TomKittel

I also would never have attempted this and I didn't like the trem/vibrato too much in this video. But if you just switch off the tremolo and/or vibrato and put the Rhodes layer to max. 18 percent it adds a lovely warmth and a wooden body to the Steinway B or D without any recognizable Rhodes sound. The unlayered Pteq pianos alone lack a little bit of warmth compared with good sample libraries.

I had the VR09 for quite a while. Playing the VR730 was a completely different experience. Huge improvement over the VR09, just incredible. Couldn't believe it's the same sound engine. It not only felt like a completely different instrument but it also sounded different, and yes, much better. This is true for the Rhodes sounds in particular. These are based on the Roland Classic EPs expansion boards after all. The piano playing experience on the VR730 was definitely on par or even better than the spring modded Artis 7 which I also owned for a couple of years. The Artis 7 action with original springs was way too stiff for my taste. JMTC

Scott, I believe Fleer is referencing the 3 Vox Continentals he owns have the same issues as the one you describe here. If I remember correctly the VOX features a system setting where you can change the sensitivity of the touch drawbars. This might help to fix de described behaviour.

Impressive what you can do with layers in Pianoteq 7. The Steinway B layered with a touch of Rhodes plays like butter. I never thought of layering the Steinway B with Rhodes this way. 7notemode made the presets he is using in this video available for free download. I am having a blast with this sound. Check it out Pianoteq owners or just use the demo version if you don't own it.

The VR730 action is surprisingly good for piano playing. On par with the Vox in my opinion. I am really picky regarding piano playing with non weighted keys. And the VR730's Hammond sound is much more convincing than the Vox which sounds anything but B3. I don"t own either of the two boards but if I had to decide I would go for the VR730 which could be seen as a Nord Stage 3 compact for people who don't want to spend three grand. Much less features of course but it covers a wide range of sounds including a very acceptable Hammond/Leslie sound. JMTC

$50 Off Deal ends today. I took the plunge and got the Ivory II American D. Wonderful piano! I also own Pianoteq 7 Standard and I love it. But the Ivory II American Grand has a very musical tone to it which is unique and very inspiring to play. Happy camper here. It was well worth to burn the midnicht oil downloading and installing it. It will occupy 50GB on my harddisk forever. https://www.bestservice.com/deals/synthogy_50_off_all_ivory_ii_pianos_2919.html

Comprehensive review of Pianoteq 7 here: Pure joy to watch and listen. I learned a lot about how good my Pianoteq 7 can sound.

Wow! Hammersmith Free could easily become my favorite piano even tough I didn't need it ;-) Thanks for posting!

4.0 is out and there is a sale until Oct 29. Maybe now it's time for me to pickup the Performance Expansion. 20 bucks sounds more reasonable than 40.

A quote from Jimmy's website: Music With Memory So sad. RIP

Let's see how long it takes Behringer to copy the Jupiter X/XM... so to say copy the copies. ð

Another good recommend could be the Roland Jupiter XM. I don't have one but heard great sounding leads demos on YT. No AT though,

No donation required! I put the code here: https://pastebin.com/i6g3chj6 Feel free to PM me with specific questions. I don't have schematics, but all the wiring info can be found with a simple google search for something like "arduino midi in". The box is a Hammond 1590BB2BK, which is just the black painted version of the 1590BB2. A full table of the different sizes can be found here: https://www.hammfg.com/electronics/small-case/diecast/1590 The box was the hardest part to find. It took some searching but I found one at Angela Instruments (angela.com). The joystick can be found at Adafruit.com (among other places): https://www.adafruit.com/product/3102 Thanks for the links. Here's an alternative for people (like me) who don't have a clue about code programming: http://www.doepfer.de/we.htm Just connect the joystick or wheels to the pc board and midi out to your keyboard of choice.

I would prefer KB3 to those Roland DS organs anytime.

...and the percussion. No matter how I ever tried to tweak it, it never sounds right to me. But overall the KB3 organ sounds at least as good as in any other workstation.

Or on a Forte?

FWIW: In my experience the best sonic quality you can get for the money are Audient"s ID series. Extremely low latency too. I am using an ID14 which I compared with quite a few others mentioned above. Audient's converters cope with high end products such as RME. I even prefer the cheap Audient to my RME Multiface which was three or four times as expensive.

The D9X reminds me on my B4D controller on which I replaced the bulky wood panels with aluminum. Together with a Midi Solutions Event Processor the B4D can control just any clonewheel. I am still using it successfully with HX3, Hammond XM2 module and with B3X. Compared to D9X the B4D has preset buttons which I am using a lot. The only gripe I have are the ratched drawbars. Moving them feels much too stiff.

I am just looking for comfortably loading some of these new PC4 presets into the Forte. Hope I am not asking to much considering that the PC4 is more or less a slimmed down version of the Forte. It shouldn't be a big effort or cost issue for Kurzweil to provide a download of these files.

I discovered a hidden treasure when I downloaded a few new PC4 programs from the PC4 objects file to my Forte (only non-FM for the time being). It seems to me that quite a few of the PC4 programs are greatly improved and better sounding than their corresponding Forte brethren with the same preset name (f.e. "Classic Saws"). On top of that there seem to be quite a few new FX Presets in the PC4 which are not available in the Forte. Unfortunately some of the new PC4 programs are using different keymap numbers in the PC4 than in the Forte even though the Keymaps are identical. Hence the Forte can't find them when importing the PC4 program. But thanks to the PC4 objects list available in the Mastering VAST forum I was able to locate missing Keymaps in the Forte and to assign them accordingly. But it's disappointing that the flagship product Forte can't easily load the improved programs, FX presets etc. of it's low cost brother PC4. I think Kurzweil should consider to provide these files to it's clients who paid much more for the Forte than the price of a PC4. In case it's too complicated for them to convert all new PC4 programs into Forte programs maybe a simple PC4 backup file which contains keymaps and FX presets would do? Some great sounding new patches for the Forte can be found in this hidden treasure. Forte afficionados: any thoughts?

Switching between multis takes an eternity on my Forte 7, between 1 or 2 seconds. I reinstalled the OS. But this didn"t change anything. No matter if a simple multi or a more complex one, switching between multis takes it"s time....which is absolutely annoying when playing live where quick program changes (multi) are really important sometimes. Kind of a anachronism, isn"t it? How can you play the Forte at multi level not being able to do quick changes between multi programs?

I came to the same conclusion. Not worth the 3 or 4 GB it occupied on my harddisk. Downloading, installing and testing was a time killer though.

In standalone mode the Midiplus unit does not provide power to the connected keyboard. If you need this feature I would recommend this one: https://kentonuk.com/product/midi-usb-host-mkii/

Here's another free goodie to bridge the current social distance season. Check it out: https://youtu.be/fgmtIaQwAYg https://www.native-instruments.com/products/komplete/play-series/analog-dreams/

I recommend to also watch Keith Appleton"s instructional videos: