Reezekeys

I was going to recommend Tuki covers, which I've had for my Mackie SRM450s since I bought them in 1999. They've held up perfectly - not a single rip, hole, wear-through, nothing. I stopped using these speakers in 2009 when I got my K8s, but ten years without a scratch or mark is pretty good. Those speakers got banged around a lot. Unfortunately, while Tuki advertises covers for many speakers including Altos, the TX310s don't appear to be included. However I do see a link at the bottom of the page for a custom quote. https://www.tukicovers.com/amp-speaker-covers-bags/alto?sort=alphaasc If the covers they're making today are like the ones I have for my Mackies, trust me - they'll probably outlast the speaker!

Now that you've said it's not a requirement - I say go for it if you're comfortable. If nothing else, making yourself known to patrons at a restaurant or bar might come in handy if you're booked at other spots around town and that's publicized. If people know you by name and enjoy your playing it might lead to more gigs (or less gigs if they don't like your playing 🙂 ). I'll still say - I've never seen this at anybody's gig I've been to. Of course I see band members socializing during breaks, but it's always with friends or others who've approached them. For one thing, I'd be hesitant to approach a table where the guests seemed to be engaged in serious conversation.

I remember a thread here a while back where it was pointed out this is SOP for mariachi bands that play restaurants (or maybe this was in one particular town?). The other thing that comes to mind is the "pass the bucket" gig, or the "bucket on stage." I might be mistaken but I believe the latter is SOP for bands playing in Nashville on Broadway Street downtown. I've only been there once in my life so I could be very much mistaken, but that's what I saw at the places I walked by. IIRC I was told during peak tourist season the nusicians can actually make a decent payday. I'm not sure if they get a guarantee plus bucket bread, or only what's in the bucket.

For me, solo piano gigs are gigs where I play what **I** want to hear! 🙂 You want audio wallpaper? Fine, leave me alone to do my best Bill Evans impressions and we'll get along just fine! I guess I'm not much of an "entertainer", although if someone requests a song I like to play, I'm happy to do that. If there's a decent piano to use, I actually prefer the wallpaper gigs where I'm off in a corner, as isolated from diners' conversations as possible. I am not seeking interaction. Of course I'm polite to everybody but I'm also more than OK if I remain totally anonymous. Walking up to strangers as they dine and chat... nope.

I need to understand: walking around and making small talk during breaks is a requirement of the gig? Are you a featured attraction or just providing audio wallpaper? I've been at this game for more years than I want to admit, and never encountered anything like this (the requirement part, I mean). I would feel uncomfortable if I was eating out with friends or family, then suddenly approached by the pianist, saying... what? "Hi, hope you enjoyed my playing"? "I bet you didn't see that tip jar up there"? "Try the veal"? Actually I'd feel a lot more uncomfortable if **I** was the one doing the approaching! I probably wouldn't agree to do this kind of gig. That's just my deal because making small talk is a skill I lack! Not to mention that break time is my time. That's why it's called a "break." 🙂 Best of luck navigating this. I hope the bread is not "small." 🙂 I'll just add that if I know people at my gigs, I have no problem talking to them during breaks! Don't want to come off as an unsociable curmudgeon any more than I usually do! 🙂

Maybe you trim your nails more often than I do? 🙂

Yes, nails - although those gouges look different from my scatterings. I attribute that to Synthaholic having better technique than me!

You guys are overthinking this. It's nails, pure & simple. Check out my older A800 - I thought the same thing. Then I played my typical voicing for a Db9 chord: Notice in your pics how the black keys don't exhibit these same marks? Neither do mine. That's because their height causes the point of contact to be more on the balls of your fingertips - farther from the nail. I don't think we're entirely cognizant of how hard we're hitting these plastic keys during a typical gig or playing session.

Unless I'm misunderstanding, if the only thing you're doing is editing the pitch bend range, you're not really "wrecking" the existing patch by writing it back to the same place. I see no good reason to write to a new patch - that would result in two patches that differ only in that one parameter.

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/27054/what-ios-apps-can-import-sf2-soundfonts-bs-16i-does-i-know-but-others

Not to mention... no midi support. Even when it was added (10.1? I forgot), most music s/w companies didn't roll out osx versions for a while after that. I remember booting into OS9 a lot with my Titanium 500 G4.

Yes that was the house... but no stream running through any room that I saw in the pics. Maybe they remodeled and got rid of that feature (I was there around 1989, I think). "Taxes are $61,368 a year"... wow, and that was nine years ago!

I use this - it's very full-featured for an iOS app. Probaby overkill for this particular application (a single sample that needs triggering across a range of keys). One of of its many strengths may be the ability to read Logic sampler files and soundfont files. I've used Logic's Autosampler to get instruments not available on iOS onto my iOS devices.

Another non-helpful reply coming, sorry. I thought these speakers had limiting to protect from spikes or overloading their inputs? I would be a little nervous replacing the amp box with one different from what was originally specced for the speaker. Output power, impedances, input sensitivities, etc. can be different. I would think EV designs these boxes with matched components. My .02? Instead of taking a chance on a $220 amp box, spend another $30 for a second TS408! I know from experience with my two QSC K8s that playing left-hand bass at loud volumes is no problem at all with two 8" >1000W speakers. Go stereo young man - the sound of synth pads and strings, patches with reverb & chorus, etc. in stereo will make you happy! 🙂

That makes sense. I watch some videos with not much dialog and hear the music - I figured it was library music and someone was getting paid (though I'm guessing that most library music deals are buyouts now?). Do any PROs monitor YouTube? I know TV cues are tracked by them (I've done a few). I think you need a lot of content out there before you make anything more than pocket change. How the hell do these TrackTribe people get these tracks done if they're giving them away? Everyone is working for free?

