Iconoclast

Finally, something I feel qualified to talk about After years of having my taste buds slowly destroyed by ever increasing doses of hops from the IPA craze, I've started to go back to pilsners. I won't recommend any specific brands as mostly, if drinking beer, I stick to micro brews. But I find the more delicate and floral flavors of a good Pilsner to be a good break from the IPA onslaught, and you can drink 2 without being Scheiße faced, unlike most east coast IPA's. I guess I thought the IPA thing was awesome until the East Coast craze started and the next thing I knew, beer tasted like orange juice and was sweet with 9% alcohol. I still really tend west coast in my IPA's...think Stone or Lagunitas or something more amber and clear and less yellow,hazy and citrusy. For wine? Tonight I'm returning to Cs which I find to be a great value, from Substance Winery in Washington State. I've actually never found anything from that Winery that isn't good although some of their stuff can get expensive. They're easily recognizable as they name and label their wines with 2 letters like they were elements from the periodic chart. https://houseofsmith.com/brands/substance-wines/ I'm also a big tequila drinker and lately I've been enjoying Casa Amigos Reposado or Maestro Dobel Diamante Extra Anejo. Both are reasonably priced and best enjoyed at room temp, straight up, a sip at a time. Don't be afraid https://maestrodobel.com/diamante/ https://www.casamigos.com/en-us/our-tequilas

If you play slower, ambient type stuff, it's very useful. Certainly for the standard Blade Runner CS80 type stuff. But I've also found that if you're doing pads behind simple slower songs, you can make your part a bit more interesting by playing on chord inversions and playing with the poly AT. Think of backing something like Chris Isaak or John Mayer where you're stuck in 2-4 chords for 5 minutes while the guitar player wanks around or sings in boringly breathy voice. You can make it a lot more interesting with poly AT.

Comes with casters! Not expensive. Doesn't fold down but it's only 2 thumb screws to disassemble / assemble into 3 very small pieces. Stable as a rock once put together. Pretty cheap. This ones black but I think it comes in a couple different colors and available accessories for a 2d tier that I have not bought/tried out. The casters immediately proved their worth allowing me to build my rig long before I knew where I would be on the stage and very easily rolling everywhere. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079YWMH91/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For $150 I figured I'd take a chance. But I'm still going to send it back. Any of you guys who have the Omega Stand see the same issues at the adjustable leg joints?

Unless you're just barely tweaking, I try to stay out of program edit mode. I understand enough about VAST to know that you really need a Phd in VAST to be in there. I've found I can get way farther/faster via other boards/vsts. On the other hand, I think the Multi mode is really simple powerful and intuitive. So if they already got the sound/program in there, and I think the forte and k2700 has some ridiculous number of quality presets, it's great for that. If it's something that I can just piece together multi's, it's great for that. It's disappointing because I think VAST is incredibly powerful, and sounds great, and I love their keybeds. But, the layout and user interface is literally trapped in the 70's but with a nice color screen. I mean...numbered addresses for effect blocks? If VAST just had a more menu driven interface and got rid of all the numbers for objects that would go a long way to making it more usable. I still haven't tried the new editor but if that could possibly work I think that would be a pretty amazing leap forward too. There's some guys here who can make it absolutely sing, but I don't have that kind of time available.

My dad flew A-7's and A-10s at DMAFB and I went to high school and college there. They are still building F-16's actually! The USAF has very dwindling number now and I see more and more F-35's. My acquaintances who've flown the "Fat Boy with Magic Pants" seem to like it now that they've worked out most of the kinks in it. Although it's not the pure fun sports car that the F-16 was, it evidently does some pretty high tech shit! My assignments were in Germany(Hahn), Moody AFB GA., Nellis AFB NV., Kunsan AB ROK, Luke AFB AZ with a whole lot of Persian Gulf destinations in between (Al Dhafra UAE, King Abdul Aziz SA., Al Udied Qatar, Balad Iraq. I did some work with the Taiwanese Air Force and spent some time there.

