Groove On

Here's a speaker that's worth a look: KRK Rokit 10-3 G4 - Powered Mid-Field Studio Monitor - 3-way/tri-amped woofers: 10", 4.5", 1" - Freq. response: 26Hz! - 40KHz - retails for US$499 https://www.krksys.com/Studio-Monitors/ROKIT-10-3-G4 Notes: - only has 1 input channel, so you'll need a mixer.

Spent ten minutes today trying to figure out why the noise floor on my personal mixer was suddenly so high. Only when I took off my headphones did I realize it was Cicadas in the trees outside.

Haven"t tried the Casio but I owned a Go Piano 61 for 3 years, it has a better action than the the NP12, but only in the sense that McDonald"s has better French Fries than Burger King - there"s a difference but it"s trivial. Both actions are springy - suited to a staccato and/or heavy/blunt legato playing style - but difficult for nuanced dynamics in-between. I prefer the action on the Yamaha CP, over both the Go Piano and NP12 - but it"s only 37 mini-keys, even then the Yamaha CP is my favorite 'little' keyboard. The Go Piano 61 was frustrating because it"s 'almost there'. The form factor is nearly perfect. I traveled all around Europe, N. America and Asia with it and never had to check it in. The airlines always let me hand carry it. I found a very snug backpack style rifle bag that kept the dimensions small - it was skinnier than a slim guitar or saxophone! I loved the Go Piano for that, always ready for an impromptu gig or jam session - literally anywhere. But the springy action drove me nuts after awhile. After 3 years I couldn"t stand it anymore and sold it.

I'm due for an upgrade but my 1st generation iPad Air, has worked for everything - that includes DJ'ing, being a sound module, drum machine, playing backing tracks, audio recorder, lead sheets, music score reader and movie player. Re: iPad GB Pre-lockdown, I DJ'd weekly Salsa/Bachata dance events with the iPad, and it worked great. I used the Pioneer WeGo4 and Reloop Mixtour controllers, everything fit neatly into a laptop bag. My iPad has 128GB but all the music I needed, easily fit into 64GB and my iPhone acted as a backup if the iPad failed. The only times I needed more than 64GB was when I also downloaded Netflix movies to watch on the plane. Re: Lightning Connector I'll be glad when I get an iPad Pro with a USB-C port. In 6 years, the Lightning connector never actually failed me, but I just feel better when all my audio equipment uses the same USB cables. It's one less set of dongles and restrictions to deal with. (otherwise, the entry level iPad would probably be just fine) Re: Screen Size For the current iPads, I think the the 10-11 inchers are probably the best deal. The large 12-inchers look good for sheet music, but are a pain to carry around. I know because I'm the one who has to carry around my girlfriend's 12-inch iPad. She's a keeper, but the large iPad, not so much. Re: Sheet Music For a sheet music display, I decided one of the US$200 15" portable LCD monitors would be a better fit for the home piano/keyboard, with the 10-11 inch iPad for live performances. Re: Headphone Jacks The entry level iPad 10.2" and iPad Air 10.5" still have the 3.5mm audio jacks. Re: iCloud I really like the Apple iCloud integration and 200GB for US$2.99 / month. Took me awhile to get my head wrapped around how it worked, but I no longer worry about losing files on any one device, I can just get another one and move on with my life.

Lumbeat iBassist - 50% off for one day. https://apps.apple.com/app/id1378203792?fbclid=IwAR25-zX2F3rq0kA0-odKYfluqXOzgJQP6KP5eNpe25qPN8npiH7o4z9fG4E

Have PA speakers gotten so good, they've made Keyboard Amplifiers obsolete? Can Keyboard Amplifiers still outperform PA speakers in certain respects or are they going the way of the dinosaurs?

I 2nd this. In general, I'd like to see more reviews of keyboard amplifiers for use with organs, synths and acoustic piano - especially with a working man's comparison to PA speakers. Other recommendations: - A good round-up, review and comparison of Organ VSTs. - and uhm ... what about a review of the Cloud Lifter products ... or did I miss that already? (@ Dave Bryce, honestly that's what I took away from the Podcast: Cloud Lifter and Philly sandwiches)

The irony is, now you can do your own review on the MPN Gear Lab Forum. And I swear if you give it a 5-star review, I'm gonna say your a shill for the company.

MPN YouTube Channel dB Any plans to have a Music Player show that's Joe Rogan / Tim Pool style? Something that's conversational on current topics? They certainly get the numbers. Heck, you could start getting up every morning, starting today and I'd tune in.

