KingstonCrim

Last music-related purchase, the Eventide H3000 Factory plug-in. Most recent instrument that actually makes sound on it's own: Suzuki M-37 Melodion.

Uh, yeah. Another Minnesota/Frontier customer here. We are also in a semi-rural and wooded location just out of reach (until recently) for most other providers like Comcast and Xfinity. Stuck on Frontier's piss-poor DSL lines... until today! Last year Mid-Continental (MIDCO) laid new fiber optic cables out to our area and we have an installer coming out this afternoon to hook us up. So we should go from Frontier's 5.5 MB DSL to 100MB fiber by the end of today. Also in our bundle, we're shutting off DiSH Network and going with MIDCO cable and the combined upgrade will also save us ~$100/mo. I will say that the DiSH Customer Service has been very good, although our reception not always so. We've already had the dish on the rooftop repositioned and re-aimed at a different satellite location to improve reception, but it's still spotty aiming through some neighbor's trees, and of course it gets Complete Signal Loss when heavy rain or snow hits. We're very excited.

Recently upgraded to the Focusrite Clarett 8Pre interface for my new on-stage mixer. We're putting my old 80's synth-wave band back together and I needed something to handle my vintage synths which would also let me process effects live through Mainstage3. Thunderbolt = near-zero latency! Nice thing about it is how it works with or without an attached computer as a standalone mixer. The Output feeds directly into my Spacestation3 for a nice gig rig. It took me a few sessions to get the hang of the software interface which is amazingly versatile. I'll be testing it out live outdoors for the first time this weekend with my church gig band.

@ Ham&EGZ: I'm curious what cables you selected as replacements... I've been using a pair of very old cables to feed the SS that I built myself probably 20 years or more ago, good quality Belden cable with metal connectors I probably got from Radio Shack or some other electronic store at the time. They seem to work just fine and I've never had problems to speak of, but I'm left wondering if there's something I can do better? I haven't totally bought into the whole Mogami/Monster hype but I've got an open mind about it and I'm sure they're great from a reliability standpoint but I wonder if they really improve the sound (& I know this is a ripe topic for a thread of it's own!). Sweetwater carries many brands... ProCo, Monster, Hosa, Planet Waves, Rapco, Mogami, etc and I am considering a cable upgrade at some point just to see. So which ones did YOU go with?

I really love the sound of the Neo Vent through my SS3 it truly brings the Vent into 3-dimensional reality for everyone. The one adjustment though I found I really needed to make was to back off on the mic "Distance" control a bit from where I'd previously had it. The effect was somewhat too pronounced when I had the knob set at 9-10 o'clock. Now it's set at about 2 o'clock and sounds more natural to my ears. Oh, and I also played a gig this weekend with 3 guitars and SS held it's own just fine.

Dave, I too used my old P-120 on the last gig and it's by far the best that piano has sounded when pushed through the SS. I believe you will be pleased with the change. We played last weekend in a smallish club but with two guitarists the volume wants to creep up. SS had no trouble cutting through the mix, and we were just using stage volume for instruments, with only vocals running through the house PA. The SS sounded fat and sassy and makes playing keyboards fun all over again! The other guys in the band like showing off this little wonder amp. The drummer had some muso friends there and I got the same "Is that a mini-leslie?" from one of them. Had to try and explain the physics in a minute or less while we were setting up. As nice as the SS makes the keys sound good alone on its own, to me the best result is in a mix with other players that it really shines the most.

Last Sunday at my regularly scheduled church gig, our bass player was out of town for a family funeral so I planned to cover for him with some LH bass parts. This smallish church (250-300) has powered speakers suspended from the ceiling, and a largely unused 15" Mackie sub sitting on the floor near the organ console. I decided to take advantage of this otherwise unused sub and try it with the SS3. I didn't have the exact correct cables but made a workaround by running the PC3 outs first directly into the Mackie sub, then taking the balanced XLR hi-pass out (>125Hz) into my little Behringer Eurorack mixer at unity gain and then the mixer outs (unbalanced) into the SS3. I have to say it really did sound nice and added a lot of "Oomph" (to use a technical term) to the sound. Just playing around with some of the PC3 bass-heavy presets was much fun. Of course I had to test out one of the nice Pipe Organ setups on the Kurz by jamming on a little Tocatta in Dm... loved those 32' pipe sounds!! Sounded way better than the church's real organ. I'm not a professional organist, but for few moments I felt like one! (I used EvilDragon's Gothic Pipe Organ setup, a favorite of mine.) I had myself running at what I thought was a comfortable volume level, and I was seated about 25 feet away from the SS3/Subwoofer stack so I could feel the bloom. But the house sound guy helped me adjust downward to achieve better balance. He turned the sub down from 12 o clock to about 9 o clock, and brought my feed into the SS3 down about -10db on the Master fader from unity. It took me some time to adjust to this lower level, but it really did balance out nicely once we got the guitar mic'd properly and the singers into the house mix. The AP sounded better than ever. They record every service and afterwards while packing stuff up we usually get to hear the playback. I don't usually like playing AP on my PC361, probably because without the weighted keys it doesn't "feel" like playing a real piano, but in the playback mix it sounded great. Ironically, on one of the the other songs where I did actually play on a real AP, it sounded much less real than the PC361 did on the recording. I don't think I'll buy a sub just yet, but if it's there waiting to be used, gotta love it.

