Nathanael_I

Microsoft calls this a Surface. They have existed for years. I have one. Every bit as stable as my Mac laptop. They even have a touchscreen. The hardware is better than Mac. There’s a reason no one makes modules. They are too expensive to make and can’t compete with the phone in your pocket or the device on the shelf from MSFT or Apple. the answer here is not a return to the past but making peace with the slightly different way the future presents itself.

Ravenscroft for iOS. A class compliant interface with MIDI. Cables. And you are there.

Given the very serious organ players here, I’m not sure it is at all suitable for that. For me, Hammond-ish things are a texture or a timbre. I am not an organist. I can play the little of that I need on an 88 note keyboard. The purists can cringe. I have much respect for organ players. I’m just not one. But this as a synth over an 88? Sure! I think it works as a synth over a synth too for those not doing traditional music.

Many congrats! There’s nothing like an acoustic grand for satisfaction. It’s always money well spent to get a great tech involved. You will have many happy years ahead!

Chauvet and ADJ have three distinct lines of lights. The DJ stuff is at the bottom. This stuff is not that bright and not that good. But it’s cheap. The pro grade stuff is more. It is also available used for 50% of new. But the lights are better in every way. I’d buy better quality used than cheap new.

First thoughts after unboxing, updating firmware and playing for a few hours - in no particular order… - The Osmose is very well made. It exudes quality. Evidence of care is everywhere. All those production notes we received about manufacturing samples and design changes went to good use. They clearly shipped it when it was ready and not before. It’s like they knew that someone needed to do this truly well to move the industry. - It is all the goodness the Roli Seaboard lacks. It’s real keys. Adaptation from other keyboards is very fast. I’ve never missed the Seaboard - it just wasn’t worth the user experience or learning curve. It was not capable of classical instrument subtlety, though it offered more than a standard key bed. - The Osmose IS sensitive like an acoustic instrument. It responds naturally. The high internal sample rate that I first experienced on the Non-Linear Labs C15, definitely makes a seamless finger-to-sound connection. The haptics are ‘natural’ - which says to me that they obsessed over it. - Because it is an extension of keyboard technique and not all new, it easily passes my bar for “worth it to learn”. The Seaboard did not. As much as the Continuum is deeply impressive, the Osmose’s keyboard interface is the expressive surface I want, from pitch layout, to rough feel. The Osmose delivers for keyboard-oriented players. This is the MPE controller for us. - The performance controls and preset tweaking all are very straightforward. No manual needed. - the keys have their own feel. The top part of travel is like an unweighted synth action, but more controllable. Then there’s a soft “bottom” that’s kind of like an aftertouch strip, but, you can push through it to the full aftertouch, which is deep and controllable. The side to side motion is easy to control for vibrato. I have not set out to master guitar style bends yet, but they are clearly possible. - that they are selling this for $1800 is a bargain. At the preorder price, it’s the least expensive synth I own, and yet, the most expressive! I have not tried the Eagen matrix editor yet. I’ve watched training vids. That will be a longer term project. I’ve still got most of the internal presets to go, so until I’ve sorted that, I’m unlikely to start with an “init” patch. It is likely the most powerful synth engine I own - and the deepest. So, it will be its own journey.

Mine came! No shipping confirmation, but it and the bag just showed up. Off to symphony in 10 min, but its here!

Audio Test Kitchen is wonderful for answering questions about how a given mic compares to something that you know. Whether that’s a 58 or a U47. And it is 100% internally consistent. It’s a huge help if shopping for professionally priced microphones. If shopping for a particular kind of mic, it allows easy comparisons of likely options. It isn’t universal, but it’s a huge service to the industry and has helped to improve the accuracy and consistency of mic specifications. They are documenting what many manufacturers don’t publish. It doesn’t answer all questions or have every mic, but it’s super useful.

I was a first day order as well, but I’m not sure that matters at this point. I got the confirmation they processed payment today. So I think I’m with @Lady Gaia that shipping should be soon.

Very cool, Phil! I don’t have shipment notice yet, but am looking forward. I appreciate your thoughts.

Ebooks for everything reading related by default. Paper books only for things that aren’t available other ways. Videos if they are crisp and to the point. Ableton videos made by Ableton come to mind. As soon as someone says, “hey guys, “ to start their rambling unplanned introduction, I’m gone. Loopop is great. He gets the medium. Has navigation always visible.

https://www.audiotestkitchen.com/ They have put 300 microphones in the exact same rig with the exact same sources as scientifically controlled as is possible. The results are quite useful. You can audition 300 mics from your studio.

