ajstan

I ordered a new K&M 18880 from Sweetwater a little over two weeks ago and I received it today. Other than it being a special order, which means that you pay up-front, it's not cancellable or returnable, and it took longer to arrive than a product they have in-stock, there was no issue.

After wearing glasses or contacts since I was 7 years old (myopia and astigmatism), I got the PanOptix trifocal lenses in 2020. I can't say enough good things about them and would make the same decision today. Having the replacement done in my 50's (the surgery team jokingly referred to it as "pediatric cataract surgery") made the extra expense worth it, as I'll hopefully get to use them for a long time. Even if you decide to go a different direction, the PanOptix lenses are worth investigating. I notice only two drawbacks. First, it's difficult to read small print materials in low-light without using my phone's flashlight. Second, I lost the ability to focus on things very close to my face, but for anything beyond 7 or 8 inches away, I've had no need for glasses. I've used cheaters for close-up repairs (ironically to repair sunglasses) probably 2-3 times in the almost 4 years since the surgery. Street lights and oncoming headlights are not an issue. No problem with driving. Initially halos were noticeable, but my brain learned to ignore them. Sure, I can see halos if I try to find them, but I just don't look directly at the lights and it's not an issue. One observation that I don't think I've seen in this thread yet is that in the two weeks between the surgery on the first eye and the second, it was remarkable how much of a yellowish cast my natural lenses were applying to incoming light. I'm enjoying the improved, more vivid colors with the new lenses. Another observation is that I have higher visual acuity with both eyes than I do with either eye individually. I started off with around 20/30 vision but got to 20/25 or better within 30 days. I am able to comfortably read this forum on my Surface Pro 7+ at normal (100%) zoom at either an 8" distance or more than arm's length.

My apologies for interrupting the echo chamber. I'll try to read the room better next time.

Thanks, that’s quite the display of pedantry! 😄 Yes, Elon Musk's stated intentions for Twitter are noble. Even he acknowledges that it will be difficult, and he may fail. I'm glad he's trying and I'm not sure why a person of goodwill would root against him.

Multiple posts in this thread use the words, "madness" and "cesspool" and as far as I can tell, "madness" means, "any ideas that I don't understand or agree with," and "cesspool" means, "a place (virtual or physical) where ideas are expressed that I don't understand or agree with." From public statements, Elon Musk's goal is specifically to comply with speech laws and make Twitter a place where everyone can find a safe space to interact. Not sure why that's controversial to anyone that doesn't have a stake in keeping Twitter exactly like it was before October 28.

Interesting, because you have 13 of the 39 posts to-date in this thread about Twitter. 😄

I think that the caterwauling about Musk buying Twitter is rooted in the fear that one side may now have to defend its positions in the public arena rather than simply labeling all opposing thought as dangerous and worthy of suppression and punishment (social, financial, and/or physical).

This is great advice. The fact that there are no vocal harmonies leaves a space for you to play off the singer to provide more differentiation between the verses and the choruses. Also, the bridges are a good place to add a change-of-pace to the instrumentation. Guitar-centric bands with keyboardists can give you some general ideas to begin building your own "tool kit" of ideas. In addition to showing how keyboards can effectively be incorporated into a song, Benmont Tench from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Danny Federici and Roy Bittan from Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band, and (while not in the pantheon of greats with the others) Kevin Hearn from Barenaked Ladies (BNL) all have examples of creating simple but interesting and effective parts on the songs (or sections of songs) where keyboards aren't prominent. While Tom Petty's "Don't Do Me Like That" has prominent keys, listen to the organ in the bridge. In BNL's "The Humour of the Situation" the keyboard line in the chorus mimics then deviates from the singer's melody to add interest, or "Falling for the First Time" where the keys cut through a wall of guitars in different ways through the song. I wouldn't even know where to begin with Springsteen's catalog, but I'm sure that @Outkaster could.

Very nice! I was wondering if you were going to paint it red.

I think I understand what you're saying. The Matt Rollings instructional video seems general and basic enough to be helpful to most anyone in a lot of situations, but a beginner watching a Chick Corea performance video to learn the basics of comping seems a lot like a beginner watching a Simone Biles competition video for one event to learn the basics of gymnastics. Also, at the risk of asking a super-elementary question, how is everyone defining "comping" here? I generally see comping as anything in any genre where the musician is not playing a lead line ("accompaniment" as @Tusker said). If that's the case, then it would be really difficult to coherently cover such a wide-ranging topic in a single thread, so more specific thread topics may be more effective at concentrating the conversation towards the objectives of the OP of that thread.

Here are some semi-random, general thoughts from my experience/perspective which has been in the Yacht Rock / 70s-80s light rock genre: Processes/Environment If you're comping in a band context, you need to fit with the other instruments for rhythms, voicings, and texture so things don't get too busy. If your FOH mix has the muddy bass that only higher frequencies can penetrate, your efforts will likely go unnoticed. I'm fortunate as our FOH sound is clean and open, we have only one guitarist, the bassist has a wonderful, smooth tone, and the drummer is solid and rhythmic and locked in with the bassist. I record all of my band's gigs and send out the recordings after each weekend so we can hear how we sound individually and as a group. As others have mentioned, I check with the soloist to see what they like/prefer and will try different things until it sounds good. Concepts Every space doesn't need to be filled. Live sound is not like a studio recording, there is far less precision in placement, volume, and EQ of instruments, so design your sounds and play your parts accordingly. You may not need as much reverb as you think you do. Try to stay within your own frequency range and avoid doubling other instruments. Tactics Since we only have one guitarist, if there's a guitar solo in a song where there are normally two guitars, I will use a piano sound to approximate the rhythm/tone/presence of the second guitar. A mellower organ sound can provide texture and warmth without adding bloat and unnecessary additions to the rhythm. If it's a longer solo, sometimes adding something to the second half adds interest and energy. Much like drummers sometimes switch from the hi-hat to the ride cymbal, you can explore adding sustain, adding some additional rhythmic elements, playing in a higher voicing or octave, turning on the leslie if playing organ, but recording what you're doing is important because it might sound good to you, but not be great for FOH.

It seems to me that what Jose (@EB5AGV) may be looking for is a peer group. Despite how helpful and kind most of you are, it can be understandably difficult for a new member (let alone a new musician) to feel like a contributing peer in an environment where many of you have relationships that go back a decade or more and have had impressive runs in the professional music world. I don't have a solution to propose, but I will say that it feels good when I can occasionally contribute when the topic is a piece of gear with which I have some experience. So, maybe with all of the equipment that Jose has acquired, I'd expect that he will be able to add value to future discussions.

How high do you want to raise the back of the keyboard? What about a couple of rubber door stops?

Yes. I use the Hosa STP-202 1/4" TRS to Dual 1/4" TS Insert Cable, 2 Meters. I tried to include the Amazon link, but it wasn’t pasting correctly.

You can run stereo monitor out from the Key Largo to the stereo monitor input of the Rolls PM55P for your keys. Then take the XLR mono feed from the main board for the rest of the band and run it into the XLR Mic in of the Rolls. That’s how I do it.