Stokely

Thanks. I like his vids, but I agree it's non-scientific. Using one particular plugin to draw conclusions from seems a bit odd to me, I'd like it if at least there were a few others in play other than just the Neural DSP Nolly guitar plugin. That aside, it's a bit concerning that Apple's own DAW not only seems to perform worse than others on Apple's own hardware, but worse the newer the hardware is. There are other considerations beyond efficiency when picking hardware and a daw. For example if the most I'd ever use would be say 15 instances of Diva (which might or might not perform similarly to the Nolly plugin), does it really matter if I can "only" use 64, or 164? Obviously a pro user might not know what they need from client to client. For me, it's all moot because I just inherited my wife's M1 MBP as she prefers her imac--wish it had 32GB of ram but gift horses and all that! Not too soon either, because some of my newer plugins--in particular a few Native Instruments Kontakt libraries-- are giving my 2016 MBP some problems. My biggest headache with that MBP has simply been that I dislike the usb-c dongles I have to use, they tend to drop out if I breathe on the thing. That alone was leading me toward the Studio before my wife gave me this one

If that Arturia Polybrute 12 with poly AT is indeed real--and it looked like it--that is of definite interest. My powers of rationalization could easily bend things to: "I need a poly AT controller for home!" while I'd use it's sounds live. Then again, that would mean two keyboards live again and the Nord Stage 3 is doing a better-than-expected job at handling synth sounds. Truly happy with what it can do and wasn't really expecting that.

That's the main reason I go to few shows. And frankly have little wish to watch glorified karaoke on my tv either. Part of what I love about playing, and listening to, live music is seeing what people can pull off "manually". Whether that's with a giant ensemble like Snarky Puppy sometimes brings out, or a duo, I don't care to hear a bunch of musak making it sound big and full. Not to mention at least a few bands around here just fake even the instruments they are playing, which is shit IMO. But that's just me and my spending cash, I fully realize I'm in the tiny minority and that battle has been long over.

I don't find it fascinating, I find it pretty awful in principle. Not so much for music. People have been running tracks and faking performances for ages now, this is just the evolution of that. Mainly because I don't feel that human societies are well-equipped to handle the vast amounts of free time we are about to have, provided we make it through climate change upheavals and other challenges as a high-tech society. If you ain't living to work, you are worthless is something I've heard from many people basically. Something will have to give. My own job as a coder and analyst is likely one of the many at risk, but most likely by my estimation I'll be retired by the time that happens. I have no idea what to tell my kids to "be"--other than a landlord for some properties we own. They don't listen to me anyway

I couldn't agree more. I've had two serious varieties of cancer (I don't count a couple types of minor skin cancers) and after a brief time of looking things up online after the first one I quickly learned that being a head-in-the-sand ostrich is far preferable. More accurately, I put blinders on for all but my doc's advice. If you aren't reading about some snakeoil conspiracy "I've got the real cure they don't want you know about!" alternative bullshit, you are reading horrific stories about how people died in a week after receiving their diagnosis. Much better to, as said above, find a good doc you trust. That of course can be the rub especially considering our shitty insurance situation--sometimes you are mandated what and who you can see, and good luck paying for stuff without it. I got lucky to have a specialist in the somewhat-rare cancer I had the first time right in town. Not to mention, "cancer" is hundreds of different types and then you get into stages and encapsulation (ie, has it broken off pieces or is it contained in a sort of shell) and everyone's case can be different. TLDR; I'd see a doc before researching yourself.

Seems weird to me as well. So is it some massive cost savings to discontinue a keyboard you were already making and design a (sorta) brand new one? I'm sure the bean counter were hard at work to answer that and the answer must have been "yep". I felt the RD88 was too cut down for my liking so this is certainly not of interest

After a buddy's recent experience on Reverb--where a buyer claimed the keyboard had a "clicking key" (despite no damage to the box and packaging) I'm not going to be using them anytime soon. The dude was pretty obviously wrangling for more money off the already-good price, and he got it--from Reverb, who ended up paying the guy almost a 3rd of the price when they went to arbitration. Then my buddy gets a tax notice about the sale. No thank you. Interesting to hear about GC being good on trade-ins...multiple people at their stores have said they pay 1/2 of what they can sell for, which is not a lot. Guess I will stick to selling locally, which I can't stand for entirely different reasons. Or just sit on the gear like I'm currently doing. I'd sell under market value but I can't get motivated to do the whole song and dance right now.

