SamuelBLupowitz

Think there's a market for a device that sets off an alarm any time you come within six feet of a Nord Lead so you can remember to back away?

Yeah, and as I'm learning from a friend who is starting a grad program in music technology right now, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than Pro Tools.

Right, and the really popular retro sounds right now are synthesizers, particularly late 70s/80s analog synths, since that's the reference point for a lot of contemporary pop and indie rock music. And the really nice clones are a major investment, especially when you consider that there are great sounding all-around workhorse keyboards at the same price point. Now amplify that for a generation of players that didn't grow up with the real deal around regularly (I count myself among them); I needed a few years on my Nord Electro before I was craving anything that gave me a more authentic B3 experience than that. But as you say, these things are circular, so I'm sure there will be another cycle of Hammond turning up in pop music (even if not mainstream pop) that brings the market back around. I mean, in the jam band/festival circuit, B3s really never went out of style; I've never seen so many Hammonds moving on and off a stage as the last time I went to Mountain Jam.

If it weren't on the other side of the country, I'd take that A100 and one of the Leslies too. A few more months and the new house would actually be in a position where I could move an organ in, I guess!

Dan, if there's anything you need (even if it's just continued venting), please don't hesitate to ask. I can't speak for everyone on the forum, obviously, but community is more important than ever in a time like this, and we need to be able to rely on each other. Best wishes for you. We're here.

If you wind up going the digital route, you could keep an eye out for something like this: CLONK Those DIY pedalboard projects are a lot cheaper than Nord and their ilk's full-size pedalboards.

No, I have avoided it fearing the exact thing you listed: that it would be a letdown, and I also feared it was just a cash-in on known characters. It's sensational. More of a slow-burn character drama than Breaking Bad (though it has the occasional heart-pounding action sequence, particularly as the show goes on and more of the Albuquerque underworld rears its head), and it's as good as anything on TV as far as writing and acting.

That's true! You can also use other USB interfaces (or even a phone or tablet) to MIDI-learn the parameters that would normally be on the Rise's three sliders and XY pad. I got one of Roli's LUMI keyboards to both extend the range of the Seaboard Block and have a more traditional playing surface for some of the kinds of playing that I struggle with on the Seaboard surface (and, you know, flashing colored lights onstage)... but I can already tell it's not built very well and when I can finally take it out to gigs I'm going to just destroy it. Either way, another Block isn't out of the question for me at some point down the line. Do note that the size of the keys is slightly smaller on the Blocks compared to the Rise.

My wife and I watched the first episode of Picard and while it was interesting, we felt there were enough storytelling red flags that we didn't invest in the full season. We just watched some TNG again. It doesn't entirely fit into the "sci-fi" mold, though there are certainly sci-fi elements, but we just finished the TV adaptation of Watchmen that ran on HBO last fall, which I thought was absolutely brilliant. As a fan of the original comic, I thought the choice to create a new story in the same alternate history but set in the present day, rather than retell the (nearly-flawless and perfectly matched to its medium) 1980s comic story was inspired... and the narrative choices were audacious and timely and thrilling, but also paid tribute to the source material. Highly recommend. Stokely, have you been keeping up with Better Call Saul? Another offshoot of a groundbreaking franchise that could have been a letdown, but I think is on the same level of excellence as Breaking Bad, if not better. This most recent season rose to even greater heights than the previous ones. But yes, all of the above are season-long arcs, not episodic like traditional Trek. TV is the place to do that now, and I don't mind it, even if every now and then we'll still put on Frasier or The Office when we need to decompress one episode at a time.

There are finer points of DAWing? :wink:

Some really exciting features here. After I finish my must-do editing today, I think I'll install the update on my MacBook! I haven't had the chance to try many DAWs -- I came up using GarageBand and as soon as I started at my current job, the department bought Logic, so I've been using more-or-less the same interface for recording since I was 16 -- but I do love the workflow, and helping a friend set up ProTools for his grad program the last couple of weeks hasn't made me appreciate it any less.

Ann, I think you should be deploying your photoshop skills more often on the forum. This is gold.

