3rdAct

Thanks! Yes, that's what I had in mind. I like the close placement of the two manuals on an organ, but I come from a piano background and find playing piano less enjoyable on a semi-weighted keyboard. And this combination of sound palettes works perfectly for me, but I don't use complicated splits or synth programming. My focus is AP, EP B3, and clav, and I can use the Nord's samples for specific parts (e.g., horns on Radar Love). Although I have to take two boards, fortunately they're both pretty light and the entire rig is fairly low maintenance. And if I need to do a quick on/off, like playing one set in the middle of a charity show with several bands, I only take the Nord, a stand, and one gig bag.

Oh yeah, I forgot to include in the previous picsâ¦. To mix and monitor, I first run the keyboards" outputs into a Rollls mini mixer and send its output into a Radial DI box, whose XLR output(s) goes to FOH (in mono or stereo). The mixer headphone out along with a feed from FOH goes into a Rolls PM55P so I can hear (and independently control the volume of) my keys in stereo and the band (in mono) through IEMs. On the back, I've mounted a small power strip and plug in the wall warts of the two Rolls and the P121. Then I only need to plug in this power strip and the power cord for the Nord.

I use a two-keyboard rig consisting of a Yamaha P121 on the bottom and a Nord Electro 5D on top. The stand is a Baby Spider Pro. The P121 sits on the stand"s support arms. I wanted to get the NE5 as close to the P121 as possible (though leaving a small gap to get to the buttons on the P121). To support the Nord, I bought a K&M bracket that attaches directly to the stand, and screwed a block of wood to the bracket and glued a block of rubber on top of the wood â this setup holds up the back of the Nord. (I leave the support bracket on the stand and can still fold up the support arms into the column, though the bracket is easy to take off and put on.) To support the front of the Nord, I glued some rubber to shims (because the P121 slants toward the keyed) and then mounted them to the P121 with velcro.

i'm pretty sure they used a clavichord.

Another happy K8.2 user. Great sound, less filling ... uh, low weight. And I can use the mic input to bring up the low output from the NE5D

Everyone who is good at and cares about their profession, whatever the profession (including STEM based), grows frustrated by the lack of understanding by the general public. Some people who don't care see an opportunity in an undiscerning public, and can even get rich. Of course, they want those who are good at their profession to follow them on this path, usually resulting in a conflict. The people who care (again, in any profession) hope that more education will help the situation, but it doesn't often play out like we want. It's pretty difficult for the population to become discerning at everything. Fortunately there are folks out there who share the passion, but the marketplace for it, it seems, will always be limited.

I also use a Rolls small mixer, which boosts my Nord Electro 5D to a reasonable level. Very happy with this setup

This thread reminds me of this Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen story And Chuck Berry just started playing while the band tried to keep up!

Ozzy just released a new song featuring (somewhat surprisingly) Elton John. Ordinary Man (Old rockers getting near the end...) It's much more Elton than Ozzy [video:youtube]

+1 I have the P121 and found it to be quite reasonable -- especially given its price.

I have a Shine On You Crazy Diamond Multi for my Kurz that works similarly. I hold the G min string pad -1st inversion, with octaved G - but the stacked bass program's G is mapped to/triggered by the Bb I'm holding as part of the string pad chord, not the low G; then, I can change to the Cmin chord - 3rd inversion, with octaved G again - without really changing my hand position...and the bass note is now triggered by the C, even though the lowest note I'm playing is still a G. What Ian is doing is obviously more involved...but the same basic idea. dB Yes -- and I imagine such techniques would be essential to reproducing the studio recordings of bands such as Pink Floyd and Genesis. Funny how we find different ways of dealing with the multitrack problem. For Ripples I play the piano arpeggio on the lower keyboard of the SK2 and the organ on the upper - don't think you notice the left hand is missing because of the rest of the band parts Yes, that's likely how I would do something like that too! It's impressive what people have done to exactly reproduce recordings!

