kpl1228

Probably like many on this forum, I played every weekend FOREVER. Every Friday and Saturday. After missing numerous weddings, funerals, school functions, and family growing up and getting older I started reassessing my priorities. It took a teenaged kid getting in a life-threatening car accident over a decade ago (she was hurt but is now fine) to slap cold water on me and wake me up to getting me out of the nonstop gig cycle. Life was happening all around me and I was too much in the zone to realize it. After many years away (I just turned 60), I'm jazzed to start picking up gigs again, though on my terms. It's nice to no longer think I need to do music to pay the bills. I just thought I needed to do the extra gigs to be a good provider. And I had forgotten the reason i started playing and enjoying music in the first place. As you get older, you realize that most good local bands play all of the time, and if a band plays only once a month, there's usually musical reasons for that. It then also becomes a question of influence and say within the band hierarchy.....if you want more time off for family and vacations etc, you may have to "settle" for a band of lesser musical quality if you aren't the one booking the gigs, etc...particularly during summer months: the busiest time for gigs but also the season when your family and kids want family vacations and time together. It's all crazy and the balancing act never ends. But if you value time off and family time, the balancing act becomes much more complex. A friend of mine once said to me: "A lot of musicians are trying to relive their glory days and forget their current age and home situation, and the spouse and kids suffer." I laughed at it when he said it but I realize as I look at some of my less-responsible and less-well-balanced older musician friends that there is great truth in it sometimes. After all, I was that guy. I played a lot of gigs, but I also missed out.

Love my Mojo!

I'd like to upgrade my JBL cabinet to a QSC K12.2, though honestly my JBL does the job and then some. For keyboards...The Oberheim OB-X8. That's all. I'd also love a second Invisible stand. I keep looking and looking.

Yamaha DX7 when it first came out checked all the boxes for me. I made payments on it as a VERY young (in my late teens) bar musician and after playing very subpar, broken-down and inadequate keyboards from the '70's (you gotta start somewhere) the DX7 was heaven. Nonstop noodling, and finally I could "sound like the song" in the cover band I was in. Such an all-around workhorse in 1984. Sometimes I miss that feeling of youthful musical joy and discovery with a cool new groundbreaking instrument. Ever since that day I've been chasing the dragon, so to speak.

True. This certainly "greys" it all up for sure. To me that version's the gold standard. At huge levels unfortunately it has all become acceptable to me. I can almost forgive the big buck tours doing it (well, maybe not the Eagles because of their history of vocal purity) because it's an actual show. Lights, dancers, video, all of it. Still hate it but I can at least acknowledge it for what it is. I know I'm in the opposite camp with this but I HATE it at the local club/bar level. You're not syncing up to a three-story-tall video screen and 20 dancers and pyro....you're playing a bar at happy hour. At that watered down level, so raw, you're just doing karaoke with your instrument. i've seen musicians miming their instruments at the bar/club level, and heard tons of British synthpop synthline pouring out of a band's PA during their entire set with NO keyboard player. And "everyone else does it so why not" is no excuse. I know it's all grey and everyone has their take.

I do lament the loss of these stores also. But other than home recording and VST stuff, the Guitar Centers and Sam Ashs of the world rarely have pro-level expensive keyboards. Makes sense: the people that play those (us) are a small percentage of their market. I wonder if the Sam Ash in Cleveland (Mayfield Heights) is closing....I keep looking for the full Sam Ash closing list and I keep seeing partial lists. It would make sense if the Cleveland store closed. Few customers, cheaper budget instruments and accessories, and always seems to be on its last legs. A visit to the keyboard room at Sweetwater brought me back to those magical days of brick and mortar and walking in and seeing pro instruments. Haven't seen anythng like it since though. I know that we are a niche.

I think you should add a 61-key true analog polysynth. The Virus could have covered much of it but if you're adding 80's synth stuff a Rev2 or similar makes a lot of sense. Though you can pull off those sounds with a Modx or your former Motif (I have a Motif also) it's just not the same. I cut my teeth in the 80's and therefore I lust hard for the new Oberheim (nope.......$$$$$$.....maybe in a few years used if it drops in price) the Rev2 is just a solid poly. I'm sure that's my next go-to as a result.

This has always been a cool mystery bassline to me. Analog? DX7? Real fretless bass? All of the above plus a chicken? It's DX7-y, but not sure. Thoughts?

All the V-Piano sounds work so well and are great live, with lots of editability. Looked at others for master controllers but the action and feel of the RD keys won out. Also, piano samples don't seem to have the presence LIVE of the V-piano modeled sounds.

I just assumed that DX bass would not be full or punchy enough and assumed it would be done, as usual in the 80s, by a heavily processed Minimoog or Moog Source. Good to know. Cetera was a talent and was at the right place at the right time and networked and met the right people (Foster). Lamm was another good looking guy with a good voice, but not a '80's tenor and not ambitious enough, and didn't make the leap. Worked out well for them with Scheff though. Plus Cetera dropped the 70s baby fat and started looking like an 80's private tennis club pro. Turn up that Izod polo collar and you're all set!

I envy those with a strong left hand (mine is passable at best), but I also can't imagine existing in a band where I had to carry left-hand bass for the duration. I see it as being a one-handed keyboardist and the loss of 50% of my musical options (and 50% of my gig enjoyment)...like someone punished me and hacksawed my left arm off...though I do respect the discipline required and the development of the left hand it brings. I also never understood why bar bands don't hire a bass player (if available) in lieu of saving a few bucks per man. Playing with a solid bass player, especially if they also sing etc, is worth every penny of whatever beer money I otherwise get to keep. A good bassist (upright or electric) is worth their weight in gold and if they have a great attitude? A gold MINE.

A sample for ten or 20 seconds of an iconic intro, or an orchestral part, or something that complex, or even a keyboard intro of a song for a band without a keyboard player....no one would question it. That's fine. This is just splitting hairs.

That is NO defense for running tracks. Being a sham? Putting one over on people to still collect the check? As bad as backing keyboard tracks are live, any defense for a lead vocal being tracked is awful. We all know an 80 year old singer does not sound 25. Come on.

I hope none of this is legit: this is a band that prides itself on pristine natural harmony and accurate renditions of their catalog, and performing well for themselves and their fans, and with the addition of Vince Gill, even more so. I did not expect this.