mauriziodececco

From one side, there is more and more interesting hardware (i was drooling so much on the Iridium that i had to clean the screen of my laptop), and on the other side there so many software instruments (and many i already owns) that when you already own a reasonable level laptop (MacBook 13" 4 core in my case) that is very difficult to justify buying more hardware. I already started rehearsing and gigging with MainStage, and i am considering buying a 49 or 61 keys master keyboard well adapted to MainStage and similar setup (you never know what you'll use on 3/4 years), to add as a second tier keyboard to my NE5HP, or to use alone in some setup. It seems that with the current hardware synth centred market, there is not a lot of choice in the middle/high market segment: a keyboard ready for the road (for my back, actually , with a reasonable/good keybed, and with enough knobs and buttons to control VIs and effects. My short list is the Arturia Keylab MK2, and Novation Impulse, Notation SL MKII (but a lot of stuff i would not use), Komplete Kontrol (but again, you cannot fully use all the goodies in a multi setup). Other suggestions ? Opinions ? No, 'buy a Quantum' is not an acceptable answer. Maurizio

This is my toy, the finest expression of the 70s french culture. If know the Shadoks, you'll find funny that i try to be a minimalist. If you do not know the Shadoks and talk a bit of french, you should check them out on Youtube :-> Maurizio

Yes; the point i was trying to make was more referred to my personal difficulties described at the beginning of the thread: in some phrase style it is difficult to get something coherent from the Roli; but the problem is not with the Roli, and it would not be solved moving from a Block to a Rise; the problem is with the paradigm itself, i should not try to bend the paradigm, because it will not work. Better use the good controller for each kind of musical objective :-> Maurizio

I'll surely pass by, but given the 9 hour differences will be either to the beginning of the party, between noon and 2 pm CA time, or Saturday morning, around 10am or 11am. Maurizio

Some other analysis. After this discussion i started to look around for alternate controllers, and in particuler Touché SE and the breath controller Tec BBC2; look around meaning reading the relevant threads here and looking at some interesting Youtube video. I found the BBC2 interesting, especially after playing a Melodica (that show me that coordinating breath and a keyboard is not a big deal, and that the kind of physical connection thru breath give you control and feeling). But the important point is that i realised a major limit of the Seaboard (block or rise), limit that imho will apply also to the Osmose: in most of the instruments (and for some of them depending of the music style) the gestures to control the dynamic are different from the gesture to play a specific note. On a violin, the bow that control the dynamic for a legato phrase is a very different gesture that the finger movement that select the note: moreover the violinist think the bowing as applying to the phrase, not to a singular note. This true for an Accordeon or a Melodica, but also for most of the wind instruments: even if in some playing technique you synchronise breath/tongue with the note you are playing, in legato playing you apply the dynamics (crescendo for example) to the musical phrase as such, with a single gesture. Any keyboard, including the Roli, impose a single gesture for each note; in order to emulate a legato crescendo phrase on a Roli, for exemple on a violin sound, you have to apply a uniform crescendo sequence of pressure on the different notes, thing that for me is almost impossible (but i am sure that there are players able to do it); while controlling a crescendo on a legato phrase with a Touché or a breath controller would be absolutely natural. This is not of course to say Seaboards are not good; just to say that there things that works better with some kind of controllers (for exemple, try a glide with a BBC2, possible using pitch bend, but extremely difficult to do well tuned for large intervals). Maurizio

A while ago i submitted a composition to the Film Music Context, category electronic music. Today i discovered i passed the semi-finalist selection. No more than that :->. But is nice that sometime somebody tell you "You know guy, you exists, as a composer, as a musicians". Small thing in these hard times, but it is nice. Maurizio

