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.

Looks like there's a bar in Walnut Creek for Browns backers: Masse's Sports Bar 2721 North Main Street Walnut Creek CA 94597 https://fans.clevelandbrowns.com/backer-tracker/clubs/bay-area-browns-backers https://www.baybrowns.com/viewing-locations The baseball team and the Cavs are doing things the right way and are fun to watch. I'm kind of numb to the creative ways the Browns lose by now, and I'm a football first guy. Fortunately, I was busy playing a Sunday afternoon outdoor gig and missed the gory details as they unfolded. We would watch the game on TV during breaks and we thought we had the game in-hand.

Thanks for saving me the trouble of trying to make it happen through Spectrum. Maybe you can find a Browns Backers bar in the area for the remaining games while you're in CA. As for baseball, if MLB had a salary cap, Antonetti and Tito would have the team vying for the World Series every year. As it stands, I'll take the weak division and see how their $66M payroll (with only Jose and Bieber making more than $5M each) stacks up against the Mariners ($115M), the Astros ($183M), and the Yankees ($253M) in the playoffs. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/

I too am from NE Ohio. At least you can watch tonight's game on Amazon Prime. My daughter lives out of state and all she could find is the DirectTV satellite plan to be able to watch the Browns every week. The only options I've found involve locally based hardware and/or TV service that you can stream/access via the internet. If you still have a residence here, maybe one of these two options can work: I have a Tablo TV OTA Tuner (~$200 for equipment + $4.99/mo for TV guide and out-of-home streaming service) and it works to stream out of the house if you're router is set up correctly and the device you are using first connects and registers on your home network before you try to watch remotely. I think Tivo has a similar offering, but I'm not familiar with it. In any case, you will need to hook it up to an antenna and internet service. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PLVF8B7 https://www.tablotv.com/out-of-home-streaming/ Spectrum started offering a $29.99 monthly TV plan where you get local channels plus pick 15 channels of your choice from a pretty good menu. I just received a letter in the mail about it. You may need to call in for it as it's not listed on the website. I'm not sure if out-of-home streaming is included (and if that would include NFL football), but if I get the chance to check it out, I'll post an update.

I'm happy to say that we haven't. Of course, we haven't done a lot of the multi-band bills, except for this one annual event we play where we are kind of a cross between performers and guests. It just so happens that the event is this coming weekend. The stage box wasn't an issue last year, but I would guess the FOH folks would rather run an extra set of cables for us, then have to deal with dialing in monitor mixes for 6 people. Plus, there is a DJ in between bands, so there's not a huge rush. If it's different this year, I'll let you know. For gigs where it's just us, the FOH guys always seem super happy because we have everything labelled and color coded with a giant sticker inside one of the lids with the channel assignments in large fonts. We also send a stage plot in advance, so they have a general idea of where they need to run power and cabling and get more done before we show up.

Glad to be of help! We have it in a rolling rack case along with the XR-18 and the wireless IEM transmitters and we treat it with care. We need all 16 channels, so we can't afford to lose one! (Well, we could, but then I'd have to run mono.) All good so far. It's been game-changing for us. We are all on IEMs (all wireless but me) and the guitar and bass are ampless, so our stage is super comfortable volume-wise. Whether it's our regular sound company or house-provided, sound check is usually just working with FOH on general levels and EQ-ing drums and vocals. We play a song and a half to make slight adjustments in levels for our IEMs and we are good to go.

My 6-piece uses the Seismic Audio SARMSS-16x515 snake in a stage box. The 5' side feeds an XR-18 to drive our individual IEM mixes that we control with our phones, and the 15' side goes to FOH. Never had an issue with it for 80-90 gigs, and we've used it on fixed and portable stages, indoors and out, from small to large. We bought ours in early 2021 for $179, but it looks like it now is $210. https://www.amazon.com/Seismic-Audio-Channel-Splitter-SARMSS-16x515/dp/B01IO4GOKI

I posted a couple pics in this thread where I cut 3" off the second tier arms to reduce the overhang and drilled an extra set of holes so I could set the second tier closer to the lower tier. I am also not a fan of the wide look of the 18880 as it is typically shown online, but I set mine up with the legs only 18" apart so it is more like a pedestal and virtually disappears on stage. https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/182870-stay-keyboard-stands/?do=findComment&comment=2911290

FWIW, I've done over 120 gigs with my 18880 and almost 100 with the 18881 second tier attached. Doug's post prompted me to check my stand and everything appears to be as tight as the day I put it together (hope saying that doesn't jinx me). No cobblestone streets for me, though. I don't use the crossbrace, so I don't have to worry about any loss of hardware there. Regarding #1, the 18881 stacker arms stuck out a bit too far for me, so I cut a little over 3" off each arm. For #2, I drilled an extra set of holes so I can set the second tier lower. Some just turn the stacker around and let it drop as far down as it can go. For #3, the second tier just makes the unit a bit taller. Nothing unwieldy or heavy about it. No bungee needed, just tighten the two knobs to keep it closed, although I do have to stuff a towel between the legs when transporting in the car so they don't clack together every time I hit a bump. I've included a couple of pictures in case they're helpful.

I was responding to the OP's search for non-marring rubbery material.

I use a grippy shelf liner to set my iPhone on top of my NS3. Doesn't use adhesive and doesn't mar the surface. The weight of the iPhone is enough to make a strong grip between the two surfaces. I'm not sure if you can access the link below in your country, but I would think almost any waffle-style, rubbery shelf liner will work. This brand has different colors so maybe you can find something that can blend in with the piano. https://www.amazon.com/Duck-Select-Non-Adhesive-12-Inch-10-Feet/dp/B002AS9N58