Man, I wish I could go see that show! If anyone happens to video it, please post the link!

http://www.sixtygig.com/uploads/gallery/album_67/gallery_1071_67_14128.jpg

I have basically 3 gigging situations that keep me busy, and last night I finally got to try out the SS in my third setting, the deep roots reggae band. We do tend to get a little loud at times with two guitarists, an aggressive drummer and a bass player with a full Ampeg SVT-4 PRO rack system (with both 15" and 18" cabinets) so I knew I'd have a lot to keep up with. This was a venue we've played many times so I was familiar with it, but I'm so used to the sound of my stereo SRM450 speakers on each side of me that it took me some time to get accustomed to the new blend on stage... the SS created quite a change in atmosphere, the keyboards really cutting through like never before, and it allowed me to try some different nuances that could finally actually be heard in detail. I do plenty of horn lines, a wide variety of synth parts, and lots of KB3 organ. Everything had more punch than ever before and I'm especially in love with how it does on the KB3/Vent sounds. Absolutely kept up with everyone on stage. Even the drummer (the band leader) commented extensively on how much better and cleaner the keyboards sounded last night. His only less-than-glowing comment was he thought they seemed a little sharp (not pitch) and maybe harsh sounding, but he was also sitting in direct line of fire from the side Width speaker so he wasn't getting the proper blend. Still he really liked the improvement. So I'm batting 3-for-3 with this new amp. Nothing but positive praise from everyone who hears it. (But you all knew that anyway...!)

No question about it... that thing is dope.

What if instead of the Sweetwater/Hosa cables running directly from Sub to Spacestation, couldn't you also run through a direct box like the Radial ProD2 to couple the XLR balanced cables with 1/4" TS unbal that feeds the SS? Shouldn't that also work?

Yesterday morning I played through the SS at the church gig once again, and afterwards a random person came up to me and specifically commented on how very nice the keyboard sounded. I mentioned I was working with a new amp system and he just said "I don't know whatever it was but it just sounded really great". I had used a Wurlitzer EP sound (Kurz PC3 - #25 Woodstock Clunker), a pedal steel, some orchestral brass and percussion, and a lowstrings drone with triangle up top so I got to use a nice variety of sounds. The sound man said he barely had to put any of my sound in the overhead mix, as it filled the room so well just from the SS by itself and I was not turned up that loud at all, with a drummer and a bass player and three singers. They also have a (mostly unused) Mackie 15" sub sitting up there. One day soon I'll get the appropriate cables and try coupling it up with the SS and see how that sounds too. This little box is just too much fun.

Finally got to try it out in a live bar gig last evening, and (no surprise anymore) the little box kicked @ss. For AP I brought my not too fancy old Yamaha CP-120 which sounded absolutely great even without any additional processing or EQ. I'll be happy with that. My favorite though is the way it handles the Leslie sims. I use a PC361 for the KB3 organs, with some sounds using the internal Leslie EFX and a some going out through the Ventilator. The organ/Leslie patches all sounded so real with plenty of punch. I found on my Ventilator I needed to back off on the Distance knob which I used to run about 9-10 o'clock, but that was just too intense on the rotary effect so I adjusted to more like 2 o'clock and it felt about right. Even our drummer who was sitting directly in the line of fire from the side speaker commented at the endand I even asked him if the Mid-Side signal ever sounded strange at all but no he said it all sounded good to him. I had placed a single hard surface against the carpeted wall that the SS was sitting about a foot away from, just to get better reflection. The other side was out into the open air aimed directly at the drums. The SS was also sitting right next to the bass amp/speaker which was a little challenging at times, but the SS was always able to cut through. Plenty of good comments afterward on my soundI think now it's safe to sell the old powered monitors. As we were packing up I noticed that my 1/4" input plugs to the SS felt loose, the plugs seemed to wobble a bit which I hadn't noticed previously. I asked the bass player if my little amp happened to fall over or anything while they were placing the bass cabinet, and said no nothing happened. It almost made me think it tipped backward and landed on the input plugs. But it sounded fine all night and doesn't seem to not perform, so maybe there's no damage but I was surprised the plugs wiggles around so much. Anyone else notice this?

