SkiGuy777

Her YouTube videos are great, no doubt about that. She's incredibly gifted. On the studio recordings the drums are over played and loud. I tried listening to them and it sounded like a non stop drum solo after a while. The other thing she doesn't have is a jazz guitar comping. There's nothing wrong with it if the mix is good. For example, on the song, "Back Track" by Lonnie Smith, he's got 2 guitars playing, one in each speaker. It's interesting how this stuff works out when it comes to the mix. Some people get it perfect while others it's off a bit. That's why I believe her studio recordings didn't catch on.

Click the link. It's California Dreaming by the Mamas and Papas. I didn't miss any notes in the flute solo, so that was good. Sounds I'm using was Combi A43 (Bass, Old E-Piano), and Prog UE009 (Vibrato Flute). Hey everyone, the entire rig is up for sale. It's owned by the band leader who is the bass player. I can post a message in the FS forum. It's a Korg Kronos 88, Hammond XK-5 with lower, and a Leslie 3300. You may ask why don't I want to buy it. Because I don't have room in my home. The bass player is moving to North Carolina at the end of the year. If anyone is interested in this rig then PM me and I'll send your message on to Max, the bass player (Wellington FL). I don't know how much, he's going to post messages in the Sweetwater forum and a few others.

Yes, it's a far drive but Tom is legit when it comes to the repairs. They're open 9-5 during the week. Call the number and you'll get Cindy, let her know you are coming. Take I-75 to the Sawgrass to 441, then north until you're in the Lake Worth area. It's in a warehouse park. Of coarse it does, the problem is space. There's no where to keep all of it when you think of all the other bands. Yes, I went through that catalog looking at all the merchandise. All those people would want that stuff stored in a museum as well. The thing is, rock stars don't plan for a museum. Look at Prince, he didn't even leave a will. Someone comes in (a company), buys the entire estate, and sells it in the catalog we saw in the 1st post. Michael Jackson left behind 5 warehouses. Click next link to see it.

It's too bad he didn't will some of it Rachael Flowers, she is a big fan and played on his equipment. The PA equipment is over kill for most of us, especially with powered monitors or IEMs of today. There are techs who can fix keyboards, I just had my Korg 01W/FD repaired. The floppy went bad, cap burst and burned a hole in the circuit board. The guy had another floppy laying around and swapped out the circuit boards. This is in the West Palm Beach area. http://www.audiomagnetics.com/ It may be nice to have, but would you really use the equipment? I think most of this stuff is going to sit around collecting dust. If it goes to a recording studio, that would be good.

Similar situation to my last post. We played a gig with a different sound man because our guy had something come up. We went into a 16 channel snake into a rack board with 6 monitor outputs. I helped the guy wire the board so we could start on time, which we did. The sound man thanked me for doing this, it was a lot of work and there's no way we would have started on time if I hadn't helped. Between sets 2 and 3 my Korg 01W/FD died. I went up on stage to get ready for the next set, and it was dead. However, I knew this day was coming, and had my Korg PS60 in the car. I swapped keyboards and played the last set with no problems. The PS60 is a light weight gigging board, it did the job. I took my Korg to a place in West Palm Beach that fixes equipment. Turns out it was the floppy drive that went bad and was drawing power from the rest of the board. Tom had an extra floppy and was able to swap circuit boards and other parts for $188. I don't see a repair thread so I'll post his link here. They have a bunch of equipment for sale from people leaving stuff behind. http://www.audiomagnetics.com/ This place is legit, Tom and Cindy are nice people.

Another gig from hell last weekend, and it involves the sound check, or lack there of. Played at the PGA Arts Center in West Palm Beach. We get there 3.5 hours before the gig, the drummer is already set up and the sound man is working with him. We set up, no problem. But again, it takes this one person forever to wire everyone, get levels, and send monitor signals to each person. He hooked up our wireless controller incorrectly, and it took an hour to sort out the channels and what levels to set for each singer. We didn't even have a sound check except for one song that didn't include the drummer, who was now home changing cloths. The sound turned out good and there were no feedback issues at this gig. I even got some great video, we were in front of a huge screen with fractal images being projected on it. If you have a wireless monitor system or you're playing an outdoor party where they have to set up the stage and sound system from scratch, you need to arrive 4 hours before the gig. It's also a good idea to have exact directions on how to hook your wireless system to the board so it works. The problem with the wireless monitor system, is each person wants different levels, and they have to be set one person at a time. Our band leader has an in ear wireless, and a wedge on the floor. He was asking the sound man to duplicated what he just did in the wedge, but that's not how it works, all the levels have to be set one at a time. We went on 15 minutes late with everyone in the crowd waiting but they were ok with it. It was very stressful wanting to do the sound check and start on time, but everything dragged out.

