Iconoclast

Not sure I understand so check me on this. It's basically a VST in a box for people who do not want to haul a laptop around? Each box only contains one VST or a small batch of VSTs? I think it makes sense, as one of the most expensive pieces of gear that I haul to every single gig is my MacBook Pro, which I use for almost nothing else except music.

Hydrasynth ribbon controller plus polyphonic after touch paired with a very sensitive keyboard puts this synth in a league of it's own for expressiveness. For example: One of my current band has a couple of snoozers; John Mayers Covered in Rain (2 chords entire song) and Chris Isaaks Wicked Game (3 chords entire song). You can cycle the hydra through a couple of lush pads and then just use different key pressures and inversions and it suddenly becomes much more interesting and sounds more symphonic. Serious magic, and now I find I'm really adding to the song instead of just wanting to hang myself and praying for the end while the guitar player solos over the same simple changes. I just saw that you bought the desktop, which has no ribbon, but does have poly expressive pads.

So of course my first question is what language do you think is superior? You made several good criticism's without advocating for a superior alternative.

Quick back story: Keys since childhood but mostly self taught, Played almost exclusively guitar in bands for about 15 years. Last 6 years or so I play in bands that require both, sometimes changing several times in a song. It's weird. Guitar definitely uses different brain muscles than keys. When I first started playing in bands that required quick switches back and forth between instruments I had a big problem turning on different parts of my brain. Like a simple guitar part became impossible for the first 5-10 seconds after playing keys and vice versa. Like everything else, repetition eventually got rid of this issue, but it was very puzzling to me to, for example, come off of a guitar part and then just stare at a keyboard like I didn't even know where middle C was. While I'm not a great note reader on keys, I'm pretty fluent with charts. But on guitar it's almost impossible for me to read charts. It all comes down to knowing the fretboard. It's MUCH harder to figure out where all the notes are on a guitar and requires an investment in time/effort that I just never was able to get over (yet). And in my opinion there's a whole lot of passable guitar players like me who can't come close to putting the notes on the fretboard. Yet you will never find a keyboard player who doesn't know that an A is an A. Yet guitar has this way of making some things much simpler because the same shapes appear over again up and down the fretboard. Just play enough and these shapes will be hard-wired into your hand and brain and as long as you can find a few of the "money" notes, you can fit your shapes into what you're doing and voila...it sounds like you know what you're doing. In your progression of learning the instrument, this phenomena happens much later on keys than it does on guitar. Possibly this happens because guitar has limited ways to voice chords compared to piano, and in limiting your options it makes it easier to learn. I also think that if you start from zero, as a guitar player it really only takes you maybe a year of diligent practice to be a passable guitar player in a rock or country cover band. I don't think the same holds true for keyboard players. Probably another reason why there are so few keyboard players compared to guitar players out there. So as a keyboard player, I'm frequently running into guitar players who're just much more inexperienced than me. If I'm playing with a guitar player who's been playing since childhood, then he's probably a killer player who can both play and speak music. If he's mostly a hobbyist or just been playing for 6-9 years then he can probably play but may not have the depth of experience to know the "why's" of music. There is a weird part of me that wants to maintain my ignorance on guitar. During the pandemic I've been doing more session work as a guitar player and it's nice to have an approach to music that I don't overthink. It's easier for me to just listen to what I'm doing and not have that part of me that has to put every note into a mode or scale or whatever. Then when I'm stumped I frequently sit down at the piano with the guitar in my lap and start comparing ideas between the two instruments and that will frequently lead me to whatever secret note/chord/change I couldn't unlock on just the guitar.

You don't have her playing a Kurzweil yet Dave?

The Bar/Restaurant we played last night was at capacity at 9pm when we started. Maybe 15 die-hards left at midnight. Some venues are leaning forward for scheduling later in the Spring. There was a seperate thread about this but I have 3 scheduled next month which honestly is about all I want to gig right now anyway.

