MotiDave

I can tell which guys in the few bands I play in played too loud for too long, as they can"t even tell they are loud anymore. sweet guys, they are happy to turn down when told, they are way past the guitar hero mega blaster phase of life. they really no longer even know. As to OP"s question - i play at ~half-volume and either turn up for a lead or if its a tone I use only just for that lead, I"ll have that lead patch pre-programmed already boosted up. I pre-program every single song for my live sets, so tones splits volumes everything are all set and I almost never touch my volume knob during the set.

No way i would wear a mask while playing.

I use a gig bag for local shows, a SKB molded TSA case for travel gigs. my gig bag (Yamaha"s case for MODX7) is very thin, no bolsters, etc - i do not trust it at all for stacking in and around other gear. No way. I think some aftermarket gig bags are much more rugged and maybe not an issue. I"d never put that Yamaha gig bag into the flight system. Kiss of death, i fear

I practice with headphones. No help here.

I am still happy with mine (ELX112P) too. I remember buying it now, what, 6 or 7 yrs ago, something ... after reading your recommendation and finding a killer deal on one. Warm yet bright, clear, strong low end. The newer EV"s look amazing. I don"t like 10"s as much after I play thru this. I much preferred DXR10s to K10s, have not played thru the 10.2"s though I always note how many love their 8"s - i just don"t care for 8"s for live performance. Maybe different tones with diff frequency envelopes. I have a lot of synths in my sets, 8s do not bring the balls required. As a personal monitor it can work fine if you don"t want to hear as much of your low end, i guess.

I love my MODX7, not feeling much hate at all. Very true its not possible to be expressive AP like a real piano. I also a just a loud rocker so i can gig fine without nuance, AP isn"t a big part of my sets. Love the one-handed effort to move it around. I have a spare wall wart, never needed it. I stil have 2 wall warts for my old MOXF6 too, buying into the fear porn about wall warts even then. They both still work. I"m starting to wonder about the wall wart fear farm. I"ll keep bringing two anyway. I do hate that I don"t bother to learn the powers within the humble plastic case. I use maybe 20% of its power. I still don"t know how to easily program the super knob. Sure, you can laugh at me.

MODX7 will feel much better for playing B3, as its not weighted. Playing organ on a weighted A/P bed feels very weird to me. Doing smears and similar techniques on a weighted keyboard is weird to the point its almost painful for me, jmo, ymmv. MODX7 is also more compact, much lighter, and has easier controls and interface. I"m not thinking of a single reason to consider a MOXF8 over it unless you just want another octave and are willing to give up key feel, weight, convenience, etc. to get it. MODX7 also has a better internal sound set / engine - albeit alot of underlying waveforms are the same in both

I bought the Mutec 2G board for MOXF6, worked great. I haven"t even taken my MOXF6 out of its case since I got my MODX7. No comparison for keyboard playing related keyboard gigging needs - night and day. Can"t comment on sequencer, I don" really use it on either.

Lol, after a couple kids and almost a couple decades and too many Pixar"s to count, the incredible computerized work has zero remaining intrigue and then its simply better cartoons as far as I"m looking at. I do intend to watch this one, my son (15) asked RPO watch it together. Maybe later today hmmm?

Hey Gear Gurus - a guy i know is looking to buy his son a keyboard. He was looking at Yamaha P125, which is a fine entry level electric AP keyboard. Wonder what other options you might recommend in that value range (I think P125 is just short of $700?) Thanks in advance

Tom is such a bad ass

Well I"m an outlier from the dominant themes here in many ways. First caveat is I have no idea what the new generation does thinks wants or will learn or if guitars will remain dominant. I think more guys learned guitars because they grew of age when overwhelming dominance of guitar in rock n roll. It becomes self-fulfilling, we all remember seeing a great show at a young age, watching the enormous crowd scream uncontrolled, and think 'damnit - it want to do that!'. Well - as guitar dominated music, more guys learned guitar. I love loud guitar, dirty rocking hard ass guitar. I have no problem finding bands to play in on keys, because of that count imbalance of guitars to keys out there. I have no trouble finding my voice in any band i played in. I"m a rocker at core, so of course i love loud dirty guitar. I find a way to fit into the mix without making it too tame

PPAs have an advantage of multi-purpose utility as well. Some gigs we need more PPAs for monitors, I"ll throw mine down and we can run a balanced mix with keys so i get both my keys monitor plus vocals and some other bits mixed in (guitar if its far other side). I generally always hear bass well enough no matter where i am, those guys are all deaf i think

You want a 27' iMac on your stage rig? That is big.

My next shows are in July but don"t know if they will get cancelled. Then I have one booked in Oct - nothing else yet. The dives that are the staple of my mid-month shows are still not allowed to book bands here in SoCal. Statistics in San Diego are incredibly low - and are mostly concentrated down in South Bay close to the border. I"m ready to risk it and go. one of my bands is raring, the other we couldn"t even get the drummer to do a jam rehearsal in a large garage with just the band. Everyone sees and feels it differently.

