psionic11

Wow Roland, how many ways can you milk saw and pulse waves? I guess as long as the masses like, eh? Or does Zenology include Eric Persing's decades-old PCM samples for some D50 nostalgia? Woot (ha, I kid, I kid.. I guess it's what the kids want anyway).

Funny - my Kronos (the unweighted board to which I alluded) is my #2 as well. I also think they complement each other really well. I honestly think that between those two, I have everything I need... Another card carrying member here. Except Kronos 61 is #1 by far, for all things synthesis. The Stage 2 HA76 is there for those long piano sessions. Semi-weighted on top, piano action below.... nice.

Have you ever tried running a MIDI cable and playing the Nord pianos from the Kurz action? Hi Scott! I have indeed. It did sound very nice. And I did previously own a Nord Piano 2, with (albeit slightly different) TP40 Keyboard. But I still really like the triple strike. It just seems to work. For me, Nord pianos sound fantastic when other people are playing them. But when I play them myself, I am never entirely happy unless through headphones or seriously high end stereo speakers, which I do not own personally. I have 2 favorites -- a Kronos 61 and a Nord Stage 2 HA76. Love that TP40 action! I had a Forte 7 for about a month before I returned it. I liked the TP40 action on it, but I didn't get along with either of the pianos on it. The Kronos and MODX7 pianos are nice and polite, but lack a certain bite and dynamic range. I thought the Integra piano was a nice change from the Kronos, until I got the Nord. The Nord though needed just a bit more body and ambience. I tried layering all kinds of combinations of the above pianos, including a Privia PX5S, which has the 2nd best piano action in my studio. To sum up, the final winner for me was layering and hard panning 2 Nord pianos and playing them from the Stage 2: White Grand hard left, Silver Grand hard right. Very slight EQ on each. So Piano Man, an option might be to experiment with layering pianos in your setup. The Triple Strike that comes on the Kronos is indeed fun to play, as is the Bosie. My triple decker is the dual Nord pianos layered with the Orchestra + Timpani on the Kronos... hours of fun!

Wow, too much in this thread to go through at once... But I'm glad Asia is front and center... esp ironic since I just spent the last couple days refreshing my memory on what Asia songs I know. I used to have that blue Asia sheet music book, can't find it anymore. So I look up Amazon, Reverb, YT.. anything that has it... and there are hardly any, except for one at over $200!!! I miss and wish that style of rock keyboard would come back... Asia, Styx, Night Ranger, Loverboy, Cars, Van Halen, Triumph, synth Rush... ...heck, even the hair metal bands like Dio, Giuffria, Ozzy, Autograph, Queen,.. There's gotta be some use for all this analog revival synth, right?

I'm in CFL, where's your gig? The Amway has cancelled their concerts, the Tampa area was ground zero for the first statewide reports...

I'm excited to see what the OP6 will bring to hardware FM synthesis. However, I'm still convinced that the Kronos MOD7 engine is *the* hardware FM engine to beat: - imports DX7 presets - has filters, FX, and general access to Kronos, including its flexible MIDI master controller features - MOD7 can do most anything DX, TX, SY hardware and later soft-synths can I'll acknowledge that most probably don't realize this or care because it's just too difficult to spend learning it. The interface is not user-friendly, and most would prefer easy presets and physical tweaking rather than menu diving. I'm trying to bridge that gap by developing an iPad template that turbo-charges your Kronos knobs, buttons, and sliders. You can have a physical FM synth like an OP6 if you already have a Kronos. If you have an iPad, a Kronos, and an interest in next-gen FM and waveshaping synthesis, please send me a PM.

That"s a nice 3 tier setup, giving you hammer, waterfall, and synth action (no aftertouch). And you don"t even need your own sub mixer. MIDI is a snap. Really isn"t a stretch going 3 way, as easy as 2, esp since they"re lightweight. My multi tier was a bit more involved, but I found having everything pre-wired was the trick. Bass and keys good to go before drums, guitar / sound, and vox / lights.

I got a white desktop Blofeld with the sampling features a few months ago. I'm just now starting to explore it. It sounds great. The filters are excellent, and it has uncommon features like filter FM and multiple distortion types. I haven't yet explored the multitimbral side, but don't get your hopes up too high... its polyphony is not very high, about 20(?) voices or so...

