nadroj

I go through seasons of doing Hanon exercises. Currently I’m finding that playing transcribed licks I’ve copped from others in every key do the same if not more for my technique, and they’re actually musically useful too. I’ll probably find myself going back to Hanon in time, but for now Charlie Parker’s lightning diminished licks are doing what Hanon would for me, plus more.

I just can’t get expressive with wheels. Probably could with a lot of practice, but I generally enjoy horizontal pitch bending much more.

Hooking up keyboards at home (means I get to play my favourite piano samples with my weighted home-DP action), and formerly for MIDIing two boards together live. Simple fact is most standard USB-A slots are used for shoving a data stick into a board, and not for transmitting MIDI on. Also, I don’t have a USB-B - USB - B cable handy. Besides, as others have said, a good MIDI DIN connector is almost indestructible once plugged in. I certainly can’t say the same about USB slots.

I think the thing a lot of people miss when playing Nords in stores or at a soundcheck is that they aren’t getting the chance to load in their own samples - piano or otherwise. I played friend’s Nords who’s pianos suck. I’ve been in stores and their £3000 stock pianos have sucked. On my Electro however, the pianos I have loaded are my favourite hardware pianos of any board I’ve ever played. I got rid of the ones that didn’t suit my ears. There are so many samples that aren’t in the floor models that I struggle to take anyone who uses them as a gauge for the full Nord experience seriously. I’ve said this before, but my Electro 4 is frustratingly limited in what it can do…but I’ve never enjoyed a board more than it. It’s my go to board for most applications, and if I have to do a gig with just one board, I’ll take that over anything more capable. The organ is better than the Swiss Army knife competition (Yamaha, Roland) and the pianos etc are better than the direct organ competitors (Hammond, Crumar, Dexibell, etc). They certainly aren’t perfect, but Nord are the only brand I know who do everything 90% well. Every other company who does 100% in something often falls dramatically short in other areas.

I think it’s too busy. It lacks the…well, the “swing” of the original. The sparseness and subtle intricacies of Knopfler’s playing is what makes his music what it is. Without it, it just calls flat. I mean, sure she can play, but other than a couple of seconds of the chorus if you hadn’t told me what this was I probably wouldn’t have recognised it.

The festivals where the monitor tech is at the side of the stage are the best. Last festival we did the monitor guy was right next to where my keys were so I was able to just shout directly across. But yeah, festivals suck. Coming 10 hours early for soundcheck is a new one to me, though. We usually just turn up, play, have a cursory moan/laugh with each other about the festival sound, then bugger off home with our pockets a little heavier.

By default the MODX has some kind of subtle blur animation when switching screens - this does indeed make it feel sluggish, almost laggy. If you go into the settings and turn off “Motion Blur” it suddenly becomes a lot snappier and the sluggishness goes.

Organ in that little ditty at the start sounds pretty good! Is that a custom patch made by you Jim?

For all of its limitations, this simple setup still manages to put a smile on my face... (sadly the old organ in the background is only a part of the furniture!)

I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.

Played a festival last night. The roof of the marque our gear was securely stored in collapsed due to the unrelenting rain, and my Electro fell victim to the torrent of flood water that quickly filled the tent. My band mates managed to rescue it fairly quickly but the damage was done. I stupidly turned it on out of blind panic of wanting to get set up. Was met with a critical error message, and several noises and glitches. Looked like I wasn’t going to be able to play, but some guy from the crowd went home and got his son’s 2006 era Yamaha PSR, which hadn’t been touched in over a decade. It didn’t even have a proper output. We went on stage 30 mins late but the show went on. Found a piano patch and a couple of organs and away we went. I’ll tell you something; those pianos cut through a mix like a hot knife through butter, and the sampled organs would have fooled 90% of the crowd (apart from a couple of keyboard centred moments where the band and I couldn’t help laughing at my expense). Dried the Electro out, waited until the last possible moment before turning it on for tonight’s gig (incidentally our biggest of the year) and it managed soundcheck flawlessly. Seems to be fine. Lesson learned: don’t diss the Yamaha PSR, the Nord soft case is not very waterproof, and there is wisdom in schlepping a spare keyboard.

In defence of Paul, IIRC that show was the show for his star on the Canadian walk of fame…or something like that. It was his show, and all about him. Still a PITA to hear during the performance but… 🤷‍♂️ To keep this on topic, that video does a decent job of showing what set Joey apart from the rest.

Being in a band is like being in a relationship with 4 other people. When a relationship breaks down it takes guts to know when to call it quits. Well done for recognising and respectfully removing yourself from the situation, while still honouring your existing commitments. All the best for future, Tom.

