Ken Beaumont

Looks nice but in 2021 and the continuing pandemic and loss of gigs, that is way out of my disposable income for music gear.

Very nice indeed!

Actually about 10 years or so ago I stopped purchasing anything from Musicians Friend because they sent me damaged merchandise 50% of the time. They always replaced it but it was a pain in the rear. And like I said it happened a lot! The nail in the coffin was a Godin guitar that was damaged. It had big gouges in the finish and a chip the size of a quarter and about 3 times as thick. They sent the case in a different package! This time I demanded they give me my money back. I was so pissed at how terrible the guitar was packaged. I then went and bought the exact same guitar from Sweetwater on recommendation from a friend. That guitar was shipped in the case, the case was wrapped in bubble wrap , some candy was thrown in the box and it arrived quickly and in perfect condition. After that I never looked at Musicians Friend. Considering that I have spent many thousands of dollars over the years buying gear exclusively from Sweetwater, that one crappy shipment cost them more than they ever knew. And I have never let an opportunity go by to tell others not to buy from Musician's Friend. I hope that their employees find better employers. Except their shipping department.

Very Nice!

I received the Beyerdynamic DT-770 for Christmas, loving them. I also own Shure SH-440 and Sennheiser HD-280 and Sony not sure the model. I like these Beyerdynamic better than any of them for mixing. The others I will hand out for tracking when recording. The DT-770 go for $160 USD. They are quite comfortable for the last two days I have been using them for hours.

Thanks for taking the time and giving us your impressions. I had an SV1-73 and regretted selling it.

I really like my DeepMind 12 and the model D is on my list. I also have a UMC404HD interface and an XR-18 mixer. These products have worked great for me. Having bought many guitars that are clones of Strats, Telecasters , Les Paul and ES-335, I have an appreciation for clones of vintage gear. The only line they really crossed with me and I would never buy is their clone of the Arturia Keystep. While probably legal it does no service to their brand reputation by cloning an already extremely affordable and relatively recent popular product. So by not even considering it we can show our displeasure.

That's how I handle it. I map the DAW (cakewalk) to the guitarists track if adding midi drums. I build the track from there. Mapping the tempo to the guitarists transients is tedious but works well. When I'm recording myself, I usually use a drum loop from EZ drummer, then replace it. I'm not nearly as good with a metronome click track than I am with following a full drum pattern.

But wait there's more. Don't want to buy a Swing cause you already own a Keystep? No problem, just add a little bit of paint to your keystep. Nobody will know!

I've had mine since they first came out. And no issues other than once I turned it on and it failed to load. But I had a full backup on USB and that corrected the issue. I think the gig I played at had power issues. Because it was the next day after the gig. The problem hasn't returned since.

Yes for a solo or duet it would make a nice small mixer and would allow you to record your performance using the interface capability.

Agreed ProfD, that was my reasoning when I I bought a Roland D-05. Lot's of instantly recognizable sounds, programmable and doesn't use much space. It was also relatively inexpensive.

Performance was fine. But I will forget this in a week. There wasn't anything memorable about the song, the guitar playing, or the singing.

I have Omnisphere but to tell the truth, I don't use it much. I mostly use its textures more than anything. For example if your creating a Halloween song you can create a spooky texture to for an intro that fades out as the music plays. Its great for that. But for recreating classic synth sounds, I have to agree there are much better options. I recently bought a bunch of patches of classic sounds for my DeepMind 12, some of those are much better done then my own sounds. But added to the ones I made, I won't be wanting for sounds. The main problem with having too many sounds, especially with Omnisphere you can use up all your time just searching. First world problem for sure!

I went wireless headset, I love the freedom to stand, sit, and move with the music. One less long cable run too.

In addition to keys, I play guitar, mandolin and bass. I was a drummer in high school band. I also have an Akai EWI. I don't consider myself a sax player, but in a pinch I can fake it.

