HiTekTodd

Played my first louder (not ludicrously loud, but earplugs loud) bar gig use the SSv3 with the Nord Stage 2. I got creative with the amp positioning during the first set and it sounded great. Nice stereo image. 2nd set (as the band got louder) I pointed the corner between the two speakers at the musicians and myself across the stage sideways. Man, I am a believer. Acoustic pianos sounded fine (using bright Yamaha grand), some slightly weird mids around 300-400hz in that room. I had the width a bit higher than usual though, trying to impress my Bandmates with my new stereo amp . Organ, synths, and Rhodes with chorus or autopan are my new favourites. Synth brass had a nice image. My favourite thing about the amp was that the volume I perceived myself at was very similar to what everyone heard on stage. So normally with a directional amp I would set my volume a bit lower in the mix than I would like to help assist the overal stage volume. I did this during the first set and the bass player (on other side of stage) told me that he could hear me better than he usually does but could use a bit more. "No problem, I thought, that's where I want to play anyways." So the next set I pushed the amp a bit more to get on top of the mix a bit. Normally when I do this with a directional amp, the singers that my EV is facing aren't into it, understandable, I'm stealing their frequencies, so I turn down. No complaints last night though. And the louder I got the more surrounding and warm the amp became. I realized the reason everyone can hear me better even though I am technically not as loud. It's because the keys are filling in all the sound directions that are empty. If you think about it. Sound on stage usually comes in two directions, from the front (monitors) and from the back on the ground (various amps). There are unused direction that sound could potentially come from above and the sides. And I think SSv3 helps to fill some of those unconventional directions on stage. I' ve always thought, if I could get away with just playing B3 with a Leslie on a cover gig then I could fill that swirling surround warmth that is often missing. This little amp does just that. I felt that my role in the band has a whole new meaning. It was my job to makes things feel good and warm. A dream come true. Certain sample synth patches I have been playing for years (the dx7 chimes line, in 'treasure' for example) had a pleasant stereo image that I obviously never noticed before. They sort of jumped out at me in a way I have never experienced on stage. Definitly, a few volume adjustments needed to be made as the patches with more stereo information I perceived to be a bit louder that usual. (I'll try turning the width Down too) Guys said they could hear me better on stage, but I don't think they realized that I wasn't as loud as I usually am. This makes me very happy, to know that people are hearing what I am hearing. I had a thought, what if Aspen created a new product, a pedal sized unit, just the DSP processing that is in the SSv3 amp with stereo inputs and mid-side outputs and then you could plug into any speakers you want, mix and match, adjust EQ. Stack them on top of each other at 90degrees or experiment to taste. Would that work? Wouldn't that turn any powered monitors we already own into giant SSv3 systems? Or is his exact pairing of eminence speakers what make the magic happen? Mabye the pedal could have adjustable EQ bands to be more effective with any speaker? ???

Haha, wow, that's totally true. I guess there isn't much hierarchy to the CP4 other than global settings and the saved slots. Program mode is actually just whatever saved slot the CP4 boots up too. I'm so used to KORG and Roland hierarchy that I assumed this existed. I think that direct select function confused me on this too. I guess I should rephrase my tips to just this: Design and save you're own patches! Used the SK2 on a rehearsal yesterday but realize now that I should have tested it out at home first because the stereo image wasn't as strong as I had liked it to be. I didn't have time to menu dive and adjust to taste. Still sounded nice a warm though as good as my EV in terms of clarity. I didn't get to set up the bass cab with it yet for left hand bass but I borrowed one from the bass player. It's a mark bass amp with a 10" traynor cab. I will probably do this tomorrow. Tonight I'm super excited to play the SSv3 with the nordstage 2. It sounded so good in my practise room!!

I had to look this up myself because it seemed like the stereo field and EQ were shifting drastically with each sample set. My ears were right but my information was wrong. It's the key shift sample sets. So when you are selecting the sampled piano you'll see versions that say: st , st+, st- , mn , etc... The + means that the sample set is shifted up from where they were originally recorded. The - shifted down. This has very interesting characteristic effects on the sound, some really interesting variation happens. Especially using the SSv3 the difference between these are pretty drastic. The EQ is changed quite aggressively and the Stereo image of the piano seems to shift with difference emphasis on different frequencies. Definitely worth experimenting with. I ended up playing the SF st- sample set quite a bit yesterday as it gave me a darker/warmer EQ starting point with (bit more warmth presence) and the top end wasn't so brittle. Again, that side firing speaker is where you're harsh frequencies (I think they are 800hz-2k) are coming from so dial it back to 11 o'clock or less when using with CP4. I still had to dial back the highs quite a bit. The bitey harshness was around 2.5k. I think I pulled it down both using the master EQ and the internal effect EQ. I agree with you, and Tim Wat. The CP4/SSv3 is not as seemlessly integrated as the Nord Stage2/SSv3 pairing right off the bat. Every patch I played on the Nord sounded just about right! Thankfully, the CP4 sounds are way more adjustable than the Stage 2. Big tip #1. Always work in Performance mode. Saving sounds to your performance slots. If you're directly loading the sample sets within a performance you're at the mercy of whatever effects were already loaded. Those FX may not be appropriate for the sound. For example you wouldn't want your Piano FX on a Rhodes sound set. Performance mode is clearly explained here: https://yamahasynth.com/blog/editing-and-creating-performances-in-the-cp4/428-editing-and-creating-performances-in-the-cp4 Big tip #2. Click and Hold. Once you are saving your own performances, the things you will want to change the most for adjusting your sounds are you're 2 effects slots that load simultaneously with your saved performance sound. Notice the little white dot next to FX slot A. Button? That means that you can click and hold it and you will be transported straight to that panel with no menu diving (you can still get here via menu diving if you want). I like to assign the damper resonance effect to slot A on my piano performances. Gives a nice ambience which translates to the SSv3. SCROLL DOWN on these FX to see all the fun parameters. Adjust the EQ boosts and cuts to taste, where they have it set is pretty nice. Adjust the Dry/wet mix to taste (check it with the damper depressed). Then click and hold FX slot B button. Load in the 501EQ. Experiment with each of the EQ bands and hear what frequencies sound shrill to you. I like to boost first and augment the bad harness as much as possible to really hone in on where the frequencies are not working. Then I reduce the gain on those frequencies. I found that setting the 4th band EQ to around 2.5k was where a lot of the harshness was coming from. (Again reducing the side firing width volume a bit will help a lot here). Hope that helps! This thread has helped me a lot, so I'd like to offer whatever I've learned in return. Tonight I test the SSv3/SK2 pairing using a bass cab to enhance left hand bass lines!