Spitballing but what about a Music Player Youtube Channel? Don't go nuts polishing it, give us the good, the bad and the ugly. Just pick a topic and videoconference/livestream it for 10-20 minutes and point people to the website. Use whatever moderators are available - or invite a special guest. For example, I'd love to hear you guys jawing about the walloping music gear sales during the lockdown. After that fact, you can quick edit the stream and upload the edited "good bits". But we don't need polish, just do it authentically. This will at least drive people to the website and give it a higher profile. Examples of what that might look like - Joe Rogan, Tim Pool, Hoover Institution, What Da Math and Dave Rat. One reason to just "do it" - warts and all, is that it will get you feedback into what people are interested in. You can fine tune it over time.

How are you choosing products for the online store so you don't become a competitor for potential advertisers? That sounds like an awkward line to walk.

Re: MIDI I don't know if Musescore can output MIDI, but you can input MIDI via a keyboard. You can also import and export the scores as MIDI files. There's a piano roll editor in addition to the traditional score editor. And a built-in synthesizer with General MIDI orchestral sounds, which can be upgraded with sounds fonts. Big fan of Musescore. The online tutorials for US$25 are decent. The design was a bit disjointed a few years ago (not better or worse than other software) - but the guy who runs the Tantacrul Youtube Channel joined their team and it's been improving - which is amazing for Open Source. I think it might actually get ahead of the commercial offerings. Note: Tantacrul makes videos criticizing software design, specifically music score programs.

I agree with you about Germany's response they got a lot of things right. But we lose perspective if we compare Germany to the USA. The equivalent of the USA is the EU, and both have had their fair share of fractured responses from member states. Comparing the USA to the EU and Germany to New York, California or Florida puts things into perspective. I know it's probably a lost cause, but I feel like our national conversation always gets muddled and confused when we don't make this distinction.

I'd add Marvel Agent's of Shield. It's 6+ seasons long, so it's a bit of a haul.

Ideas for managing in a post-lockdown world. The blog post is by a Dartmouth professor/biologist specializing in immunology. https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them?fbclid=IwAR3FinVWKv22Xe9sAin-zzu0HP19lJaQ9WNrLb-k6hF0Px2xknLPw3BbP8Q Quick Summary: Kinda figured that many infections happened in an enclosed space with shared ventilation, I just didn't know the infections rates were so skewed towards the indoors. So it looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of outdoor activities for the foreseeable future. It's sorta good news, at least it looks like outdoor events have a lot more protection than indoor events. But it does suck for the event venues.

Seoul, Korea - 2nd wave Doesn't look good for dance and music clubs. They're laying the blame on one guy who visited a bunch of dance clubs; wouldn't want to be that guy. https://www.dw.com/en/spike-in-south-korean-infections-linked-to-one-mans-night-out/a-53384855

Hokkaido, Japan - 2nd wave They had it down to 0-1 infection per day, and then opened up too quickly. Looks like it was mostly local tourists looking to get out of town. https://time.com/5826918/hokkaido-coronavirus-lockdown/

Loving this update. It's good news for me. - just fresh installed Catalina on both Macs - it kicks Ableton officially off my wish/G.A.S. list! I can settle into Logic and not look back. A small fine point of order: Shouldn't it be X.5? I thought the X was a Roman 10 right? Or am I completely off? The press release has it as Logic Pro X 10.5 - isn't that redundant?

There were also a lot of behind the scenes shenanigans in terms of financing, production and distribution control that affected the show. Many plot lines and episodes were re-worked and changed mid-season and between seasons. You can feel it in the storytelling, it gets really disjointed. It's too bad because it had some great promise. There were also complaints that the main character Michael Burnham is basically a Mary Sue (I agree with that). They also had knack for focusing on the most un-appealing and boring characters, while leaving some of the best and most interesting characters sidelined and/or neutered. Despite the less polished production values, old Star Trek had much better stories. FWIW Netflix has all the episodes readily available, I've re-watched TNG and DS9 a few times. Orville is the Star Trek oasis, more Star Trek than the CBS Star Trek. Notes & Rumours: Netflix basically paid up front for the production cost of 1st season of the new Star Trek, but when they saw how it panned out - Netflix told CBS to shove off, they wouldn't pay what CBS for the next season until they saw what they were getting and then they could decide on an amount. Thus there was a scramble for money during the 1st season and into the next, which resulted in a lot of things getting cut, dressed down etc. Once again you can feel it in the disjointed storytelling. There are rumours the Netflix wants to buy the production from CBS and do it themselves, which might help the cohesiveness of the stories long term. Best of all worlds, they buy it and get McFarlane to produce it.

