Reezekeys

Was that the thread where we both posted videos showing a midi monitor's output as we moved the lever? Or maybe the other vid was comparing with a different Roland board that had a higher resolution output. Too many brain cells ago! Hold up - is this the one? ---> For the record, I have no issues at all with my A800 paddle. I started out on a DX7 with two wheels, I used an OBXa with two levers. I had a Technics WSA-1 - that keyboard had BALLS! 🙂 (And three wheels too, as you can see - has there been any controller to offer this number of real-time controllers of this style?). My .02 is that you acclimate to the controls you have and how they work. I guess it's saying something that I have no issues with my A800's low-res paddle implementation (for more details on the resolution aspect, check out the videos in that older thread I linked to above if you have time to kill!). OTOH I'm a piano player that does very occasional pitch bending and "wiggle-wheeling" so I've never felt like those A800 controls hampered my playing or any semblance of "expressiveness" at all.

Yes, USB makes more sense - one cable & done. That's how I usually do it as well – with my newer A800. My older stay-at-home A800's USB is broken, so I'm pretty happy I have those DIN jacks - otherwise the unit would be good for parts only.

The A800 Pro is a controller only and its DIN midi in is pretty useful imo. You can merge data coming in through there with what you're playing on the keyboard and send the combined data out one of the USB midi ports or the DIN midi out. The A800 also needs its DIN midi in if you connect it to a computer over a midi interface and want to use the editor software - bidirectional communication is required for the editor to work.

Not to bust on you in particular – but while what you're saying makes sense, lots of folks here seem to have no problem sending a phasey summed stereo signal to a mono PA, or just the L or R output. Will a $250 DI box make that "last mile" sound better? Go to any gig anywhere and tell me you can hear the quality of the DI boxes used. There's a hell of a lot more going on in the signal chain that can eff up the sound. A shit sound engineer will do a lot more damage than a cheap DI box imo! if you're recording live in a top-flight recording studio, you want your A+ game when it comes to sound quality so maybe one of those Radials makes sense. Those kinds of studios are probably well-equipped with quality DI boxes to begin with - at least I've always found that to be the case the few times I've done those kinds of sessions.

I mentioned that in an earlier reply. Depends on the board but some have sweepable trim contols and/or pads so the XLR input can accomodate -10 or maybe even +4 level signals. That would be the very first thing I'd check.

Nobody here has stated what I think is the obvious, regarding the issue that prompted rockinredeye to start this thread. Do you remember this part?: I don’t really want to pay $250 for a Jensen just for a -15db pad. I think any decent DI box would be ideal – i.e., one does not need to spend $250 to simply pad down a signal. It seems the time-honored tradition here is to help spend as much of someone else's money as possible! 🙂 IMO, "moving the volume slider to about halfway" might be just fine! Yes it's not "proper" gain staging. However, unless the Kurz's analog output stage is inherently noisy, I doubt it's going to have any sonic impact on a gig. The fact remains that going directly into a PA means you're giving up some control over how you might monitor your instrument. I think it's better to use a DI for the obvious reason of having a pass-through to your own monitor setup that you control. However, we haven't heard from rockinredeye as to whether this is a problem for them.

I like this person's answer, which I found with a quick google search: https://community.gigperformer.com/t/1-4-trs-xlr-male-for-audio-interfaces/2582/6

Do the input channels on the PA have a pad? Or at least a trim control you can adjust? If so and you've reduced the input sensitivity as much as you can, then yes a passive DI should reduce the signal level. You might try a mono (TS) cable from an output on the Kurz to a DI, then feed the PA mixer from the DI and see if that helps. I don't know enough about how DIs with transformers function with a very hot input though - could be you'd oversaturate the transformers. Any around to borrow and try?

I read an article I found in a google search saying the owner of that club paid $30K to have the piano moved. I'm assuming that's the total of the shipping and what's depicted in the video - renting a crane and having a crew of what looks like 9 or 10 guys working, not forgetting having to remove and replace a window! This same article said top prices for the tix for Herbie's show there was $300 - I can believe it. I would also believe that the club lost money on his appearance!

Sounding good there, Dave! I had to revisit the song, but only know the stock changes... some nice subs going on there! A few years back Herbie played at a jazz club in Portsmouth NH. Check this out: https://htv-streaming-otfp.hearst.io/5d5d2ab0-a0e3-4e1c-a54d-7cdf04a4e446/video_rover_16x9_240p_sd_1655212639_11831,video_rover_16x9_360p_sd_1655212639_81787,video_rover_16x9_720p_hd_1655212639_93103,video_rover_16x9_480p_sd_1655212639_10837/master.m3u8?subtitles=en

I have small monitors connected to a Bluetooth amp or will use a headphone. It’s more than adequate for what I’ll be doing. You've done this already, or played a similar setup? I'm pretty sure bluetooth audio doesn't work for playing virtual instruments live - unless you can handle a lot of latency.