There's one keyscape model with an auto wah in it but it's a Rhodes, not a wurli. Arturia has a Wurli with one. Tried them separately and also blended them. Still wasn't happy with the sound when compared to my normal Wurli patches; it's a real drop off in oomph. I think I'm going to try actually using a pedal next. I realize I'm the only one who probably notices. Not even sure my bandmates really care that much, but I've been chasing that exact tone for a while. I've been playing Time for years in various bands but recently added Money and it's really pronounced in that song so I thought I'd give it another shot. I did go so far as to sample the cash register sounds at the beginning. Thanks for the help

A little help trying to get the Wurli Wah sound that is so prevalent on Dark Side of the Moon. Listen to Money from the Sax solo to the end. Or most of Time->Home has kind of a more subtle version of the same thing. I've tried various things but I'm just not happy with the results. My wah or envelope filters seem to end up to bright and screetchy. I've got several different hardware/software options but it would be nice to have it on Mainstage.

As a teen I was so into the first 6 Kansas albums it was incredible. Then when Kerry Livgren tried to turn it into a contemporary christian act they became terminally uncool very quickly. And in fact Kansas never really recovered. I think in 1978 they were the biggest touring act in North America? Then they just vaporized by 82. Much later in life I took a chance and joined a startup Kansas tribute act just for the love of it. Learning to play that music was a revelation and gave me the confidence to pretty much play anything. The Kansas tribute thing is a killer show, but a hard act to market. Had a great run for a couple of years doing clubs, special events and even some casino stages. You need killer musicians to pull it off, and those guys are in high demand, so it's been tough to keep going. Currently looking for a keyboardist and/or guitarist and violinist to see if we can start back up post-covid. I've been trying to find dudes who want to play prog like rock in the Phoenix area, but again, dudes who CAN play that stuff are in demand to play other material that pays better. I need to find a group of dudes who are killer musicians who want to play out for the love of just being an awesome band. I always loved performing this song even though very few people have heard it. It always left an impression:

None have arrived in the US yet. Some European destinations started getting them last week. I pre-ordered in I think Sept of last year and Sweetwater called me last week to see if I wanted to keep my pre-order, but I haven't gotten the "they're here" call back from them yet. Really looking forward to it...but I now officially have too many keyboards.

Here's an unexpected one: Life in the Fast Lane by the Eagles. I used to have a recording of just the clav track for that song but I can't find it now.

I couldn't afford a DX7 when they first came out and instead purchased it's little brother, the DX9. Less operators and no aftertouch/velocity. But the relative simplicity was a gift as I actually learned how to program FM. I put music away for a long time and when I came back to it I struggled with the keyboards of the day that required deep menu diving in a tiny little screen. I didn't realize how bad it was until I bought an OB-6 The OB-6 really opened my mind. Even though it's way simpler, it's so much easier and faster than anything that I'd worked with before that I was sold on the "knob per function" concept. Now have a Hydrasynth (not technically knob per function but still very knobby) and have a PolyBrute on the way.

Keyboards since childhood, learned guitar in my 30s. I've played lead guitar in many bands so I'm a credible guitar player. Guitar definitely has more of a beginners hump to get over than keys so don't quit early! You gotta build some strength and some callouses but once you learn your cowboy Chords (C, D, E, A. The hard one is F!) you can basically play almost anything. Then once you can get a bar chord in maj and min you're off to the races. Keys are easier for beginners, harder to master. Guitar is hard for beginners, but easier to master. In some bands, I've even switched back and forth, which was a bit of a brain cramp at first. There is something about changing gears between the two instruments that used to take a couple minutes, but I've gotten pretty natural at it now.

I'm amazed at how well the OB-6 has done. There's some mystique in the name that just sells. Even though the OB-6 is actually pretty limited it is still a very popular synth. I imagine an upgraded version of it would do at least as well, although it might steal some of the OB-6s current market.

