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Mark_OA

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Posts posted by Mark_OA

    An interesting artist

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I have seen him then he was a young trumpeter with the band Relax, before he was on stage as Kyteman. Was pretty surprised to see him go into electronic music. He has been doing a daily modular broadcast ever since the lockdown here in The Netherlands. Although not always my taste personally, I watched a few of these on YouTube and have to say that he does master the craft and art, as every time bro ga something different within the genre he plays (from techno to ambient).

     

    Much respect for him as he invests much of his time and money in helping other musicians moving forward.

    What�s "your" board?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Vox Continental (reissue by Korg).

    Love the sound, the action, the looks, the build and that mesmerizing tube. Got three of them, two 73s on top of each other and a 61 to go. Man, I love them.

     

    Wow... 3 of the same board. You're not kidding that you really like it!

    What�s "your" board?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I don't want to miss any of them, but if I had to choose, it would be the Kawai. That instrument is such a joy to play. I sometimes even play it without turning it on because of the feel of the keybed. I know, it's weird, I don't care. I never want to be without it. My boards:

     

    Kawai MP11SE

    Viscount Legend Solo

    Dave Smith Prophet Rev2

    Forum Dare- Tell me if/why you don't dig Neon Vines

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I agree that it doesn't have soul. It's too polished and sounds plasticy because of it. Like so many other electronic music, she tried too hard to give every instrument/voice it's place in the mix, which you can hear because there is a audible "gap" between them. That makes it sound unnatural and plasticy to me.

    Seeing her perform makes me nervous because she's dabbling 500 things at once, which is admirable, but it doesn't make for an easy watch.

    Her voice sounds forced.

    Way too much make-up.

     

    But in the end, all of this is down to taste. I give her credit for doing it and following her passion the way she wants to.

    Sampleson modeled Rhodes

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I have some Sampleson instruments. They tend to prolong their sales, sometimes indefinitely ð

     

    And I agree the Rhodes isn't great. I have the 1959 and didn't find it very useful in the end. The raw tone has its. I also own Brushify and use it for a cheap brush drumkit, as my main drumkit doesn't have brushes yet. The logo is terrible though...

    Laptop performance

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Do you actually experience any problems like clicks, pops, jitter, lag, latency and/or non-responsive apps/processes?

     

    Furthermore, you mentioned you measured CPU utilization with Windows monitoring tools. Did you actually measured it over a period of time, or just observe high CPU utilization though the Task Managers Performance tab while you were playing? I don't want to appear rude, but a lot of people say the measured performance, but didn't actually measure anything, just looked a some random CPU utilization graph which spiked and conclude the CPU is slow, which most of the time isn't the issue.

     

    I did a lot of performance measurements for work on Windows machines and 8 out of 10 times, a combination of bad hardware, drivers, configuration, coding and user error lead to complaints of bad performance. To really, decisively conclude your CPU is the issue, you need to take measurements of a variety of performance counters to really know what the issue is.

     

    There are a lot of things you can do prior to all this:

    - Update Windows

    - Update all drivers, especially your audio interface and core system drivers like chipset, USB. Don't use Windows update or the Lenovo drivers, go to the driver manufacturers website (i.e. Intel, NVidia) and download the latest drivers there. They are always more up to date than OEMs or Microsofts versions.

    - Update all your software/VSTs if you can

    - Update all firmware for your devices, especially the Lenovo firmware, harddisk firmware, Thunderbolt firmware (if applicable)

    - Disable power saving configurations so that Windows or the Lenovo firmware can't control your systems performance. Look into the Lenovo firmware (UEFI/BIOS) too for relevant options

     

    If these suggestions don't improve things, try the following steps. Do note that I don't recommend disabling any Windows security features. These should be left enabled at all times. These steps are for troubleshooting purposes only.

    - disabling devices, such as Wi-fi, bluetooth, etc.

    - security related functions like Windows Defender

    - uninstalling other, non-audio related applications

     

    Let us know what you find.

     

    Mark

    Yamaha P515

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    It's a great instrument, great action and ditto piano sound. I was going back and forth between it and the MP11SE and went for the latter, because the key action was more to my taste. Your student won't regret using the P515.

    Gear Zealotry

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Have to join in and say as a sax player, the same thing happens on sax forums. And I'm sure the same thing is true on guitar forums although I don't frequent those. If you don't play THIS brand of gear, you're not a pro level player. I enjoy pointing out that the emperor has no clothes on. Your $600 mouthpiece is worse than my $25 one and your $300 ligature is not as good as my $8.95 one. We won't go into your $10,000 Selmer Mark VI horn compared to my $2000 Martin, but I know I play a better rock horn than you do.

     

    Same here, but I'm a trumpet player. I have been playing on a simple student instrument for 30 years now and every section I played in had the same kind of people: the jocks. They all look down on my instrument, until I play. Never had a complaint in my life. Yes, the instrument is no looker and if not cared for daily the valves can be sluggish, but it is what I have and what suits me best. I tried more expansive, "pro" horns and sold them all, always got back to my first horn. I do use a more expensive mouthpiece, but got over the mouthpiece safari rather quickly.

    B3X iPad with Viscount Legend Solo issues- midi

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    That's not the problem, Mark. The app seems to only receive drawbars on channel one and they have different midi CCs

     

    So the legend would have to be able to send all drawbars on one channel or the app would have to be able to receive on 2 channels. Neither of which seems to be the case.

     

    I don't have the app and neither can find a manual, but I am sure the Legend won't send the data on one channel and even if it did, both lower and upper drawbars use the same CC's.

     

    So if the app doesn't support it, this won't work. The only thing you could do is put assigning different channels and CCs to the drawbars of the app in the wishlist thread on IK Multimedia's forums. They will listen to things put in there by their users. You can find it here.

    B3X iPad with Viscount Legend Solo issues- midi

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    On midi out 1 the upper drawbars are transmitted on ch 1 and lower on ch 2. See page 71 (midi-1).

     

    Note that this only applies on DIN midi out 1. For midi out 2 it's upper ch 4, lower ch 5 and pedal ch 6.

     

    Now, to make this even more confusing, you can configure USB to behave like Midi out 1 OR Midi out 2. So, if USB is configured to the configuration of Midi out 2, your drawbars are using channels 4 and 5.

     

    To change this:

     

    [uSB TO HOST] PORT OPERATION

    The [uSB TO HOST] connector on the rear panel can be used to exchange the MIDI data transmitted and

    received by Legend Solo with external devices (personal computers, expander).

    As described previously, Legend Solo can transmit MIDI data in different ways. With regard to the [uSB TO

    HOST] port, you can select how to transmit MIDI data.

    While holding down [TRANSPOSE SELECT] and pressing the C#1 key, the [uSB TO HOST] port operates like

    [OUT 1].

    While holding down [TRANSPOSE SELECT] and pressing the D#1 key, the [uSB TO HOST] port works like

    [OUT 2]

     

    Also, check if your Solo is configured to be a Master keyboard:

     

    As seen in par. 3.2, Legend Solo are equipped with two ports for transmitting MIDI data on which messages

    are sent differently and depending on the selected operating mode. Four operating modes of the MIDI

    transmission ports are provided:

    - MUTE: designed to play the Legend Solo and no other external connected expander or instrument

    - EXPANDER: useful for playing an external sound generator (Expander) with the Legend Solo keyboard

    - SEQUENCER: useful for recording the songs played on the Legend Solo with an external Sequencer

    - MASTER KEYBOARD: useful for controlling external devices with the keyboard and the controls of Legend

    Solo

     

    And last but not least: I wouldn't be surprised if you can only use both drawbars when using Double mode, not single mode or split, as the Solo only received midi for both drawbars in double mode, maybe it only sends midi for both in double mode too.

     

    I like the Visount Legends for their sound, but the interface and manual are a PITA! Configure once and never touch again...

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