uhoh7
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About uhoh7
- Birthday 11/30/1999
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Idaho, USA
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Deep sympathy for those in the path of Helene.... We don't have hurricanes up in the mountains....but more giant fires than ever before. As a kid I went to a very cool summer camp about 5 miles from this town: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/05/greenville-california-mountain-town-destroyed-dixie-fire 24 years after climate change was a major political issue in a presidential election....can the vehicles get any bigger? Where I live they are just huge now. My neighborhood in Idaho has been evacuated twice but TYG it has not burned. Mother Nature is not happy with us....in so many ways. I go to the grocery store with an electric bike...guess what...alot of people hate E-bikes! I try to make up a little for the guitars that have been flying in lately from Japan and Germany.
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OT - Why Are Bands Mysteriously Disappearing? (by R. Beato)
uhoh7 replied to Jose EB5AGV's topic in The Keyboard Corner
Beato....the first man to get a signature guitar from a Youtube career.... He's trained his kid for perfect pitch....but is the young man playing music? Here is my favorite anti-beato, Uncle Larry....who has been on Beato's show. He's a session man with a great channel of his own....super-low fi....uses only an iphone...but he's the real deal. After another off the cuff piece of virtuosity in one of his "homeskoolin" vids to demonstrate something or other...."that's probably a mode I never heard of". Here he is live with Trapp: BTW he loves to play keyboards...and a bunch of other stuff -
Is music dying, changing… Or is it just me?
uhoh7 replied to CyberGene's topic in The Keyboard Corner
I'm not sure what is happening to current music.....seems like there is no shortage of strong artists in all manner of genres....most of which I never heard of....but the world of dead music has exploded..for me. I'm totally reliving my childhood via bands I never heard of.... Both of these channels are seriously opening my eyes: -
Apparently This Is a Thing - Xenharmonic Tuning
uhoh7 replied to AROIOS's topic in The Keyboard Corner
I've been on a major guitar detour for about 8 months....have not touched the eurorack since...and it's been alot of fun...and eye opening. The OP's fretboard image...I've learned guitars are fundamentally microtonal, it's a struggle to keep them in any key LOL. They never come out of the closet the same. I almost bought a fretless electric...but...that's what violins and cellos are for! I have 15ish pedals, which are pretty dang cool...learning a looper now....and on the other end of the spectrum I acquired a Martin 000-15sm..large brown 12-fret acoustic to help me with fingerstyle. It is really something..tone-wise. My "playing" is naive to say the least, but it's so fun to take a run at the folk tunes of my childhood. I only have 3 12-strings....you tune them down a whole note to avoid catastrophe...but I plan to complete that part of the collection with: TYG I learned I don't like dreadnoughts before I went to far.... -
Just an update, with more foaming How many 16 voice analog polys have you owned? With stereo ouput tweakable per voice? 3 weeks in, I have got 8 or 10 presets tweaked to where they can entertain an ADD player for long periods. The "meh" keyboard is now one of my favorites, really the first super light action I've enjoyed. That was a matter of tweaking velocity and poly AT to various destinations in the matrix. At this moment, for me, it's the most impressive electronic instrument I've played, in terms of a single preset retaining interest in my practice sessions. How's that for foaming? OK I'm in love with the thing, shoot me. I find it unique in my experience, very tactile, and super responsive to key and knob. Filters are unbelievable. Just another synth. My lying ears tell me different. But it did take me me weeks to develop this level of irrational affection. I wonder if back in the day, players tended to choose their instruments based on the personality of the money behind them, or the sound and performance of the instrument. Really smart money hides personality....sometimes behind very cultivated fictions, like Nike. The Behringer stigma is an object lesson why angels fear to "wing it" sharing their opinions in public. My last corporate boss often said "that's above my pay grade", as way to avoid comment on all manner of issues. Or who knows, maybe the stigma gets attention and saves advertising money? That's a question I can't answer and don't enjoy contemplating. This keyboard, on the other hand, I consider a gift from the gods. Maybe in a year it'll be in the closet. But today it inspires attention. That's what I hoped to be paying for. Damn, I forgot to turn it on first thing.....it likes that. I leave it hot, self tuning through the day.
