SamuelBLupowitz

Ah, Zoom. I was reading through the thread and was gonna ask what tech we need for this. I'll have to join a bit later though, since I'm one of those "still working" folks. ~ Bill C. No worries, I'm in the same boat, just a different time zone. Last time this went on for hours, so I think some rolling in-and-out is to be expected. Happy to connect for any length of time over the course of the evening (or afternoon, or night, morning, depending).

There was a rock power trio active in the early 2010s whose name escapes me, but their keyboardist (no guitarist) prominently played a whammy clav, and I saw several interviews where the puzzled interviewer would ask about the clavinet, and mention having never heard of it, and the phrase "guitar in a box" came up a lot, and I got increasingly frustrated that nobody ever just said "Superstition." Even if they were trying to keep the reference points to Rock with a capital R, John Paul Jones used his clav so prominently with Led Zeppelin, and even if people haven't listened to Physical Graffiti, Trampled Under Foot was still being played on the radio in the mid-2000s. Anyway, I like when people give proper context to these things, and that never sat well with me.

Funnily enough, I had just noticed that Downfall was streaming for free on Amazon Prime right now. I said to a buddy of mine that I"d love to see it, but after 10+ years of 'Hitler Reacts' memes, I don"t know if could get through that scene straight without chortling...

You better copyright that before someone else thinks of it. . Yeah. You never know. It might go viral.

I'm not sure how helpful my answer will be to your question, because most of the time, my recorded keyboards look like microphones to my interface because, well, they are -- I'm miking up a guitar amp for an electric piano or clav, a Leslie for organ (even clones), or the soundboard of an acoustic piano. The only piano available at the studio where we made my first solo record in 2012 was a home digital, but the engineer actually put a stereo pair of mics below the built-in speakers -- I thought he was crazy, but the combination of air and bleed from the drum kit six feet away made those piano tracks sound much more convincingly "acoustic" than the DI signal was. For digital instruments, nine times out of ten I'm recording MIDI data instead of built in sounds. However, an analog synth running direct into a console or interface seems to sit just right with very little fiddling for my taste, when I have the pleasure of recording an analog synth.

You better copyright that before someone else thinks of it. I think it's closely related to a practice I developed in my teen years: "social mis-dancing."

Just a heads up that I will post a Zoom meeting link in this thread on Friday a few hours before the meet -- I don't want it to get buried.

Some major acts have already committed to cancelling/rescheduling all of their live performances until 2021. Ben Folds sent out an e-mail to his list to that effect yesterday, and he apparently took his cues from Taylor Swift. Obviously, theaters and arenas are a different animal from bars and clubs, but I'm just trying to prepare myself. Right now, I'm missing playing music with other people more than I'm missing the gigs themselves, but that's based on my personal situation: 90% of my musical endeavors involve people I care about and am close to personally, and my gigging life isn't a major piece of my financial puzzle (though I sure could use the extra cash right now, of course...). I know it's a more trepidatious time for a lot of us, and I don't want to downplay that. Taylor Swift obviously has become wealthy as one of the top pop acts of the last decade; Ben Folds isn't quite at that rung of fame and fortune, but he's well-established and probably still has that Brick money coming in. A lot of bands I love who tour for a living are going to have a much harder time making a call like that.

Yup, bass is my other axe too. I've never had too much trouble with getting shouted down, other than the occasional hired-gun recording session... honestly, I feel worse for the bass players in the bands I play keys in, who always have to deal with me asking them to play more licks!

Next up, Roundabout!

Sounds like I'm going to have to finally give this app a try!

...oh my. Not only is that awesome, but it gives me a little more reference for where Zeppelin was stealing from with "The Lemon Song" aside from the original Howlin' Wolf source. I wish you heard more bass playing like that!

Lateny at 100 yards is untenable. Not if the guitar player usually rushes. It all might come out in the wash!

Yup, thats what's been floating my boat too. Analog/acoustic flavor and character, digital convenience and possibilities. Glad I'm not hauling that rig though!

All right, well, since I'm not going anywhere for a bit, you convinced me to give it a shot, finally. Looking forward to spending some time sorting it out, it's a pretty deep app, and I haven't quite gotten to the bottom of the best way to make use of onscreen controls as well as map expression to the Seaboard. Interesting that you've struggled getting MPE to work on VOLT with the Linnstrument; that was pretty seamless with the Seaboard... it's just never quite responded as quickly and smoothly as I've been used to from Equator or even Model D (which lacks the Y-axis "slide" modulation but otherwise works nicely with the Seaboard for traditional synth sounds). Anyway, I think my hope when all this is over is that I can use the iPad with my cover band instead of my laptop, to make that gig as lightweight as possible.

