Reezekeys

Nice fat sound you got there! Three basses seems like enough to do the job too. There's another way to do this – a small amount of LFO modulating pitch at slightly different rates on each synth voice. I would put a delay on the offset of the LFO so the attacks are all together and in tune.

I'm gonna guess that swirly sustain on the bass is eight DXs... yes the TX816 which I saw a lot of in studios at that time. You take one patch, put it on all eight modules, and detune them slightly from one another. That's the "swirl." This was done with many FM sounds, to fatten them up.

From what I can tell by looking at those screenshots and reading the descriptions of features, MIDI Layers appears to be quite similar to Midiflow in most functions, though it seems to accomplish them in a different way. Midiflow has midi "channel strips" where incoming midi is altered by a multitude of filtering and remapping options. From my quick look, it seems like each app has a few features the other lacks. I'm sure I would have been able to do what I need with MIDI Layers but for whatever reason, I found Midiflow first. At this point I would probably advise anyone needing these features to go with MIDI Layers for a simple reason: the dev for Midiflow is MIA. The app was last updated three years ago. The dev's support forum is locked and the most recent message appears to be from August 2021. I googled the dev's name and only came up with one old tweet. Despite this, Midiflow has been rock-solid on my setup, so for now I'm staying with it. If and when it breaks, MIDI Layers may be an option. I think these midi routing apps are useful for AUM, and maybe for Camelot Pro or Keystage users, because in my case I can load everything I need for the gig in AUM at the beginning of the gig. I don't want to change AUM "scenes" (their term) in the middle of a set, where AUv3 plugs are unloaded and different ones are loaded in - that takes a little time and might affect stability. Midiflow presets change instantly; by using those presets to rechannelize and direct a midi source to different AUM midi inputs, I can route midi to any destination in AUM with a program change from my keyboard. It's worked great for me, so far at least.

Totally spitballing here... what if you rented a small truck that could fit the piano and drove it yourself? Hire local piano movers at each end. Maybe that would be affordable? Obviously you'd want pro movers to get it from the house and secured safely in the truck - and the same when you get it to your place.

(much more detail at the link) I posted it here for two reasons: One is that this app's very existence would seem to support the premise that AUM is not as well-suited for live use as those other two (where setting up splits/layers to play from a single keyboard is already well supported); and two, to the extent that AUM is not as optimized for live use as those others, maybe this is the way to optimize it. So AUM+MIDI Layers may be a viable and more suitable alternative to Camelot Pro and Keystage than is AUM alone, and might even change which of these paths one would take. Peoples' definition of "well supported" might vary, but as concerns AUM - each channel strip (which is where you'd load an AUv3 or IAA instrument) is easily editable as to what midi channel to respond to, control change #s to ignore or pass, also key range and transposition, and finally which midi messages to pass or ignore. One example here, my piano (where I didn't need to restrict any of those parameters except the midi receive channel):

I've often fantasized about having a secure retirement where I play strictly for fun – where gigs are with friends, great players, and we play only the music we want - for an adoring crowd of course. 🙂 In this scenario, I happily work for free. My (probably low) money goes to a responsible high school kid with a car, who transports and sets up my gear, then does the reverse at the end of the night. The zero-schlep life – one can dream. The "secure retirement" part will probably be the reason my dream remains one. 🙂

I agree. A 100% Omnisphere setup running standalone would not be my choice for covering the kind of material the OP mentioned in the first post. You're putting all your "synth sound" eggs in one basket. Omnisphere is of course a great app with amazing sounds but I have a feeling the Logic/Mainstage collection is just more diverse, since it includes multiple synths, each with their own strengths. Though it probably doesn't matter in the studio, for live performance I would also rate Mainstage or Gig Performer more flexible in terms of being able to instantly call up different combinations of sounds with controls mapped to hardware exactly the way you want - these apps do that real well. Keysmcgee, if you're dropping that kind of cash for Omnisphere, what's another $30, really? You can run Omnisphere inside Mainstage, or maybe run it standalone if you think that suits your needs better - but you'll have all those Logic sounds that are built for the kind of music you want to do. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Oh yea, "one-tripping" would not have been possible without my trusty Remin "Kart-a-Bag" collapsible hand truck! Still - and to get a little back OT - a heavy keyboard would have been impossible for me to deal with. The hand truck held the speakers and an accessory case of pedals & cords. I balanced that with one hand as I traveled down the sidewalks and navigated curbs. My free hand carried an SKB case with the keyboard.

