GRollins

Dude, Watch it. I've developed a bad reputation around these parts talking that way. Okay, I was talking oscillators, not envelopes, but still...be careful. That way madness lies. Grey

That's kind of what you got by stacking 3 Slim Phattys off a Little Phatty. Moog didn't make a chassis for them, but you could put them in a compact rack. I had actually thought about dong it. The units are so shallow, you could easily put them in quite a small rack, splitting them between front and rear rail mounting, if you didn't need to see all the panels at once. Two on one side, one on the other, where there other also has space for a shallow line mixer and shallow mountable AC strip. Dude, you keep talking like that, people are going to start calling you "AnotherGrey" instead of AnotherScott... My interest in polychaining was met with almost as much derision as my deep oscillator concept. Grey

Ever see Animal House? They are doing the Gator. See the 2:36 mark. [video:youtube] Nah, Animal House was 1978...this was more like '73 or '74. Plus the Animal House thing looks like they're having epileptic seizures, this was a more deliberate sorta walking (except upside down) motion. All I could gather was that it was some sort of thing peculiar to their high school, wherever that was--lost in the mists of time, I'm afraid. Not that anyone at that school still does it...surely not? Grey

What joke? Am I that dense? You're not the only one. I'm lost, too. Reminds me of a party I went to at the beach once upon a time. At random intervals all the guys would drop to the floor, lie on their backs, and wave their arms and legs in the air, like a dying bug. Everyone though it was hilarious except me and my buddy. I'd gone there in pursuit of a girl I'd met on the beach earlier in the day, but after an hour of being an outsider-looking-in I gave up and left. For the record the girl thought it was hilarious, too, but was unable or unwilling to explain the joke. Whatever. Grey

There's a picture on Rachel Flowers's website that shows what appears to be a pretty healthy hunk of Moog hardware in the background. If I squint my eyes just right, I could almost convince myself that it looks like a cut-down version of the Emerson model; lacking the top and bottom racks and with the modules rearranged. Of course, I don't know anything about the context of the photo. She's in the foreground, the synth is in the background, along with a Hammond, a Kronos, and who knows what else. There's a blond guy back closer to the synth, so maybe it's his, not hers. I just think it'd be cool if she has the tools she needs to do her thing--I think she's pretty damned extraordinary. Grey P.S.: I just finished listening to a recording of her playing Jaco Pastorious's Portrait of Tracy. I worked that up once upon a time. It's gorgeous and it's a bitch to play. I learned a few tricks in the process. When I had that fresh in my fingertips, I think I could have played it a little better than she does, but not by much, and these days I only remember about a third of it. She pulls it off very nicely, indeed, which is not a trivial endeavor; she's playing something most bass players won't even attempt. And this from a girl who also pounds the hell out of some keys and plays half the instruments known to man (or woman) and does a credible job on everything I've listened to so far. She both scares the hell out of me and has my respect. I'd offer to play bass for her, but she's already got herself...

That's the one I'm hoping Rachel Flowers got. Grey

Sad, yes. Guilty like looking in someone's medicine cabinet, no. I try to be philosophical about Keith's death, but I can't. Neurological problems (and apparently online trolls) notwithstanding, surely there would be some way he could remain "musical" by teaching or something. Such a waste. Grey

Maybe he did will some things to Rachel Flowers. I didn't see the big Moog stuff listed, for instance, and surely he had a small mountain of gear. He could have reserved things for her that we never even knew he had. I'd like to think so. Or maybe some generous soul will bid and win a few things at this auction, then donate them to her. Grey

Crap. I wish I hadn't seen this thread. Now I'm all in a froth, trying to figure out how to justify bidding on some of those items. Worse yet, my wife will probably egg me on...she adored ELP. Man, I'm in a heap of trouble. Grey

Few of us do... Grey

The problem with threads like this is that they're expensive...for me. I've already got enough problems without suffering yet another bout of GAS so stop it, already! (Love what you're doing.) Grey