I have a Shine On You Crazy Diamond Multi for my Kurz that works similarly. I hold the G min string pad -1st inversion, with octaved G - but the stacked bass program's G is mapped to/triggered by the Bb I'm holding as part of the string pad chord, not the low G; then, I can change to the Cmin chord - 3rd inversion, with octaved G again - without really changing my hand position...and the bass note is now triggered by the C, even though the lowest note I'm playing is still a G. What Ian is doing is obviously more involved...but the same basic idea. dB Yes -- and I imagine such techniques would be essential to reproducing the studio recordings of bands such as Pink Floyd and Genesis.

Very cool! The mapping of the Kurzweil is eye opening -- especially to someone (like me) who has never programmed a keyboard. I would have assumed there's no way to simultaneously play those organ and piano parts. Wrong!

A friend told us that when she was explaining Santa Claus to her very young daughter, the little girl said, "you mean he lands on our roof and comes into our house in the middle of the night, and you're okay with that?" "And why does he come in through the chimney instead of the door?" And why do we all have to be asleep?" ....

Interesting short article from AP: Iconic Southern rock recording studio is revived in Georgia One of the interesting tidbits:

A Gospel session put out by Nord - I don't think it's possible to enjoy playing keys more than this... [video:youtube]

I appreciate the "Maj7" being in parentheses. Visually, it cues me that I'm basically still playing the minor chord but just adding the maj7, rather than processing the "DmMaj7" as an entirely new chord. Not a big deal either way, but I prefer the parentheses. Same here - it emphasizes that the 7 is "major", not the fundamental chord.

As one example -- the Sher New Real Book 3 notates the first two measures of In a Sentimental Mood like your first case: Dm Dm(Maj7) Dm7 Dm6

Baby I Love Your Way Whiter Shade of Pale, although maybe this doesn't count 'cause it's used elsewhere in the song..

nice pun

Yes, this is a big factor for me too

I got me a P-121. I was looking for a reasonably lightweight, hammer action, 73-key keyboard to complement my Nord E5. I also wanted a lower board without much happening on top so that I could get the E5 very close to it. There aren"t many options, of course. At first I thought about getting just a controller to run the pianos on the E5 (which would have also saved me from getting a mixer). But then I realized that, if I"m schlepping around another board, it would be nice if it had some sounds of its own in case the E5 went down, and also enable me to use the E5 independently with splits or layers. Fortunately, when I tried out the P-121 in GC, the action felt quite nice -- and the board was pretty inexpensive to boot! First, a few minor hardware quibbles: the P-121 uses a wall wart, it"s a little chubby, the included sustain pedal is not so good, the jacks in the back are recessed quite a bit and a little difficult to get to in some situations, and no 5-pin MIDI connectors. I initially thought the last one would be a show stopper, but with my new way of thinking, it"s not a problem. Overall, I"m very happy with the keyboard. I like the action, especially for a board that"s only 22 lbs. I compared it to the PX-S1000 in GC (which, of course, had both boards at the same awkward height and angle). I found the action on both to be highly usable for my situation (blues and rock). Although, as others have also noted, with the PX-S1000 I found playing near the back of the keys (e.g., playing an EbM7 chord) to be a little awkward. The 121 acoustic pianos sound very good, and the Rhodes is pretty good too. Fortunately, these are the voices I"ll be using most often. The Wurli has too much tremolo baked in for me. The B3 is not great, but I think would pass if necessary. The strings are good. I can get the E5 very close (couple of inches) to the 121 and still be able to easily get my finger between them to switch settings. More importantly, though, connecting the 121 to my iPad and using the Smart Pianist app (free download) is even better. With the app I can change voices, make layers and splits, and save everything to call up in realtime. Unfortunately, though, even the app doesn"t provide much control over most sound parameters. I think that ultimately I"ll take advantage of one of the board"s more interesting features: the 121 can send MIDI to the iPad and receive audio back. So, running the Korg Module should enable a much better sound palate that runs straight through the P-121. I think this combination will produce a great lower board.

Count me in! Scott contributed very useful information as I was setting up my rig.

A drunk young lady tripped over one of our monitors too. She went over backwards while holding a drink -- that spilled all over the lead guitarist's pedal board. All the rest of us thought it was funny though.

In the same way everyone has an opinion....