It's definitely a polarizing controller. I love mine, but it's not to everyone's taste, and there are other MPE controllers that fit other folks' styles better for them. It depends on how much you want to be tweaking and how much you just want to pick sounds and go. Roli's Equator (and its limited iOS offshoot, Noise) plus Cypher 2 and the other proprietary or semi-proprietary softsynths that Roli provides (at least in the "player" form with the option for paid upgrade), all have lots and lots of sounds that are interesting, though they're heavy on EDM-inspired synths and hybrid acoustic sounds (it's a flute but when you press down it bitcrushes, it's a marimba with a touch-controlled lowpass filter, that sort of thing). I think the software is complex and takes some puzzling to get the hang of, but synthesis isn't my first love the way it is for a lot of folks on the forum; I also find an ARP to be complex and requiring puzzling to get the hang of. As far as actually connecting to a computer, the Bluetooth connection has a few steps the first time, but USB is pretty straightforward. Equator is usable, absolutely, and it remains the most responsive to the Seaboard's MPE signals of any apps and VSTs I've tried out. "Unique" might be subjective based on my description above; you can listen to out some of their patches online, but it's a very flexible piece of software that does a cool mix of samples and different methods of synthesis. I like a lot of the sounds, and I've managed to create some others that suit my needs. Sometimes I still just want a Moog or Oberheim sound. Lots of variables. You can use it with almost anything. The scope of what actually interprets all the touch gestures is smaller, but there's a growing list of MPE-compatible software and hardware synths that can utilize it. It's just that a lot of them handle its signals differently, so there can be a learning curve every time you try it with new software. I've used standard keyboard sounds with it, usually simple auxiliary things like glockenspiel or chimes (be careful you hit that key right on and lift right off so you don't bend the note). I haven't used Omnisphere, so I can't comment specifically on its compatibility, but I've used lots of different synths, particularly Moog Model D on iOS, and lots of stuff in Mainstage. I got the Seaboard primarily to be a synthesizer, which it both is and isn't -- I've found it to be most effective for basses and lead lines, things where you can take advantage of the expression, while I struggle more to perform and execute more typical keyboard gestures like fast arpeggios or repeated block chords (tuning!). There are lots of ways to reroute and limit the expression signals that the Seaboard sends, but, again, the way it behaves doesn't feel standardized across sound sources, so you can wind up spending a lot of time puttering around. Pitch bend range is the most obvious example -- whatever source you control needs to be able to set a bend range of 48 semitones for the "glide" parameter to work properly. Otherwise you can slide down what looks like an octave on the keyboard but it will only go down, say, a fifth. Again, though, for someone more literate with MIDI and with synthesis, the learning curve might not be as steep. Yes. If I had an unlimited budget, I would want the 49-key Rise with the extra modulation touch surfaces, but at $1200 that's a try-before-you-buy purchase. The Block is handy for its compact size and easy portability (I love, love, love MIDI-over-Bluetooth), and at $200-give-or-take I've gotten a ton of creative use out of it. And I will say that on gigs it doesn't really feel like "another board to carry in" since it's tiny and weighs nothing. It's a tradeoff for the limitations of a 23-note controller.

I own a Block and haven't played a Rise, so I can't speak to a difference between the two, but I definitely have found that from patch to patch, softsynth to softsynth, there can be a GREAT amount of variance between how the touch gestures control volume, pitch, and modulation. The great thing about this is that it can be almost infinitely customized, both from the "sending" side (what information the Seaboard is actually transmitting to your virtual instrument when you play it) and the receiving side (how your software instruments interpret these gestures, and how finely). The tricky thing about it... is the same thing. All those parameters that vary from patch to patch means it can be very time consuming to adjust them so they feel consistent to you. Over time, I've found what helps make the Block feel like a more organic playing experience for me with some of my favorite virtual instruments, and I've also found certain playing styles and types of parts I gravitate towards with the Block, while other things just seem to work better with a more traditional playing surface.

Yes, that sounds like it jives with my experience. Here"s what Andrea sent me:

Final update on this â Andrea sent along some useful info about how the switches work in the Mojo, but then the next time I powered it up, the footswitch worked just as it should! I think the way the switches are set when the Mojo powers up makes a difference, along with the adapter. Works like a charm now.

I can't believe what he is doing with his foot, my god.

My wife and I were listening to him today and she commented that he's really the first rock 'n' roll singer... it's hard to disagree. There was Chuck, and Fats, and Elvis, but I can't think of anyone else who was doing the high screamy stuff in rock 'n' roll before Richard. He's the forebear of Paul McCartney, and Robert Plant, and so many others!

Couldn't resist -- had to show off the softsynth rig I threw together on the kitchen table last night (photo attached). One of my bandmates has been working on some solo material during quarantine, and he's been having me do the occasional synth part for it. This track called for some Stevie Wonder-meets-John Entwistle riffy synth bass, so I'm controlling OB-Xd with the Lumi and the Seaboard block as a long, weird synth controller. OB-Xd sounds wicked but doesn't handle MPE well, and it turns out the only keyboard I have with pitch and mod wheels is my Novation Ultranova, which isn't class compliant (!) so the $1.99 ModWheels app that was recommended in one of the other recent threads worked like a charm as soon as I connected my iPhone to my Macbook. That and a little strategic filter automation. Having a blast!

I totally get that. I've been lucky in the sense that having a new house to get ready and move into, complete with dedicated studio, has given me more of a guiding light for when we slowly ease out of the tunnel. Hoping playing with my bandmates and being creative, making videos and records and further livestreams, will help get us through until we can play to real crowds again. We're artists, we've gotta be creative here, or we'll perish.