The grid is a problem. Especially when "we" allow massive bitcoin mining sites that chew up massive amounts of power to engage in their large-scale Ponzi schemes. Let's get fixing it. It's not like it hasn't been a problem even before clean tech, depending on the state and how much they want to invest in it. Utilities want to make their stacks too. Continuing to embrace fossil fuels for whatever reason or excuse is not the answer, unless the question is "how can we make climate change worse?" Amazing that something like renewable energy vs fossil fuel could turn into a holy war, but we are a bunch of tribal poo-flinging apes that could probably manage to go to war over the color of the sky.

Agreed. Ray Manzarek is a great example of not giving a shit about playing what he recorded, or at least he didn't in *anything* live I've ever seen or heard. Donald Fagen has a few live versions of Peg, which was a bit frustrating for a visual learning hack like me who can't read music (other than guitar tabs) to see him just sort of ad lib over the chords any way he pleases! Never heard Rick Wakeman stick to what he played exactly either. And on and on. I find it absolutely hilarious that (some) small-time cover bands I've talked to get so uptight about that sort of thing, while many of the original bands don't care. Hey different strokes, I just avoid joining bands like that.

Most definitely. People (Americans at least) don't like to be told what to do I guess! Don't tread on me! And there's a LOT of "perfect is the enemy of the good" rationalization. We can't fix it 100% so why bother, etc. Al Gore flew in a jet so his entire inconvenient truth is bogus. Lots of excuses to change nothing. I have my own internal family battle over water bottles. My wife and (one) kid use the recyclable water bottles when it would be almost as easy to use the washable water bottles we own with the good water we have delivered (Orlando tap water is awful). From my perspective, take the extra 1 minute before you head out to fill the non-disposable bottle, easy peasy. I'm sure I have my own ways to be wasteful though. Keeping transformers plugged in, keeping gear on constantly etc. Working from home not only helps with gas usage but helps with my sanity (and gives me back an hour a day) so that's a big win! If everyone conserved--in whatever way--just 1% overall, it would be a massive thing. Edit: my neighbor could be a great example of conservation if he somehow managed to stop using his @$#! blower a half hour in his driveway every....single...day. Can't have those leaves you know. (Working from home and trying to have a window open for fresh air does have it's petty annoyances.)

I haven't tried the Numa X, but in general that might be an impedance problem if yours work well normally but are too low with the Numa. If your phones are good ones that you like, one approach you could take would be a small mixer/headphone amp. As far as open-backed phones, I've got two sets from Massdrop: 58x (hd600) and 6xx (hd650). Best deal around as far as I'm concerned, especially when they go on sale. I'm not really sure they'd match well with the Numa however, especially the 6xx (they are a bit quiet with my current headphone outputs, being higher impedance, but not so much that it's a show-stopper.) If impedance is the issue, then I'd guess you'd need phones with low impedance (or an amp that can drive them.)

I've always disliked the Roland paddle, because I don't often solo and don't use pitch bend. Modulation for me is typically used to do things like opening the cutoff frequency, and often want to keep it at a certain point, so the paddle isn't useful for me. I definitely do not want auto-return on modulation. Different strokes! Glad to see they added a regular mod wheel to the Fantom, so you have the choice to use either.

I already own a Summit, and it certainly is quite flexible for a synth. Extra points for Novation being a great company to deal with in my experience. A bit of extra points for it coming with a nice web-based free librarian app, that is more useful than you'd think for building custom sets. That said, out of new synths, probably an OBX8 or maybe a Prophet 5. These are, or are close to, what I grew up wanting. They do what they do, and like that thing they do! Now, if someone is giving me this and price is no object, I might look at something boutique like a Deckard's Dream simply because it's super expensive I'm down to one keyboard live so my Summit and other keyboard don't get out to play anymore...that could change so I don't want to sell them (plus I HATE the process of selling).

Yeah, it's different from the old Motif (I owned the original Motif). Iirc, the big difference is that the Motifs did the Performances via reference, so you'd assemble Voices into a performance. Change the original Voice, and any Performance using it would be affected. This could be both a pro or a con depending on your point of view. It's how Kurzweil and others do it. I think overall I like the "by value" (to use an old C programming term) way of using the patches, they get copied in and now the copy is independent from the original. Not sure if this new Montage has changed up the OS at all. I'm pretty used to it from the Modx if not. Having owned the Modx, I'd want to go for the upscale model at this point in my life. My ideal Montage would be a 7 octave weighted Montage with poly AT and a compact shape and weight similar to the Forte 7 (compact enough to fit in some 61-key cases, and 41 pounds). One can fantasize! Realistically it will likely be the 6 or 7 if anything. I just wish they had Poly AT.