I was always drawn to bands that had prominent keyboards in them. It wasn't a conscious thing; not as though I went out seeking "keyboard bands." It just trended rather heavily in that direction. Iron Butterfly (Doug Ingle) Santana (Gregg Rolie) Steppenwolf (Goldy McJohn) Deep Purple (Jon Lord) A couple of years later Yes (Rick Wakeman) formed and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer (Keith Emerson). Between the two of them, they crystallized my ideas of the role keyboards could and should play in music. I later, quite by accident, caught Return to Forever on the Romantic Warrior tour, which introduced me to Chick Corea, but I can't honestly say that he changed my perspective on keyboards. It was already pretty much locked in by that point. He just happened to fit in that same mold. Somewhere around that same time period I began exploring jazz and classical--both fields having their fair share of virtuoso players--but again, my course was already set. I'm still waiting for a classical piece that calls for a single player and multiple keyboards. Whaddya mean there's only one keyboard on stage? What happened to the others? Someone steal 'em? Ingle. Wakeman. Emerson. Blame those guys. Or give them credit. Depends on your point of view. All that remained was the passage of another forty years or so for me to actually get around to buying my first keyboard... Grey

Behold, your wish is granted... To put this on somewhat firmer footing: Uli's official announcement of the UB-Xa He seems to be indicating that it will be at least a year. Grey

I went into a shop--nationally recognized vintage guitar broker (lotsa major clients whose names you'd all recognize) with a store front operation here locally. The owner was testing tubes. I leaned on the counter and started chatting. Asked why he was testing a mound of gnarly old tubes. His reply: They're used tubes, but if they test okay, I sell them as NOS (New Old Stock). Guys...face it...true "NEW" Old Stock tubes are loooooong gone. People have been selling NOS tubes since at least the '70s. Do you have any earthly idea how many "New" Old Stock tubes have been sold over the last fifty years? Yes, there are a few old repair shops that go out of business that happen to have, maybe, five or ten NOS 6550s or 12AX7s or something on the shelf, but they're getting more and more rare. Just as a matter of simple math, if a guy started in business at age 20 in, say, 1967, then that's fifty years ago and he's now 70. Yep, retirement beckons. Perhaps he'll close the shop. But what are the odds that he: 1) Actually did stay in business for fifty years. (I can assure you that in my area there are few-to-no electronics shops from that time period.) 2) Had tubes from (pick your favorite era) on the shelf that he never used. 3) Was unaware that people were paying premium prices for true NOS tubes and was unaware of eBay, etc. as selling avenues. 4) And hadn't already sold the tubes all the way back in the '80s (at which point there was already a major, thriving NOS market). 5) And...get real, here...what are the chances that you, as opposed to Joe Blow in Montana, are the guy who just happens to be the first to call when three lonely tubes come through the door from a closed shop in Miami? Really? You're gonna believe that? I hear there's a bridge for sale up in Brooklyn...wanna buy that, too? Please, please, please...be careful. NOS means "New" Old Stock, not "Pay an extravagant price for a tube that's already seen 2000 hours in service." Okay? Grey

Full woodworking shop, here. Also do some mechanical stuff. Which leads me to... I'm a luthier. That term may not mean anything on a keyboard forum, but a luthier is someone who builds or services stringed instruments. I build my own basses and have a guitar in progress that I'd like to finish if I can get the time. I don't do kits. I start from raw sawmill planks and carry all the way through to a finished instrument. I also design and build analog electronic circuits. That comes in handy if you're fond--as I am--of electric guitars and amps. As far as keyboards go, I've got a dead Kurzweil K2500 that I'd like to bring back to life and, as of yesterday, I've found myself confronted with the opportunity to snag a Hammond E-143 for free. See separate emergency "oh, hell, what do I do?" thread currently in progress. Not to mention the usual parade of family members bringing me broken whatsits and asking, "Poppa, can you fix my [fill in the blank]?" Plus plumbing, carpentry, electrical, automotive...you guys know the drill (ahem). As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm currently up to my behumpus in a master bathroom rebuild, which is on hold so I can finish an African ribbed mahogany desk top while the weather is nice and I can do some of the sanding outside. Also working on damaged finishes on two guitars with the same reasoning. Etc. etc. etc. I've had 48 hour days on order for what seems like forever, but the factory is backordered. No telling if or when I'll get 'em. Grey

It's been my experience that 3-D printer companies make grandiose claims that have little or no basis in reality. By the time you get a 3-D printer that can actually do anything like what they claim for the lesser models, you've spent so much money that it's more cost effective to do it the traditional ways. And let's not even begin the discussion about reliability and getting repeatable results. The real world waste factor is horrendous, once you factor in throwing away the ruined work pieces that look like some sort of bizarre alien artifact. The concept is elegant, no doubt, but the reality is something else entirely. Maybe someday... Grey