And I felt aggrieved that I had to park half a block away (must have been about 80 yards) from the pub for last night's gig. To clarify, I went looking for a parking spot after I had carried my CP70 upstairs to my loft! That's just the deal when you live in New York and can't afford to garage your car. My loft was nowhere near a true residential area - there was no street parking near,me where you could leave your car overnight; you had to hunt for a space where it was legal, and that was always far away. It's pretty much impossible to do gigs in New York if you can't be a "one-tripper." Once I had a stereo piano sample to enjoy playing (the Roland "Session" piano, ca. 1998) and my two 51 lb (23kg) Mackie speakers, that wasn't easy! Going to a super-light 61-key controller and computer helped a lot. Ditching the Mackies for QSCs helped more. Now I hardly play in New York City anymore - I'm just an old crank that wants the lightest possible rig for any gig I do!

I love the idea that there's no demand for the elevator after 5pm. Not in that building. The area was zoned for manufacturing, not residences. Technically we were there illegally. It's what many musicians in New York City did in the 1970s and 80s: rent loft spaces like that, install bathrooms and kitchens so they could live there, and proceed to play music all day and night! A lot of the jazz greats of that era had lofts - Chick Corea, Mike Brecker, Fred Hersch and Sam Rivers are some of the names I know who lived in lofts. I left out the part in my CP70-carrying story where I went back to my car and spent 40 to 60 minutes searching for street parking for my car at – least ten blocks away, where it was legal. Ah, the joys of living in Manhattan, New York City!

Here is a concept I embraced a long time ago. I'm a piano player who switched completely to unweighted boards but instead of coming at it like it was a total drag, I plowed through and adjusted my playing force accordingly and guess what? Now I find it preferrable to a heavy weighted action keyboard. It didn't take that much time either. What counted most for me was the repetition speed I could achieve and the degree of "springyness"... some feeling of resistance that I could get on with. After that I just modulated my playing force downwards and things were cool. Of course nothing beats a well-regulated Steinway or Yamaha - those can feel like butter, and I love getting the opportunity to play them. However, weighted controllers - the ones I've tried anyway – just don't do it for me. I'll take my A800 anytime.

Sorry... I'm just a soldier in this army! I remember hearing the taxes or fees for US bands playing in Canada were pretty steep. Looks like Detroit is the closest we'll be to Canada. The calendar should fill up with us doing more USA dates until the end of this year.

Folks, it looks like we have sourced an A800 for the tour! I did not expect that to happen so quickly. My impression was that most rental companies provide Motifs or Nords, but maybe the younger laptop beat-makers have pushed these places to provide controllers now. Thanks for the replies and offers of assistance - and maybe I'll see a few of you on our final journey through the UK? Our itinerary is here.

It was a great suggestion and I thank you for it! I was mostly thinking out loud there. I remember hearing how brexit screwed up a lot of things for musicians and goods traveling between the UK and Europe, so that came to my mind. In the USA, 210 Euros is about $228 US and that would be an incredible price for a brand new A800 - I think they are over $400 here - IF you can find one!

Thanks everyone for your help so far - I will forward this thread to our manager. That A800 in Spain looks good, brand new for £257 - but shipping and import charges to a non-EU country may raise that price?

I have those same 3AM memories - of lifting a Yamaha CP70 up a flight of stairs to my loft in New York City. A commercial loft building with a real "elevator operator" – a human whose full-time gig was sitting in this freight elevator all day carrying passengers and stuff up and down. At 5PM he shut it down, locked it and went home. Not a great situation for a musician doing gigs with a CP70 and Rhodes!