Not too bad compared to the above. But played a gig a couple weeks ago at an outdoor block party. Start time was 4pm on a Sunday, outside in the parking lot where they block off the road. We show up at 01:30pm and they're still putting the stage together. We load our stuff on the stage, but there's only one sound man. We have to use his board and speakers, that's the agreement. They only have a 16 channel board with a 12 input snake. We normally use 24 inputs. We knew this going in. Less mics on the drums, I tandem my two keyboards to 1 signal. It took the soundman forever to wire each mic, then there was feedback, so we had to try different mics and cables running them directly to the board. Start time was supposed to be 04:00pm, we went on at 04:40pm. This was actually good, because they told us the previous band didn't go on until 05:30pm. They ran power by running 2 extension cables from the store across from the stage. We lost power in the 2nd set for 10 minutes. They ran another cable from the bar. In the 1st set half the mains did not work. The system had 2 powered Mackie speakers, and huge cabinets that required power from an amp. Those speakers did not work for some reason and the sound guy could not figure it out until the 2nd set when someone else helped him. There was horrible feedback in the 1st set. Every time we ended a song, there was a howling noise that sounded like aliens. It was feedback in 3 different tones until we started the next song. After the power failure things were good, the people danced, and everyone was happy. My advice if you play a block party, ask if you can bring your own sound. If you can't, then plan on wiring directly to the board (bring your snake), have a bunch of XLR cables ready, and use your mics. Have each person in the band ready to run their cables to the board. It takes a single sound man forever to do this. I told him, he agreed, but said if there's two people running cables, there can be confusion as to the input list. Got some videos out of it. Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 (Everyone is liquored up at this point)

Solid Brass played the Valentines concert, the same place as the video a couple posts above this one (Seabreeze Amphitheater in Jupiter FL). I made two videos, each 2 minutes long. It rained before we went on, but then stopped. The crowd stayed, we estimated 3k in the audience. That's why the stage is wet and we're close together. [video:youtube] [video:youtube]

Newest video. [video:youtube]

Jim showing some features. [video:youtube] Seriously Jim, you need to get Hammond to loan you the SKX for a month so you can do a side by side comparison. Everyone is asking for this, they want to hear the APs and if there is a difference.

Seems like a phone when it comes to the upgrades. The next model usually isn't enough to make one upgrade. For example, If you have an SK2 you probably won't upgrade to this, unless you have someone ready to buy the SK2 for a good price. Besides the videos posted here, I haven't seen any superstar performances on YouTube. There was one video by Jimmy Smith, but it was more of a church performance, with Jim saying he was on the XK-5 in the interview up above. Honestly, it should have been the other way around. A church is more likely to buy the XK-5. It would be interesting to see Brian Auger play the SKX. I was expecting to see all the stars trying the SKX with a bunch of videos on YouTube but so far it isn't happening. Maybe more people will upload them now that the show is over. I'm sure Kraft and Sweatwater will have an in-depth review. We really need Jim to put the SK2 and SKX side by side and compare. See if his tonewheel set will load, compare all the sounds and Leslie sim.

Jim being interviewed by Synthmania. [video:youtube] Part 1 is Paolo getting into the show, long lines.

I also want to say what a video, and sorry about your condition. I played along on my keyboard in front of my computer while watching. It's a great tune to jam along with going from Em to Am, the little walk down is Em - Em7 (d lower note) Em6 (A# lower note) C Dsus4, Em. Has a modulation in the middle up to F#m to D, then Gm to C, Am to Em. I was shredding along on an Em and Am scale. Everyone, put this tune on and jam along. Your hand will be worn out but it's a lot of fun.

If it's using Vase III that means all the previous tone wheel sets will probably work on it, such as Jim's. The organ sound is there, Jim has proven this. The Leslie sim could use some improvement, but like I said, I think they nerf it on purpose so people will buy a pedal or the 3300. I play an XK-2 and the organ sounds good, but I added the Vent2 pedal. I've played an SK1 and XK5. The Leslie sim is a little better, but my band leader went out and bought the 3300, which is exactly what Hammond wants people to do. For the horn band, it's my XK-2, Vent2, and Korg 01/WFD. For the 3DN tribute, it's the band leaders XK-5, Leslie 3300, and Korg Kronos88.

Hopefully a Neo Ventilator 2 as the Leslie sim. That's the one thing always lacking, which I think is done on purpose so people will buy the 3300. One can get the Hammond sound in an XK-2 with a good Leslie pedal. The XK-5 (two manuals) makes one "feel" like they're playing The Beast, because of the 9 contact (really 3) keys, and the way it sounds. Having two manuals is nice. What I'm getting at is what level of sound and whether one needs two manuals. We'll have to see how much this thing weighs. Band leader just ordered a case for the dual manual XK-5 because we've been taking it on gigs. Does require two people to move it, but the setup really isn't that hard once we're there. I've actually picked up an 88 key weighted Kronos and moved it, but would recommend two people for that as well. I'll come back with the case info because the band leader called a few places and found a good deal.