Pedals from R to L: -Dedicated leslie slow/fast: plugged into the Nord but passed through to Mainstage when using VST organs -Sustain: plugged into the Nord -Programmable midi switcher (Morningstar MC6 in this case) for patch up/down. Plugged into the USB Hub -Master Volume for the entire rig. Plugged into the Nord but passed through and mapped to Mainstage's Main volume slider. The Nord's output goes to the I/O device and then back into Mainstage so the pedal controls volume there. -Expression. Plugged into the Nord but passed through. Different uses depending on the program. The MC6 plugs directly into the USB bus so you can use it with any keyboard. It runs on it's own channel so no matter how I change the rig it always commands a patch up or down. You can also use for basically ANYTHING else (leslie, sustain, or anything that accepts a midi command) but I find that it's a little tight to be using the middle switches unless I'm looking directly at it, which I never am. So I just use the corner buttons. There's a lot of options for this kind of equipment and of course I bought something that is expensive overkill. But it's 110% programmable and a neat bit of kit. Tech21 and numerous other companies make cheaper/simpler more economical solutions than the MC6 which is really designed for guitar players with extensive pedal boards.

For 24 years I was an F-16 pilot in the USAF in the Active Duty and then my last 4 years in the Reserve. Retired in 2011 Since 2007 I've been a Pilot for the largest domestic US airline I wish I had more time to play and gig.

No, I've never taken that on a fly gig. But it wouldn't be that hard to travel with a piece of wood painted black and just ask for another x stand to put it on. Actually, the picture you're commenting on is exactly that; a repurposed shelf painted black that I put on a Knox H stand (highly recommend the knox stand for accessories). The shelf that bolts into my K&M stand is a bit different.

I built it. Very simple diy with some screws and glue. It bolts through the stand with thumb bolts. Hold beer too.

Nano Kontrol is a no brainer. So cheap and just works. It's got a place in a lot of my rigs.

I would enthusiastically recommend AGAINST Arturia's Moog Modular. If you are a beginner in subtractive synthesis, that program might make you quit trying all together. As a beginner I'd start as simply as possible and I've found that Mainstage's RetroSynth is really the best place to start, and surprisingly powerful. Although it has very limited modulation possibilities it is otherwise very musical and in many of my performances you'll find a whole lot retrosynth patches because they're so quick/easy/basic and usable. If you don't have mainstage my next recommendation might be arturia's Juno 60, again because it's simple. Pigments might also be OK because although it's very very deep, the analog engine has very good presentation of how modulation and envelopes work. I've never used Diva so I can't recommend for/against. I learned more about synthesis from some of the more simple keyboards. For example, my OB-6, which is really very simple, has taught me more than some of more complicated boards. I love Soccer96 and The Comet is Coming and that keyboard player pulls an enormous amount of gorgeous sounds from a Juno-60 and SH-01; two of the simplest synths ever made. So I would say, start with something simple and only move on when you honestly think it's limits are holding you back.

I think on this board, or maybe a different facebook page, someone once took a poll about to what extent different players relied on splits vs program changes. I will say that as time has gone on I have switched from a guy with a lot of splits per patch to a guy who typically has fewer splits but more patch changes. As Mainstage and VSTs have started to take over more of my live performance, as a result I've also changed to bringing less keyboards. The first dude I ever played with who did everything on Mainstage only ever plays with a single board, and that was a bit of a revelation to me.

It might be worth it if you're going to do a lot of fly gigs, to get your rig down to a single keyboard. If you're using Mainstage for all your sounds, there's really no reason why you can't do it. That way, if you get to the gig and you have some setup issues, you only have to change the parameters of one keyboard and not two keyboards.

This really isn't as hard as it seems. I've played with guys who did this and as long as your Mainstage rig isn't too complicated you should be able to accommodate a wide variety of controllers. Put in your rider a couple of choices that you are familiar with that meet your requirements. Then put in some secondary criteria in case it's not available. Something like: "Any substitutions to the list must be coordinated in advance but in any case need to meet the following criteria: 88 key weighted action midi controller with midi over USB with an expression and volume pedal." If you're using two keyboards like you said...it's going to be exponentially more difficult. But Nord stuff is pretty popular with backline companies. More to your question; NO I would not expect to be re-programming splits and layers for each different backline configuration. That's just asking for trouble and is way too much work.