I'm with Outkaster, they are more stress than they are worth. Especially at my low level of gigs making what I do. Some might find them exciting, but I guess I'm not that adventurous. I've only done this type of gigs to do a favor for a keyboard-playing friend and dreaded the gig for weeks leading up to it each time. I like being in my comfort zone in my band of 12 years, though I do push the envelope with vocals and maybe guitar so it's not all comfort!

Agreed about (anti) social media. Glad I don't have to use it to make a living or have a "brand". A lot of celebrities have thicker skin than I do, because I can't and won't tolerate the legions of online trolls who seem to exist just to inflict misery on others from the safety of their basement. Sucks that a great like Emerson got affected by the sewer that is online humanity (other than places that are actually moderated). It sucks that kids are committing suicide in such numbers from the nastiness directed their way. As far as who will be on tour...they'll probably just run a track with a movie standee. Audiences don't seem to care these days.

I don't recall "waveform" in the Modx but it may be there to describe the Element choices. In the Modx, and older Montage, it is Elements that make up Parts, which make up Performances. I don't find it all that confusing, my weakness is toward Kurzweil's VAST which I find impenetrable. In patches I made on the Modx I preferred to keep the number of elements (oscillators) down to a manageable number, and same for Parts. Makes it much easier to include existing performances in new ones, because Yamaha copies existing parts into the new performance when you add one (vs linking to a patch like a lot of keyboards do with their multi modes). Less is often more, you can get a giant mush with too many things happening, and it gets hard to know which filter to control etc. Makes it much more of a chore to set up splits also.

My drummer and I are both in the "when does the next set start, I need to time my bathroom run to be as close as possible" club so I get that.

Again I've never seen a keyboard so hot that a pad is needed on a mixer input, and certainly not if only halfway up. If anything, they tend to be a bit low, mine have all been lower than if I use a submixer like a Key Largo as an additional gain stage (which is understandable, it's another amp!). Something must be cranked up somewhere above the norm, or else it's an actual malfunction. I'd try plugging into something else, as stated above you need to isolate what is causing the issue.

There's a note in the manual that the aftertouch can wear out? Wow. I owned a Virus that at the time was about 15 years old and pretty obviously used (if not abused) and the aftertouch worked great. Granted, it was regular channel aftertouch. If the manufacturer is admitting that up front that would have me worried.

For those VST drummer among you! 25% off. This is apparently quite the unusual sale, and a lot of people think it means SD4 is not far off. The hope if buying SD3 now would be a cheap upgrade in the future, which I understand was a thing going from 2 to 3. I probably will not bite, simply because I'm not using the tools I currently have enough....most of my piddling around with music is more on the electronic side, often with no drums at all. And I have some nice libraries to go with Logic's Drummer, which I really like using as the pattern generator. So I'm putting a fix on the GAS leak for myself. But for anyone doing a lot of acoustic drum work, I understand this one is the gold standard.

Yeah I wouldn't think you need one either. I don't think a passive DI is going to "clean up" a signal, if anything it might take something away though I've never noticed that happening. Agreed with ABECK that something seems a bit odd. Maybe the mixer preamp gains are set too high? I used a Kurzweil pc3 for many gigs and I don't recall the levels being overly hot. In fact, I think I raised them in the master settings--which might be something to take a look at if the PC4 has the same thing. It may be that those master output levels got turned way up, which likely isn't the best for gain staging. Halfway up on a master isn't that weird--I never turn one all the way up--but it does seem weird that you'd get distortion (I presume that is mixer preamp distortion?) that quickly. I'd want more headroom to ensure that never happens.

It'll be interesting to see if this gets younger people (aka Tiktok users) riled up enough to vote over it. Not much else seems to. That said, it was bipartisan so I'm not sure who they'd take our their ire on. We can already see one Presidential candidate changing his previous stance on this and it's for this reason--potential votes.

I was a member of the Nord and Modx facebook groups (despite not using FB for anything else). Maybe not all FB groups suck, but those do. I ended up leaving the Nord one because some troll got personal and there was no decent moderation. The intelligence-per-question amount was...lacking...as well. "How come my Modx sounds bad?" was about middle of the road as far as quality.

Lorde has a net worth of 18 million, so considering there are lots of people dying daily in poverty and misery, no I don't feel sorry for her. Sorry to be that person, been reading up on certain current events this morning and I probably should have remained ignorant for my own state of mind... Putting aside humanity in general, just in the musical realm, she has been more successful than 99.99% of talented singers and musicians in the world. (author's note: percentage is an estimate ) I'm not saying it's not deserved in her case, but how many fantastic writers and musicians never sniff one bit of having a hit song? She hit the lottery.