Mills Dude

We're like brothers from another mother. I like the Tomita reference. When I was in HS in the early 80s, I had an old Ford van with an 8 track player. The records stores had been blowing out 8 tracks for a while so at that point only the obscure tapes, like Tomita and prog rock, were left. Me and my buds would drive around listening to Tomita's version of The Planets and Firebird Suite as well as Snowflakes are Dancing. Other great 8-tracks, like Drama, Relayer, Trick of the Tail, ELP Works Vol 1. Brings back great memories. I can still remember where all the fades were when the player would change tracks.

Yeah, she was a super tasty player.

I guess some old farts, like me, would remember the Chariots of Fire soundtrack. The theme was actually a hit and got pretty big radio airplay in the day in addition to winning the Oscar. Blade Runner is a bit more obscure but still has a ton of recognition, perhaps more than CoF today. When's the last time anybody watched CoF? Being a prog head, my favorite user of the CS80 is Eddie Jobson. The UK records and his solo record, Zinc, are a tour-de-force. Maybe more apt on this forum, who's better known, Jobson or Vangelis? Both are/were reasonably obscure except for keyboard nuts like us.

I think the Nords (Electros and Stages) are great for gigging, relatively lightweight. The sound is "good enough" through FOH and the control surface makes everything in quick reach, little menu diving if at all. However, as an artists tool, I find them uninspiring. My last hurrah of gigging, almost 10 years back now, I bought an Electro 3 73. A church gig I had been playing for a while had an Electro 2 and that inspired me to pick up the 3. I liked having everything it had to offer in a 20 lb board. I acclimated myself to play piano on the springy action. For classic rock style gigs it was great. Paired up with some sort of rompler, in my case either the light Korg X50 or later on the heavier MOX6 it was a decent lightweight gigging rig. I no longer needed to schlep the RD700SX out. Despite being great for gigging, it always stayed in its case when I was home. I never had that urge to bust it out for practicing or experimenting. I finally sold it a few years after I stopped gigging as it was sitting there depreciating. If I ever jumped back in the pool, I'd probably pass on Nord. Especially since the big price rise. I'd probably look at Numa X or just go all software.

I'm still running version 6 Pro. I'm one of those that really sync up well with PianoTeq. I just love the voice clarity. Perhaps its a bit too pristine for some and I will admit it still falls short of a well voiced/regulated grand but I love it. The generated waves are still quite a bit off but I'd much rather play a PianoTeq piano compared to any of the sampled pianos I've tried. I'm running version 6 on my old 2009 vintage Macbook Pro and it works great. Never really goes past the 50% cpu mark and usually lower than 20% usage while playing. I do plan on upgrading to version 8 and retiring the old Macbook for something else. I play the D a lot. I have purchased the Model B. I also have the Steingraeber which I think is fantastic. It has a lot of body and richness. Deciding on either the Bechstein or the K2 as my next model. I do like the Rhodes models and play them often but there are much better ones out there. For me playing solo in the house, they're fine. The free CP80 model is pretty good also. Drench it with some chorus and its the 80s all over again.

Not sure how unrealistic that option is. For a long time, I ran my home setup with a consumer grade Pioneer receiver and Bose 210 speakers. I fed the tape outs from a Mackie 1402 into one of the receiver inputs. Not a good setup for recording but in the few times I had to actually mix something for others, I'd just use cans. One of the 210s finally crapped out and I replaced the amp & speakers with a pair of Presonus Eris 4.5 monitors. I'm not that impressed with those monitors but I cheaped out and should have spent more for a pair of Yamaha HS5 or HS8. I probably would have been happier with some home stereo bookshelf speakers. Monitors are great and all but good ones are pricey and the cheaper ones can be harsh. Its easy to find quality, used home stereo equipment on the cheap if you're looking for a budget option that can sound pretty good.

Oh, I grew up in Garnerville, NY right next to Stony Point. For the last 25+ years been in Tuxedo and now Suffern, NY right next to the NJ border. A lot of people heading down south to retire. I have friends who've left for Hilton Head area, Charleston and of course Florida. Probably looking at Florida when its time to hang it up or maybe Southeast Asia or maybe a bit of both.

Growing up not far from West Point, we'd go every few years to watch the West Point Band perform 1812 Overture with real cannons firing off into the Hudson. Pretty f---in' loud.