Ok I think I've solved part of this mystery. I'm going to post the link for the documentary but be warned, it involves a certain political figure making a whole lotta news here in the USA. Hey, I'm just trying to find out who plays the damn piano on this video! What I'll do is link to the exact time the music starts, and will not embed the you tube: https://youtu.be/wYU2FJxsSeE?t=1137 Compare the documentary music in the link above to the TrackTribe link in my initial post ("Calm Cam") – it is indeed the exact same track. However - I went back and listened to the opening of this documentary. The narrator opens with "some years ago we made a documentary about [you know who] that was never broadcast, but now we think it's time for you to see it." IOW, while the original footage is from 1991, they may have added this music bed recently. I still say this track is different from the other TrackTribe jazz trio tracks (at least the ones I've heard). The voicings are more sophisticated and the pianist has a much looser time feel.

I was watching a documentary on youtube. At one point I noticed the background music was a jazz trio and it sounded pretty nice. I got curious, pointed my iPhone at the TV and called up Shazam to identify it. It came up as "TrackTribe - Calm Cam." I found it posted on its own on youtube. Turns out this "TrackTribe" is some kind of library music outfit that's posted quite a few tracks. They're on YouTube and Bandcamp, maybe other services too. I checked out a few more that are in that jazz trio vein, as well as a few more contemporary tracks, i.e. the typical synths, drum machines, etc. Not close to jazz. I saw this statement on the page: "We make copyright free music for video creators. Founded by life-long friends and guided by the principles of collaboration, innovation, and charity, TrackTribe is owned and controlled by a collective of artists. We are 100% independent and dedicated to giving back to our global community through what connects each of us to each other - music." The jazz trio stuff I've heard so far are all contrafacts of Real Book tunes. Here's one on "Stella By Starlight": This one is a contrafact of "I'm Old Fashioned": Nothing remarkable here, I guess - you're not violating copyright by improvising on the chord changes of a song, right? I have no idea how these guys make money though - subs to their channel perhaps? It seems a little dodgy, but I'm happy to be educated on the jazz library music business. OK here's the slightly strange part - the documentary where I heard the "Track Tribe" track that got me checking them out was produced in 1991! It does not sound like those other tracks I posted. No dis to whoever did those, but this sounds like someone else - with a little more outside take on harmony. Kind of Bill Evans-ish in a few spots, Keith-ish in others, with a less "swingy" feel than the other tracks. It took me until near the middle to realize that this too was a contrafact of Stella. Given this exact track was in a 1991 documentary - I have questions! Like, how did it get to be in this TrackTribe catalog? Is it really copyright free? I saw the home page for TrackTribe and I'm pretty sure the principal guys were not born before 1991! More to the point - is this someone we've all heard of? Ran Blake, Don Friedman, Joanne Brackeen, Jaki Byard, Stanley Cowell, Borah Bergman, etc... just thinking of folks from the 70s-90s whose playing leaned that way. Was this kind of library music being produced back then? Anyway, here it is, I'm curious to know what the jazzers here think (and will entertain guesses as to who this might be!) --->

In theory... piano samples recorded in stereo using the "mid/side" technique should sound great in mono. There must be a reason that sample library producers don't use that method - maybe it doesn't work for close miking?

Yea I should have put the "/s" tag on my post there - I did mean it that way!

Kind of a shame playing a mono-compromised piano through such a nice (and expensive) speaker.

That’s a big deal at this price point. We haven't heard these "new sound sets and wave expansions" yet, nor any details on pricing... or is it a subscription? How many GB of empty memory is provided for adding these expansions? These are the kinds of things that may not concern the typical millenial this keyboard is targeted for. They just want to push a few buttons and hear their "hit song" come out those little speakers! 🙂

It has to be this way with the bigger shows - there are lights and pyros timed to do things at musical hit points. And what looks like live playing or singing can be faking to a track as well, even with the bigger acts that have real musicians on stage. It's showbiz folks!

"GO:KEYS 5 is filled with ready-made chord progressions in various styles, all with the immersive sound of a finished record." Another iteration of a musical product providing, as Buddy Rich famously said, "the assistance." 🙂 At first glance this looks like the hardware equivalent of those Facebook ads promising you can "produce like a pro" with their "midi-paks."

Again, I don't want to need to bring/place/wire up a whole rack vs. a 3 lb computer. But honestly, I"m not so worried about theft, in the situations I'm playing... it's more that, on the off chance it happens, I at least don't want to also have to worry about something like identity theft. Actually, I didn't mean security as in theft - I meant it as in being safe from harm caused by accidentally knocking or tripping into it, or tripping over a cord that plugs into it, etc. In truth I don't use the Studio Flyer for what it's designed for - transporting the laptop! The computer stays with me in a backpack. I'll set it on the Studio Flyer's platform to set up & sound check, then after we're done it goes back into my backpack until showtime. That means I boot it and load my Bidule setup twice on every gig - but many times we sound check in the afternoon then go back to the hotel until evening - bottom line is I'm not leaving the laptop unattended at any venue. It's not that big a deal - the "second setup" goes quick since all my gear is already in place. I know there have been other posts about keeping laptops safe on stage and I guess everyone will find a method that works for them. I can understand anyone's reluctance to bringing a rack case for a tiny computer, but for the road gigs I do I consider it a necessity. Too many variables with different venues and especially stage crews. There's almost always someone right on top of me running lines to my DI or the drum mics, and they're usually stepping all over my cables. I would definitely consider the stages you'll be playing and plan ahead. This is definitely one thing you can put in the minus column when comparing laptop vs hardware keyboard rigs!

Most definitely a different use case than mine! I can see where you'd want a screen.