PianoMan51

In the days of my youth, bars had cigarette smoke at choking levels. And the smell of last night’s bar keg and spilled beer was , in today’s terms, ‘systemic’. My keys stayed in these places for weeks at a time (remember House Bands?) And never ever saw the light of day. To be constantly coated with beer mist flavored and colored with tobacco particles. When, only by accident every few years, they did see sunlight, the filth was unbelievable. It was like the ‘bark’ on a smoked brisket. Desirable for barbecue, maybe a ‘brow badge of courage’ for musicians. Your Rhodes was covered in black bumpy plastic to hide the stain. Billy Joel’s line “and the microphone smells like a beer “ wasn’t just about the mic!

There’s a story behind the following clip. I had tickets to the Secret Story tour, but had to make a last minute business trip and missed it. I asked my wife how it was and she broke my heart when she said “It was the best concert I’ve ever seen!” (This from a woman who had seen the Monkeys and Hendrix on stage together). A guitarist friend who had also been there said “I never knew that accordion could be so beautiful “. Here’s what they saw…

Double reed. One is two plant reeds moving against each other. There’s a Tulips joke there. The second is two brass reeds where the direction of the air flow determines which one sounds. OTOH, abusing an oboe sample might be a fun evening. With appropriate mental lubrication.

Oh, I get that completely. And then there’s the way that modifies the musical goal so that the feedback loop is fun and self sustaining.

Watching Robbie in The Last Waltz prejudiced me against him. After all, three top notch lead singers and he’s pretending to sing on stage. But looking back now, I see a songwriter who took the whole country rock thing to its deepest possible roots. Union farm worker, defeated Confederate, pathetic drunk, an on and on. I saw David Crosby live about seven years ago. He said on stage that in a hundred years the world would only remember (from his generation and mine) Joni and ‘weird’ Bob. Perhaps, but somehow when I think of music that reflects the uncomfortable soul of the US of A I think that Robbie created a deeper and truer canvas.

Playing music, to me, is a positive feedback loop. I play something. If I like doing that, I do it again. If I really have an irresistible musical goal I will do it again but try different methods to achieve that goal. Else, I read about other players issues! If you don’t want to spend months working on trills, don’t. Maybe it’s an opportunity to focus on Richard Tee. Or Lyle Mays. Or Question Mark (of the Mysterions).

This is what I put on my YC73…

Yes Paul, but you already knew that.

Today, my ‘pedals’ have shrunk down to pure information, and reside on my iPad. Melodica with mic, iRig (mono in, stereo out), iPad, and a large number of cheap Eventide iOS virtual pedals. For melodica the MicroPitch effect provides two separate pitch shifts, which duplicates quite well the various tuning possibilities of a three reed musette accordion.

AKG K702. Extremely comfortable. Not very easy to drive, but works great with every digital piano I’ve had in the past 15 years. Available for less than $200 on Amazon.

Klaus.

Nice job 16251. Here I am doing my daily forum read, and unexpectedly there are tears running down my cheeks.

VST, MIDI, operating systems, host software, etc. This is a world for people who are not satisfied with a Nord Piano 5, and create their own solution. (Lots of musicians are engineers). Imagine we’re in the world of automobiles. I can buy any number of off the shelf cars. But if I’m in that small group of enthusiasts who aren’t satisfied with that, I can install a different carburetor, or engine, or transmission. But if I haven’t the previous experience with car repairs or modifications, then expecting this to be easy…

I don’t have any experience in using VSTs on PCs. But on my 2013 MacBook Pro there is this handy dandy thing called a ‘latency setting’. My Ravencroft runs well at 128, both standalone and hosted by Mainstage. (That’s 128 bytes at 44kBs).

How about this… Three words: Call an electrician today!

Chuck Sher has created an amazing body of work. Always my first pick for lead sheets.

Two words: Volt Meter Monitor your AC voltage. Meters are cheap and accurate. Stick the probes in an empty AC outlet. At least find out what’s going on before you determine a plan of action.

Yes, your old patches will overwrite the factory live sets when you reload them. That’s why I suggest checking out the new factory patches first.

“But the band is so used to non-noticeable keys that, when they are heard, it raises an eyebrow.” This is where I would start any ‘corrective measures ‘. Forget about recording. Forget about level matching patches. The band doesn’t hear the keyboards at a reasonably correct volume. They don’t know what the keys are doing. How can any of them make their own musical choices while performing? So, fix the live stage sound first. Reposition the players, the amps, the monitors, levels, EQs, etc. until everyone in the band can hear everyone else equally, but themselves a little louder.

Dave, You have been asking. “You didn’t have to be so nice, We would have liked you anyway “ Ask directly. Close the sale. There are hundreds of us who will support you. Jack

Here’s my five dollars worth of advice, from the head and heart… Dave, make the ‘ask’. Just come out straight and ask us for money. It will get easier over time. You’re not draining pension funds from widows! Namaste.

I’m confused. Just a couple of things rattling around my head… Internet Speed isn’t speed, it’s throughput. Latency on stage is based on the speed of sound through air. That’s why we acoustic players like to huddle up close when we’re playing rhythmically intense music. Latency on the net is bounded by the speed of light, which takes about 16mS to cross the US (3k miles). Back in the day, we used the rough estimate of 30mS to get a packet from one coast to another. (The packets do get minimally processed through routers). So, 60mS absolute dead ass minimum round trip latency from NYC to LA. Anybody here want to purchase a computer-VST package with 60mS latency?

Stereo for me, mono for the audience. FOH gets the R output.

Never thought about how many oats you would have to milk…

Just signed up for Patreon. While folks can debate and decide on the best solution for the long term future, those of us who appreciate Keyboard Corner can donate the price of a burger each month to keep the lights on.