Justin Havu

Using it as both. Piano 1 and 3 on the RD, blended with various pads and a chorused CP80 from the MODX. Synth stuff is played from the MODX

Festival gig today--my office.

I'd guess they haven't changed the action much, and that pivot point would definitely feel unnatural compared to a real piano. I played a PX-S3000 last winter at GC, and it was totally unplayable. Black keys were significantly lighter than the natural keys, all the way across the keybed. If I'm not mistaken, even though the action of an acoustic grand is "graded", the weight of the black keys would be the same as the white ones. I'll stick with my trusty RD-1000.

Thanks. Main piano sounds from the RD, pads/strings from the TR. I usually jump between Piano 1, 3, and EP 2 on the RD, and set up a couple of pads on the TR, one in Combi, one in Program. We've had a CP300 for over a decade, and over the last year, the action has gotten heavier, more stiff, and really difficult to play. A few of us from church were asked to play a festival set up in Newport, VT back in August, and I decided to bring along the RD, all 95 lbs of it, and my MODX7, MIDI'd into the RD. Yes, it's not the most realistic piano sound, but the action is light, smooth, very playable, and I love every bit of it, and since then, it's been my main axe at church. Haven't been able to find a modern instrument with this kind of playability at all.

Church rig this morning.

Ambrosia's "Life Beyond L.A." album. So good!

No real reason to replace my MODX7, other than a small crack in the left end cap. I don't really utilize the FM-X as much as I probably could, and other than the Bosendorfer library, which I'll most likely uninstall as I never use it (not a fan of it), and a few 1-2 second samples, I'm nowhere near maxing out the flash memory. If they'd have upped the seamless sound switching from 4 parts to 8, then I might consider the upgrade.

Finally got around to doing some audio. Everything is improvised, except for one of them. Toto-esque brass. Done with CS-80 V CS-80 Brass.mp3 Another brass sound. Solo from "99" as an example. Done with Matrix-12 V 99 Brass.mp3 Everything below was done directly on the MODX. Ocarina lead Mays Lead.mp3 ...and to go along with that... Metheny Lead.mp3 It's probably politically incorrect to play acoustic guitar on a keyboard, but I love doing it anyway. Here's a patch with some guitar, harp, and a couple of different pads, that I've been playing around with over the past couple of weeks. Guitar Pad.mp3

Ended up getting DistroKid, slowly starting to put stuff out. First one...

I'm a sucker for analog synth brasses, mainly the stuff Toto/Steve Porcaro did. Examples include the obvious "Africa" and the solo from "99."

Korg Krome EX - $999 Roland Juno DS - $999 Yamaha MX61 - $769 Korg Kross 2 - $829 (At that price, if I were going to go with Korg, I'd probably spend the extra money and get the Krome EX.)

Only other offerings I can think of in the price range of the DS would be the Korg Kross 2, Krome EX, and Yamaha MX61. If you don't care too much about the action, either of those would probably work.

Took my RD-1000 to Newport, VT for a festival gig (Yes, all 95 lbs of it!) Had to play two sets with two different artists, one of which was the headliner, and I forgot how much fun that instrument is to play. In fact, so much fun that I have it set up at church in place of the church-owned CP300. Compared to the CP, the action on the RD is so much lighter under my hands and a real pleasure to play. At this point, I couldn't care less if the piano sounds exactly like a piano. Lol

I've been using the XR18 for quite a bit of stuff--keyboard mixer, live sound, multitrack recording to my DAW, it's been solid at everything I've done with it. Only thing is the onboard WiFi is very flaky. I'll be looking into getting an external router for mine.

Love that sound. I'll have to fire up my RD-1000 and play around with it.

Just finished.

Did my normal 5-mile loop this morning, but instead of taking it casually, I wanted to try and increase the intensity and go as hard as I could (which I don't normally do), while still maintaining good form. My normal casual time for this loop is around 1:06:00, and I finished in 59:00--a tiny bit slower than my race. Amazing considering the loop has 7 or 8 pretty good hills, spread out. Nothing seriously steep, but a couple pretty long climbs. Very satisfied with my time, and I need/want to push myself a little more often, otherwise I don't really know what I'm capable of.

It depends. My minimum requirement for a single-board setup where I need to get the most out of it, would be 76. Minimum for a polysynth would be 61, though I can get by with 49 in a pinch. Minimum for a monosynth would probably be 37 at the very least. Ideal would be 49.

Yep. Acoustic drums mic'd up. One mic per drum, left and right overheads, left and right ambient. Kit is a Pearl Export from the early-to-mid 80s with Evans coated heads, with zero muffling, apart from a DrumDot on the snare. Shure PG52 for bass drum, soon to be replaced by a Behringer C112, as I'm curious, and I've had extremely good luck with some of their condenser mics, plus I've never been a fan of Shure mics. The PG52 was a freebie, but it doesn't pick up anything above 5KHz, which sucks. Sennheiser e835's for snare/toms. MXL-990 for 18" floor tom (about 6-8 inches away gives me great results) Behringer C-1's for overheads Behringer C-3's for ambient mics. I never mic the snare bottom or hi-hat. Don't need to.

Total mileage last week was 35. 11 miles on Sunday, split up into two runs, one in the morning, one in the evening. Monday was a rest day. Focused on lower body/core training. Tuesday-Friday were 5 miles each, with Tuesday being somewhat of a tempo run, and the other days being nice and slow. Got fitted for some new shoes on Friday as well (went with Mizuno Wave Rider 25's.) Saturday was an easy 3 miles, to test out the new shoes. I like them a lot. Plenty of support in the heel, with good cushioning around the ball of the foot. Did another 5 miles today (Sunday.)

It all depends. For piano-focused stuff, I like sitting. If I have to sing, I prefer standing.

Going up the final hill of the 5-mile race yesterday morning. One thing I learned from that experience--I need more hill training.

5-mile race was this morning, bright and early at 8AM. Nothing was blocked off at all, not even the main roads, so traffic was going right around me. Most people were running on the sidewalk, which to me, is like Kryptonite to a runner. I like pavement myself. Anyhoo, the course itself starts with a hill, ends with a hill, and there are a few hills within the last 45% of the course, one of which is a long, not-so-steep plateau. I didn't mind the hills in the middle of the course, but the one at the start is kind of a monster, and the last one is a very steep monster. I probably wouldn't recommend this run to a beginner. I've pretty much discovered that I need to do some hill work. My goal was an hour, finished in 58:14 according to the race clock, which I'm assuming is gun time. For just two months of running after a 4-year break, I'll take it.

5-mile race on Saturday morning, goal is 1 hour or less. I've been training on the race course for the last few weeks (it runs right by my apartment) and I'm very close to hitting it. Then, last Friday, they started road construction on part of the course--bleh! Now, I have to figure something else out. Really hoping they didn't tear up the road for the race, I signed up for a road race, not a trail race. Lol