Dude, I could never play well stoned. I used to jam with a group when I was young and we'd smoke some weed before and during. When the high set in my playing was awful but that's just me. That was '80s weed though, who knows what it was. From what I understand today, the weed is much more potent. I agree that overdoing the alcohol can be chaotic. All kinds of different drunks out there, happy, festive, nasty, belligerent. You never know what you're going to get. I know I'm at my best when I'm sober so I just stick to that.

If you're using a Radial JDI Duplex, it already has XLR in addition to the 1/4" ins. IMO, these boxes are the most versatile for keyboards. Too bad they're selling new for > $450 these days. Heck, key largos are selling at $499 new. Odd pricing for that lineup, for just $50 more, I get an awesome mixer. Something seems amiss.

To chime in again, sounds like the MS can act as a mixer, post channel, which is great. I used to use the KC-350 for the same purpose, despite the inferior sound, using it as a self monitor and mixer worked great. I always ran it through the DI unless FOH told me not to just for those protective reasons.

Very good points. I think we should have a DI sticky thread, there have been a few over the years but we always retread this info. A good reminder that having a quality DI at the ready is an important tool in the keyboardist's bag. I would sometimes run up against confusion when using a keyboard (RD2000 SX in my case) with XLR balanced outs. They typically run at line level and some FOH would get confused assuming XLR means mic level. If that couldn't be worked out easily, throwing a proper DI with a pad in the middle would fix it and allow everyone to move on, which was the minority of cases. A good DI also allows resolving any ground loop issues that might arise.

Colors look great. On the polyurethane, are you going to use a high gloss or a matte finish?

I think what you are looking for, modern and reliable, are what they are offering. The main problems with the old Rhodes was the weight and the action. Whatever they were doing in the factory in those days, it was a game of chance as to what the action would be like. Finding an old Rhodes with good action is like mining for bitcoin and it's not because they wore down, they came out of the factory either spongy, heavy or least often clean and crisp. Our product expectation in the 70s were much lower, remember US built cars that rarely passed the 100K mile mark with out needing a major repair. I see the 'better' as being improved quality in the modern manufacturing process and recognizing that the formerly produced ones could be questionable in quality. From what I've heard on these videos, the sound is the same, sure they've made it 'better' with the preamp and added some things there but they're very incremental improvements. So its got "that" sound but most importantly, and hopefully since I haven't laid a finger on one, the action is playable and predictable. The draw of VV for me has always been the weight and the action but the sound is not quite what I look for in a Rhodes. I see it as a hybrid, Rhodes-Wurly, which has other benefits as the Wurly is much better at cutting through the mix when playing with a rhythm guitar. The improved action is the #1 benefit for me since I'm kinda done gigging these days. Even if I was gigging, don't think I'd drag out an electro-mechanical unless it was a very special gig that deserved it. I dragged out a Rhodes in those days because I had little choice. For todays $100/man bar gig, they're getting a rompler. The cramped bar stage wouldn't fit one anyway and how could I tell the guitar player to move his dual rectifier 4x4 to make room for it. It might affect his "tone". You can dream of a new Rhodes-lite, but I don't see it happening.

I doubt there is a trickle down plan for the Mk8. It's a very niche product. I'm sure they've done a fair amount of market research. It won't be commodity instrument like it was in the 70s. Just like we'll never see a trickle down for the new Oberheim or Prophets. Squarely marketed to the institutions you mentioned and nostalgia seekers like me. If they're successful they'll probably steal some business from VV. I wish them well and hope they can sustain a business selling these.

