Steve in VA

Indeed. I got a Stage 3 a few weeks ago and the KeysToMusic tutorials were a huge help.

RME Babyface Pro. It really is THAT good.

Far out, man!

The Zaor Miza M works well for me. It just fits my Roland RD-2000. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MizaMBC--zaor-miza-m-black-cherry

After recently trying MuseScore (crude, but functional) and Dorico (awesome, but overkill for me), I settled on Notion. It has a simple and clean interface and does everything a non-professional like me needs. It also has two-way integration with the Studio One DAW that works very well. On another note, rumor has it that Steinberg will put Dorico on sale by the end of May as part of its 50-year anniversary.

Tyson's Corner? I saw that last time I was up in that area. I decided to pass on getting a Steinway as an impulse purchase.

The main thing I noticed is that the mod wheel now controls the Leslie operation by default. That was not the case before.

Regarding my $299 upgrade offer (while others got offers for $199), it turns out my license was erroneously listed as "Crossgrade". Arturia support corrected the problem and now I have a $199 upgrade offer. That moves me from the "no way" camp to "on the fence". Dang, I do love new toys, though!

I own V6 and the upgrade price quoted to me when I logged in was $299. Totally not worth it.

$299 upgrade price from V6? No thanks.

FYI, Musician's Friend right now has Omnisphere included in the products listed on the Up-To-20%-Off Synth Sale on its web site. It says "Call for Price". EDIT: Keyscape and Trilian are on the list of Sale products too.

Musician's Friend often has Spectrasonics products eligible in its near-constant 10, 15, or 20% off promotions. Just keep checking there. I got Keyscape discounted that way.

That sounds like a blast. I'll definitely check it out if I can!

My Prophet XL was delivered today. I got a great deal on it (15% off) from Alto Music. I really like the keybed. It is a very firm semi-weighted action and works well for piano or synth. It feels solid. It is definitely a firmer action than the Roland VR-730 that I replaced. It's also worth noting that the keys are full-sized piano keys rather than the slightly shorter (front-to-back) organ keys that are common on many semi-weighted keybeds.

Interesting idea. I just wish they would put the capability in Windows 10 to put it in "Appliance Mode" to stop all unnecessary background activities. Trying to optimize Windows for audio is like playing whack-a-mole. It takes a lot of work to get it stable, but you can eventually get it there. Are Macs better in this regard?

Very nice. I like the way the display tilts up. My only minor quibble with the Behringer X-Touch is that the channel displays are flush and require me to either stand up to see them or remember with channel goes with what.

"Roland. Roland. Roland on a river" CCR

Corpse Foot

I'm seriously thinking about getting one of these. I have Omnisphere, which does similar things sonically, but without the immediacy of a hardware synth. In addition to its internal capabilities, the Prophet X/XL also appears to be a great control surface for Omnisphere, as demonstrated in this video (jump to 32:17):

Markyboard - I am in the Roanoke area, far from the hustle and bustle of NOVA!

There is a button on the X-Touch that lets you cycle through several time display options (measure count, timestamp, etc.). Pressing it a couple of times will make it show exactly what Reaper's GUI displays. I have not found a way to make it remember the setting, but I have not really tried to find a solution. I believe there is also an X-Touch Compact that might fit your space requirements better.

My name is Steve and I've been lurking here for a while. I'm 47 and took up piano and keys again about two years ago (self-taught). My prior experience was a couple years of piano lessons as a child (age 7-8) and a little dabbling in high school. I've also taken up guitar again and haven't quite decided which instrument to focus on most (I like them both!). Piano seems to come easier to me. I hope to begin performing and playing with other musicians in some capacity in the near future. My current setup: Roland RD-2000 Roland VR-730 Dell XPS 15 laptop (2TB SSD and 32GB RAM) Reaper DAW Behringer X-Touch Omnisphere Keyscape Arturia V Collection 6 (w/ Pigments now) (other misc VSTs) Plus a couple of guitars and related gear. I'm very eager to gain insight from you all and contribute what I can. Steve

For the $69 "crossgrade" price Arturia offered me, I went ahead and took a chance on it. Although there's nothing particularly groundbreaking in it, I do really like the UI and workflow. Very intuitive. This video gives a great (and very fast) overview:

Reading up on this along with the X-Touch there are enough compatibility issues with Reaper that will make me steer clear. I use Reaper with the Behringer X-Touch and it works well for me. It is essentially a clone of the Mackie MCU Pro, which Reaper supports natively. I found it to be plug-and-play. A free Reaper extension called Mackie Klinke (google it) makes it work even better. Another trick I've found useful for simple transport control operations is to use a USB remote clicking device (designed for PowerPoint presentations). It sends Page-Up and Page-Down for advancing slides. In Reaper, I have assigned these to Record and Stop.