danstein

I'm not Nate, but I have to insert an obligatory Nate Wood reference here:

Brandon Coleman (with bonus points for the keytar):

This a hundred times. Even if you intend to use virtual instruments, being able to play the real thing (even if badly) will give you a much better sense of how the instrument works and feels, what sonic possibilities there are within it, etc. Also, as you develop familiarity with different types of instruments, you will hear and understand more clearly the things that are idiomatic to that instrument. To paraphrase Kuru from earlier in the thread - playing guitar is about moving hand shapes around the fretboard (and working two hands together in sync) whereas playing keyboard involves learning different visual shapes/patterns and developing hand and finger independence. Playing a wind or brass instrument forces you to focus on single lines and will give you a different understanding of harmony. Playing some sort of percussion will help you develop rhythmic ability (and qualify you to wear cool beaded necklaces and stuff.) Even if you never play one of those instruments well enough to record it, you'll get a much more convincing performance from a VI if you have that knowledge in your hands and ears.

The installer refused to run until I had cleared 26GB on my hard drive. I did try to put the installer onto an external drive with 4 TB free, but it didn't like that either. Maybe someone else would have more luck, but for me it really wanted to be on my main drive.

The plugin downloads as a 45-day demo - so enough time to do the contest, but it will time out after that. I'm gonna share a funny story (well, I think it's funny, anyhow). I downloaded this thing yesterday, pretty excited to check it out and see what the contest is all about. Rhodes is a core sound for me, having started on one back in 1979 when my high school music department had one (and a MiniMoog.) So after spending about an hour clearing space on my drive for the 26GB(!!) download, I get the thing installed. I open up Logic, I instantiate the plugin, load up the Factory Setup preset, I turn to my controller keyboard (a Nord Electro, which is relevant as you will see.) I start playing a couple of chords - whoa, this thing sounds great! I play a little more, really enjoying some of the life and imperfections in what I'm hearing. Awesome! After a few minutes, I think "let's have a look at the GUI and see what else is going on here." So I load up a different preset - and it kind of sounds the same? Also, if I really spank the keyboard I am spiking the meters on my interface, so let's dial back the preamp a little. Hmmm, not much change... Dial it back further - still pretty loud. Turn it all the way off (which I'm thinking is maybe like picking up the signal off the pickups) but still no change at all. And then I realized that I hadn't muted the Nord, and what I was hearing was the Nefertiti Rhodes coming from that! 😂 So far, I haven't managed to get the plugin to sound that good. YMMV.

I used to gig with an AM ON sitting on top of an OLA. Or maybe the OLA was on top of the AM ON? Now, with a Nord, I don't bother since the red kind of gives it away anyhow.

I grew up listening to Blossom Dearie records - my Dad had a good collection of them! There are a bunch in this thread I haven't heard - so merry Christmas to me, thanks, all! What an absolutely fabulous singer, and piano player as well. She was a rare talent, for sure.

Nice, same here. Now need more RAM and another SSD 😉

Is there any chance this thing actually works? One of the rare times I've seen a posting for an item that isn't 1000 miles away from me. The single photo shows it looking in pretty good condition. Certainly worth emailing the poster if you're interested! Even if it needs some work it could be worth it if you have the means to transport it - and the space for it. I'm tempted myself, but I already have a B3 and CV, and my wife would probably kick me out of the house if I brought another one home.

The New Haven Craigslist currently offers this study in contrasts: Celeste $3600: https://newhaven.craigslist.org/msg/d/killingworth-antique-celesta-or-celeste/7353020777.html Hammond A100 free: https://newhaven.craigslist.org/msg/d/north-haven-hammond-organ/7366624345.html

AC split is a good solution for cooling, but be aware that - unless it is a specialized unit - most split ductless AC units do NOT provide fresh air, they are essentially recycling the air in your room through a heat exchanger. So - if your room is really well-isolated, you will need some kind of fresh air intake/stale air exhaust in addition to the AC unit. Although you say central HVACs are not popular in Brazil (makes sense!) I have to assume there are HVAC professionals for dealing with things like large office buildings, etc. It's probably worth trying to find someone to consult with to make sure your air handling is adequate for your room. The calculations of air flow, pressure, volume, etc. can get pretty esoteric. It would really suck to go to the trouble of building it and then only be able to use it for an hour at a time before passing out!

