David Emm

That's one of those blink-&-its-gone moments. It felt comparable to the D-50's, very inviting. I haven't played a Keystage, but if it feels like the M3, I'm likely to lean in more seriously. They were fine for synth/organ, but unlike some, I didn't find them prohibitive for piano, either. Best of Show, unweighted category.

Pontifex Godzigulous and The Titans of Flatulence Nice try, but doesn't roll off the tongue very well. Sorry.

Sure there is. Call customer service, pretty much anywhere. You'll want to set up a mic to catch the Hoover patch moment when your brain gets sucked into the vacuum. "Can you say 'entropy'? Nice try!" ~ Robin Williams

I just pored over the specs and that's one hell of a central behemoth. I'd be reluctant to take it on the road without roadies. Its just too pricey and vital to haul around unless you can get a tax write-off, should a drunken patron fall on it. I don't think Roland left anything off this time. Its everything in their history plus n/zyme. Yeesh, Godzilla much? 😛 Its just my view, but its so big, it undermines squawking about a one-company sound. You might have a software piano or specialty instrument you like, but this thing feels a bit like my brain got turned into a workstation. 🤓 Impressive.

Lucky me, as the Moody Blues were the first serious pro band I got to see live. The volume left my ears ringing for 2 days (I learned the ear plug lesson right away), but the Mellotron still sticks with me. I owe Mike something beyond just his band work, because he's the one who brought the 'tron to life for me. That's a prominent part of my rig now. Thanks, Mike.

What a little beauty. Its a nice match for a Take 5, which is somewhat like a slimmer Prophet for people who aren't looking to drop $3499 on a Prophet-6. A Trigon-6 is $2499 and a Rev2 16-voice is $2599, so the pricing scale is sensible. Some synths stop at 4 voices too often. With 5, you can go to town more fully. It seems like a good choice alone, but also between bigger synths. It has bass and pads written all over it, maybe a bit less for leads, IMO.

I believe it was Frankie Knuckles who said that House music was Disco's revenge. I concur, as evidenced by how quickly I click away from 4/4 demos of almost anything. Its rare for that not to utterly distract me from the rest of the piece. That's also partly just MY darned problem. Its a fundamental heartbeat/sexbeat with its own merits. It simply has a certain *aroma*, because I was bopping around attending many a concert at the time. THUD THUD THUD THUD ride crash 😱 It couldn't touch the shoe tops of seeing Bruford, Parliament/Funkadelic & Nektar live. It raises your standards, so you have to remember not to get all uppity!

Saved us? As I recall, there was a brief uptick in sensitive troubadour types who caused the birth rate to dip because that stuff gave a lot of men raging ED. There's a time & place for things. For example, Billy Connolly draws a clear line through the world of rock. It gets cut off just as the gratifying last line comes out, which is (sorry) "I am the Devil and I wanna **** your motherrrr!!" Its very jovial, trust me! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQb3v5N-xsY

Some of the best concert moments I've experienced involved the band creatively recovering from gear blowouts or stage decorations that fell over, sometimes ONTO someone. Grace on the high-wire when the wind becomes gusty can be a real value-added moment for the fans. There was once a brownout that stopped the show for a few, so I played "Ride of the Valkyries" on a duck call. People enjoyed it more & more as my WIND began to give out. The power returned and the Korg bounced back such that I ended my duck call solo with a huge pipe organ flourish. TA-DAAA! An unplanned crowd pleaser!

All of this reminds me of old science-fiction movies, where the robot fritzes out and repeatedly runs into a wall. It also brings to mind birds feeding their babies chewed-up worm pate... sort of like feeding toddlers at Taco Bueno. 🤨 Too bad this will catch on. As Voltaire allegedly once said, "Anything too stupid to be spoken out loud is sung."

I can sympathize with the distraction of imaginary perfection, but I'm sure I'm not the only one to put convolution on the master outs for the glorious globuance of it all. I have a loose baker's dozen of nice reverbs that fit my style(s). I use them carefully, lest things turn into mud. I'm glad I had my era of stacking early low-fi reverbs to mask their individual flaws. Now I know that a Mellotron generally needs its own bit of reverb to work best and how to balance that against the main one. Its a colorful form of juggling.

I've been saying that for quite a few years and nothing has "panned out" due to technology & social forces rolling on as they always do. Its akin to the physics truism about light behaving as both a particle and a wave phenomenon, depending on the situation. In fact, the longer I compose my own music and the less I follow industry trends, the more I understand that music SHOULD remain in transition and only "pan out" at the point where you finish your latest composition. Its ultimately abstract and highly subjective. I also note an "American Dad" episode where the plot revolved around a flash drive with a giant EDM set on it. It was part of the joke that it was casually downloaded off the Net and when the drive got broken, panic ensued. Sounds all too familiar, when I think of the times a dead AC cord or a failed floppy disk cratered me!

