hardware

You should check out the custom sections of Chris Hein Horns, I think you;ll change your mind. Articulations totally customized to taste and unlike most sections, it"s in your face. No fluffy fu fu sounds. Must admit their demos aren"t the best but the guy is German. Probably never heard Maynard or Bill Chase, even though those sounds are sampled well. I do lots of Synths or Hammond w/ Sections lately and it"s too much fun.

Bidule is as lean as they come. MIDI PrgmChng messages or any MIDI CC calls up select GUIs, very easy as a host. It"s the extra stuff that most don"t need that requires more in depth thinking. I"ve used it 15 years, support is immediate, if you even need it, and never crashed once. Not pretty or fancy, just the meat & potatoes. Works so well once I"ve booted up I never need the mouse or QWERTY. Prefer playing without interruption or menu diving this works great.

Pretty happy with what I heard, especially the Unclean Channel and other FX. Omnisphere FX are the best in any synth out there, actually their MXR Phaser is so damn good it beats the Strymon Zelzah for that particular sound. I just wish we could pump our other virtual instruments through Omni"s FX rack.

Eventide H9 or if you use a mixer and AUXs some Strymons. Any external FX will really add to your sound, especially if you can use MIDI PrgmChng and CC#"s per keyboard preset. I cured my lust with the Strymon TriFecta. MOBIUS, TimeLine and Big Sky.

A really nice rig. Just hope they have stocked up on parts. A friend of mine bought a 2021 Ford Sedan and it took 6 months to fix the AC. Mavericks should sell like hot cakes though because it"s size is perfect for suburban moms, band gear, Mobile BBQ, etc. Plus it"s EV actually looks good and is priced right.

I loved the D70 as a 4 zone controller w/ decent Rock Piano sound, considering it was 1993. I would try and restore just for controller functions. It was my first rig using a single keyboard. I"d go for fixing it.

You could always get the 8 x EXP from MIDI Solutions. I had the Oberheim MC3000 and MC3000D back in '96. Then used the MS F8 with various 4 zone keyboards. Now use a Physis K4 which is 8 x EXP per scene x 4, giving me 32 assignable pedals per performance, which there are 128 of. There are devices for 4 x EXP out there too. I line up 4 x FC7"s, 1 x FC4 for portamento/rotary speed, 1 x sustain for CC64 or CC31 upper C3 vibrato and Trumpet Section Shakes.

Had the pleasure when I was a kid of seeing Sancious play. It was a unique band as Alan Holdsworth, Jack Bruce, and Billy Cobham also filled out the Quartet. Funny thing it was just weeks before we saw this new trio called the Police. We used fake IDs to get into Illinois clubs as the drinking age was 19 to drink. East St.Louis had all of the best clubs back then. St.Louis was 21 years old to drink, and had no 3500 seat clubs. In Illinois they converted old Granary"s, Tractor favorites, you name it, they made a club out of it. Nice Share..

I certainly hear the influence of brass and Reed players Herbie worked with. Especially this solo that sounded like Dr. Bennie Maupin from the Thrust Album.

Leap Motion w/ Gekko MIDI is best used for really fast double bowing really fast Jean Luc Ponty style licks. Trill your fingers up against each other and the tracking is really precise. But PBend and Touch VCF stuff is not that accurate but usable sometimes. The Ring seems to have accurate VCF and the PBend twists are pretty nifty. Bought Leap Motion when it was 60 bucks, gekko MIDI was 10. I"m sure they"re more expensive now. For 352 There better be a Diamond in the Ring.

Google Translate Helps me out when joining User Groups for custom hardware on FakeBook.

Slightly OT but my latest AMD 5600/5700G builds are twice as powerful as my i7 4790k rigs. They run cool @ 65 watts/72C. I stack and layer like crazy. I don"t need the DSP FX, but still can"t find a Native automated mixer I like. But Omnisphere/Keyscape FX are on every preset now. As are ReLabs, Brainrox and Polyverse. Couldn"t run those with my stacks/layers on the i7. Funny thing, they made my DSP plug ins before they went Native. AMD 5600/5700G"s are incredible audio chips w/ built in GFX. Just don"t need the DSP processing anymore with these bad ass 6/8 core models out there.

With the i7 CPUs Native Processing and their apps finally caught up to Analog Devices DSP Chips. I had a Gigastudio Scope DSP rig 18 years ago that was so far ahead on Hammond and Synth clones, mixing and processing power. I upgraded to their XITE-1 in 2009 which is a 1U packed with 18 x SHARC DSPs, 12 of them the ADSP-21369 you see in Strymons, Neo Vent and UAD gear. Only reason I even use the XITE-1 is it"s Mixers are just so customizable and every feature including routing can be automated via MIDI CC#"s. And it routes external hardware into the project with VSTi"s w/ zero latency. Cubase, Logic and other DAWs couldn"t do that until a few years back. Would love to retire this beast and even get a new UAD as the specs look impressive considering the costs. But finding a custom design mixer that can be automated for live work is still unavailable. And since I can have one of the many developers that have the SDK build me what I need, I guess I"ll wait for Native apps to catch up for a Mixing/FX solution. I wanted to buy UAD but after begging them in the forum for an automated mixer I gave up. I hope they get around to that someday. I could shrink my stage rig down by 2U.