I recently moved, but prior to that I was working in a studio I built myself. The control room was fairly similar dimensions to yours - mine was 13' X 17', so within a foot or two. The extra foot of width will serve you well - overall it's not a large room and it fills up quickly once you start putting gear in there. In my control room, two people working at the listening position side-by-side was very, very tight - the extra foot might help you there but you better get along well ;-) #-meter ceiling height is great! One thing to watch out for space-wise, also - acoustic treatment can eat up a lot of space, more than you might expect. Wall panels are liable to be 4-6 inches thick - so you just lost almost foot of space if you have 4-inch panels on opposite walls. One more thing - plan for air conditioning/ventilation! If your room has good acoustical isolation, that also means it is pretty much airtight, and a room that small, with even one person plus gear running, will turn into an airless sauna very quickly. Make sure you have adequate air handling, both for heat and fresh air sake. Vinyl or laminate flooring is ok - I had Pergo (laminate) in my control room. It looked fine but made a clicky, plasticky sound anytime you dropped something on it, which I hated. Have you looked into bamboo? It can be very durable, and it should be a lot cheaper than hardwood. Although, in Brazil, I would think you should be able to get awesome hardwood flooring! I had a Jatoba floor in my live room - I loved it! I was tempted to rip the boards out and take them with me when I moved!

I second the Tascam reco. I have a DR40 which I often use in pretty much the way the OP describes - I mirror the main outs of my audio interface to it via line-level signals. In the OP's case, it looks like the Allen&Heath has a pair of RCA "monitor outs" that would work. Load the Tascam with a large memory card and you can record for hours without running out of room. I frequently just leave the recorder running all day as I work in the studio, just to capture any happy (or otherwise) accidents that might occur even if my DAW or tape deck are not in record mode.

I'm disappointed that we're 20 replies in and no one has asked about preferred fingering.

I'll add another suggestion: https://www.ruxxac.com/home.html I've had one of those - the Business XL model, I think, with the longer base - for probably 25 years and it's still going strong. Folds up small enough to fit into an airplane overhead compartment, but strong enough to carry a Fender Rhodes up and down stairs. It doesn't have the form-factor of a RocknRoller for carrying a large load of stuff all at once, but if what you need to move can fit onto it it's awesome in terms of lightness, portability, and ease of storage.

Very true. I bought Komplete Ultimate a while ago (KU 9), and at some point used the sale to upgrade to KU 10. I use a lot of NI stuff, but even so I think there's probably 50% of KU 10 that I have never even opened. Every time I'm tempted to upgrade again, I remind myself of that.

Thank you, you win

http://cdn.designbyhumans.com/pictures/blog/12-2013/Winter_Shirts/yule_log.gif

"I could practice on the 100 year old upright but at this point I kind of need a grand piano to get to the next level" This is the key phrase (pun intended LOL). Once you reach a certain level (particularly in terms of classical piano or anything requiring extreme precision of touch/expression) there is a significant difference between the action of any upright - no matter how good - and a decent grand piano. There are mechanical differences, not to mention the physics of an action that moves parallel to gravity (upright) vs perpendicular (grand). A properly regulated grand action gives you a degree of control and expressiveness that even the best upright just can't match. It sounds like you have reached - or would like to reach - that level, and I applaud and encourage your decision to become a grand piano owner. I agree with the previous poster who talked about developing a relationship with your instrument. As keyboard players, we often have to accept sub-par instruments in many situations - gigging on crappy synth-action keyboards, out-of-tune bar pianos, busted wheezy organs, etc. There can be a certain satisfaction in learning to work with what's available, but having a treasured and well-loved instrument at home and being able to spend time learning it in a deep and intimate way is a great thing, and it can really deepen your love and understanding of music to build that relationship.