Since making the video of Celebrate on the previous page, we've had an agent come to our rehearsal and give us tips. Turns out a promo video is supposed to be 2 minutes. You can still make a 5-7 minute video for your fans, but an agent only wants to see 2 minutes. Here is the updated video of Celebrate. Same as the previous page, but no mistake and shorter. [video:youtube] There's a group of agents who will have a showcase once a year for the HOAs, Condos, and Country Clubs. The schedule is then set for the entire year. Otherwise you have to call places directly and try to get in. I sent all our info to an agent in South Florida (Video, Web Site, Facebook), and now we might be playing the Pompano Beach Sea Food Festival in April. The agent said he liked our video, so making a pro video is worth it. I also cut a 2 minute version of Solid Brass (horn band) which I'm now with full time. This band needs to make a pro video, but for now the live video I shot is the best we have. [video:youtube] So the point of this updated post, is if you're making videos for an agent, keep them at 2 minutes, and the studio video is worth the money.

This is the promo video from DC Rehearsal Studios in WPB Florida. [video:youtube] I miffed the walk down on "One" but they left it in there. We're actually playing the instruments live, this is not pre-recorded. Hard to say how much the "cheeze" factor is with this video. I've watched others this studio has done and they always seem cheezy because most people record the song first, then fake it for the video. We recorded each song once or twice. A few songs we stopped in the middle because of a major mistake (crash). Otherwise we were playing live. The Leslie has the mics inside with XLR connections on the back, that's why you don't see that one miced, but the guitar Leslie is miced. You'll hear it in the last song "One Man Band."

Forgot to say Thanks to Harmonizer. Yeah, the vocalists would show up at 04:30 and rehearse the vocal parts. The leader of the band would give them parts, sit behind the new beast (XK5), and give them each a part to sing while playing notes. He had all this mapped out in his head. While we rehearsed, he would ask for notes for me to play that each person was supposed to sing. So yes, if your vocal leader is asking for keyboard notes while you rehearse then you know he's got it. Made a video of Chest Fever, goes half way through the song, ends just after my solo. Here's a 140 picture slide show that goes for 7 minutes. The audio is from 2 rehearsals with pictures over the top of the video. So how did this happen? Shot video of two rehearsals with my camcorder with the Rode NT4 mic. We didn't have many pictures at the time. I made a video where each picture was 20 seconds, too long. Then we got more pictures after the first gig and the DC demo shoot. Then put all the pictures over the top of the best songs at 3 seconds each. We have pictures from a photo shoot, our first gig, and a photo shoot at DC Rehearsal Studious in WPB Florida where we recorded a live demo. Waiting for the final product to come back. There's more pictures of me and one picture of the rig looking at the keys at the 03:15 mark. We were not faking it at the demo shoot. Some bands record the songs in advance then play along to a video. Not us, we were playing live going into their computer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywUpei24stI&t=348s

Great job Bobby. Having 3 trumpet players is amazing, especially when they hit those high notes and don't miss. That's kinda the problem with the horn band I'm in now. The one trumpet player we have misses the high notes. The crowd doesn't notice but we think it adds up. And what's funny is I went back and looked at videos from 4 years ago and he never missed back then. So stay on top of the trumpet players to hit those high notes. Here's a live video from the 3DN Tribute. You don't see much of me on the far left, but I'm playing a Kronos 88 and a Hammond XK5 with a Leslie 3300. [video:youtube] We recently went to DC Studios in West Palm Beach and shot a live video (4 cameras) of 6 songs. We'll see how it turns out. Here's a picture of me behind the new beast. http://www.quatraine3.com/tw2017/AtlantisGig0729171mp047.jpg

Here's another video with 7 more 3DN tunes. Same slide show, but the songs are different. This one turned out better because I told the bass player to turn up. He looked at me (jaw on the floor) and said no one has ever said that to him. What we'll do now is get more pictures at the live gig, pick the best songs, and I can make another video. [video:youtube] Thanks WavePackets. A 3DN tribute is a lot of fun because the keyboard parts are not complicated, but they are featured. Meaning, you can hear everything. With the horn bands, I'm in the back when the horns are playing. With this band I can always hear myself in the video. A 3DN tribute is great if you can get the 3 singers. It was a lot of work, the vocalists have their own rehearsal at 04:30pm, then the band shows up at 06:00pm and we practice the tunes for 3 hours.

