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stoken6

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    Yamaha CK61 and CK88

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    3 hours ago, CHarrell said:

    Agreed! And the CK has the best interface of the CP/YC line, too. Now it wasn't for that GHS bed....

    Better than some of the alternatives imho (although tastes vary of course). And the CK61 beats the crappy Krome/DS/MODX 61-key actions. 

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Like 1

    Where's the Wurly recreation?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    3 hours ago, adammonroe said:

    Might be difficult to market at this point. Trademark trolls have acquired the Wurlitzer trademark after Gibson abandoned it by doing nothing with it for decades. The new trademark holders are threatening to sue anyone who even mentions "Wurlitzer" unless they are paid a licensing fee - total trolls, they have no products and no intention of releasing products, definition of trademark abuse at its finest. I think this will likely deter anyone from making Wurli or Wurli-like products for the foreseeable future.

    Scumbags.

     

    Equally Vintage Vibe have done great things without owning the Rhodes trademark. But as mentioned above, is there a market for one of these now? I'm not so sure.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Like 1

    Apple Airpod Pros as active & "intelligent" earplugs

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Thanks @MathOfInsects. This is the bit I don't understand:

    28 minutes ago, MathOfInsects said:

    That sound is subject to an internal limiter, and the resulting amount of protection as measured in dBs is greater with the Adaptive Transparency (AT) than the raw passive protection of the plugs

    So if the Airpods are off/doing nothing, you get a reduction in volume (passive seal), and a reduction in clarity/intelligibility. Adaptive Transparency then adds some sound back into your ears to improve clarity/intellibility - that can only increase the volume compared to Airpods-off, surely?

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    Where's the Wurly recreation?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    20 minutes ago, ProfD said:

    I believe Nord may have neutered any serious thoughts about bringing an electromechanical KB to market.

    Not just Nord. Dave Weiser kept Kurzweil focused on this particular niche, while Korg's SV1 brought cool to digital reproductions of electromechanicals. Now we have Viscount, Crumar and the like doing great things with digital.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Like 1

    61 Key midi controller for Hammond B3 practice

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, Lou_NC said:

    I gave up trying to find a MIDI controller keyboard that felt good for playing Hammond style sounds. 

    This is a real shame. A good-feeling controller with high trigger could be used as a second manual with a clonewheel, alongside weighted boards which have organ capability (Yamaha YC73/88, various Nords, Kurzweil K2700 and the like), or as a controller for software. 

     

    Crumar came so close with their Mojo lower manual, but they run some kind of proprietary MIDI from that product (let alone the "phantom" power-over-MIDI that they supply on the unused pins). They sell a separate processing box to translate proprietary-to-normal MIDI (and add the power) but by the time you've connected all that up, it seems too inconvenient to be worthwhile. 

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Like 1

    Cool Music that Slips by Most

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Just now, D. Gauss said:

    fyi, not music, per se, but the genius of this episode cannot be denied.

    (episode starts at @10 mins in , but doesn't really unfold until about 13 mins in):

    "the uploader has not made this video available in your country". What video were you linking to, D?

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    Dig My Rig--Let's see your setup!

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, ImproKeys said:

    I still enjoy my Nord Stage 2 and recently combined it with a midi keyboard. It’s like two Nord Stages

    I do exactly the same, but I have a NS2 compact and put it over a weighted MIDI keyboard. Very effective, and easy to set up/tear down.

     

    It's not quite like two Nord Stages, because you still limited to a maximum of two synths (also two pianos and two organ manuals, but that's less limiting). For all the disappointment expressed over the NS4, the provision of a third synth engine is pretty well a +50% upgrade over all previous models, based on my use of the board.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

     

     

    • Like 1

    Expand iPad screen.

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:

    I also have an old DVI LCD 4:3 monitor laying around. It’s bigger than a 12.9” iPad but not by much.  I wonder if its resolution and sharpness are decent for reading music.   I have to give it a try.  

    For the cost of the adapter/cable, I'd say it's worth a shot?

     

    Cheers, Mike

    • Like 1

    Expand iPad screen.

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    13 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

    I am on the hunt for a 4:3 monitor...

    Secondhand 1600x1200 monitor: 20in or 22in, 4:3 aspect ratio (close to Letter/8.5x11). I scored one for £90 a few years ago (for a different purpose). 

     

    13 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

    ...that supports flipping into portrait mode...

    Surely that's a function of the device driving the display? I've used the above monitor in portrait mode (from a Windows PC)

     

    13 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

    that the iPad can cast to

    Official Apple HDMI adapter and HDMI-to-DVI cable (to support older monitors)? This I haven't tried.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    Cool Music that Slips by Most

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    7 hours ago, o0Ampy0o said:

    Do you really think it has been used "in literally 1000's of songs"? Can anyone name a few?

    Songs that sampled the Amen break? I can believe that's in four digits:

    - NWA: Straight Outta Compton is an obvious example. 

    - Prodigy: Firestarter

    - David Bowie: Little Wonder

    Some report Oasis: D'You Know What I Mean, but I'm a little s[ck]eptical - Noel is the only songwriter credited. 

     

    Many more out there, but I picked ones I could recognise. (I'm far away from the R'n'B/hip-hop world of sampled drum loops, but even I know about the Amen break).

     

    Cheers, Mike.

     

    • Thanks 1

    Sibelius jumps on AI bandwagon

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    The latest 2023.6 update of Sibelius include AI-powered chord symbol detection: https://www.avid.com/resource-center/whats-new-in-sibelius-june-2023?utm_campaign=sibelius_2023_6--renew&utm_source=gainsight&utm_medium=email

     

    Personally I'm a little underwhelmed. It seems everything needs to be "now with added AI", and the training set is Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, and other material that doesn't really benefit from chord symbols. And the range of chords identified is restricted (nothing more than a seventh). More interestingly, they've deliberately chosen a model that runs locally (no data harvesting), and their blog post (https://www.avid.com/resource-center/data-driven-workflows-within-sibelius) states: "we are [...] committed to using ethical AI practices to respect creators’ data."

     

    I wonder how long that will last...

     

    Cheers, Mike.

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