Devastating news. Joey was one of the all time greats. This version of “One Hundred Ways” is one of the few videos I post on my social media outlets every year, and is perhaps one of my favourite live recordings ever. A masterclass in organ playing - merging several genres and styles flawlessly within one solo, all while rocking bass. Melodic, bluesy and soulful, with thrashed out bebop passages and an ending that would make any bonafide gospel player blush. Joey could do it all. Seemed to be a genuinely nice guy too. Throwing this one in too cos it’s also gold and hell, it’s a tribute to Joey.

Funny you should say that. I was talking to a bandmate about this video last night. He’s a big Steely Dan fan (“I was probably playing those tunes before you were even born!”) and he also commented that it had never crossed his mind to think of Peg as a blues before.

If there is an upcoming update, and these “new” boards aren’t fake… I can’t see them updating the MODX with a whole new drawbar engine. Just can’t see it. I CAN see them including an update with the new studio rotary effect, which is what made the YC go from a dud to a fairly good clonewheel. That would make it passable for non-organ heavy gigs. Just now even the tweaked organs make me cringe. I could potentially see them adding an AN-X engine. Wouldn’t put it past them. The MODX is already a killer synth for the money, but ironically it’s better at getting crazy out there sounds than it is doing simple sounds. So if they made an easier way to design simple sounds, I’d be up for it. Honestly, if this “MODX+“ is real…if they changed the plastic a bit to make it more sturdy or even just more girthy, flattened the top casing (the sloped case on my MODX drives me insane, can’t put anything on it reliably) and gave the MODX-7+ the semi-weighted keys of the YC61, along with the studio rotary and a couple of fixes I’d be tempted to upgrade. I don’t hate the MODX, I just don’t enjoy using it or playing it, especially live. At home MIDI’d up to something decent feeling it’s a great instrument for sound design and practicing. I just can’t gig bring myself to gig with it. It doesn’t hold up being tossed around, thrashed, swiped and pounded on like my Electro can 🤷‍♂️

Huh. Wasn’t til I watched that til I realised how similar the chorus of Peg is to the bridge/main refrain of “Georgy Porgy”, which came out 2(?) years later. David Paich and Steely Dan were birds of a feather, though.

Does this mean it’s going to be even harder to sell my MODX? I’ve been trying for months but there are just no UK buyers.

The answer depends on what kind of pizza he’s making.

That’s a fairly broad question! Would be helpful to have a couple of audio examples via YouTube

I get this, Tim. I don’t play in “typical” cover bands any more. I have subbed a few weddings in recent years just for the money, and every time I leave the gig I say “never again”. Not to be a drama queen, but I find said gigs “soul destroying” now. Utterly boring, drab and soulless. The only good thing about them is the decent number of notes shoved into my hand at the end of the night. Thankfully I don’t have any more gigs like that in the diary, and with the way my rig is going, I soon wont have the keyboard required to pull that stuff off. Perhaps it’s not just playing covers themselves - maybe it’s playing standard cover stuff that’s the problem? A few years ago I subbed in for a ska band. They were a covers band, but played music from a select number of bands in a specific style. I hated ska music but thought it sounded fun, and I knew the singer. I did a couple of gigs and it immediately became the most fun band I’ve ever played in. Ska/funk/soul, with a singer who always leaves you on your toes wondering what he’s going to do next. We’ve stopped doing weddings and small functions now, but even when we did do them we didn’t do the standard wedding fare. No Uptown Funk, nothing released in the last 10 years. We did ska, funk and a small handful of wedding classics. We used to laugh that the bride and groom had better known who they booked, cos they weren’t getting the usual or expected stuff with us. Just after COVID I joined as their full time keyboard player. There are a lot of bands in the UK that do what we do, and a lot of mediocre ska bands I’d similarly hate to be in…but we put so much effort into making a show out of it that we’re now selling out venues some of my favourite biggish touring original bands play at. Every year we branch a little farther out in the country, going further south into England every season. Next year’s diary is filled with weekends away, doing large venues in cities I’ve never played before. We do less gigs than my wedding band did, but are still out most weeks, playing bigger gigs, filled with crowds who have bought tickets solely to see us. We have our own promoters, who travel to gigs with us and help sort accommodation, riders, etc. It’s a covers band, but it’s given me the thrill of playing big shows regularly without the thin-ice unpredictability that comes with playing original stuff. As someone in my 30s with a young family to feed and be there fore, this is the perfect balance of scratching the “rock star” itch from my youth while still being manageable enough to be present with my family …and I’m playing covers. (Saying that we have recorded an original album to be released next month, but that’s another story). I share that to say that sure, original stuff may scratch an itch, but if you want to continue to make money playing live, the fact of the matter is that covers are going to be your bread and butter - unless you’re one of the 1%. Maybe it’s time to move away from playing standard covers, and find a style, genre or band that can bring some that joy back?