Personally, I think the Kurzweil team needs to thing in terms of usability not capability. For me it's never been, "can the Forte do that?" it's been, "can I get my Forte to do that before the gig or practice?"

Don't watch alone late at night after a couple whiskeys: you have been warned. [video:youtube]

They shoulda studied harder.

Or just watch The Fifth Element like 20 times. There's something about that movie that just cracks me up. You're looking for light faire here right? I watched Guns Akimbo and found it surprisingly entertaining Musicians should like Scott Pilgrim vs The World Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Some seriously funny, juvenile humor. Aubrey Plaza steals the movie. Neighbors. Very funny, very juvenile. Neighbors 2 and 3 get progressively less funny. Zombieland makes zombies fun! Cardio! The sequel was watchable. Someone mentioned Burn After Reading, which I also found funny, but not many others did!

Mainstage can be a bit of an enigma. The last couple years I've made good use of Alias patches for commonly used things like pianos and organs. Really saves on system usage. I don't bus up any effects either. For all my commonly used stuff I keep one folder of all those patches and then paste them as aliases to different places in my setlist. That folder usually holds 2 pianos, rhodes, wurli, a mapped out organ w/drawbars, a synth lead, and maybe some other stuff common to the specific band that I'm playing in. I had a 13 inch MBP that was hi-spec that couldn't handle mainstage at all. I suspect it was the "integrated graphics" that Apple used on the smaller screened MBPs. I upgraded to a similar spec'ed 15 inch with dedicated graphics and it has handled everything I can throw at it and runs bullet-proof. My only real problem with Mainstage is I strongly prefer pianos/EPs from either my Nord or Kurz over Keyscape. Keyscape is great, and I'm sure to most listeners, there is absolutely no difference, but I can't seem to connect to it like the "real" keyboards. That being said, I've done more than one show on Mainstage alone, it's just too simple and quick for setup/teardown/small stage etc. I've played in a band where the other keyboard player did 100% of the show on just mainstage sounds and a couple pianos from IK. I always thought he sounded great even though he complained about the piano feel! Great player. He would just fly in with a MBP and use my Nord with local off.

It's really pretty similar on the Forte to make a multi. Forte doesn't have a setlist mode, but it does have favorites which are simple to assign and you can pedal advance through them. Everything needs to be done on the instrument as the SoundTower Librarian is less than reliable (I'm being generous). I've never used Forte to generate a click track but it's certainly doable and I'm pretty sure I've seen a youtube tutorial on how. Easy? Not sure how to grade that. Unless you're building some really big multi's I think the Forte has plenty of horsepower in the effects dept. Editing effects in the Forte can be a bit of a mystery sometimes. Forte has the most complicated effects pages of anything I've ever worked with. Yes, VAST is a PITA, and if it defeated you before, I don't think they've done anything to make it any easier to deal with except make the screen bigger.

Bump...Did we ever find out what the culprit was here?

Yeah, one of my bands has backing tracks that are totally all over the keyboard parts. Drives me crazy.

The Sweetwater return policy is pretty much bulletproof though.

Wow, I'm currently wandering through the same dilemma. I purchased an SL88 Grand which supposedly has the same Fatar keybed as the Nord Stage and Kurz Forte, both of which I find very usable. Although I wouldn't say it is WAY heavier than those keyboards, it is noticeable. Then I did a lot of practicing in Nov and early Dec on the SL88 Grand and noticed I had some sore bits in my forearms that I never really experienced before. I've also noticed that when my hands are even just a little bit cold, the SL88 becomes very difficult and I play like crap. I also can't seem to get my VST piano velocities to match up with it naturally. I used to think the Nord Stage 3 had heavier action but this SL88 has made it seem very nice by comparison.

I would think that analog string patch would be in just about every set of standard presets from every poly synth. Later in the song there's a kind of piano thing but it's layered with something else difficult to pick out in the mix. Sounds vaguely FM ish?