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Bobby Simons

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Posts posted by Bobby Simons

    Yamaha CK61 and CK88

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    On 8/14/2024 at 9:09 PM, John Tweed said:

    They are fine on iPhone or iPad, unless you wanted to dial up a specific fiddly setting, as there are no numbers on the CK. In my case if a db is not all the way in or all the way out, I adjust it on the fly by ear.

    The db numbers appear onscreen when you move a slider. I've gotten quite used to the short length.

     

    Synthesized "classical" music

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    18 hours ago, El Lobo said:

    I listen to a lot of classical music, but not any done recently with synths. I'll look into that some more, thanks to this thread. Tomita's Snowflakes Are Dancing was a favorite in the 70's. It still brings back happy memories of being with a certain lady in a cabin in the woods, especially this version of Clair de Lune:

     

    I always thought it hilarious that he thought of a mellotron as an 'accessory'. Indeed.

    • Haha 1

    Synthesized "classical" music

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I was indoctrinated by Clockwork and Switched On, but Tomita's music had more life to me - I just could not believe what I was hearing. I'll still play his Pictures, Planets, Firebird. . . wonderful headphone fodder. About twenty years ago I went through a phase where I would import classical music midi files into Garageband 2 and revoice the parts in a manner heavily influenced by Isao. Here is the Presto movement of Ravels's Piano Concerto in G, I remember spending nearly a month and a few bottles of Scotch on it. . . 

    • Like 4
    • Love 2

    "I Love Your Smile" chord theory

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    On 7/28/2024 at 3:36 PM, AROIOS said:


    You can see Dm7 as viim7, which is a pretty common sub-dominant chord in Ebmaj9's relative minor. It's essentially the "2" in a minor 2-5-1 (or the "7" in a "7-3-6" as folks call it in Gospel). The iiim7-viim7 (3->7) progression in this song is a minor plagal cadence, just like vim7-iiim7 that's much more frequently heard.
     

    The brilliance of this song, is the ambiguity of its tonal center. If you see Ebmaj9 as IV instead of I, now Ebmaj9-Gm7-Dm7 becomes IV-vi-iii, and the #4 (the "outside" note, A) in Dm7 that led to your question, becomes 7 "inside" Bb major scale.
     

    The melody also assisted in creating that ambiguity. It sounds like 5-5-5-6-5-6-5, 1-1-2-7-6-5 in the key of Bb over the Ebmaj9-Gm7-Dm7 progression; and suddenly switches to 4-4-4-3-2-1-6-1-6-5 in the key of Eb over the Fm7-Bb9sus part. Our brain is constantly teased by whether the Ebmaj9 serves as IV or I, and that ambiguity is where a ton of fun in the game of harmony lies.

    This is exactly as I heard it, coming out of my mac mini speakers fairly bass-less. That opening is a garden variety, white bread melody if you're hearing it in the key of Bb. Wasn't until I plugged in some headphones did I hear the shenanigans.

    • Like 2

    Sam Ash Closing 18 of 44 stores , including NYC and Hollywood, CA.

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I see my old store - Huntington, Long Island, is on the list. Not surprised, it's been ages since they had anything resembling a keyboard department.  I'm left with fond memories of being a keyboard salesman there in the mid-late 70's when everything that was anything was put out on the floor.

    Also I'm happy to now live within easy driving distance of Chuck Levin's, who (for the time being, anyway) is bucking the trend and filling every square inch with quality keyboards and other equipment.

    • Like 2

    Do any of you regularly gig with an expensive keyboard?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    In the 80's I gigged extensively with my Emax HD which was well over 3K back then. I don't know what that would be in today's dollars.

     

    OK, I just looked it up, apparently equivalent to 9-10K now. Funny thing is that buying it wiped me out to the point that I couldn't afford a case so I padded the box it came in and used that. What the hell was I thinking?

    • Like 1

    Pianoteq 8.2 sneaks in.

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Lost in the glare from the shiny new Korg stuff, Pteq 8.2 arrives. I didn't know I needed it, but they are to be commended once again for the constant improvements. Of course, it will never be good enough for the ardent naysayers, but that club is slowly shrinking.

     

    Revoicing of all 11 modern grand pianos.

    Fret buzz sound added to the Classical Guitar instrument.

    Two new tunings for the guitar: EADF#BE and DADGAD.

    MIDI sequence transposition added in the sequence context menu.

    New midimapping for changing the tuning root key.

    • Like 1

    Sammy Ash passed 9/16/23

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Jeez, his dad Jerry just passed away a few months earlier. I was a keyboard salesman at the Huntington, Long Island store in the late 70's and Sammy was in often. I remember him being obsessed with drum machines, which were progressing rapidly around that time. Jerry was a stern, unsmiling guy that we tended to steer clear of when he came in, Sammy was a bit more personable.

     

    • Like 3

    88 Key MIDI Controllers?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    While I never had the opportunity to lay my hands on one, I was always impressed at how all those guys played their asses off on the previous model (A88 MK1?) in all those Keyscape demos some years back. Crisp, clean and nuanced playing, it had me as interested in the controller as I was in the software. If it had  the knobs and buttons the new one has I would have chased one down.

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