It looks like I may not be able to bring my A800 on an upcoming UK tour. All because our plane tickets have us coming back on Lufthansa and we just found out our "Star Alliance Gold" status does not get us the same baggage allowance we always have on United. Our tour manager in the UK is also doing research on this but I thought I would put it out here as well. If anyone knows of one for sale or rent, or where we might be able to find one, please get in touch! Thanks much. We start our tour in three weeks in Manchester and are covering a lot of England and Scotland. This is the final AWB UK tour - the band is calling it quits this year.

IMO, and maybe contrary to some folks' opinions here, whether or not the audience recognizes a difference is not the point. It is (again imnsho), never the point! The audience will never hear what we feel as we play our instrument of choice. 52 lbs is still a non-starter though. Maybe you haven't done a wedding gig at the River Club in Brooklyn, NY - where you load in up a narrow wrought-iron staircase up the side of the building through the kitchen (think going up a fire escape!). That was fun one winter day with a glazing of ice on those bare metal steps!

Are you sure you really need those extra features on the 2700? Versus them simply being "nice to have"? I think we can all be seduced by features, looking at a spec sheet. "FAS" doesn't quite have the ring of "GAS", but there's some similarity, I think. Just spitballing, but maybe there's a way to integrate a tablet with some of those "extras." That will bring the total weight of the PC4 up by... one pound! 🙂

You're closing in on $1000 right there (GP, Omnisphere and Kontakt). Versus $30 for Mainstage. That's how you "start out"?! 🙂 The Logic sounds that come with Mainstage will probably work just fine for this genre of music. For someone starting out on the laptop route, it just makes more sense to me - this package has it all, you're not going down the time sinkhole (and expense) of researching, auditioning & buying 3rd-party sounds. If what comes with MS isn't making it, then go with the Lamborghini libraries! Exactly what MS does best, iMO. I'll use Kontakt for my acoustic piano & rhodes. You may find everything you'll ever need in Alchemy.

In my experience, schlepping gets old faster than we do. However, if your wallet and back can handle it, my advice is to do what makes you happy on the bandstand. At the end of the day that's what it's all about. I've been doing gigs in the NYC area most of my life and remember humping >100 lbs of Mackie PPAs up & down flight of stairs to enjoy $50 gigs with great players. I made my peace with small & light controllers and went with a laptop 18 years ago, now for local hits it's an iPad. Organ is not my instrument and I know players that are primarily organists can be very discriminating wrt keyboard feel and sound. I also know IK has B3X for iOS devices, and that it's a pretty well-regarded app (from the posts I read here anyway). The knock on laptops regarding setups that involve cables, dongles, OS versions, etc. is the age-old hard vs soft debate we have here. Personally I don't find running a USB cable from my Roland controller to my iPad's CCK, then hooking up the power cube, to be that big a deal. Laptops can be more of an issue of course but if you're talking free vs ~$4K, it might be worth a try, don't you think? Why not do a few gigs with your laptop and see how it goes?

Looks like they're up to V 10 now... of course it's a great price even if it's older version instruments, but I wonder if you can get updates on them? https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/v-collection/overview

Oh yea, Alchemy is easily worth the what, $30? Boatloads of great sounds for EDM & pop. Also, Autosampler changed my gigging life - making exs sampler instruments I could load into my iPad and iPhone. The only drag is there are too many sounds! I'm in a Logic session auditioning sounds, the list scrolls on and on, and I sometimes lose my flow - I suppose there are worse things to deal with though!

Anyone know if Mainstage bought on its own comes with all the sounds included with Logic? Or a subset?

DAWs are not for playing live. Mainstage is, and it's great bang-for-the-buck. However as far as the sounds, a "jack of all trades" app is not going to give you the maximum quality a laptop system can do. Not saying there aren't good sounds there - it all depends how you use them. For example I probably wouldn't go with their stock acoustic piano for a solo piano project. Might be perfectly fine in a band mix though. For the money you can't go wrong with it and even disregarding the sounds it's a great way to build a live playing setup. I say this as someone who doesn't use it, BTW – I'm recommending the competition! Gig Performer is also a very powerful live playing app and has a few devotees here, as well as the dev stopping by occasionally as well - so that would be a worthy purchase, though I don't think it comes with sounds like Mainstage.