I handle it by giving in to it as a creative exercise. If I decide to wander through presets for an hour and then stop for a while, it seems to reach a balanced middle ground. Writing small descriptions for each keeper-quality item gets old, even though they're necessary. A patch named "Space Goober Patter" doesn't really tell you much when you're working. Its the same for effects and synths. There's always the temptation to gulp it down at a fast pace because its all so shiny. I've enjoyed it more since I got past pointless FOMO. It took a while for me to figure out that Logic came with a serious mass of sound massagers that didn't need much enhancement. I've picked 3rd party additions more effectively as a result. The longer you work/play, the more readily you develop a certain muscle memory that replaces endless review with those three tweaks that land things right in the pocket. My advice: You know you, so the semi-ideal best set of tools you always need will gel for you sooner or later. After that, the main job is simply not burying everything in sprinkles. I do ❤️ sprinkles, *sigh*.

Those places are astounding. I can just hear 30-year-old capacitors making small crackling noises as they expire. Part of me wishes those synths could be handed to people who would play them, but maintenance of aging instruments is no small matter. That goes double with pieces so old & complex, most of the people who can repair them are already backing St. Peter on Mellotron. Still, its a beautiful collection.

HAH! No way! "Hi, my name is David and I'm a synthaholic." Crowd: "Hi David, praise Moog." Your eyes have a look that bewitches The last time I needed forty stitches Gouge out my eye Set fire to my tie as we dance to the Masochism Tango! ~ "The Masochism Tango," Tom Lehrer

If that works out, please post a brief review. If you can manage a few pics, even better. I remain mildly dazzled by the presence of several major synth museums in the world, especially those that let you rent a classic vintage piece for a few hours. A sample-minded person with a digital recorder can end up going home with some serious treasures.

Heresy! Eh, its all rather funny to me, because the slowly whirling cloud of my synths over the years has spun like brooms in Disney's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." I'm slack-jawed to have a CS-80 and the super-rare Synthex with a click. Sure, I felt like a demigod while sitting in the middle of a ring of hardware goodies, part of the time. I also did a lot of screaming at MIDI splitters and disk drives that went GERNK! at the worst points, which I don't miss at all. Oddly enough, that helps my composition. The energy goes into the work more. So yeah, I've hugged my synths today and pretty much every day. Its one of the best First World problems you can have. The only real constant has been keeping a main synth with welcoming keys. The rest is galactic gravy.

Rhetorical question: Why, after watching one of Rick's videos, do I feel like I've been whacked across the head with an old leather pouch filled with Wild Turkey? When I sit through a musical instruction or debate piece, feeling punch-drunk afterwards undermines the point. If your words don't make enough of an impression, yelling at me like a trashy American tourist bellowing English at an Italian gentleman won't help. 🙄😵‍💫

I figured out pretty early on that I wasn't built to be a proper live player, but OTOH, I did a few shows with just a lone Korg 01Wfd and I got across. Audiences will roll with a lot if you keep it interesting. Its a high-wire act to play solo, but if you can tackle it, the relative rarity will act in your favor. With only a few square feet for your rig, you can still sound like a demigod. People will reward your bravery. They're largely aware of computers often being a part of music now, so you get points for your sheer nerve and grace under pressure. Its not a common sort of act, but the gear will go there more than ever.

I came to accept the inevitable and took up music as YouTube streams and WAV files on SSDs & flash drives. I even have a couple of Western Digital HDs with a grab bag of older items. I got tired of burning personal synth discs with uncertain dropout rates. Lotta coasters there! I have treasured commercial discs that have remained playable for years and others that suddenly couldn't load the first track, so POOF they went. At this point, CDs are more archival than not. Digital files aren't immutable, but they make CDs look like the transitional phase they are. I love my basic stash of them all the same. Its the last vestige of the greater fun I had when LPs came with weird inserts and psycho-disturbing covers.

HAH! Very true, to my benefit, in this case. I appreciate the added clarity about setting up a playlist, for example. I'm idly wishing I was in the market for a serious 61-noter, because this bridges a couple of gaps for me. Its not that much different from my usual controller/DAW form, but I'd take the nice keybed and the macros gladly.

I was once told that I have relative perfect pitch and how it differs from its sibling. Its been useful, but it mostly means I hear how OFF a lot of pop singers are, causing me to howl like a dog. On pitch in my case, but who cares, I'm already howling, OOOOWWwOoooo. The gods bless those who put an A440 tuning reference in their hardware synths early on.

All too true. Well, that's it. I'm now pro-nuke. I'll build my own. Sure hope my Kickstarter works. 🥳

That makes me wonder about the point where we lose the last person who knows how to play a cello. 👻 Tracker enthusiasts aren't likely to take up the slack. I don't think people will ever give up on a mostly-pure thing of joy like music, but between the undercutting of music education in general and the disruptive side of consumer electronics, the avenues for bonding with an oboe over a Jupiter X are ever-shrinking. Real mastery demands immense sweat and commitment. Its something to consider.