I've definitely been considering this about a lot of the venues I play as well (though I've more than once joked about how grateful I'd be to play a show to 25% capacity, as I've certainly played to less...). I get the sense that one of the reasons certain folks in leadership positions are still pushing to reopen "for the economy" is so that they're not on the hook when the businesses in their jurisdictions struggle to survive; it's something you can write off as "the owners couldn't hack it" rather than "the state is responsible for maintaining standards that serve the health of the community." I want to have places to play, but not as a way to offload getting sick and dying into MY problem instead of a collective problem. I was watching an interview with comedian Patton Oswalt the other day, and he talked about how when the "comedy boom" ended in the late 80s/early 90s, and a lot of the very active clubs from the 80s shut down, many comedians decided to start their own rooms and host their own open mics in any space that would take them. Live music has a lot more logistics and gear to be concerned with than standup comedy, but I'm trying to approach the uncertain future with that mindset. Since I work in higher ed, there's a lot of talk about "blended" learning environments during the transition months, with some smaller, less frequent face-to-face contact with wider berths and smaller classes, complemented by online/asynchronous work. If we get to a point where it's safe to get together with four or five bandmates and maybe a small invited audience of friends, then combine that with the livestreaming skills we've all been developing out of necessity, that would relieve some of the isolation and tension of not performing together, without having to go full tilt "everyone haul your gear into the packed bar with no boundaries between the performers and patrons and hope for the best." But I think making testing widely available is a linchpin for safety in any of these scenarios; my county in central New York State is doing pretty well, but it seems like it's still very hard to get tested in the United States compared to other countries.

My experience with JamKazam was that I we successfully were able to play with one other musician (we didn't try any more than that, since a lot of our other folks don't/didn't have an interface or good internet setup). The way it compensates for latency and connectivity issues, while not perfect, is more organic than Zoom and its ilk, which will drop audio and change the speed of playback to keep you close to real-time. That's fine for a conversation but death for music, as you've learned. I've heard one or two people say they're able to make JamKazam work with small groups, which is encouraging. My experience was that it's not a substitute for being in the same room, but it would be great for writing sessions or working out arrangement details, or even just something that approximates playing together, rather than defeats playing together.

I first started "gigging" (as much as a young teen could in the early aughts) as a solo singing piano player, doing Beatles and Billy Joel tunes and slowly starting to slip my own in there... I played in a few bands early on, bouncing around between drums and keys, but once I started playing bass that became the thing that took me through high school and my more "serious" bands. I'd occasionally switch over to my Suzuki stage piano that my parents got me from the local music shop (they should stick to motorcycles), and into college I'd get a little better at doubling keys and key bass on the rare show where it felt worth it to haul the extra gear, but it was really right before graduating college that I committed myself to starting a band where I would strictly play piano and sing my own songs with a rhythm section, rather than what I'd always done, rearranging what I wrote at the keys for two guitars, bass, and drums. I wrote and staged a musical between 18 and 20, so I was doing a lot of work to build my piano chops up beyond "right hand chord, left hand octaves, blues-scale licks," so I was coming at the instrument with a new confidence. That really started off my life as a gigging keyboard player, because after I started playing with my ever-expanding piano band (from a trio, to a quartet, to a nine-piece with a horn section and an organist) in the Ithaca scene after graduating, I started getting calls to play keys for other people's recordings, and then join their bands. I wound up learning how to really play Hammond and synths then, using a beat-up Roland VR-760 I got from the local music shop for $500 (a steal, but a lot of money for me then -- I luckily had some gift cash from my college graduation, and the music shop was two blocks from the place I was renting). I just sort of kept taking gigs that were a little above my skill level and out of my comfort zone, and my playing (and gear) would adjust accordingly. I still get to play a little bass every now and then too, but I haven't played drums in a band for a long time... maybe once we get the studio set up in the new house I can get my chops back up!

This is what made me step away from the iPad and switch to MacBook/Mainstage early in 2019 (though I never gave up on Model D and continued to use my iPad as an external sound source with Mainstage purely for that app). My goal for now is to see if I can get set up with a purely iPad rig for my R&B/soul cover band, since those gigs (whenever the hell there are gigs again) are the ones that are most about money and efficiency, and least about dragging out cool gear and my most artistically satisfying software sounds. I figure as long as I can get the set lists worked out in a clean way in KeyStage, and not overload the memory when playing, say, piano and lead synth (even if that means using a mediocre piano patch), the time and space I save will make the gigs more satisfying than having more fiddling to do. It also helps that my controller for those gigs is a Mojo, so I don't have to worry about simultaneously running iOS piano AND organ; why wouldn't I use the hardware organ? But I do harbor a secret hope that lowering the stakes will help me figure out how I can run some of my more complicated original-band rigs on the iPad as well. Even in the year and a half since my last attempt to use it as a core sound bank, the system has jumped ahead significantly. Now if only iOS would let you create an aggregate audio device...

Are we all agreed that this video should continue to memed across the forum, a running gag/inside joke on par with Nord Lead?