So that's what I'm doing wrong...not multiplying by four to begin with... Grey

At least twice as long as my wife thinks it will. Fooey, my projects always take at least twice as long as I think they will. I always tell my wife two times. The time I estimate...and the time I'm betting that it will actually take, which is always a minimum of twice the first estimate. It's a standing joke between us. The sad reality is that sometimes things take twice (or more) the time of even my 2x estimate. Grey

Those things have a high weird factor. A fellow I used to work with showed me a video demonstrating the things you could do by moving your fingers this way and that on the keys. I was boggled for a week. Grey

If you have a market for, say, 10,000 of them (and know that you'll sell that many), it's easy. You can go for quantity breaks--really plunge in and commit. But when you're only looking at, say, 100...and you're not necessarily all that sure of that number, it's a lot tougher. Two scenarios: You're ready to go onstage. On the other side of the door there are 20,000 hysterical fans stomping, screaming your name...or...there are 2 pathetic drunks and a bored bartender, none of whom care a whit about you or your stinking band. Sometimes it's easier to go big. Yamaha, Korg, and Roland have 20,000 screaming fans. Even if they turn in a "bad performance," the fans are loyal enough that they'll be back for the next gig. Joey and the Fence Post Humpers are going to have a much harder time of it--particularly if they flub the night. No mercy. They don't have that reservoir of good will to draw on. And if you've got a niche product that will only sell to a limited audience in the first place, you're never going to get to the 20,000 adoring fans stage. You'd better like the small venue experience; it's all you're ever going to have. $50-100 a night and haul your own gear. If your fingers got slammed against the door frame bringing in the PA, tough, the show must go on. Grey

I'm able to talk the lingo to electrons--get 'em to sit, beg, roll over, etc. When I got to the point where I had a couple of keyboards and wanted some control over what was going on, I started sketching out a few ideas about how I wanted a keyboard mixer to work. Let's see...use a discrete JFET differential biased with a CCS to create a balanced signal, don't really much care about having scads of gain, since I'm not planning on using mics through the thing, so with the gain comparatively low, I can get a good S/N ratio pretty easily...started working the whole thing out in my head, right? Had a few bells and whistles, but other than the fact that I was planning on doing a discrete circuit vs. opamps, it wasn't really going to be all that weird. Then I started pricing the pots. And knobs. Don't forget the damned knobs. And jacks, both XLR and 1/4". And...oh, crikey...the pots, knobs, and jacks alone were going to cost me more than I could buy one for, and that's not even charging myself for the design or doing the layout and etching a PCB. In the end I went higher than I needed to--bought an Allen & Heath ZED-14--but had I set myself to building something along those lines (with something like 100 pots and sliders), I'd still have paid more for the parts than the unit cost me, and that's if I'd gone cheap on the pots. Coming from a background in high end audio, I'd prefer to use some sort decent pot, like an Alps instead of an Alpha, but that would only tilt the scales further. Now, granted, my design would presumably last longer and perform better, but... I'm picking my electronics projects much more carefully these days. Grey

Interestingly, a Yamaha Tyros 5 has come up for sale on my local Craig's List--first one I've ever seen around here. Wonder if the seller plans on buying a Genos? If anyone has an itch for a Tryos, I'll post the particulars. I'm not going for it...far more than I can justify spending on a keyboard. Grey

That does not inspire confidence. Grey

GovernorSilver, I wanted to make sure you understood that I didn't mean what I said in a yukky way. I'm not given to using smilies; I try to express myself exclusively with words (need to stay in practice in case I ever get back to writing), but sometimes the words go astray. Aidan, I could swear that one of the videos earlier in this thread and/or the links to Yamaha said it was an arranger. Are you saying that Yamaha themselves have reclassified the machine? (And I thought I was confused before...oi!) Grey

I guess, though note there's more than one brand on the web page. Point taken, sir. I bow to your superior logic. Grey Aww, don't be like that - to me these conversations are like when I'm at Markyboard's house with the other KC guys (ProfD, Dan, Dave, etc.), having beers and just chatting. No, man, I meant it straight up. I think you're right; AMS probably wrote that in house. I hadn't considered the competing brand aspect. Seems unlikely that Yamaha would write copy to help Korg, et. al. Now, wouldn't it be something if Yamaha did write that, only to find that AMS was using it to sell other boards as well as their own? Pissed, they would be! Grey