sunspot

Sorry to hear you are having that problem, that is a shame. I agree with others on this - suspect power/grounding design. I had the same issue with a little Dreadbox Typhon synth, and I returned it and got my money back. I've never had any other music device encounter an ESD event that caused it to lock up and reboot in 20+ years and I wasn't willing to start now. Wish I could offer up a good solution, but to me - having to haul around an anti-static mat or wear something on your heel for an inherently flawed design is ridiculous. YMMV.

http://cdn.thinksteroids.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kane-roberts-steroids-rocket-firing-machine-gun-guitar.jpg

To be fair, I don't believe the MicroFreak was targeted toward the demographic of this site - actual keyboard players. I suspect they were just trying to do something different - perhaps inspired by/an homage to the touch plate "keyboard" Don Buchla attached to the Music Easel long ago (which I've lusted after for many years but never been able to justify spending the $$$). I have a hard time believing that would start a touch plate revolution amongst other manufacturers.

Wow that's a sweet bag for $60. Probably can't get anything less than 2x the price for something like that in the US.

Man I was really hoping the Explorer would be available in the USA by Christmas. Just watched the Explorer Sweetwater demo by Daniel Fisher. I'm not a big mini-keys fan (I have an Arturia Keystep) but it just doesn't make sense for me personally to buy a polyphonic desktop module that doesn't have an actual keyboard on it instead of grid pads. Seems like the Explorer hits the mark for playability and portability.

I was amazed at how much time they spent just goofing off instead of getting any actual work done. Singing intentionally stupid lyrics, singing in Scottish accents, etc. And then they would call it a day and make no progress. Guess that's just the process they'd always used when they weren't in a time crunch...

Sweetwater has some pretty sweet deals on some Behringer stuff right now. I just scored a Behringer Pro-1 for $200 ($130 off) and a Klark Teknik Dimension D clone for $70 ($100 off).

I find it amazing that only myself and Mark Zeger are the only ones on here who are furious that the baseline Pro just got bumped from $1300 to $2000. My 2014 Pro has a non-crappy pre-butterfly debacle keyboard, HDMI port, SDMC slot, 2 Thunderbolt ports, 2 USB3 ports, MagSafe power adapter. No thanks Apple, I'll see what you do with the next Air, YOU GREEDY A** IDIOTS.

Cool stuff from the opposite side of evil empire Google, search engine DuckDuckGo: https://cdm.link/2021/10/duckduckgo-search-hack-its-an-instant-bpm-calculator-and-finds-frequencies-guitar-tab/

Thank you everyone for the feedback! I'll probably look for an Apple Pencil deal during Black Friday. @Docbop: Thanks for the tip! I went ahead and ordered a 3-pack of those for $10 and they work great on both the Mini and the Fire.

So I have started using an iPad mini and a Kindle Fire tablet in my rig and I was wondering if any of you are finding that a stylus is a useful accessory to have for changing synth and DAW parameters and other tasks? If so, is there a good less expensive option for iPad other than the $90 Apple Pencil?

Heads up to those who were waiting for an iPad mini 6 with a headphone jack. Walmart is selling their remaining stock of new mini 5's for $300. I got stuck with the white bezel/rose gold one as it is the only one they had left in stock. Best Buy and Target have yet to do any such action themselves with their remaining stock, but I didn't feel like I couldn't take the gamble. Not ideal, but way newer than my mini 2 that I can't even update to the latest IOS version. F*** U APPLE!!!

The philosophy that an Apple product should be a useful tool for artists (including musicians) died with Steve Jobs, sadly. Tim Cook couldn't care less...all he cares about is $$$. At this point, I'm just praying that the iPad Mini 5 upgrade supposedly coming out in Q4 still has a headphone jack. My Mini 2 is really long in the tooth.

Hi Mike, one of my long time keyboard buddies pre-ordered the CT-S1. He is a big stickler for tone and he LOVES it. I'm looking forward to giving it a test drive. I was curious why Casio decided to go with 1/8" over 1/4"?

Wow, thank you everyone!! You've given me a lot of stuff to check out. To CEB or the other MobileSheets users - so what happens if the app wants to check your license but you don't have Internet connectivity? That concerns me and I don't think I need anything that fancy so maybe one of the other Android apps would be better for me (unless they all do the same thing??).