To cover synth, orchestral, organs, acoustic and electric pianos, I think you will need at least 2 keyboards -- a piano action and a synth / organ action. Kronos 61 + Nord Stage 2 HA76 is my most efficient gigging combo. To play chords, notes and one-shot samples with my feet, I love using an FCB1010... Then you can augment as needed -- Vent, tube preamp, personal monitor mix, Minitaur for analog bass, external rack FX, USB breath controller, etc. All pre-wired on a "pedalboard". Hard to beat as far as flexibility, variety, performance, cost, ease-of-use, and setup / breakdown. We have so many options nowadays.

Spotify and YouTube are godsends nowadays. YouTube for slowing down, rewinding. But also for looking up how someone else covered it, plenty of tutorials online. Major time saver. Then on Spotify, make a custom playlist of all the songs the band will be playing. I have multiple playlists for multiple bands. I mount an iPad at eye level, and keep it connected to my Kronos, so I can listen to Spotify that way, and rewind and play along without any fuss. Learning song structure is #1 for me. Then dialing up the sounds to make rough combi of each song is #2. Even after I have a song down, I find myself continually tweaking it, even months later, to get closer to the studio recording. Good luck!

This. A couple of the more experienced bands I played with this had a solution to counter this - the spreadsheet of the song not only had artist name and song title, but also a link to youtube so that everyone learns the same version. Most important thing is to just learn the structure of the songs. Then you can "fake it until you make it".... you can always fine-tune sounds later.

I don't use all 16 channels, but I do sometimes run out of room having only 16 parts. My shtick is the Geddy Lee thing... sing backups and occasional lead, play bass, and play a stack of keys. Foot pedals included (FCB1010). Now not every song is a Rush song, but when I make combis, I try to get as close to the studio version as I can. Which means a dozen or more keyboard sounds (yes, including sound FX and one-shot samples), Kronos / Integra / Rev2 layers, and Minitaur for bass duties. Foot pedals are triggering notes or chords. I've reached the limit -- both in multi-timbral parts and keyboard real estate -- with songs like The Spirit of Radio Uptown Funk Footloose Time Fly Like an Eagle Love Shack My Prerogative (Brittany's version, SFX everywhere) Billie Jean Wanted Dead or Alive The Walk Heck, anything with piano, organ AND synth sounds will take up all the keyboard real estate in a dual 61 key setup. (Too bad I quit gigging just as got my 3rd tier NS2....) Of course, less than a 1/3 of songs require that full onslaught of keys, since I'm mostly a bass guitarist. But when it's time, I love to bring it. Audience loves it too. I don't juggle, but I do the next best thing, lol. What a rush it is.

Not even 10 years ago, getting a $750 synth was a challenge for me. "One day", I told myself, "I will own an Andy"... (my name is Andrew =) When I finally got my A6, the first thing I did was hook up an external controller, and go to Mix Mode (I had a Fusion and a Micron, and was already playing multi-timbrally). Funny how you take the Andromeda's 16 part, 16 channel, 16 track sequencer for granted. To this day, it is unmatched in the analog world.

Yup, they downgraded, that's unfortunately one of the NS2 features that did not make it into the NS3, you can no longer address the different "instruments" on different channels. Internally, the number of parts is the same, so in that respect, it's as multi-timbral as it ever was, but if want to drive it externally over MIDI, there are only 2 parts you can drive, one for each panel (what was called a slot on the NS2). Whoa, that sucks. I never did like Nords, always thought they were over-rated and expensive. But if you want portability and hands-on control they're the tops (and the pianos cut nicely). For me the NS2 was a nice compromise. I've got the White Grand and a couple others loaded. It was about $2k shipped, with case, not including VAT. And it has the most excellent TP40 keybed (don't stay inspired with a TP100). That seems to have brought my piano skills up one notch, and draws me in to keep playing and learning new songs.