On this side, what i found great is that it fit perfectly (using a L-Shaped USB-C cable) on my Nord NE-HP5, just on the right of the knobs area. About using it with non MPE software instruments: you can use the roli dashboard to change the pitch bend rage; i used it with an Arturia Mini V, and you can use the slide in this way, with precise (more or less notes. Another musical thing: it is great for making animated pads: just a bit of change in press and slide for each finger give the pad enough movement to make it alive. Easier to master than i thought. The big question is still: is the jump to the rise worth the price ? Or maybe is simpler and cheaper to add a second Block (you can just stick them together to get 4 octaves) ? Maurizio

A bit more than a year ago, i almost bought a Roli Rise; but no, family finance oblige, i had to temporary give up and later i got a Roli Seaboard Block. The Block have some obvious limit, in particolar 2 octaves and small key, that prevent me to play anything too complex, but i have actively used it with my band, including in a concert, and in the studio for DAW compositions. The strong point, even in composing, is that you can 'feel' differently an instrument, so you can start more to think in term of new expressive possibility; like you play an electric guitar, or a violin, and you incorporate a glissato in you playing or composition style. But, i find really really difficult to obtain a good consistency in sounds (level mostly, i would say the Press gesture is the first culprit, and the slide), and using the Seabord Block for MIDI recording require a lot of editing afterward. The question to those of you that used both a Rise and a Block: it is me (need more practice) or the Rise give more detail in controlling the different dimension ? Maurizio

1am in Paris, a bit late, but being friday it is not completely impossible; i"ll try i would very happy to virtually meet all of you Maurizio

Please, KC specific mugs and T-Shirt. While we all love the MPN as such, KC have its own identity (and enough people ready to buy them) :-> Maurizio

Late to the party, but happy birthday Mark from Paris !! Maurizio

For gigging and home studio my board is a Nord Electro 5 HP. I chose it because it was the only one i could bring to gigs and rehersals on my shoulder in the Parisian Metro, but i like the sounds (Nefertiti is my epiano sound to go), and the knobby UI. About the action, i trained myself on the it, so to get used to it. At home, and for Jazz, i have a nice vertical Rameau acoustic piano.

I'll tell you a quick story; the French government announced the first mesures on the 12 of mars. Full confinement started a few days later, Tuesday the 17. On friday the 13 there was a rehearsal planned, the last rehersal for a show that had to be on the 21 (i kind of school show). I was in doubt all the day, but finally after discussing with my family, and considering that we knew how bad it could get based on the italian situation at the time, i announced to the other participants that i was giving up, and starting a strict confinement, so effectively stopping the show (that anyway didn't happended, but i did not know at the time). I felt guilty, paranoid, maybe stupid. The younger members of the show met for a beer that evening. After 15 days, the (female) drummer told me that on the morning of the 14th she was ill, fever, lost smell, and a lot of other problems; it was the coronavirus. After 15 days, she is fine, she did not needed hospital care. But she is young; if i had not stopped the rehearsal i would have spoken all the evening with her (she is the drummer in another project i participate). And may be i wouldn't had been here to write this message (i am not young anymore, you never know). So, yes, stay home, music can wait. And the most important, CEB, are you ok ? Maurizio

I am using jitsi for my work, it worked fine but we are just 8. We used zoom for another virtual community (Italians abroad), and it worked just fine with 25 people. We were using the account of a participant. Anyway, if the time is compatible with Paris, i would be glad to participate :-> Maurizio

And now for something completely different: some work around repetition in images and in music; everything is mine : images, video editing, and of course the music. Unfortunately, only work in progress; a day or another i'll finish it, considering all the bands activities are stopped. [video:youtube] Maurizio

Just to confirm that the 99 Euros (in my case) price work for version 5 owners. I mean, it worked for me. I always wanted to get a Synthi A; software is better than nothing :-> Maurizio

