookup they get. Which could and should lead us to discussing any of the multitudes of pockets that exist in different genres, eras, and all over the world. Of course, drum programming has also taken many steps forward in recent years. I remember Chromeo talking about their drum programming how they assign different velocity values to their hi-hats with some amount of randomness while paying attention to where a real drummer might accent the hats to give them a more natural feel. One artist who I find is particularly good at making his largely programmed material sound quite human and natural is Bruno Mars. Although the Silk Sonic stuff has more live players, most of his solo material is very much in-the-box. Now, that doesn't mean he doesn't call a ringer in for certain things (Steve Jordan smacking the tubs in a large room on the chorus of "Gorilla", our guy Greg Phillinganes ripping the synth solo on "Versace on the Floor", etc), but for a guy who most non-musicians see as having a fairly organic sound, and many musicians thinking his stuff features a lot of live players, it really doesn't. A good example is "Chunky": to most people, the bass (and maybe more) sounds live, but upon closer listen it clearly isn't. Ok, I may be getting a little away from my point, but nonetheless, Bruno (and his Smeezingtons co-conspirators) seems to find a way to blur the lines between live and programmed to the point where the vast majority of audiences, and even musicians, are fooled. To bring it back to Victor and his metronome, a tool most of us have used (and hopefully still do) to work on our time, if we don't want to feel "robotic" or "programmed" but we're trying to hold ourselves to the standard of the metronome and the level of the top musicians who so clearly feel a consistent pulse within the music, where's the line (or general grey area) on what we're trying to achieve, musically? How much human error creates the beauty and magic we're all constantly striving for when we create, and how much is too much, leading us to be distracted from the moment and the music? I should probably cut off my ramble there... As I said, a philosophical discussion, lol. Hopefully there's something for someone else to catch on to in there and I didn't just dump a pile of crap in the KC town square. I did start a YouTube playlist of videos about time and groove that I'll probably share here and continue to add to. I honestly think this could be the basis for some kind of academic thesis if properly developed. As I said, it's something I've been thinking about for a while. Tim's thread about groove got very close to some of the things I've thought about over the years, but I felt like a new thread was warranted. In speaking with some of the folks on my gig this weekend, there's a lot to delve into, even if, as I said at the top, there isn't really a right answer. Thoughts?

One thing I learned a couple years ago watching Bruno Mars & band from a cheap ticket beside/behind the stage: Play to the whole room. You don't have to be constantly interacting with every audience member, but if you're on the side of the stage, as we keyboard players often are, make an effort to include the audience members who, like you, are a bit further to the side. The lead singer is usually trying to work the whole crowd, and usually ends up mostly in the centre, naturally. Making sure that you connect with the whole audience, even if it's just once or twice in the whole night, goes a long way to making them feel included in the show and feel like they were part of something special. Usually as simple as turning towards them during an audience participation/clapping section.

Eh... Cory Henry played his Lingus solo standing. I don't care too much about ELP but didn't Keith jump around lots? Would've also been hard for Wakeman to show off his capes if he was always sitting, wouldn't you say? Pretty sure those dudes can/could all play. Whatever works, works. I sit on most gigs these days, but some things just call for a power stance over a power sit.

Yeah, I guess what it comes down to is that when you’re performing live, “serve the song” isn’t just about the parts you play, but also how you move and the overall vibe you bring to the performance.

It all depends on the gig like folks have said, but I like to feel the music when I perform. I likely express it a little more outwardly than most people… but what I’ve told students in the past is that while I’m still myself up there, I’m not playing a character, but I’m playing a 150% version of myself. Obviously, you have to take care of #1 and make sure you’re still playing well and covering your parts (again, context), but the more stage experience you have and the better you know the music, the easier it is to let yourself go and allow your emotions in the moment to be expressed outwardly. Basically, just have fun (I don’t really headbang on corporate gigs or kids shows, cause… context. But sitting or standing does not affect my ability to lose my glasses on the last chorus of the last song on those gigs that I do let ‘er rip.)

That’s good news, although yeah, the PAC-12 is also still figuring their own stuff out. Will be interesting to see what happens. More money is usually a good thing, overall. Does SDSU have a main non-football sport they’re good at?

Indeed, would be a nice complement to, say, a YC73. Easy way to add some Roland sounds to a budding studio, as well.