I can see the point of the baffle in certain situations like on outdoor gigs where there's no walls to otherwise reflect the difference channel around so maybe the baffle would help "directionalize" it a bit towards your audience. But for many indoor rooms, I too was thinking it might be defeating the purpose of the design. But those black ones from Menard's do look cool, like wings. I might get them anyway, just for experimenting with and to have on hand of rmy two confirmed outdoor gigs coming up this summer.

That looks great from the pic. Where did you get the hinge material for the plexi panels (or or the hinges generally available wherever plexiglass is sold)?

I too was wishing to see a pic. But in lieu of that, do you place it so it surrounds the back and two sides? And roughly how far away from the SS to the surfaces of the trifold? TIA...

I'm finding too that a lot of my Kurzweil Setups need to be tweaked just a bit, often dialing down the reverb a little. It's like hearing the keyboards in HD stereo where a little effect goes a long way, therefore probably sounding cleaner and less muddled in the FOH. It's really nice hearing the keys they way I always wanted them to be heard in a room with other players. Played my church gig yesterday morning with it for the first time and it felt just right. I could hear my various sounds distinctly in the ambient mix. Afterwards I stayed just a little late after most had left and ran through some of the Kurzweil's built-in demo songs while I walked around the empty church hall listening from all angles and it never lost it's sparkle. In an empty church, it's a pretty "live" room. It was hard to call what I heard true "stereo" in the back of the house in the sense of separate L & R panning info hitting each ear, but there was a definite clarity and aliveness to the sound.

So last evening I finally got the chance to try it out in a band rehearsal. I only brought one keyboard, a Kurzweil PC361 along with a Ventilator for some KB3 routed through the Aux output, mixed together in an $89 Behringer mixer and out to the SS. The first song we worked on has no typical keyboard part, though I do cover a prominent flute line. I use the Kurzs #423 Solo Flute patch which always sounded great to my ears through my home studio monitors, though I was never quite as happy with it in a live mix but this time when the flute part came in it was crystal clear, with all the nuance and subtlety I was used to hearing at home through my JBL monitors or through my ATM-50 headphones. It was just this beautiful sound, hovering there in the air sounding like, well, a well-amplified flute. Though not overly loud, it had no problem cutting through the guitars and drums. The rest of the songs required mostly Hammond/KB3 sounds, some EP, and one where I use the Vox Contintental sound. I got nothing but good comments from everyone on how great the thing sounded. We were rehearsing in the drummers finished carpeted basement, and I was located at the entrance to the room with the SS behind meeffectively out in the adjoining hallway and not even in the same room as us, but it could be plainly heard throughout. They were of course all intensely curious about this crazy little amp. When I told them it was called a Spacestation they all said it looked more like a Space Heater (which when I thought about it later isnt such a bad name for it either!). I think this is where the SS best shines, in the context of a live band setting. It should be perfect for our small club gig next week (seats about 100 people) where the house PA is only used for vocals, everything else is stage amps. Finally heres an amp that made the keyboards sound they I always wanted them to sound, with all the detail intact. Nice job, Aspen. Its a keeper.

SS3 came to me yesterday, I'm still putting it through it's paces here at home where I can't turn it up much to really check it out. Tomorrow luckily I'll have two rehearsals with two different types of bands so will welcome the chance to try it out in a more live setting to see how it responds. It sounds nice already, but I think if I were doing a solo gig I'd probably have to spring for the subwoofer to round out the sound more. Even my little JBL 305s have more rumble when I A/B them with the SS. Fits nicely in the SKB case, though I think the wheels could probably stand to be a bit bigger for this much weight. Snug fit yeah, fits best sideways for me with the side speaker facing up so I can grab into the frame to pull SS up and out.

My SW rep emailed me today too, saying mine just shipped and will be here in 2-3 business days. Nice to hear!

OMG, I remember seeing one of those in a local music store here, must have been in the early 70s. Had black light tubes in it too, IIRC. Great find!

Awesome! Best news I've heard all week. My SKB rolling case for this already arrived here on Wednesday so I'm all ready for when it gets here. Thanks for the encouraging update, Aspen.

I've got some outdoor gigs coming up this summer. One is on a large semi-enclosed stage but the others are more out in the wide open with nothing to reflect from. Anyone have any practical experience using the SSv3 in an outdoor environment yet?

I'm afraid I heard that story on NPR too this morning. I'm thinking my SSv3 is likely on one of those anchored vessels... Don't these dock owners realize that it's not only about the economic impactbut the quality of music across the U.S. could diminish if they don't settle this.