Personally, never sold/bought hardware on this forum, because most of the sellers are in another continent :->. I sell/buy on a french site (audiofanzine) and bought sometime from VI Control My rule of thumb: small amounts, buying or selling, i trust people; here, VI Control or audiofanzine are places where people "live", usually people is ok, friendly and helpful; sometime, *very* helpful :->. audiofanzine is larger, and there are a lot of people that just sell/buy and do not participate to the community, so you need a bit of caution, but the site keep the transaction history and reputation of people, so you can check if a guy has been around for a while or not. For medium/high amounts, i always sell hand to hand, no shipment; i want to be sure that the buyer is happy with what he buys, that he tested the equipment, and everything is fine when he leave. This is somehow simplified by the fact that i live in Paris, where live around 1/6th of the french population, and probably half of the musicians. Maurizio

I knew the Deodato Thus Sprach Zarathustra well before i knew what a Rhodes was, or who Deodato or Strauss were. It was used as a jingle by "Scuola Radio Elettra", an italian organization selling correspondence courses to adults and teenagers on Electronics. They add ads in TV and i when i was a kid i was dreaming of following their courses, thing that i did later; thing that pushed me toward analog electronics, then to analogue electronic instruments, then to electronic music (the Berlin School), and later to music, and finally i discovered what a Rhodes was, who Deodato and Strauss were, and where the jingle came from; the whole process took around 40 years, not too bad :->. Maurizio PS: yes, i know this do not answer the OP question, but i hope it can be interesting anyway.

If you can decode a bit of french, check out lylo.fr You"ll find everything that is going on, from the small bistrot to the big theater Maurizio

Do you use the Display Time feature ? That help a bit, at least to know where you are ... Maurizio

I think I agree but maybe I would phrase it this way: - All opinions on the value are necessarily personal, i.e. related to the specific needs/wants of that person. So it's perfectly valid for one person to say "it's way too expensive" and another to say "fair price" ...as long as everyone understands that there is an impliciit "...for my needs" in these opinions. - The only "objective" judgement of the price will be made by the market. If people buy it in quantities that support the business case at Nord...then it was priced correctly. Very true, in particolar with Nord that do not try to cover all the user needs, but are clearly oriented to performance (vs sound design, for exemple). Maurizio

MPE support should be mentioned; it arrived with v2 and map slide to macro 1. Pretty effective with pigment modulation matrix; i got it because of mpe support. May be a sign also on Arturia interest for MPE for theirs other VI ?

And now for something completely different: my second group, Komalea, that take the apriori approach of a full improvised performance; a couple of videos extracted from a concert in September: Me with my new melodica: https://www.facebook.com/komaleamusic/videos/1049137895444468/ And something groovy: https://www.facebook.com/komaleamusic/videos/456530574989151/ And a home made "studio" recording : Well, full improvisation means taking a risk, and need a level that we may not have, but it is a lot of fun; comments welcome !!! Maurizio

I think the audio issues appeared in 2018 where rather more significant that the one found in 2019 on the MacBookPro 16" (note that reports concern only the MacBookPro 16", and not in general T2 machines). It seems to happens only on specific applications and following particolar actions, like stopping a playback. It seems (AppleInsider) that Apple recognised the problem as a software problem, and that the latest Catalina upgrade solved or reduced the issue. Maurizio

I bought it the day i saw the annonce, with the introductory price. I tested the trail on a song called "Canto della libertà", is a song by Ennio Morricone sang by the italian singer Milva. The interesting thing is that the song modulate up a semitone each refrain, so there a lot of chord changes during the song. deCoda was quite accurate in the tempo, structure and tonality detection; i checked it on the piano. The result convinced me to spend the 29 euros. Up to know i was using Transcribe!, that is a great tool, but my impression was that i'll gain a lot of time just with the basic time/beat/tonality detection for transcriptions. I am studying the different tutorials for the more advanced tricks. The software seems stable, fast, simple ergonomy, but you have to look at the (short) tutorials, because i would say the design of the UI do not follows the Mac standards; it is not weird either, pretty simple clear and linear once you get it; spending 15min on the tutorials will make you gain in time and peace of the mind :->. I can tell more once i used in a real life case. Maurizio.