It didn't click until I read your post, but does the the Roland RD88 use MIDI 2.0 with MainStage? The RD88 automatically displays the list of patches from a MainStage performance; and it auto-maps the hardware controls for each individual patch. If that's MIDI 2.0, that would be a really cool standard for audio equipment. I wonder if the RD88 works that way with any MIDI 2.0 sound module (if such a thing exists). And I'm curious if MIDI 2.0 can also detect and switch between sound modules on the same MIDI network? If MIDI 2.0 does that and makes the hardware plug-and-play, I can see racks making a comeback - plus some new interfaces for controlling it all.

Your search is really a holy grail. I also want a portable all-in-on keyboard that I can bring anywhere with me and just sit down and entertain people - no extra accessories necessary. The problem is, most portable keyboards have too many compromises and design decisions for different uses (uses that actually sell). But the dream keyboard for the "take it anywhere and entertain" musician doesn't seem to be in the cards. Personally, I'd love to see a keyboard with these 3 things as top priorities: -- -- -- 1. 61 weighted keys (edge-to-edge / no side panel) 2. Powerful on-board speakers 3. Line In/Out and Mic Jacks * and maybe a built-in audio interface as a lower priority -- -- -- You can kinda get this in Arrangers - with the un-weighted keys and cheesy sounds being the main compromises. Combo-organs are also in the ball-park, better sounds but also un-weighted keys and the need to bring a small amp.

I think they could bring back racks but they have to create a form factor friendly to small/home studios. I'm thinking rack devices the size of an audio interface like the Focurite 2i2 or devices the size of an old-school lunchbox. The old style racks take up too much space - they're like "pizza box" big and if you only own 2-4 racks, the size is awkward. But if you could get 2i2/lunchbox size devices that could neatly stack in a small studio space - I think there's a market there that could drive the sales and innovation for that. It's the age of the home/mobile recording studios with iDevices that put a TV broadcasting station - in your pocket. The idea of small, easily rackable audio equipment is just waiting for somebody to do it.

Is it just me or are the new Roland KC series pretty good? I wasn't a big fan of the Roland KC amps for a long time. I owned a couple of KC500s about 18 years ago - and remember being really disappointed with their sound. But my bandmates now own a few of the newest models, and gosh darn if that hasn't changed my mind about Roland amps. The sound from the lowly KC-80 and KC-200 are pretty decent for practice and small events. The KC 400/600 are very solid and powerful. And that KC-990 is a beast, a little baby Godzilla. I really like that these amps feel really solid - very well-built. I get the feeling they'll outlast many of the musicians who own them. The other thing that I like is that they don't seem to strain or break a sweat at all with the dynamics of live keyboard/piano/synth sounds - even if I mix it up with keys, bass, vocals etc.. The 990 is definitely the cream of the crop, probably because it's stereo (and it's really a monster amp). The other ones are pretty solid mono amps, probably the best on the market (not including higher end PA speakers). I'm not selling my QSCs anytime soon, but Roland has really made big improvements, and I'm impressed enough to be considering picking one up for practice and rehearsal sessions. The built-in mixer and lineouts / monitor features are really convenient.

My personal picks for what you want to do are all above your budget, but perhaps a used one?: Kawai ES8, Roland FP60, Yamaha P515 and Yamaha 255. The Kawai and Yamahas have the most powerful speakers, while the Roland hits a lot of your wants/needs. None have arranger features, but I prefer the sound of these instruments, and for a rhythm section, there are aux ports for your ipad/iphone. (I use the Luis Martinez Lumbeat and DrumPerfect Pro apps for that.) For all-in-ones, I do like the suggestions above for the Korg PA1000, Yamaha DGX 660 & EW10, Korg EK50 and XE20. In your budget also take a look at the Yamaha PSR-670 and Casio CT-K5000, only 61 keys, but light-weight and decent speakers. On a side-note, somebody needs to talk some of the marketing teams who named these keyboards. The people who named Korg's EK50 and XE20 need a good talking to. And the Yamaha EW10 is really unfortunate.

So I know the current law is - yes, you can copyright melodies, but the question is should we be able to do that? Is it fair to copyright a musical phrase/motif? We can't copyright short phrases in a languages; for example I can't copyright the title of this thread. But melodies are treated differently (if they are recorded or written down). You've probably heard about Damien Riehl, who mathematically created every melody possible within 2 measures/1 octave - and then saved it to disk, effectively copyrighting all of it. He's hoping another lawyer might use it in a copyright defense case to help break current copyright law. ( ) Then there's this US$2 app (Piano Motif) that can generate melodies/motifs - and it's pretty decent at doing it. (audio demos on Soundcloud) So how long do you think before this all starts to break copyright law in the courts? Is there still a larger over-riding reason to be able to copyright melodies or should it be like languages where we are not allowed to copyright short phrase/motifs? Anyway food for thought during the lockdown/quarantine.