The half-whole is one of my favourite scales. Probably because there are only 3 to practice 😝 I’m currently running through the Barry Harris practice method (up the scale, up in thirds, triads, 4 note chords, then with chromatic notes, etc) on the diminished scales and it’s done a lot for my technique and ear. As others have said, they’re fairly versatile scales. Half whole can work on a basic 7 chord, a sharp 9, diminished chords, etc. The two scales share the same notes too - the C# whole/half is exactly the same as the C half/whole, but they just start on different notes. Once you get them and a few licks under your fingers it can open up a lot of possibilities - the tricky thing becomes knowing when to use them tastefully. I much prefer them to the altered scale; dark enough with just a bit of extra melodic character. Easier to make them sound good than the altered imo.

I went into this chuffed thinking we’d see a touring pro show off his “little synth on top of a vintage vibe” rig, then saw the L shape and wondered if he knew what “small” meant. His “small” rig is 4 x the size of my “main” rig 😂 Would love to see a small intimate MJ jazz/funk gig though, regardless of the rig!

Interesting that you say that; I was giving a guitarist friend a lift to a gig recently and let him hear this, along with a couple more of Cory’s new tunes. He’s an older guy, and almost straight away, the first thing he said was “I see Cory has started channeling his inner Prince.” I didn’t notice it until he mentioned it, and now I can’t unhear it!

Oh look, a thread I can actually contribute to as a primary source. It really, really depends on what you want. I got the MODX after years of owning an Electro. It was supposed to be my 1 board replacement rig. It wasn’t. Some players will argue against this, but it simply didn’t feel like a purely giggable board. It’s plastic chassis is good, but didn’t feel as durable as my FA06. It’s keybed is certainly playable, but struggles compared to the montage or electro. The preset EPs/Clavs/organs of the MODX compared to the Electro are laughable. They don’t play well on the action, and to my ears just sound overly processed. Especially if you go to the “audition” patches (where each scene has a different version of the EP) it just sounds like they tried too hard to replicate the real thing with all of the noises and characteristics, but totally dropped the ball when it comes to actually sounding and playing like the real deal. I got to something passable eventually, but it took a lot of tweaking, and even the shittiest Rhodes on my elderly Nord feels and sounds better than the best custom made EP on my MODX - even when both are played through the same weighted Yamaha controller. Saying that, the purgatory creek sounds are stellar, but in my opinion the shorty plasticky “could break if I even think of doing a glissando sweep” MODX keybed doesn’t do them justice - if you like to feel the instrument during your playing you’ll struggle on the MODX. Organs on the MODX are utterly terrible. Organamitron (or whatever it’s called) makes them passable, but they won’t hold a candle to the Electro. I’ve never been a fan of workstation organs. Maybe compared to the Korg M1, they’re great. But a clonewheel the MODX ain’t. Now, if we’re talking synth and sound design capabilities, take every shitty thing I’ve said about the MODX and apply it to the Electro. Once I learned how to use the MODX, I found there were few sounds and songs I couldn’t coax out of it. The superknob and pedal functions mean you will struggle to find a board outside of Kurzweil that let you warp and change so much live and in the moment. It’s so deep you’ll probably never, ever explore all of its synthesis and sound design capabilities. If you’re after a powerhouse digital/FM synthesiser with ok ROMpler tones on a compromisably shitty action, the MODX is best in town. It’s so deep I struggled to get some SIMPLE sounds out of it, and actually found it easier getting complex setups out of it…but as I said, if you take the time to learn it, there will be few sounds you cannot get out of it. It is truly a digital powerhouse, and one of the best bang for buck keyboards released in recent years. The Nord on the other hand is bogus. It has a sample synth, but if you want specific sounds, you have to sample them yourself. There’s no pitch bend (unless you attach a seperate MIDI controller), cutoff, modulation or any of that. It’s a shitty synth, but can play sampled synth sounds passably. I hope you’ve seen by now that they are both excellent at what they do, but are very different instruments. The MODX excels at deep shit; the Electro excels at simple shit. Neither do the other one’s shit well. If you put them together (like I did in my old rig) you will come to a point where you’ll have nothing to blame for lacking in any area than your own musicality.