For me the answer is yes - i don"t like the sound out of keyboard amps I have tried. Confession - I have not tried them all. It brings al question though - why hasn"t any keyboard amp mfg designed an amp that is comparable to the flat broad frequency response of the typical modern PPA? something about the expected form factor prohibits this? Its not like keyboard amps only sell cheap, they often cost more than a pair of PPAs. A nice sounding stereo kbd amp that created flat unbiased response across the spectrum would perhaps interest me.

This. KB stand, my PC3 and a couple of controller pedals. Setup is 2 minutes. Also this. AX-48, MODX7, 2 pedals and 1/4' stereo cable to the PA where I grab 2 channels and pan L & R. Up in 3-4 min, i like to take my time.

FWIW - I have MODX7, and I love it. I"ll bang out AP songs in a rock band setting but as all AP players know, you can"t get nuanced expression from any unweighted keybed. Works for my rock situations good enough and is the righttrade off for the much more synth type work i do. I HATE playing synth or organ tones on a weighted bed. Anyway - I tried out an MODX8 in the store while waiting for my pal who worked there to break free to hook me up on the 7. I didn"t like it at all - not sure how much was just me used to a semi/un weighted synth for 7 yrs vs the actual MODX8 board but it was like running in thick mud. I thought its as mostly the board and not me. Slow unresponsive heavy ... blech. MODX7 isn"t the end all be all. I do some travel gigs so I want a board+case < 50 lbs and case <62' or its $150 extra out of my pocket plus a total schlep thru airports, hotels, etc. I don"t trust backline companies anymore and I never learned to program MS to get the exact signature sounds i need. For a light weight all-in-one board, its the perfect tool for my job. I got it for $1200 - thats an absurd amount of synth power in a 16 lb box. All the many limitations are known, i just don"t worry bout what its not and I focus on what it is. Ymmv.

You guys are so professional. I"m not gonna jinx myself and say what i do. Er, don"t do.

Wow.

I saw that, no offense but that was pretty darn funny. I have some friends in Austin from my last company that had an office there. They had some sharp opinions on that move. Most friends i know in bands are having all of their shows cancelled. I still have a bar gig tomorrow night. Look forward to getting a lil rock on and forgetting this trauma. I"m a skeptic in general of most hysteria, this one is no different. Hope i don"t offend anyone by not personally buying the panic, I"m not judging how others feel about it. Its none of my business how others feel, to me it seems like the flu. 10,000ish people died of normal flu in US this year, last year it was closer to 20k. Shutting down a country, or the planet, for a flu seems hyperbolic. People brawling over toilet paper at costco, stockpiling spam and sanitizer like its Armageddon .... its getting to be mad max out there. but hey, don"t follow me, because if I"m wrong, ... well ....

I saw him do some unknown song on one of those 11:30 variety shows (tonight show esq, don"t remember which), maybe 3 - 6 months ago? I"d never heard the song, it wasn"t one of the classic TH hits from the 80s we all know him by. But the presentation was this exact same ultra cool 'theatrical' (for lack of better description) walking band concept he"s now performing as. I don"t know how long ago he started this reinvention, he could have been doing it for 10 or more years and I wouldn"t know. But - Love this, as i loved that odd unknown song he did with his same wandering emoting band. Watch them closely, every move, position switch, step bend and twist, facial expression, emotion of each of the band members is completely choreographed and scripted. Its truly theatrical and imaginative genius, so oddly different and completely Byrne!. Not sure I would remain enthralled for a 90 minute concert of this act, but for a song - its awesomely original

My favorite Rhodes songs are played on a Wurly.

I didn"t start as far back as some here, I was early 80s. i had a big power amp with an 8-band EQ that I plugged into a PA Cabinet which had a 12' + horn (maybe it was a 15' - i don"t remember anymore). Don"t recall either model now. As noted, we almost never ran anything except VOX thru PA, everybody"s stage sound was their live 'FOH' sound.

This. You can use Master Mode, which allows you to mix n match any type of stored item type (Voice, Performance, Song...) and use Melas Library Manager to re-arrange for each gig. The only limit is you can only save 128 items (I think) in Master Mode index. Thats more than enough for any one band. I used to create a user Performance for every song, even if i only used one Voice, and just play in Perf mode, But for every gg i did the same with Melas. MOXF isn"t the easiest to navigate around otherwise. Note you don"t need all of the Melas applications to do this, only his library manager app. You also need to install the Yamaha USB driver so the board will talk to your laptop (thats free). I got so used to it i could set up for a new gig plan in under 5 minutes. I still have my MOXF6, backup travel gig board But I haven"t used in now 16 months. I now have MODX(7) too, but I didn"t get Melas for MODX yet - i can re-order gig sets directly on the touchscreen quickly, no need to start up a laptop,