Been reading this thread and it helped me make to decision to pull the trigger on this amp. Thank you all for the great tips and advice. I think I dialed in the SSv3 very quickly because of all the reading I did here. I received it today, tried it with two boards: Yamaha CP4, and Nord Stage 2 Yamaha CP4 has very boxy sounding patches right off the bat. But these are patches that I have setup specifically for the EV12P. I heard a slight stereo image in the samples but not a lot. I knew that if I could get the Acoustic Piano sounding good I'd be on the right track for all the sounds I use. The EQ sounded a bit small amp boxy but I could hear the potential. Messed around with all the amp settings. Found that a slight decrease of mids (sounds more like 900hz-1k to me) adds a bit of warmth. The side 6" speaker ads some harsh high mids to the sound of the acoustic piano. I dialled it back to 11 o'clock. The sound was playable but still not as natural as on my EV12. Now the amp is set, I messed around with some gentle internal EQ on the CP4. (I don't want to drastically EQ what I'm sending to FOH). That's when I remember that the CP4 has sample sets with different degrees of stereo imaging. Tried abunch and found one where the EQ sounded full and the stereo image was noticeable. Now I have a totally playable Acoustic Piano with a nice bright air around the top end. That super tweeter really ads a nice top air. Bottom octave doesn't have a huge initial harmonic but I think the overal sound is warm enough to compensate for this. From here I went through my Rhodes patches. Everything sounded fine, totally playable and again nice detail on the tine sound and nice growl bark detail in the mid range. Obviously a pure Rhodes patch has no stereo imaging. Time for FX! The stereo tremolo sounds nice. Just a bit of motion and colour shift to the sound. I assigned it to fx button a. Can't wait to throw this on live. Next Chorus, this is my first wow moment. The CP4 chorus has strong stereo content because the sound instantly started swirling around my head. Awesome. I get what all the fuss is about now. I EQd the chorus to sound a little less brittle. Again, I am very impressed with the top end of this amp. Nice air and the Rhodes mechanic sounds are noticeable. I tried the SSv2 at different distances from me in my practise room. (Small room). Taking the advise of this thread I tried some experimental positions and found the best position for stereo effectiveness was with the amp facing away from me on its side tilted upwards. This made sence to me because if you followed the reflection points the front speaker had 2 surfaces to bounce off before reaching my ears and the side speaker had 1. In such a small room I was surprised that the effect was so strong. Next up Nord Stage 2 - , this is where things started getting very exciting for me. I heard via this thread that the Nord Leslie simulation works particularly well with the SSv3. You were all soooo right. The B3 instantly danced around the room. I never noticed the amount of detail in the Nord Leslie until now. Have any of you tried stopping the Nord Leslie at different times? It actually sounds like the rotar is stopping in its different positions, hit the stop(unstop) button again and the swirling instantly hits you again. I've never utilized the Leslie stop live before but I'm going to start now. The organ is clear!! All the drawbars sound really effective when you pulled them out. I'm going to have to rethink some of my drawbar settings. Some searing squabbling highs, to be used responsibly for sure. Very impressed now. On to Rhodes. sounds very clear. Add autopan, just as effective as on the CP4. Piano sounds great! Not a lot of stereo width but I don't want that on piano anyways. Using the Yamaha bright grand. Even better sounding piano than on the CP4 piano. This surprised me a lot. Synths, I wasn't fully prepared for How awesome this would be. When you stack voices on the Nord synth, it also automatically pans them out for width. Whoa. So thick and good. The biggest synth I've ever heard through a keyboard monitor. Bottom line. If you have a Nord, you need this amp!! I do wish that the clarity of the bass end of the keyboard was a bit clearer but we are talking about a 8" speaker here. It is very efficient and good at what it does. And what it does is clear. For solo piano I will miss being able to hit a low octave and FEEL those low strings resonate below 100hz. But this would only be noticeable to me during solo piano/duo play. Is that something the audience will really miss? Even if you're playing a 9' Fazioli there will be places in the room where people won't here a lot of bottom end do to the acoustics of the room. This is not the end of the world for me and I am pretty picky about Piano through amps. If I'm playing solo I will compensate for this by boosting the 100-200hz range for warmth. The amp has plenty of warmth to make up for the below 100hz drop off if you want to dial it in on your board. I think that the clarity on the top end makes up for the lack of bottom sub range. This amp cuts. Going to try my SK2 with it at a rehearsal tomorrow. I'm playing Left Hand Bass and will run sub out to the rehearsal space bass amp. Playing the Nord on Thursday at a 300 person club with a loud band. Keys will get a bit of help from the mains so I'm interested to see how it holds up there. I think it will. I generally monitor lower in the mix in loud band situations (I don't take part in the volume wars). Very pleased so far from today's testing. Now I have to actually practice music!! Have to take my mind off my new toy.