ABECK

That's just douchery. Songwriting and performing talent doesn't excuse it.

Didn't Donald Fagen toss an ARP synth off the roof of the recording studio during Aja sessions because the tuning would drift?

In my original post, I purposely tried to avoid the "Smooth Jazz" label by opting for "LA Studio Jazz" (AKA West Coast Jazz). I dunno, maybe I'm splitting hairs, but I've always put this lot in a different category than dentist office jazz. Most of these guys are like the Wrecking Crew, phase 2, and to me, that is highly respectable.

Cheezy or not, this gets me every time.

Damn - what a great time to be on the West Coast!

I had a few different rack configurations over the years, all controlled with a Studio 90+ controller, which was slim, relatively light and build into it's own roadcase! I used various combinations of Kurzweil MicroPiano, Roland JV-1080, Akai S900, Voce MIcro B. It was definitely a slick footprint and relatively easy to setup. With iPads and laptops nowadays, I can't imaging the need to have a rack for sound sources (although racks for DIs, Line Mixers, IEM systems and such makes sense). However, I would imagine a decent controller and an Integra 7 could get one through many gigs happily.

I'm sure this performance of Dave Grusin and the GRP All stars from the Record Plant in 1985 is not new to many. But, every now and again, I like to dust it off and bask in the utter glossiness of the quintessential 80s LA studio jazz scene. The keys rig was my dream back in the 80s I count 2 original DX-7s, an Emulator II and tucked underneath, an Oberheim Expander. Honorable mention to Dave's Kawai EP-308 electric grand and DX-7. This era was when I first started getting hooked on all things keys and is forever burned in my brain as a special time in the music tech landscape. Among other things, Dave Grusin is responsible for some of my favorite 80s film and TV soundtracks. Who could forget St. Elsewhere? What a great show and iconic theme song.

They bought a Mac

That setup has been on Reverb for a while now. I agree, only someone interested in owning some Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis history would fork up that kind of scratch. Even a straight up Synclav enthusiast with money to burn shouldn't have to spend more than $20K tops. All the "workstation" extras that contribute to the high price tag IMHO don't really increase the value.

If this was 1991, that statement would have had a ring of truth to it. The Live Baby Live show is a great example of a band that is dialed in perfectly.

Take out Thomas Dolby and the cringe factor goes way down.

Some of it sounds Oberheim-like. (how's that for non-committal!)

Funny, now I definitely see it as iconic. The color scheme, the sleek profile, the membrane switches, the instructional graphics. Much more so than the DX7-II, when they went to the pushbutton design. It certainly defines a specific time, and in many cases, a specific sound.

Elton definitely added to the hip factor

For the better part of my life, I had assumed ARP was pronounced phonetically (like karp). You can imagine my dismay when I finally came to the realization it is pronounced Ayee Arrrre Peee. (At least I don't say Mooooooog!)

For some reason, the Prologue never did it for me. Take 5 does sound awesome, but WTH is with the sub 4 octave keybed on a polysynth? 5 would have been ideal.

Some patches sound very similar and others, like the sustained string type patches, sound very different. Nothing on there screams "I gotta have it!" But, if I needed a poly analog for live playing....It'd be hard to not choose this over something like the more expensive Juno-X (I realize the Juno has roland cloud, pcm sounds and all that.....so not the BEST comparison).

I say this every time a new overdrive pedal hits the market.

Are they touring with just one keys player currently? I seem to remember 2 years ago.

Aside from the contentious EP patch, this might be a good time to celebrate some of the other DX/FM contributions to popular music. I was a big fan (pun intended) of the sound used in Fleetwood Mac's Big Love. In the latter part of the choruses, there is a clav like patch used in a funky, descending line. Great use of the technology, without overwhelming the song in FM tones. Of course, now that I listen to it more critically, that could be something like an ovation....shit, I could be wrong.

Roger Manning Jr. is def a name that should come up more here.

Brit Floyd is a spinoff (and IMHO superior to) The Australian Pink Floyd Show tribute. High quality, great production.

I'd love Bellybutton on vinyl. I've been keeping my eyes out for a long time. There really isn't a bad track. And every song has an evolution....if you are inclined to musical ADD and skip songs after the first 5 seconds, you miss the brilliant arrangements they have.

The band...not the sea creature. While they were only slightly on my radar in the early nineties (thanks to touring with the black crowes and an article in Keyboard Magazine with a hip spiral paintjob on a Wurli), but in the last 20 years or so, their debut LP Bellybutton has consistently been in my top 10 albums of all time. I hesitate to use the term "genius" with most musicians, but the writing of Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning is impressive. Listening to interviews with Roger, it seems he spent a lot of time analyzing the writing styles of the Beatles, Queen, XTC, The Beach Boys, BeeGees and others. So, maybe genius isnt the right term, but carefully calculated works. Unfortunately, they were nestled impossibly between hair metal and grunge and never became as big as they could/should have in the popular scene. Maybe that's a good thing. For us keys players, there's much to enjoy, including Mellotron, electric harpsichord, and wurlitzer. I'm curious if there are other fans/followers here? One of the "Hits". (some of the best recorded toms I've ever heard)

The bitimbral ability of the DX7IIFD to layer or split sounds was a huge improvement. That alone would have probably been enough for me to have not sold my original DX when I did.