Nice looking setup. I can relate to the Yammie being stubborn to work with as a 16ch instrument... I don't like that the channels are locked... instrument 1 on MIDI channel 1, instr 2 on ch2, etc. Makes it hard to make layers and splits when working with other instruments. The Integra is much easier to work with, the way it should be done -- any instrument to any channel. Set up your keyboard zones and velocity splits, set levels and tweaks, name it and save, and you're golden. FX aren't the greatest though, but live it's good enough. Some of the SuperNatural articulations are pretty fun. I finally got myself a little doodad, an SPDIF coax to optical converter, for $16. Now instead of running the Integra via stereo audio OUT to my Kronos stereo audio IN, I use the Kronos SPDIF IN. The digital IN is brighter and clearer than the audio IN. And the bonus is that the Integra has a pair of external audio INs on both the front and the back, so it can act as submixer for 2 other stereo synths. All audio connected and under control, and all multi-timbral instruments staying in their lane. MIDI rulez

I'm not familiar with the capabilities of all of those, but I believe the Casio PX-560 is 16-part multi-timbral (isn't every GM compatible board 16-part multi-timbral?), as are numerous other Casios. And I believe the Stage 3 is only 2-part multi-timbral (the two panels can be set to receive on different MIDI channels), You may be right on Casios in general, it's been awhile since I played my PX-5S. Unless they downgraded the Stage 3, my Stage 2 is 6-way, not including the External. There are 2 instances of each piano, organ, and synth, over 3 split zones.

My collection is mostly full on 16 channels onboard. Kronos 61, Integra, Blofeld, MODX7, Andromeda, TG77, Fusion, Privia PX5S I really enjoy building complex combis to get as close to the studio version as possible, while staying sane on stage. Even if they're not going to be gigged, I prefer multi-timbral when possible. That being said, there are still quite a few fully multi-timbral instruments currently being sold: Akai, Roland, Elecktron grooveboxes Roland Fantom Korg Kronos, Krome, Kross Yamaha Montage, MODX Kurzweil Forte, PC4 Waldorf Kyra, Sledge, Blofeld Kodamo Essence FM synth And a few 4-part multi-timbral units Dexibell Vivo series Casio PX-560, Privia PX5S Nord Wave 2, Stage 3 Korg Wavestate Roland Jupiter X PolyEnd / Dreadbox Medusa

Yes =( He got a second chance, and a decade with her. Doesn't make up for his original loss, but it's a ghost of a chance few get.

Rush has deeply influenced my musical development. This *toast* goes out to that bond that I share with my all former band mates who I ever played Rush songs with....

Tragic news, feeling blue tonight. There's going to be a lot of grieving fans hearing this, myself included. My dog is named Rush, and in almost every other of the 2 dozen bands I've been in, we've played Rush. Neil's legacy will live on, and my condolences go out to his extended family worldwide.

Sam Ash had a Medeli 88 piano keybed I auditioned I was considering the Kurzweil PC4 The action was decent, not great, but not bad either Obviously Medeli put some serious R&D into this poly AT keybed Hopefully that translates to moar poly AT boards!

It truly is an amazing digital synth with loads of synthesis types - wavetable, morphing, FM, VA and sync. It can even do basic additive, as the organ patches show. Of course, I imagine to all those who work ITB with tons of different soft synths, it's probably not that big of a deal. But then again --- polyphonic aftertouch!? And it's high quality and super responsive too! And the way the UI is laid out. Obviously a lot of thought went into it. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

I tried a Medeli Well actually we do. FM synths are "Very Annoying" when it comes to programming. Ha, this is definitely true on the older FM synths! But FM didn't corner the market on hard-to-program synths from the 90s Was it mostly a Yamaha thing?

My Sweetwater order calls the Hydra a "virtual analog" synth. Somehow this doesn't sit right with me. The new Rolands are virtual analogs.... VA = digital synths whose architecture and sound mimic analog synths. Analog synths means saws thru LPF, with a couple LFOs and ENVs. Limited polyphony. The Argon and the Hydra are purely digital. We don't call FM synths "VA"...

This! His performance was interesting for a little bit, but then it got old quick. Granted, he's a much better player than I am. Obviously very talented. But I agree with Reezekeys that he doesn't deserve all the "OMG he's the greatest ever" comments. But then again, if ZZ Top (who I like well enough) played Montreux, well then I guess it's more of Jazz-ish Festival. FWIW, I couldn't listen to the Chick Corea / Herbie Hancock video either. I was too embarassed for Herbie. ... it's like he couldn't get a good lick in. It was all Chick. Almost seems like Chick was sabotaging Herbie. Nah, I'm probably imagining there was any rivalry.