And best wishes on the recording project. The extra keys are great fun for improvising. Played softly they give a unique effect. What a wonderful piano and opportunity!

100% agree on the Bosendorfer VC pianos. Big fan. Gorgeous instruments.

The cost is high. A single reel is $365. It gives 15 min of recording time. Tape cost for a album is thousands of dollars above studio and engineer time. And you can’t mix outside the studio. I have a friend with a gorgeous studio right out of the 70s. Trident console all refurbished. Studer 2”. How often does he use the tape deck? Almost never. He figured out how to hit it and get “that sound” on drums, but it’s easy to get with plugins. Local bands can absolutely not afford tape costs. He is happy for the experience of learning it. But he grew up recording digital.

Indeed. It has not been easy to learn. But it has become strangely easier over time and practice. It is often deeply uncomfortable to be quiet enough to hear that voice and realize how little it seems to care about the difficulty of change or how its desires push against present reality. MathofInsects is right. We all experience it differently. It is sometimes very hard. And that sucks. Except we can come through and are stronger... transformed in some ways, the same in others. This is a hard choice. Hard to make and hard to keep, and often impossible to do perfectly. I do wish you well on the journey. You are enough and deeply adequate.

The loss must be grieved. It is good to mourn the loss of important activities, people, and possessions. It is wise to fully acknowledge the good and wonderful parts of our lives, experiences, and relationships. Present with us for a time, and now removed, we feel their loss as a diminishing of our lives. And it is true. All these things contribute to our joy. Through the work of deeply acknowledging this, we gradually become aware of a deeper truth. While it is a diminishment of our experience, the deep inner core of who we are is unchanged, and undiminished by loss. It cannot be otherwise. The inner life can be a bit dinged up at the level of emotions and thoughts. But our actual identity is older... deeper... and stronger than the hits and shocks that stir the surface. Often hidden below the surface of our conscious experience, our true selves shelter - waiting to be sought and asked closer to the light. The overlays of bands, projects, etc are vehicles for this true self but don't actually define it. So when life shatters the illusions that we've built that the vehicles truly represent us, there is a part of us that knows what to do. That part was never fully expressed in any external manifestation, and so, it remains capable of yet another go. In fact, it wishes to continue. To take the learnings and experiences and blend them into a yet richer, and more true expression of the inner condition. But it will not be the same. This is deeply OK. The inner self is wiser, knows itself better, and wishes to express more and remove false images and expectations. This true North is available to everyone. Artists often have a unique connection to it and an intuitive flow around it. But when injured, we all need a reminder. Grief is part of the pathway to joy. Just don't stop there. Grieve until done, and then listen... Spring comes after winter. You already have the seeds of the new life inside.

The record thing puzzles me greatly. They don’t sound that good. Do people really like surface noise? I do not understand the cognitive dissonance required to assert that records sound objectively good. There’s good music that’s been released on record, but the recordings are not amazing compared to well-done digital. I have a daughter who owns some records and never plays them. Just owns them. So odd. I took the DVD player out of the studio 2-3 years ago and have never needed it. Modern digital is completely superior for accurate reproduction. The issue of what to sell as an artist is real. Vinyl & CDs are a way to create scarcity. But it’s an artificial scarcity. I wonder if it will be a thing when everyone knows it’s not real. I don’t want a CD. And definitely not a record. High end classical is paid download for hi-res master files. I don’t have a high end music server to manage this stuff, so it generally gets listened to once or twice. Convenience matters. And the sound quality can be high (Tidal). Artists have to sell something, but I’m not sure that recordings are that thing. Global distribution costs less than $100 a year. The issue is being heard at all, long before it’s monetizing an audience. But artists or bands that do a vinyl only release are just not on my radar. I wouldn’t hear about them, and even if I bought the album, what am I going to do with it?

One of the biggest gifts we can give ourselves is permission to grow and not be defined by who we used to be or what that person used to prioritize. All of us are more than the instrument we play, more than our skills, talents, and learned abilities. We are all capable of being happy and fulfilled in a variety of situations, and indeed, have been over time. Our futures mirror our past in this way. We can be happy in a variety of ways, but not all in every way at once. It sounds to me like you know that your life has changed already, but is it ok to redefine yourself yet again? The answer is yes. You can redefine yourself however you want, and you know this. But it is deeply OK to grow and realize that as an artist you may need to continue to go into the unknown - and that may mean no to the travel gig, no to unfulfilling local gigs, and see where passion takes you. The internet is a big place. Your perfect collaborators may come to you through you posting clips of what your heart is most happy about. The recording projects you were happy about may not hold the new "becoming" you. And this too is OK. Even if you don't know the "Yes" yet, it is likely wise to pay a lot of attention to the internal "No".