I have the WS7500 with the 2U rack option. It works fine for me and the drawer holds a 49 key controller. I don't have a lot of extra space. Besides my FA-08 & Deep Mind 12 are right next to it. There is a lot of space on the top for modules. If space is a concern and your on a budget I highly recommend it. It would be nice to have an 88-key slide out but I really don't think its critical for me. I can always just swivel my chair and the full keys are right there.

I felt the same way trying to quit Xirius XM! I recently uploaded to sound cloud free and noticed they now try to get you to master your track. Only at the end do they tell you it's $4.99 um no thanks! Besides usually I already do master my tracks with Ozone. Well this track I hadn't but their "dolby mastering" left me unimpressed. Because the un-mastered track sounded better.

I have an iLoud speaker and I love that thing. I have used it to play outdoors with an iPad and a battery power supply attached to an alesis controller. But its more than that, I found that if I sanity check a mix through it and if it sounds good on that, it will usually sound good on anything. I also use it for music outdoors and the beach. Before the pandemic when I could actually go to the beach! I tried it side by side with a bose sound blue tooth system they sounded so close I went with the iLoud because it was cheaper. No regrets. The guy can definitely play though the bear is a bit creepy.

Just got a new desk to complete my studio.

I might suggest a Zoom LiveTrack 8 It's an 8 channel digital mixer with 24-bit/96kHz 12-track recorder, 4 headphone outputs,EQ, effects, and 12-In/4-Out USB Audio Interface. At $400 it is a bit overkill if you only want 2 channels. There are certainly cheaper options. But if you want to for example record stereo keys and vocals or you want to record multiple players this is a great option. The recorder builtin allows you to record a practice or gig without having to bring a computer. You can then export it to a DAW for mixing. I have my eye on something similar, a TASCAM Model 12 has more pre-amps and in addition to the interface its also a control surface for your DAW.

That guy that does the loopop videos is very thorough. A bit monotone in his delivery though you really have to stop, take a break and go back to it when your attention span wanders. But that was the first place I looked when I bought my MPC One. There are a couple of other really good ones out there. But there are also a lot more bad ones. Some should take a course in public speaking before plastering their incoherent blathering on the internet.

Yes its the YouTube algorithm or we are being purposely steered. Because I too started getting these about 2 days ago. They all have the title formula " reacts to Jethro Tull ". I've received notifications for reactions to locomotive breath by three different people. Just because I listened to the video in the original post. And I didn't 'subscribe' or 'like' the video. Its like when you look at something on sweetwater or amazon and you start seeing ads and emails suggesting that item every day for the next couple months! Growing up in the 70's my top 3 Favorite bands were in descending order were Jethro Tull, Uriah Heap and Bad Company. So I guess I was easy pickings for getting vewers!

I've played with bands off and on since I was 13. A local country band lost their drummer and needed someone to play some booked gigs. Their singer was my neighbor. I was a drummer in middle school band and I borrowed a set. And for my first ever go at it I did quite well. The band liked it so I played several gigs until they found a drummer. I think I played maybe 8-10 gigs. The band were all in their 50's so I figured they would want someone much older. But I enjoyed it so much I kept at it. And about that time I got my first guitar.Then I got a Rhodes in the mid 70's. I have had roles as the front man singer, lead guitarist, keyboard and bassist. I always just played whatever the band needed. I was in the Air Force so I moved around a lot and played in rock, funk, blues and country bands. I never really cared what genre the band was playing. If I liked the people and thought they were a decent band I was on board. I even did some dinner theater in a pit orchestra in Germany. I'm 60 and don't see me stopping when the pandemic ends.

I have been spending a lot of time learning my MPC One and using it with my synths. I also have been practicing the bass guitar and I recently had a decent Windows laptop given to me. Being a Mac and Linux guy for the last 20 years, I have had to re-install all my AU stuff as VST. Which leaves out all the Mainstage / Logic stuff. I also have created a bunch more patches for my Deep Mind 12 and cheated a bit and pulled the trigger on Ultimate Patches. I have also been digging into Reaper more. Its been keeping me busy but my passion is playing with others so I'm chomping on the bit to get back to that. I try not to dwell on it too much because it gets too depressing.