I know you guys don't care too much about the Gators, but the NFL just poached our co-DC/Safeties coach, our TE coach, and our WR coach in the last 48 hours. Good for them and a good sign that our coaches are getting those calls, but spring camp is pretty close. We've apparently already hired the co-DC replacement (yet to be officially announced), but he's more of a linebackers guy, so where does that leave our LB coach? And our WR coach (Keary Colbert, hired by Denver) was both one of our best recruiters and an ace developer. Need to figure some stuff out pretty quickly. Oh, and the new co-DC, Austin Armstrong? 29 years old! Crazy. Boom or bust hire, but has worked under Napier before and had just been hired by Saban last month to coach LBs in Tuscaloosa. Spent the last two years as DC at Southern Miss. Hoping for the boom.

Looks like an interesting little box at a reasonable price. https://www.roland.com/ca/products/sh-4d/ Includes 11 oscillator "models", including SH-101, Juno-106, and PCM samples. The Drawing Model sounds interesting ("design your own waveforms and build sounds never heard before"). Also includes a USB-c audio/MIDI interface. Powered by USB-c and can run off batteries.

Like I said in last year's thread, I expect him to go top fifteen if not top ten. I would be somewhat surprised, but not shocked if he went #1. Remember Trey Lance and Josh Allen? The NFL is all about ceiling, especially at the top end of the draft. If your pick flops, chances are you'll get another top pick soon to rebuild around once again. If you hit, you have a cheap quarterback to build a championship window around. Richardson was held back by the circumstances of his time at Florida and will definitely need more development, but his physical traits are too much to ignore. First half of the draft.

Fixed split points does seem like an easy fix and almost petty to leave out at this point. I do find the adjustable fade to be useful, but altogether it's not a dealbreaker for me. It's the price for me. Simply can't justify the cost for the upgrade. Moving from an Electro 3 to a Stage 3 was a complete transformation and worth several thousands of dollars. S3 to S4, not so much.

I do believe so, they're also panned to opposite sides. The bends are definitely coming from the clav.

Guess who CBS now has Indy mock drafting at #1... and who FanDuel just made their odds leader of going #1... Gainesville's own Anthony Richardson 😈

Man. Always knew the tune, of course, but it's probably the closest I've listened to the parts. I should probably listen another thirty times and then every day for a year. Everyone is so on point at every turn. GP is among the all-time pantheon, of course.

16-track sequencer. How many people (not just here, but in the overall business) would make use of it these days? Feels like a grandfathered feature that we don't really need anymore

I'm no expert on VST setups, not even somewhat knowledgable, but something sounds fishy to me. Yes, Macs are more popular and a large part of that is the UI/UX that's optimized for easy operation. But PCs are by no means out of the question and certainly do get used by pros all over. I don't know what the issue is, but I think there's gotta be a problem in the chain somewhere. Merits more troubleshooting IMNSHO. I know that's frustrating to do, and I likely would feel as you do about going back to hardware if I felt like I had exhausted all possibilities so far. But yeah, there's gotta be a fix for those pops.

Roswell Mini K47 Roswell Mini K87 AKG C451 B (x2) AKG C414 XLS Shure SM58 Not currently adding to this since my home studio is temporarily out of commission, but would eventually like to add some ribbons and maybe a couple other interesting condensers. Will likely be overkill for my purposes, but what the hell.

That certainly is a great rig. The SK Pro wasn't around when I picked up my Stage 3, and I can't quite remember if the YC had been announced yet. That said, I'm still very happy with my NS3C over CP73 rig (or dedicated synth over NS3C, or solo NS3C). We're spoiled, aren't we?

Do you mean you keep one of your five Live slots on the NS3C set to the B3 engine, and use Panel A and B as two manuals? I do the same thing. But… if you move the drawbars while you’re on another patch, and then come back to the Live B3 patch, the drawbar position won’t reflect the patch anymore, right? Or am I misremembering? As soon as you move a drawbar, you’re able to see the current registration, of course. Unless you’re talking about something else, in which case I’ll shut up.

Hell yeah, Ken.

Depends on the size and genre you’re looking for, but here’s a few of venues off the top of my head: The Commodore The Roxy Biltmore Cabaret Guilt & Co Orpheum Theatre Vogue Theatre Frankie’s Jazz Club The Rickshaw The Railway

Are you programming your sounds beforehand or do you need to come up with new sounds on the spot? The Stage 3’s synth is very good and I imagine the 4’s will be even better with the three parts and extra effect flexibility. It can probably tick more spec boxes than the P6. Did you buy the Prophet for the tone? I’m guessing that would be the reasoning for most people, along with the panel for ease of quick tweaking. If you’re finding it hard to program, you may benefit from spending a little more time with it (and the manual or some instructional videos). It sounds like you’re pretty happy with the Stage 2’s tone for gigging purposes. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with trying to improve your tone either, even if you’re the only one who notices.