Jazz is already institutionalized. They play it at Carnegie Hall. Every conservatory offers classes in it. It is "learned" music with as much performance expectation as Beethoven. There is now a standard repertoire, graded progressions through it, and schools of thought about it. It is not "popular" music, and the audiences trend wealthy and older. The exceptions are the young cross-over people from classical or jazz traditions that have high levels of instrumental skill from jazz/classical studies, but who then strike out on their own to make their own sound. They grab from pop culture, but then bring substantial musicianship to bear. These are more interesting to me than much of the canon of either jazz or classical. Museums are great, but they aren't a reflection of current thinking.

Well, in the exception that proves the rule, Lang Lang's parents were not from the right social class. But he also had to win competitions by 8 or 10 years old for them to all survive. So it also kind of makes your point... The virtuosos we have are a very narrow slice of the perfect conditions meeting an unusual child. No one "chooses" to become one - it seems to be a thing that happens. And then the child must be able to endure and enjoy a physical routine that incapacitates or injures many. It's a good thing we only need 10-50 of them at any given time. The best news is that this level of play is largely meaningless in the broad sweep of being a musician. There are as few places to truly display that virtuosity as there are virtuosos. But below that, there is a world of opportunity, development, and artistic excellence that can support a lifetime of music-making in hundreds of genres. The virtuosos that develop and sustain out of a deep passion and commitment are so inspirational, but that path belongs to them. The rest of us get to enjoy a much more diverse and winding path through music. I resented it when young, wishing to have had their opportunity, but no longer. I'm happy for them and for me. I still get to love music as much as I want - and there plenty of room for me to appreciate them as a part of that.

My experience is that I do not prefer any Fatar weighted action to a Yamaha or Kawai weighted action. The acoustic piano manufacturers get it more right than anyone else in my opinion. Of course, the TP40 series is usable, but it is not as dynamically controllable - the MIDI data tells the tale. For unweighted/synth actions - the Fatar TP-8S (their premium action) is the best I've played and is in almost all the hardware synths I own.

I can't say that I care one bit. I've wished for developers to bury the CPU and hog the machine in service of sound quality for years. I don't think hungry things like U-He's Diva have hurt themselves in any way by being hungry. CPUs are fast and getting faster. Every modern DAW can freeze tracks. The new M1/M2 laptops are most of the power of a modern desktop. If the sound quality is there, I don't care at all. I think that some things like reverb could have a real-time component and a render time component that upped the resolution significantly. Give me good and make it stupendous on render. Kind of like editing video with proxy files - there are some things that if the draft is good enough, you'll take the pleasant surprise on render. I get this approach doesn't work as well for live. But if it runs in a modern M1/M2 Mac, I'm down for it to be greedy, hungry, and demanding as long as it sounds great.

The algorithms are pretty good for repeated listening habits. When I was driving a lot pre-COVID, Spotify made 6 distinct playlists for me, and correctly sorted out that on the drive home, I wanted a very specific kind of ambient electronica without vocals. At one point I realized it had made a playlist of light piano that is pretty close to my own improvisational practice. I immediately killed that one. I realized I wanted to make that sound, not listen to it. Interestingly, I now don't listen to any of that "empty my brain from work" music - it was functional music, not actually music that I "listen" to. The algorithm is dumb in that if I take a week to do historical research like listen to a bunch of mid-century classical composers, it will go off on a tangent in recommendations even though I have no long history with that genre. When TapeOp comes, I will often sample some of the artists mentioned, but the algorithm doesn't seem to really react to one or two listens, so there is some hysterisis in the code.

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2023/03/07/roland-unveils-gp-digital-grand-piano-series/ The high end is up in the range of the Yamaha and Kawai digital pianos that use an acoustic piano action. One could buy a real grand piano for the price, though I suppose one buys digital because it can be silent and does not need tuning or maintenance, etc. I kind of understand why the Yamaha/Kawai pianos are this expensive, but they clearly believe there is a market for expensive furniture around digital pianos. Admittedly, they do seem to have taken care to make them acoustically interesting vs. a typical slab with tiny speakers.