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First, there are few big analog polysynths. Of those few are stereo without some kind of AD DAC conversion. The OBXA, which I did not know until recently, was such a beast. Prophet 5 gets the glory, and maybe it's more versatile. About three weeks ago a UBA-a clone of the original showed up. It took me two weeks to figure out some fundamental enhancements: placing the voices in the stereo field and using the matrix to make the velocity and polyAT have more effect on the patch. In short, to my ears it's the most interesting electronic polyphonic thing I've used. You have a limited sound palette for sure, but that palate lives and breathes. I never had such incredible filter response, it has both 2 and 4 pole. It's very easy to save and tweak your patches. Simple but effective arp and sequencer. Eurorack, where I'm a newbie with an increasing selection of modules, has woke my ears to all sorts of varied electronic sounds, so I'm not that much of a pushover. There are many reasons to have a DAW and use it. But there are great reasons to play without one, if you can. In eurorack many popular modules are complex, like "Marbles" but don't use menus, screens etc. I'd submit for pure enjoyment of play, the tactile and unconverted experience of a 16 voice polyphonic analog synth, is unrivaled to this day, excepting from acoustic instruments. The simplicity and power of the thing, it's quirkyness and responsiveness, really can transport a player to fresh places. You can take notes on a laptop or with a pencil. Guess which is more effective, for most people, when tested on content of the lecture.
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Spaghetti!! Now I have enough to annoy the cats. Just a few last modules on the way....."Stages" and "Contour1" Today for first time I used "Pamela's New Workout" as master trigger, and I tuned the Behringer 960 sequencer to run the 2600 oscillators in an old chord sequence, circa 1785. Ran various bits though effects, old and new "Mimeophon". Clones of Marbles and Maths also spicing it up.
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Nice looking editor! About the screen. It's hard to get a pic that gives an idea what it's like, but here is the best I've managed which gives an idea: It's daylight about 4pm. Natural light from snow outside...I don't use indoor lights in this room till later. This is the most useful screen for me right now, I pull up a preset and I want to fiddle with the release or something, but I like to know where I'm at. Big giant button near screen: Compare. It's lit. You see the original VCA release at 121, and my twist to 143. Clear as day. I moved all the way left after I took this, standing over the paddles. I could still read it no problem. IMHO it's way easier to read than you might think. EDIT: good user thread here with all kinds of tips tricks: https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1419757-behringer-ub-xa-owners-discussion.html
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MusicTribe bought the Oberheim name. Then gifted it back, or so I read. That might explain it. Jack is playing a preproduction model above....maybe it was better, I have no idea, maybe somebody will ask him. There is a button on the upper "auto". When you hit that it shows you which voices are firing via lights on the central buttons. This is interesting after you set the spread. Mine came with all voices in the center. The board has three outs, left, mono, and right. I spread the voices and used the stereo jacks last night in my small music/living room, which has lots of carpets and a number of speakers, basically a 5 channel stereo. The effect is nice to my ears. Would be nice on the Hammond between my two Leslies. There are 8 vintage modes (if memory serves) with huge, some interesting, sound changes to the same preset. You can create your own with a wide set of variables. In digital synth it's just some number changes, which is cool. But here its a physical change for the voltage path, cooler The biggest sounds would come from doubling. This guy tries to make the Vox Humana: I don't know if he succeeds, but he gets some big sounds with the doubling, which I want to try
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"The keyboard landscape today is bleak. There have been no new innovations for the past 20 years, and today's MIDI controllers and digital pianos feel more like bloated tech peripherals than real instruments." If this was written after 1/1/23....it's either poorly composed or oblivious. Even if you restrict the statement to piano actions, choices have steadily increased. As a general statement, I can't really disagree, and it's great they are having a go. The actions look nice....but what are the midi specs? These boards should be sending MIDI 2.O MPE. Aftertouch? You could make the case pianos don't have aftertouch. On the other hand my old TP10 SL880 has channel aftertouch which is no detriment. Most AT is after a hard stop, with very short range. I don't really feel like using it, though I want it. Nektar T4 and T6 actually have a really nice Channel AT feel. Osmose has an unbelievable Poly AT which seduces a player into regular use. You would not use the Osmose in a piano recital....unless you were going seriously avant guard LOL. Which brings up a stale aspect of pianos today...and I love my upright....it's the highly standardized iron frame and string layout. The result is impressive volume, but great weight and and nightmare to change temperaments. When most "classical" piano pieces were written, the variety of instrument design was great. Iron frames only came into wide use after 1850 mass production in the USA. The largest building in the United States before the civil war was a piano factory. In 2024 the I'd like to see some acoustic innovations, which would include actions. The Harpsichord revival in Europe...creeping into the USA might offer inspiration. A light, easily tunable clavichord with dynamic variation and aftertouch vibrato only lacks TLC to design and market. A harpsichord can be tuned by a player in 20 minutes to any one of a number of temperaments. Which did Bach hate worst? Equal temperment. He was not alone. Our major thirds made them puke. (In Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik, Bach explains that he doesn't like equal temperament because it reduces the diversity of scales). I always thought "The Well Tempered Clavier" meant the "equal tempered clavier". The 20th century was full of pompous misconceptions in classical teaching and performance which are now really entrenched (EG AP Music Theory), but under heavy attack from some performers and a few schools. "HP" Not the printer. Historical practice. First the older instruments were researched and reproduced. More recently the training, which involved a particular type of improvisation from early age, and a background in the now dead hexachordal solfegge, is being revived. Beethoven became famous because given a surprise theme at a party, with an adversary usually more famous at the time, he could turn it into....something really impressive. No written music involved. Like alot of you guys, actually. Bla bla. Let's see how these turn out
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How are your montunos? Seriously. They are alot of fun, many variations, and great for tempo. Is it 2-3 or 3-2? Son or Rhumba? At your level, you can injest a montuno in C at 220, and take it to all the keys in an afternoon. Look up Rick Dior if you have percussion around...I'm sure you do. This stuff: Any style, genre gets stale for mortals with the time it takes to master. There are now a million montuno vids on YT and a great book 101 Montunos. Also totally different you could explore the "new" classical improvisation movement, started after 2007 and a bunch of scholarship. Modern Music theory....is a made-up thing. Hanon...was not a remarkable musician. Beethoven, Mozart, Scarlatti they learned a different system which is not at all unapproachable, and has a better track record in results, arguably. Alot of older players are learning it. Here is the leading professor in Bach's teaching method showing his cheap translation of the most popular music method in about 1830. He's at the Schola Cantorem in Basil....the Julliard of genuine historical practice of music, which is nothing like Glenn Gould, though Gould was certainly a great 20th century player. But his playing is alot more Glenn than Bach, many don't realise- myself either until recently. Nobody knew different at the time. Here's an interview with him: I'm not close to qualified to give any player advice, but I can share what's inspired me after 30 years of Blues, Folk, Pop and Jazz Standards on the Keyboard. First I found Barry Harris, and some of his longtime students lead me to the interview above...there are a bunch more with serious talent on the same channel. Somebody here complained: "what are these friggin harpsichord presets on my nord?" LOL It's because there is a big-time harpsichord revival in Europe based on new studies of the instrument and it's music. The guy below is an Italian Professor who knows more about Scarlatti than any man alive..in word and deed. In Scarlatti's day, you did not write down all the notes, not even close. A score was an outline. How to interpet that outline was very nearly lost in the 20th century. Enrico immersed from childhood in Naples does "get it" (watch on youtube takes you there) For many reasons the USA and UK are behind the curve in this regard, with some exceptions: He started with Prog...
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Bill: "Can you read the display from your playing position? I don't care about it being red (something they're going totally apoplectic about in the other forum) but I do care about it being legible without having to scoot over." EDIT: [Bill, it could be an issue if you are filming a youtube video with camera lights. Maybe outside in daylight. I checked this again, it is a non-issue inside my house daytime and after sunset with house lights on, it's super clear. I don't feel the need to move my head at all. Data is very clear, plenty large, compared to any hardware I've used.] This thing was made for kindergarten--in a good way! The screen is way easier than you think and you hardly need it. Look at those monster knobs! You can't miss a button. Some accuse me of being born in 57. I won't confirm or deny. But for an increasingly physically challenged player, like me, it's pretty nice. I've been playing around more. Velocity working "normally". There are so few options you don't even need to read..you soon remember the fuzzy shape. Now you do need it sometimes with the envelopes...you hit compare to see the original setting. It's pretty darn clear, even with two rows of letters. I saw Starsky complaining about that...in the first hour of delivery. I never once thought about it--despite trifocals. Of course there are a million ways the interface might be "improved" to the taste of me or whoever. The paddle section is huge...there is no place for the cat....you might have little LEDs to show you the envelope settings...but actually you get easily used to the way it is. I did some experimenting with effects. My conclusion? Keep them analog. It's a great lesson about the cost of conversion, AD or DAC. I tried the Virus effects and behringer space FX, 24bit reverb, compared the analog Roland 500 series (clone) effects, and B2600 blue marvin spring reverb. No contest. The character of unconstrained electrons is the whole point of the thing...it seems to me anyway. It really does have knarly character in a fully analog signal path, on both the sweet tones and the big saws, but that's fragile, like recording big pianos, good, but not like being there. I haven't even tried the vintage tones. Splits are dead easy. I saw some reference to MPE so it may do some sort of Midi 2.0...for the poly AT I guess. It does split as a controller. Curve options are simple, hard medium and soft. Not like the old days. My SL880 has a really nice selection of options, and 4 layers. Anyway you see the size etc. It won't be to everyone's taste of course, many players trade even the ones they love..but it's very affordable time travel, to keep or just try out. EDIT: The is extra AT adjustment I did not see, looks very nice. He also explains MPE on the UBx-a: it receives, but does not send. This could be a very nice destination for the Osmose He demos MPE in bitwig: Probably Jack's review was linked above...check the last few seconds: At the very end... "It's the most powerful, best sounding synth I've ever had the chance of playin in this room" Jack is a great salesman; nevertheless it's high praise from a guy like many of you, a real player, from a young age. An old wannabe such as myself is certainly going to sell it short in many ways from inexperience. Still 1199 at Sweetwater....the DM12 is 799, I bought mine about a year after it came out for 525, new. The "real deal" OB-X8 is hovering at 5k. I'm sure it's nicer in many ways. But you can't fill one 19" eurorack row for 1200 without some serious selection. Life is getting short...especially for some of us There will be whining, considering the source....extra whining. I watched people proudly sell their Osmose after a day. Less time than it takes to learn happy birthday on the Kazoo. Many more owners are crazy about it.
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One interesting aspect is how canny the Beatles were in knowing just how far they could go.....with the BBC. It was their BBC performances in the early days that put them in the public eye and set up their part of the invasion. They had to tone down the Hamburg identity a bit I gather. Not an accident....I remember being really pissed my shows were interrupted by huge strange processions, horses with backward boots...went on forever I thought. Extremely boring. In contrast the civil rights riots in the south, water canon, police beating up unarmed old people...that was transfixing, and inspiring. By 8th grade I had a army jacket and wire-rim glasses. Hot pants, out of the blue, were allowed at school. I still have not got over that.... We had a riot, and occupied the library, after lunch one day. Half the 600 kids. What did we want? Freedom to shoplift downtown if we had a "free period" ie an hour free one day during school. We called it "Open Campus". Our Principal, a diminutive woman named Dr Dolcini, lead us to a ranting session that afternoon. No consequences. Next year: Open Campus. This was a college town, Davis, California. Hot pants, civil rights marches, student riots, long hair, and all kinds ot interesting music that shocked many older people. Staple Singers OMG Take me back there, please. Ed Sullivan reminded me of Richard Nixon.