I didn't know we were in an episode of "dueling interviews." I'm a long-time Stern listener (not so much these days) and enjoy his interviews, but he's obviously not a musician so the line of questioning is going to be different. Also, he and Billy are neighbors and long-time buds (many of his subjects are his personal friends) so you do sometimes feel more of the camaraderie in the conversations than with Beato, who is sometimes meeting his subjects for the first time. But that's only an observation, not meant to suggest it makes a particular interview "better" or "worse." I'm happy there are both of those guys and I'm not expecting either one to tick every box on my "questions that must be asked" list.

This is interesting - the A800 manual says it draws 300ma. I just googled the Keystage manual and see this: By this account the A800 should be less power-hungry.

OK I get it - the original USB2 CCK with just the USB jack to lightning, no power. I have the 9G iPad but the newer USB3 CCK with power. My A800 won't run off my iPad's battery, the CCK has to be connected to power. I would probably connect it to power even if it did work without, just for peace of mind.

Just to be clear (for me!): your CCK (and Keystage) is powered from the iPad's battery only, or is it connected to power? My A800 throws up the "not enough power to run this device" alert unless the CCK is powered.

I can only imagine. I play jazz, funk & r&b and used to play weddings – and at my last visit to an ENT was told I''m a candidate for hearing aids. That's from doing gigs with Mackie and QSC speakers behind me, not a stack of Marshallls, Sunns or Leslies!

His Wikipedia page says he's still running that restaurant.

Yea I heard his shows were not exactly eardrum-friendly! That's a hell of a lot of sound coming from two people.

I know we're getting a bit off the specific thread topic, but since it's become a more general Lee Michaels thread... In 1969 I was 13 and Lee's rendition of Stormy Monday was on heavy rotation at my house! That one record gave me the itch to get a Hammond and Leslie, but it was not to be. Thanks to youtube I can relive my past! This track still sounds good to me -

Apples and oranges indeed. Sure let AI do all the math and physics it wants to. You did start this thread with a post about it doing a credible Bill Evans ("actually enjoyable" was your description), so I've been assuming we're discussing its artistic bona fides and posted as such. If there were humans charged with grading that particular "Bill Evans" track, it sounds to me like they know little about what good jazz is supposed to sound like!

It's definitely true. I found out Sunday from someone close to him. The family asked to not put it on social media then.

My external SSD experience is mainly buid-it-yourself - the latest being a bare NVMe gumstick in an enclosure I got at Amazon. These SSDs are designed to generate heat as part of normal operation, otherwise the enclosures I've seen wouldn't come with either aluminum heatskinks, thermal pads, or both. If the enclosure feels warm, that's good - it means the heat is being carried off the chips on the SSD! For peace of mind I do prefer an aluminum enclosure with both a heatsink and thermal pad included. I got the one linked below last August and put a Crucial 3P 1TB NVMe SSD inside. (Wow - the SSD was $40 when I bought it back then, now it's almost $70!) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BXSY5GZH/ My samples are all on this drive and so far, no issues at all. The enclosure feels barely warm when in use.

Great jazz improvisations - the kind that advance the art form or just illuminate a particular player's singular talent - often come from "mistakes", or breaking "rules." I would be interested in seeing how an AI can be programmed to do that. Introduce "randomness"? Maybe, but remember it's humans who will be the judge – and there's over 100 years of history that includes listening to the greats like Armstrong, Ellington, Bird, Miles, Coltrane, Ornette, etc. I also suspect that their advancements, even if sparked by "mistakes", also came from methodical work and trying out new ideas. How does an AI decide which ideas "sound good" or not? There's also the fact that many of these advancements come not from individual expression, but from a synergy of multiple players reacting to each other. The best jazz I can think of is that made from collective effort - Miles' two great quintets, Coltrane's classic quartet, Duke Ellington orchestra, etc. I wonder how that get coded into an AI program. Even if an AI can someday paint a Mona Lisa or produce a credible Bill Evans piano track, by reason of how it was produced I maintain it cannot have the same value as the human-produced source it draws on. If anyone can click on a few buttons and get a Mona Lisa or a Coltrane soundalike track, what does that say about our capacity to honor or enjoy human creative work? It's gonna be a boring world. Am I imagining it or are some folks actually excited about this prospect? Of course, in the end artistic value is in the eye and ear of the beholder. Given the dumbing down of popular culture, I have no doubt AI will be able to paint pictures that can hang in the walls of a Motel 6 or play muzak in a department store. Produce a credible Bill Evans improv? I very much doubt it. Let's say for the sake of argument that AI does indeed reach that milestone - I might listen to it out of curiosity, I might be impressed by what the AI did, but the feeling I get from listening to the real Bill Evans would be entirely absent. And that "feeling" is pretty much the only reason I enjoy listening to jazz!

Rick's click-baity titles are annoying but I know to ignore them. What's really annoying is click-baity titles that suck you into wasting time on a video you wished you hadn't clicked on - you feel suckered. For myself, that's not the case with Rick's videos. I laugh at the titles and click on - and haven't felt suckered yet.

A desert island disc for me, from Brazilian musical royalty and featuring some very tasty piano from Dave Grusin. Herbie is on another track from this album (a fantastic version of "Brasil") that iirc won a grammy. Every tune on this CD is a gem.