Very true about the BJ tune but it all has to do with the context/era of these tunes. We've been living in an era since the '60s and earlier with access to cheap recorded music. Those arrangements and signature licks become a part of the song as much as the melody and lyrics. The GASB or simply standards are mostly songs from the musical theater period 20s - 50s. They were typically part of a show and in those days there weren't really original cast recordings like we might see from something like Rent or Les Miserables today. Sure there was recorded music back then but it didn't really become the huge music industry that it is today until the Rock n Roll era with the post-WWII boom and middle class kids going nuts buying records. The jazz cats picked these tunes based on harmony and melody and if there were any signature licks, they were usually discarded. For me, the version of My Favorite Things by Coltrane with that intro lick from McCoy Tyner became a signature. If I ever play that tune, I always add it because it represent the song for me, much like the intro to Just the Way You Are. The players took these tunes, re-arranged and adapted them for their needs. Very rarely do we have an original reference point, sure we can find it but most of those songs outlived the play they were written for because they found new life with a different performer. In our more modern world, we've grown up, lived and died, with these recordings that speak to us, so naturally, we're more inclined to want to recreate that exact arrangement. Most guitarists strive to learn those licks, its become its own thing -- the desire to play that Jimmy Page or whoever lick note for note with the same kind of feel. That' part of what this thread is all about. For some, its the recreation of that recorded arrangement even down to the exact key, doing otherwise is sacrilege. For others, they desire to take a tune, rearrange it and transform it into something different. There's no wrong answer its just different strokes for different folks. Now with Just The Way You Are, that intro part is drilled into my consciousness as part of the song. I would argue that the saxophone solo is also.. Whenever I play/sing that song, I always end up humming and playing the sax solo. Its so iconic its one of those solos that a performer covering the song probably feels obligated to quote most of it. As I said earlier in this thread, the rhodes intro relies on specific voicings in a specific register. Moving the whole thing down a 4th or 5th would entirely change the character. A whole or half step, not so much. I think BJ these days performs everything a whole step down and happily uses the transpose button to do so. The only real exception I know of is New York State Of Mind. I've heard him play a rearranged version of that. BJ is a legacy act now and its almost an obligation to play those songs as close to the recording as possible. Thats what the people who pay the exorbitant ticket prices want to hear. Except for something like New York State .... where he kind of treats it like a standard. I grew up in an era surrounded by guitar players who made it sport learning rock licks by ear, exactly like it was on the record. The better you were at it, the cooler you were. If I wanted to play in bands with those dudes, I had to do the same thing. But then I got into jazz and realized something different.

Piano and Rhodes sound real nice in that vid but he is a great player. Not familiar with the models in the S6000, but the piano he played sounds like some sort of Steinway Hamburg. Not necessarily my choice, I tend to like NY Bs. The Rhodes sounds real nice, clear and bell-ish. I prefer mine with a bit of grit along with phase, chorus or tremolo. I think he had some tremolo working in there at some point. The organ, well lets just say it sounds ok for a rompler. I'm looking at this new crop of digis for a living room piano. Getting tired of sitting in whats left of my studio with the VPC-1 and PianoTeq and getting a bit tired of the action on the VPC-1. It was great 6-7 years ago, but it gets a bit heavy at times. Had a PX-160 for a while, for a "cheap" digital it was a nice practice piano but not something I'd like to spend a lot of time on. These new Privias are looking nice to me, the design is growing on me. I'm mulling over something like a P-515, Kawaii ES series or even reaching a bit higher for the Kawaii CA series for the living room. I tend to be a cheap bastard, would love to try out one of these new Privias.

Dregs, Dixie Dregs, whatever you want to call them were one of my favorites. But the circumstances of this particular incarnation were for promotional purposes and 10 years past their heyday. Right at the juncture before Steve Morse hooked up with Deep Purple and he was considering giving it all up and just be a commercial pilot. The preparation for this tour seemed a bit spotty. I wish I had seen them back in their fire days. The biggest problem I had that night was the heat and the fact that the show started 2 hours later then it was supposed to, along with the lackluster performance. I had seen Steve with Jerry Peek and Rod Morganstein in small clubs a bunch of times and they were on fire. This show, not so much.

Best NYE 1982 Billy Joel at MSG - I was 16 years old and still a big BJ fan. Loved Nylon Curtain and BJ was at his peak. Scalped pretty good seats the day of the show for $50 a pop. Fantastic way to ring in the New Year. After show cannolis in Little Italy was the perfect icing on the cake. 1988 Zappa at the Beacon - Fantastic show, the brass section playing the solo on Stairway to Heaven, Whipping Post in the encore and all those great Zappa tunes. I had tickets for 2 nights but sold the first set to see another show detailed in my worst, still regret that. I think that was Zappa's last tour. Glad I got to see it. 1990 Todd Rundgren, New Ritz (Old Studio 54), NYC - I dabbled a bit in Todd's stuff and really liked the Nearly Human record. I had never seen Todd before so I wasn't expecting much. The show was so good and the band was killer. That record has a lot of great keyboard driven pop/rock. Caught the Second Wind tour a year later, same venue. Also a great show. I think Roger Powell was covering keys. 1991 Paul Simon, Garden State Arts Center - Never much into Paul Simon at the time but that changed This was post Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints period. Such an awesome show, great musicianship all throughout with the great Richard Tee and Steve Gadd. Many of the older tunes were re-arranged. Great memory. 1997 Rush at Jones Beach - I had seen Rush a bunch a few times in the late 80's (Roll the bones, etc.), but I was never a big Rush freak. My buddy and I copped some tickets and the show was fantastic. Geddy's voice was spot on with all the older material. 2112 in it's entirety. Perfect weather night in a great venue. Worst Late 90's Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theater - Took my nephew who really wanted to see them. Greg Allman was lifeless like a block of wood. Dicky Betts turned every song into a 15 minute pentatonic solo. Couldn't wait for it to end. 1988 Jazz Explosion Super Band with Allan Holdsworth, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Bernard Purdie - I was a big Holdsworth and general fusion freak. Sold my Zappa tickets for that night to see this show somewhere in NYC. The whole thing was a train wreck. They trucked out Ronnie Montrose at the end of the night. Again, just a big train wreck. 1988 Dregs (Ensoniq Tour), NYC - I was a bit young to catch the Dregs when they were active. I had seen Steve Morse band a few times in the 80s and looking for that Dregs nostalgia fix. It was in Webster Hall, which they were calling the Ritz in those days. I just remember it being hot as hell, standing in front of the stage for what seemed like hours waiting for the show to start, sweating my balls off with my friends. Yeah it was great seeing T. Lavitz up there with the rest of the band (no Andy West though) but the show was really underwhelming. Due to the circumstances just really wanted it all to end.