I haven"t been handcuffed for a long time. IEMs have made the one size fits all curly cabled headphones very cheap. Think I"ll use my Amazon coupons and get me some. Good Thread

I bought their Module 4 years ago in hopes of using an all hardware/no PC rig. The sounds were naturally nowhere as good as VSTi"s on a PC/Mac, but recalling sounds using MIDI Prgm Chng messages was a process of just hitting a Bank 00 then Prgm Chng # to see what loaded and write it down. It was as bad as it gets with no explanation in the manual, or a MIDI Implementation chart. Also tried the Integra 7 and it was weak compared to PC/Mac. Thanks to Dexibell and Roland I will never try to use hardware only again. Maybe over the last 4 years their product line has evolved. It"s hard going to ROMPlers or Sample Playback modules after using VSTi/AU"s. Especially when it comes to Horn Sections and Strings. Articulations and KSwitched samples are light years ahead.

Housekeeping chores, nothing more. Regulators and politicians are owned by big tech investors. We"ll get a show, some grandstanding, and the overdue market correction. I didn"t even notice what happened until my X frantically called me freaked out that her WiFi stopped working. As if I could treat her trauma?

Can"t go wrong with the above mentioned M Audio. Decades of controller designs and MIDI implementation. If I decide to quit lugging my 88 around and just need Rhodes/B3 tones, I"d definitely get a 61 for my HX-3.5. Played one at GC and it responds well.

Same boring black Standtastic single and double tier stands for 25 years. So I"ll be the only NO..

Already ordered HydraSynth Deluxe. Only needed to play an ASM and see how quickly you can add your own creativity/workflow. And that was before the Ribbon and PAT were engaged. It"s basically a well designed soft synth with a hardware GUI. Subtractive synthesis/Analog-ish sounds track resonance to the lowest ranges like u-He Zebra/Diva, so everything else is gravy and very quick assimilation of ideas. Also agree that 'expressiveness' in relation to dynamics is fun, but I"m more into abrupt in your face expression, like the way I remembered being struck by the keyboard sounds in 'Money For Nothing, and The Chicks For Free.' PAT that allows pressure to bring in an entirely new sound while retaining the original sound, alternating sounds, etc. Anything new and exciting as I grow weary of last century ideas, and especially (yawn/yawn) clones.

Hanon & Czerny we"re my first ones, but Keith Emerson"s 'Take A Pebble' minor 9th left hand (w/ Right hand harmony) done chromatically really taught me multi zone dexterity. Didn"t even know what a zone was when I was a kid doing recitals, but years later I was thankful I wood shedded 3 Fates, The Sheriff and Take A Pebble. Years after that grateful for guts who took time write out the parts so I could unlearn the mistakes since there was no sheet music available. Now days I watch DOMi doing The Bird and Oscar in amazement.

Always like Harry"s Piano work. Would really like to hear his Piano and TJackson"s voice.

I"ve had my dream rig for 7 years. A Physis K4 and a 1U PC I built. I"ve got lots of other hardware but VSTi"s sound so good I rarely drag any extra gear. Except the HX-3.5 module. I consider it lightweight and with decent action although that"s not important for me. Best rig I ever used. Only upgrades I"ve done is add the Strymon USB MIDI controlled Dual Phaser. Two trips to my vehicle. Rack and Controller, then the Speaker Tree. Even my Dolley is a 9' pneumatic tire, folding aluminum kit I can lift w/ 2 fingers. I even leave the dolley under my sub rather than make 3 trips. No mo lugging 4 me.

I don"t need them but can add that Plogue has the best support and a forum full of helpful creative people. I"ve used Bidule as a host for 15 years. Anytime I need a special layout like MIDI Prgm Chng messages sent to call up a VSTi GUI, 3 or 4 members make one. Run into any problems and you send a log file, a fix or explanation/diagnosis comes within hours. Plogue is top shelf outfit, can"t go wrong with anything they make.

I remember some folks complained about Piano sounds and when I got the SSv3 noticed the stereo image was thinned down. I used PianoTeq"s mic placement and fixed that. But oddly enough it was the only sound that needed a fix. The only reason I added a sub was because of my SE-1X or SE-02 just crushed the 8' Emminence speaker. The B1200D basically relieves the 8' in the SSv3 if you"re doing lots of low end work. My favorite sound of the SSv3 were Hard panned EPianos. Second fav was hardware analog leads. The sizzle of the high end driver was well suited for analog bacon fried filters.

I used the SSv3 for rehearsals, and for small stages added the B1220D. I never thought a single 8' Emminence speaker could be a viable option. But the Sub does allow the combination to sound really good in situations where you want a louder stage sound. I prefer the K8.2s and B1220D, and on bigger gigs TT08As w/ a 15' RCF Sub. I can adjust a small stand and rack to fit over the sub/tree. On larger stages the pair of KW153"s is plenty, lots of 15's no need for a sub. Much more volume and punch too.