This brings to mind something I have thought about over the years. I grew up with a similar good ear - I started piano lessons when I was about 5, and when I switched teachers after a couple of years, the new teacher was sort of shocked to find that I couldn't really read music. My first teacher would always play whatever piece she had assigned to me, and I would go home and figure it out by ear, with a little help from the sheet music. The new teacher refused to play anything for me, and forced me to learn to read! However, after years of playing both classical and improvised music, I realized that I seem to have two totally different pathways for learning music - and there is surprisingly little overlap between them. As it turns out, if I learn something from the sheet music - even if it's just a lead sheet from a fake book - it is really, really hard for me to memorize it and play it without the music. Whereas, if I learn it by ear, then it is learned, and I never need to look at a sheet or even a chord chart again. It's almost as though the different approaches encode the information to different parts of my brain. I realized it when I was having to learn a lot of music for multiple bands - I didn't want to have to carry cheat sheets or charts to every gig, and the only way I could do it was to force myself to learn strictly be ear/memory, no written notes at all.

I used to have a couple of regular gigs accompanying modern dance classes. It was great improvisation practice for me! Basically, the teachers were most interested in rhythm, accents, and getting the right sort of energy for whatever they were teaching. As long as I could hit that stuff, I was free to do whatever I wanted harmonically and melodically. Once I got familiar with a particular teacher's style, I could pretty much make it as challenging for myself or as easy as I felt on a particular day. I can't recommend it highly enough for an improvising pianist! Now I wish I had made a practice of recording what I was doing on a regular basis. For ballet classes, they are probably going to be more interested in proper classical repertoire - although if you have the skills to pull it off, go ahead and improvise some two-part inventions!

I have a SF Twin Reverb that I used to use in back in the days when I dragged my Rhodes out to gigs. It has EV speakers, and the amp was rewired, removing the master volume among other mods and improvements. It does not have the ice pick tone mentioned above - but it does weigh about 100 lbs with the EVs!! And even with the low Rhodes output, turning the channel volume above about 2 will peel paint from the walls. Great for clean, transparent Rhodes tone. My favorite amp for studio use is a '60's Silvertone 1483. It doesn't have a ton of power, but incredible tone and breaks up beautifully at recording volumes. Most guitarists who have come in to record at my studio have tried to buy it, steal it, or kill me for it. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a tremolo circuit, so if I want that I have to use a pedal.

The clap/drumstick click to create a sync transient is excellent advice. One more thing to watch out for is sampling rate - audio for video should be at 48khz, not 44.1, so make sure your DAW session is set to record at 48khz or you will have a lot of trouble getting your video in sync!

I have a Steinway B, and I have a few favorite set-ups. For a close sound, I like to use a pair of Oktava Mk012 (cardioid capsule), one on the upper register near the hammers, the other over the bass strings near the string crossover point, and then a third mic (usually something like an RE20 or a Shure Beta 52) under the piano pointing up at the soundboard. For a more "natural" sound, I'll often use a M/S setup with an AKG414 for the sides, and a Neumann TLM 103 or a mono ribbon mic for the mid. I have a pair of Cascade Fathead ribbons that I sometimes use as a spaced pair, as well, for a more "vintage-y" sound. That M/S or stereo setup goes about 3-4' from the full-stick open lid, about 5' off the ground, and aimed very slightly down. That's specific to my room which has lots of acoustic treatment but relatively low ceilings - that position gives me the best balance between piano and room sound. The discussion about AEA mics got my gear lust all fired up, too. I have been a fan of the AEA R84 and R88 for years, but I hadn't even heard of the N8 - now I really want one (or a pair!)

I do most of my work on a pair of MkI ATC SCM20ASL, but I almost always check and tweak on Kanto YU2's which sound surprisingly good for a $200 pair of speakers.