My wife, March 17 or so: "I wonder how long it's going to take for all of these ads to start referencing Coronavirus." Every commercial starting about March 21, in the words of my buddy, standup comedian Benjamin Tier: "These are troubled times. Buy a Toyota."

Thanks dB. The full title is even longer, "Spilling Down All Over the Place," if you don't mind making that adjustment.

It's funny, since the quarantine started, my musical drive, ambition, and motivation has been all over the place. I've generally been really up and down emotionally during this period, so I'll go from really obsessively reconfiguring my rig, or starting to write three or four different songs, or diving into the organ self-instruction book and working on my two-manuals-plus-pedals technique, or shopping for gear (that I know I'm not going to buy anytime soon)... but usually my "up" periods don't last enough for me to finish anything, and then I have zero energy to put into these things until I wind up on another semi-manic spell. The best advice I can give, and that I'm trying to give myself, is to be kind to ourselves. This is a weird, challenging, unprecedented period, and it's hard enough without putting the pressure on ourselves to do anything that's not essential. So I'm trying to pursue music when it feels like I can't go on without it, and not pressure myself to do it when I can't be bothered to create for no clear purpose. And this is definitely something I think we can discuss at next week's happy hour!

Yes, I think 6pm EST/3pm western works just as well, kinder to Europe and still better for OZ than the last one. The last one was sort of "rolling attendance" so I'm more than happy to kick off the meeting then, and just leave it open for the rest of the evening -- I won't be needing to host any other Zoom meetings Friday evening after work. Let's bat that idea around a bit. I think the ideal for me would be open dialogue, but the tricky part about these virtual conferences is the more attendees there are, the more unwieldy that becomes. It seems like the more casual banter really kicked off about two hours in, after people had to split and there was a smaller group. So some sort of structure does make sense until things get into the flow, but I'd love to have some back and forth earlier in the game, rather than two hours of introductions. What do y'all think? I am thinking it makes sense to set some ground rules that we sort of figured out collectively as the last one went on: 1. Keep your mic muted unless you're talking 2. Change your name in the meeting to include both the name by which you'd like to be addressed, and your forum handle, for easy recognition. The last time I was hesitant to take on any kind of moderator role because I still feel more like the new guy, even though I hosted the Zoom meeting. But now that this has been a success, I suppose I can also be more active in running the show! :wink:

I mean, yeah. I'd give a kidney to write one thing in my life that people think is "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" Good!

We'll be needing pitchers rather than pints based on the last one. I missed a lot of the good drinking, which went on after I had to leave. If all goes according to plan, we'll have closed on the new house the night before, so I will really have something to raise a glass to!

Hey, that's a pretty cool Stones track! Mick and Keith's writing has always been more about vibe and mood for the Stones, compared to Lennon and McCartney, who I always felt were more songwriters' songwriters, if that makes sense. Both great writing teams, just that Mick and Keith generally wrote for the sound of the band, whereas the sound of the Beatles always followed the writing. I think this tune fits in that Stonesy mold. All that said, contemporary production trends aren't always good for those things that make classic rock acts special. What's the point of all that tuning on Mick Jagger's voice? Whatever principles one might have about digital pitch correction, let's just accept it as a regular studio tool these days, and say the point is to remove distracting tuning issues. But Mick Jagger's style has never been pitch-perfect, and it doesn't matter; the tuning creates a distraction instead of removing it. I felt the same when they did it to Leon Russell on The Union ten years ago. Anyway, also wondering who plays on the track besides the core four! Could still be Chuck Leavell on electric piano, but I do believe Keith and Ronnie have taken turns on bass parts on their studio stuff a lot, regardless of Darryl's presence live. It's not like Keith didn't do that when Bill Wyman was in the band anyway!

Feeling nostalgic and I decided to submit an older track this time around, from my first solo record that I put out in 2012. Another rocker in G with time signature changes... I'll have to shake it up a bit next time. I appreciate all the kind words about "Thaw" from the last comp, so hopefully you all dig this one too. I made sure to keep it under 5 minutes this time.

Great piece, Eric. And good to know you're still getting to contribute to some collaborative music. These last couple of weeks, it's been really hard for me to get the motivation up to play very much. I'm hoping that as some of the stresses of the home purchase are dealt with, I'll get a little fire back to make some things.

Same for me. I have a 3-tiered ranking system for organ sound authenticity: 1. Good enough for organ trio 2. Good enough for band gigs where I'll be taking organ solos 3. Good enough to get through "Any Way You Want It" on a cover gig The Module organs are a solid 3. I have the exact same ranking system for "how sober do I need to be to play this gig." :wink: