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stoken6

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    Tragedy at gig

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I am (regrettably, and tearfully) reminded of a recent incident with a band I started subbing with over the past few months. Husband + wife were lead singers, and she suddenly felt unwell, and was given two days (!) to live. I only did one gig with her, lovely woman. 

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Love 1

    Next question re: fixing my Hammond

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Dave E said:

    My wife jokes that my obit will read: HAMMOND ORGANS FOR SALE!  btw: Dave died.

    Reminds me of the old joke:

    Widow: "Hello, is that the Daily Herald? I want to put a notice in the Deaths column: 'Jerry, devoted husband to Linda, father to Jack and Georgie and grandfather to Louis, Ben and Jessica, died today after a short illness. A light has gone out in our family, and our neighborhood"

    Herald: "Sure, it's 50c per word."

    Widow: "What? That's outrageous! Let's make it 'Jerry died'"

    Herald: "There's a 5 word minimum"

    Widow: "Put 'Jerry died. Buick for sale'"

     

    Cheers, Mike.

     

     

    Take it or leave it?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I remember posting on a similar subject years ago. My first synth was a Roland Juno-2 - which has a lovely action but limited tonal palette.

     

    I then went through a phase of buying cheap boards: Kawai K1 and Roland JX-1, both of which were something of a mistake. I then got an Ensoniq KS32, very nice but heavy - and a SQ1+, no aftertouch sadly - followed by an Alesis QS6.2 which I already have.

     

    I then decided to buy once, buy properly and treated myself to a Nord Stage 2/73. It's over 10 years old and still doing me proud. Since then, I've bought boards as controllers to go under it: Oberheim MC1000/76 (horrible action) and /88 (nice, but heavy). Yamaha NP30 for those low-shlep gigs. And most recently a Nord Stage Classic 76, which gives me some insurance in case the 2 fails.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    Korg PA5X

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    1 hour ago, konaboy said:

    the crossfade however will allow you to have a mix of latin and swing playing at the same time. not sure why anybody would want this, so for me this feature is a bit of a gimmick.

    When I first heard of the feature, I thought it was more of a "morph" which could give you a style "partway between latin and swing" or "partway between Romanian folk and chiptune" or "partway between gamelan and speed-metal" - which would be really cool.

     

    It sounds like it's just "you can have two styles at the same time", which is ... meh.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    Kawai ES520 / ES920. Have you heard?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    1 hour ago, The_Star_Guy said:

    Any chance of a 7x key lightweight version of the MP7se down  the road for pro giggers?

    Keep preaching the word brother. Kurzweil were always believers; Yamaha and Roland have more recently converted - we need Kawai and Casio to get the message.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    OT: Auditioning

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    2 hours ago, MathOfInsects said:

    a similar "mojo" story in a parallel world

    Interesting post MoI. I've been applying for jobs over the past months, and quite a few times I've thought I was perfectly suited to the role, and the "screening pre-interview" with HR went really well - only to hear that I'd been turned down. Or to hear nothing.

     

    Musically, I haven't auditioned for a long, long time. People know people who know people who've played with me, or heard me, and I get work that way.

     

    I do treat my first gig with any new band/project as an audition, and absolutely make every effort to bring my A game to the gig:

    - Preparation and knowing the material

    - Professionalism, arriving on time with decent gear, the correct dress code etc.

    - Flexibility and the ability to go with the flow

    - Being easy-going and good company

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    Comfortably Numb - Pulse (live) v album version

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Reminds me that I arranged this for our horn band years ago. Our alto saxist plays clarinet, and our tenor player doubles on violin! This is what i came up with:

    numb.thumb.JPG.55bff644b1ea798203ef1fd19c8961c8.JPG

    Obviously not every line from the record appears here, and there will be some tonal deficiencies (I'm short of alto instruments such as French horn). I've given the beautiful chorus countermelody (that I think is oboe on the record?) to the trombone, and taken other "creative liberties" with the arrangement. 

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    Korg PA5X

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, chelsea4023 said:

    Tony at Bonners, Eastbourne, U.K. he is a wonderful player

    While I enjoyed that video, Tony didn't strike me as a monster muso. No shade, but he has a slightly odd technique in his LH - he doesn't use his thumb as much as you would expect, and plonks odd notes with his LH index finger. The giveaway is fingering fifths 2-5 - I bet he's really a geetar player. In his RH, he'll finger, say GAcf as 1-1 2 5, rather than 1235. 

     

    A bit strange, but harmless...

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Like 1

    Comfortably Numb - Pulse (live) v album version

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    In general, I find that if orchestral strings don't work (can't cut through, too dense in the mix etc.), Mellotron strings do. To thicken up thin strings, try layering in octaves, although that does take up more sonic free space in the mix.

     

    I listened to the Pulse performance on YT. Drums and bass are huge, orchestral parts are moderate, Tim Renwick is gently strumming an acoustic, way back in the mix. Gilmour doesn't touch his guitar apart from when he's soloing. 

     

    You might be suffering from your colleague taking the view that "every song is a guitar song". Numb is not a guitar song, apart from the solos. He should turn down. 

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Like 1

    Korg PA5X

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    So: internal PSU - check. 5-pin MIDI - check. 76 keys - check (although wheels to the left, so almost as long as an 88). Aftertouch - check. Audio inputs - check.

     

    Organ model sounded CX3ish, which I will say is a pass.

     

    Expression pedal? Not clear from the "Damper Pedal; supports half-pedaling with the optional KORG DS-1H pedal 2 Assignable Pedal/Footswitch" EDIT "VOX V860 Volume Pedal" is an option so that looks oP.  

     

    USB host support - looks like three inputs! 

     

    And those sprung-action boards are heavy! Over 38lb for the 76, against 44 for the 88.

     

    Cheers, Mike.

     

     

    Speaker throw question

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    14 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

    Guitar amps, Spacestation, line arrays (a la Bose) all seem to reach further (not fall off as quickly) compared to the horn loaded PA cabs

    Line arrays have very different dispersion characteristics with less vertical dispersion and less fall-off as distance increases. The speaker-design specialists will talk about "coupling" and the like - I satisfy myself with the following highly unscientific explanations:

     

    If you're close to a line array, then you're listening to one speaker, as most of the other speakers in the array go straight past your ear. As you move away from the array, the perceived volume of that one speaker drops of course, but it is compensated by the fact that you can "hear" a greater number of speakers. 

     

    As I say, highly unscientific, and easy to pick holes in, but it helps me sleep at night...

     

    Cheers, Mike.

    • Like 3
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