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I found a TI v1 61 a few years ago once I realized the DM12 was not multi-timbral 1100ish. I love the thing. It's quirky, and misbehaves frequently, needing reboot and setting fiddle...then whoom...it's back. This is common behavior apparently. TP9s keybed is as good as it gets for a synth....excepting single channel hard AT. Really gorgeous effects, and you can send anything to them. The last update of the TI....4th I think, each was major, included 4 onboard guitar pedals, which had considerable TLC. You can plug a strat or 335 straight in and with various tweaks and input boost (just for extra distortion), tape delay, chorus, phasing, and a pedal...it's impressive. Kemper said it was his first attempt to clone guitar amp/pedal in the last TI. He realized it could sound good but that engine was not going to really clone like the Kemper amp can. He thought the synth crowd was pretty tough too. He has a great business with the guitarists now. Anyway the VIrus TI might be the best ever VA...as soon after the DAWs took over. Finally I have something in the house to pit it against, a UBx-a, just showed up, and while it's no swiss army knife, it sounds incredible, way better that I expected. Keybed not as nice, but polyAT and it's bi-timbral. Not exactly an Andromeda, but it cost about the same as the virus. Many virus demos involve a computer, but it's really nice without one. Only thing you can't do is some custom arp stuff. Menus and layout are very nice to use. Great knobs. People sometimes pigeonhole the virus...but it's got all manner of oscillators, waves, formants, dual-filters, custom knobs, all in the prophet style interface. Nice screen tells you what the original setting was soon as you move something. A virtual-analog feel but much wider flexibility. No VST is cloning that aspect....real knobs, fast menus, never lags, and no updates
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Look what the cat dragged in.... I was going to pass on this one, but when the price dropped in Dec I signed up. Today, a cold Saturday...13F....I heard a thump on the doorstep and some mild cursing. The cat struggled for some time to get it through the door..... Just noodling through the presets, one thing stands out. This thing sounds great, no effects. Has numerous "pianos", and they are much better than I expected. Out of the box it plays with little velocity sensitivity, but reading up, that should be easy to fix. Really nice variety of sounds. Fantastic low end. Very responsive. Despite the tough but budget knob set, it's actually a gorgeous looking thing. The color I guess. Keybed is like a slightly cheaper version of the TP9s fatar. Better than DM12, but....not as nice to touch as the fatar. Of course plenty of much more plastic-like beds EG MOX-F6 play better than they feel. 2" wider than Access Virus, but not quite as deep keys to plugs, 1" less. Virus TP8s keys are longer. I guess it's a bit lighter than the virus, but seems 2x MOXF6. Wish it had a mod wheel instead of paddle, and a bigger display, etc those seem minor annoyances. Anyway, it exceeds my expectations, at first touch. The manual, as usual is quite spare, but to get an idea of the workflow, the video below lays it out pretty well. It's a simple system, and available settings are at hand with at most a shallow menu dive. The "vintage" modes are editable in many aspects, which means you can affect the circuits in unusual ways. The mod matrix has 40 sources and a like number of destinations. As he goes through it, you are thinking "OK that's normal..that's the usual..." The he will hit on a little option, like the negative portamento bend, and you think...."well that's pretty cool...I never did that before" Such a simple, contained workflow means a player might easily grasp the choices and apply a few in the heat of battle. Daniel Fisher pointed out in a Sweetwater video comparing MIDI and CV that analog voltage, if it does not need conversion to digital, is insanely fast. Hence those crazy "glitchy" Eurorrack percussion riffs which retain definition at great speed. This synth feels fast. That could be my imagination, and it may be going through some conversions I don't know about. In that case the DACs are great