Hi guys, I was wondering if any of you that are gigging are using an Android device for your song/lyric sheets? If so, what app are you using, or how are you doing it? Trying to figure out if Android is a usable platform to do this. The only thing I'm currently aware of is OnSong, but it is iOS only. I'd rather use an Android tablet if I can. If that's not an option, are there any opinions on OnSong, or are there any other options that are just as good or better available?

Well here's my personal Android experience with VB3m, YMMV... Every once in a while during big shopping events, Amazon drops their Kindle Fire HD 8's down to $50 brand new. I've acquired two of them, for that price I think they are pretty decent little tablets. It's relatively painless to "hack" them to add the Google Play store on them. I did this to add the Eventide H9 Control app for my H9 Max. It connects to the H9 via Bluetooth and the Kindle Fire uses it's micro USB connector for mains power. Win. Took a flyer on VB3m for Android yesterday. Installed and seems to work on the Kindle Fire just fine. Unfortunately, I don't yet have an OTG cable, so I can't test connectivity to a decent USB MIDI keyboard. The only Bluetooth capable keyboard I have is a little Roland 2-octave boutique mini key version. I managed to get it paired with the Kindle Fire, but I cannot figure out how to tell VB3m to recognize/use it. I don't see anything in the VB3m settings like you would on an iOS device. In addition, I found out yesterday that the Kindle Fire cannot recognize/use plugged-in USB devices and charge via mains power at the same time. Big time lose for me. Apple iOS devices have been able to do this for several years now. Also, as someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, there is no way to disable the Kindle Fire from the display going to sleep. Another lose. I'm going to get a refund on the Android version and stick to iOS, at least for now. Android still just isn't there yet as a platform - too fragmented on capabilities depending on manufacturer. Again, YMMV.

Thank you guys!! Syntronik looks awesome but it was expensive and my iPad mini 2 is pretty old. I went with OB-Xd, it was 10 bucks. I'll play around with it and see if I have any luck. Eric, thanks for asking. My live rig will be based on a Studiologic Numa Compact 2x on the bottom tier and not sure yet on the top. For now, just a soundless 61-key MIDI controller but I'm really curious about the Casio CT-S1 or S400. The Numa has some nice sounds and it's very light weight-wise but unfortunately its sonic shaping capabilities are severely crippled. Case in point - I'm also playing Summer Madness by Kool & The Gang, but the Numa can't do the following: Mellotron string chord swell - No ADSR Attack to change. (Guess I'll have to do this with FX or a volume pedal, or just a sample on the iPad) Saw lead - No glide/portamento setting in the synth engine. (Was planning on using the iOS Moog Minimoog app for this) Very frustrating. I don't have a fancy expensive board so I reckon you can only get the bells and whistles that you are able/willing to pay for.

Hi all, I need to play Prince - Little Red Corvette and 1999 live and I'd love to find a good way to do it with just iPad/iPhone instead of having to use a laptop. Unfortunately, I don't have any keyboards that have this patch built in. I wondered if anyone has found any good usable versions of the Oberheim OB-X patch for these songs on iOS? Thanks.

Hi Jr, yessir thank you for the reply! I had already studied the description on their site that you linked and wondered why all these reviews were about the base model. The S400 seems infinitely more appealing to serious keyboard players for only 30 dollars more, a no-brainer really...

Ok I'm sold. Now can someone give us any intel on the CT-S400, which is only $30 more (according to the Casio site), has a pitch bend wheel, an LCD screen, and 10x the sounds??

Hello everyone!! Long time lurker, first time caller. I'm in the same boat as bachsteady. In September, I'll be doing my first keyboard gig in many years. The last time I played live, I used a Macbook running Mainstage and I had stability problems, so I am really gun shy about going the laptop route. I like roygBiv's idea of just sticking with an iPad. The rig - I acquired a Studiologic Numa Compact 2X for my main keyboard and intend to run my trusty rusty Novation Remote SL 61 up top. So now you guys have me looking at the Roland SP404SX. But I was wondering if anyone has tried out the 1010music blackbox? Looks pretty great to me other than my disappointment that it has 1/8" jacks.