90125 ain't no CTTE but I love that album and I do consider it to be totally Yes. To me Hearts and Changes are pretty high in my list of great Yes songs. I feel the same with Machine Messiah and a lot of Drama. I love that they could switch out players and you could still hear the core influence. Now...any of the Modern Yes, I've tried to like, but I just don't find any of it compelling.

It's quite easy on an internet search to find the actual stems from songs like Roundabout. I found the keyboard tracks to help me learn the song and was amazed at how IMPERFECT the performances were. I mean...I've listened to Fragile a zillion time and absolutely love the record...but under close scrutiny there's a whole lot of sloppiness in individual stems. I don't say this to be picky or judgy. Just that there was something about how that record was mixed down, and the synergy of them all together that made that magic. Certainly in todays recording environment the producer would have required a couple more passes!

I hadn't even heard of BandHelper before I first broached this subject on Facebook and it seems like a whole lot of people are using this product for the same reason.

I've never toured but I have done a couple Tribute shows that are typically 2 hours or shorter and the setlist only changes in a couple predictable ways. One of them (Kansas) was particularly demanding for the keyboard players and the incredible number of patches needed for some of the songs. Additionally I played in that band with a keyboard player who used the footswitch/Mainstage method in all his bands and I could see that it was more organized than the way I was doing it. So I switched over to his method and I've never been tempted to go back. Now I use it for every band I play in, whether it's a 90 minute tribute show or a 50 song/4 set bar band. Once you have the songs built it's incredibly easy to build out a set. A lot of it is just drop/drag and/or cut and past as alias (and once you remember those two short-cuts it goes really fast.)

I've found that anything with the Soundtower name on it is honestly not worth the time, and certainly not worth any money. Their OB-6 editor is barely workable but full of bugs. Their VAST/Kurzweil editor is a complete and total waste of time. I won't even try with it anymore. I have no idea how Soundtower stays in business. And then you have things like the Hydrasynth editor which was made by a kind user who donated his time...works great for free. You would think that with the enormous amount of user memory locations in the Kurz products, that a simple decent drop/drag/cut/paste editor would be the equivalent of a song/setlist mode. I'm fortunate enough to have a couple different boards and setups and am able to compare the differences. I do shows on my Kurz because I love some of the sounds and the keyboard action, but my shows that require a lot of patch changes mid song I go with a different board. A true song or setlist mode might seem like a subtle difference, but for many of us, that subtlety IS the difference. You are right, in that "Favorites" are just alias's just like "Setlists" are alias's. But the ability to order and edit entire groups of patches by song title is pretty powerful, and uses almost no memory resources.

OK, I''ll answer my own post. --D-- but wish I could go to E but I seem to lack the tech skills. In Mainstage I build every song as a folder with the individual patches in order inside that folder. I use a footswitch to patch change fwd so this can result in a lot of patches for a single song. I make big use of alias patches and alias channel strips to cut down on memory usage. As I also use a Nord Stage for almost all pianos/organs/eps, some of the patches in Mainstage are only there to command the Nord to a certain patch. My footswitch doesn't actually plug into the Nord, it's a USB midi footswitch, so it will work with any rig that I use Mainstage on. It just plugs into the USB hub or directly into the computer. If I get a different setlist, I can just drop/drag the folders into the order of the new setlist. A lot of the songs actually have the same patches in them. For example, any song that just uses piano probably has the same piano patchs. I'll actually put a couple of different pianos in those patches and that gives me options depending on the room/mix.

Quick Access is simple and does help quite a bit but it's pretty far short of what a song mode can do for you. It's really a favorites bank.

My understanding is the 2700 doesn't have a setlist/song mode? Is that wrong? Were you commanding PC's to the 2700 from an offboard source at any time?

What kind of boards are you using? Any issues sending patch changes to both from MS?

While I loathe much of facebook, some of the groups that I'm on over there are actually pretty useful. It would be worth your time if you have an account to search out "Keyboard Players in Cover Bands" over there. Some of the offboard patch changing sources were: Mainstage, Bandhelper, Gig Performer, Camelot Pro, set list from another hardware keyboard, FourScore, Setlist Maker Pro, OnSong, UnrealBook, Touch OSC, Cantible. I must admit to having no clue what half of those even are.