Would anyone really care if 'Oh What a Night' were performed in C rather that Db ? I wouldn't bat an eye. If I was asked to learn this for a one off gig, if C were easier to get the keys part together the fastest, then C it is with the transpose button at the ready if needed. I'd probably be more worried about how the vocalists didn't prepare their parts properly and now I have to play choir director. Don't remind me about how many times I got emailed a set list for a one-off, prepped the tunes, charted 'em up only to show up at the one-off rehearsal and be told, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, we do that one a step down". Then have the bass player stand behind me to peek at the charts because he thought he could wing it. I already earned my "transpose on sight" merit badge in my jazz gigging days. For pop/rock tunes, if the part requires specific voicings, which many do to capture the essence, sorry I'm using the button. The only tunes that stuck in my memory are the ones I labored over in my teen years with the boom box cassette deck. I can still crank out obscure Kansas tunes (insert your favorite prog here), only problem is nobody really wants to hear those. Not sure I could play 'Song For America' a 1/2 step down though. I'd have to woodshed that. Good thing that tune never appears on those email lists.

About 10 years back, I got the bug to dust off some of the classical repertoire I played in HS, mostly mid-level stuff. My teacher in those days, started at age 14, had me doing Hanon. I started back with Hanon, first 20, since it was comfortable and a good gateway to get that left hand moving again after so many years playing rock and jazz. The left hand had become a stump from jazz comping and pounding octaves. However, doing Hanon gets a bit rote as its not harmonically pleasing, really just exercises to get warmed up and drill some dexterity. Much more gratifying to play some real music. Bach is great but the inventions and WTC never appealed to me. I got so much more working out my favs, easier sonatas by Mozart (A Maj - all movements e.g. ) & Beethoven (Pathetique e.g.) and those wonderful Debussy pieces with their rich harmonies.

OMG, what edition of the Real Book is this from? Where's the #9s? I scanned this from my 5th edition. It doesn't have the bass figure but at least the chord symbols are a bit more accurate. Gotta get those #9s in the turnaround.

Wow, thats great. Will be listening today.

Love those Wurlitzers, the players who can make them sing are a dying breed. There's one in the Lafayette Theater here in my hometown of Suffern, NY. https://www.nytos.org/lafayette-theatre Its an old theater but my favorite as it doesn't draw the crowds. You can see a first run movie for $6 and not be packed in. When my kids were smaller we went all the time and sat right in the front row as the screen is a bit smaller and further back than the new-fangled theaters. They don't run a ton of ads before the show just a few trailers. Much better listening to a historic instrument than watching crappy ads. Before the weekend shows, they'd have someone playing the Wurlitzer. Yeah, it can be a bit corny and old-timey but that's part of the draw. They used to run old films on the weekends during the day, get the old folks crowd. I've been back only once since the Covid lockdowns, a few weeks back. Sadly, nobody playing the organ. Next time I go back, I'll ask the owner what's happening with it. He's super nice and thanks everyone for coming as he tears tickets. I'd volunteer to play but I don't have the repertoire or pedal skills to do it justice. It was a tough go for them even before Covid. Not sure how much longer they'll be able to keep going. Now that my sons are older when we talk about going to see a movie, I always suggest the Lafayette. They kinda groan and want to go to a modern theater. But I love not dealing with a crowd, worrying about seating and supporting a local independent business.

Wow, sad news about Warren. I also checked out his Wikipedia before I posted to see if he was still around. I regret that I never got to see him play live.