Promo video for the Three Dog Night tribute I'm in. We play our first gig at the end of July. [video:youtube] The way this video was created, is the wife of the guitarist came and took pictures. We set up a black curtain and there were lights on top of it. We also took some shots outside in front of bushes. Then we had a rehearsal where I shot video with my Sony camcorder and Rode NT1 stereo mic. I edited the video in Sony Vegas, raised the bass and treble, then put the pictures on top of it, 20 seconds each. I'm playing a Hammond XK5 running through a Leslie 3300, along with a Korg Kronos on top. This is a spin off group of the Solid Brass band you see up above.

I've been updating this thread here. https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2843836/3 Scroll down a little bit and read my post. Click on the pictures and look at the setup. The band leader is well off and has GAS. He started out buying the Kronos 88. (see pics in above thread) My mind was blown at that point, we had an SK1 on the bottom. But then he goes and buys the XK5 single manual. I'm like what are you doing? Is that going on gigs? No, everything stays. Ok. Then he buys the lower manual saying he traded a bunch of gear. Great. Just last week he goes and gets a refurbished Leslie 3300. Mind blown. I'm not worthy. How does it sound? Great. Key bed is nice (soft), controls are easy. You can set your B and Bb presets for the drawbars, and there's the popular presets below that such as Jimmy, Shirley, Groove, and a few others (basically organ Jazz). Ok, let's say you start off with the single bed XK5. Great, but get a Neo Ventilator 2 so you have a nice Leslie sound. Then you can see if you have GAS and want the lower manual with a Kronos 88 on top. You have to stand up to play the Kronos, but it's not that bad (unless you do a 90 degree setup). Then you decide if you want the Leslie 3300. The 88 key Kronos has that weighted feel, it's heavy and that's your piano (unless you get the 61 key version). It's an amazing thing to play a dual manual Hammond and a Kronos on top. The on-board leslie of the XK-5 is still lacking. Also, there's a bug where if you swipe across the preset keys, the organ will stick on a sound and won't reset until you turn it off and on, even if you press the lowest C preset. That's a bug. Most people won't swipe across the presets, but I have. Pros: Feels like the real thing. Sounds great. Controls are where you would expect. Has a few upgrades over the SK2 such as key contacts (barely press a key and only that contact plays). Cons: Leslie Sim, Bug when swiping across presets. I think the reason you don't hear much about this keyboard is because the SK2 is still king especially since Jim proved it can sound like the real thing with his library. I mean think about it. Jim was trying to be nice proving the SK2 could sound like his Hammond after he tweaked the tone wheels. But now what does that do for the future organ sales? Does Jim have an XK-5? Honestly, Hammond should have given him one with the lower and a Leslie 3300. It's like the XK-5 appeared and the pros played it at NAMM, but none of them are "using" it as their main rig and making videos online. That being said, the XK-5 is still amazing. What's missing in both the SK2 and XK-5 is that Leslie sim, which you can correct by getting a Neo Ventilator 2 or a Leslie 3300. Would I recommend the XK-5? Yes. Also agree the key bed feels nice. If you get the lower, that takes it to a whole new level. I think you could get by with a Neo Ventilator2 as your leslie, but having both the upper and lower manual is amazing. It really feels like "The Beast" sitting behind it with so many options.

Solid Brass at City Place on 05/12/17. 4 videos, one for each set, best part of each song. Videos were shot with a Sony camcorder and a Rode NT4 stereo mic. Edited in Sony Vegas turning up the bass and treble. Jason is on keys playing the Hammond SK1 on the bottom and the Yahama on top. The sound turned out good. I found a trick to stop static with my mic connection. I wrapped the base of the mic plug connection with thread tape. When people were dancing, I lifted the tripod above everyone. [video:youtube] [video:youtube] [video:youtube] For the 4th set I'm on the balcony for two songs then roaming in front of the band. [video:youtube]

Solid Brass live footage at Johnnie Brown's Delary Beach FL Friday Night 04/28/17. [video:youtube] I featured the rhythm section because 2 of the horn players were wearing shorts. Jason was playing keys, that's a Hammond SK1 on the bottom and a Yamaha on the top. Jason arranged the Live and Let die song for the band. Next gig is Friday May 12th at City Place. Everyone will dress nice for that one and I'll be video taping again.

Jimmy's bass lines and playing got better as time went on. It was his later recordings that I am a fan of, and those are what I was hoping the pros would pay a tribute to. You could hear it in his live tracks comparing earlier studio versions to later where he would throw in extra fills anywhere there was space. For example, if you listen to a song like "The Organ Grinder's Swing" there's many versions of it. In the early versions, he plays the melody line and that's it. Later on in a live recording he's playing at warp speed throwing in fills between each phrase and the bass line has slides. In other words, the songs evolved. There's nothing wrong with recording a studio track and then a better live version with more fills.