DovJ

The Virus is dead. Long live the Virus!! What other synth gives you the Virus’s sound-shaping power, with incredible multitimbrality (is that really a word?) and a full complement of independent effects per timbre? I love my TI2 Desktop, my only synth (I do have two stage keyboards and a sampler, though).

Whether a Master Keyboard Zone is on or off doesn’t affect the connection between the keyboard and the 3 voices. I know there is a way to use the CP4 as a master keyboard controller only, but for the life of me I can’t remember how or find it one of the 3 manuals for the unit. When the Yamaha Synths forum comes back online, I’m sure you’ll find posts by the infamous “Bad Mister” explaining how this works.

BTW, a MIDI pedal won’t reproduce Morph. It would make it possible to quickly switch Rigs, but it would not smoothly transition between them. Yes, it is a single, mono XLR. The Art DI looks like a nice piece of kit! I own a Mackie stereo DI and a Walrus Audio Canvas Stereo. I have not done any sound comparisons, but I would assume the Mackie sounds similar to the Art (very similar price point). I mention the Canvas because it uniquely is both a DI and a Line Isolator. When in LI mode, it outputs balanced line-level signal. This is useful when going into a mixer or audio interface featuring line inputs; the difference in level is very significant. Why bring down your modeler’s output to mic level, only to raise it back up with a mic preamp? It’s likely this will produce a lower noise floor.

I have never owned an Iridium, so take this with a grain of salt. I did own a Mobius for a time, and absolutely loved the sound, build quality and extensive MIDI control. I believe you will find the Player is at a similar level of build to Strymon gear and is similarly equipped from a MIDI perspective. The Player would play well in a pedal board in place of your Iridium, especially if you’re using MIDI to control the Iridium and other pedals. With a MIDI pedal controller, you can make up for many of the limitations of the current Player OS, including the missing Morph and combo foot switches. Also, as your Iridium has unbalanced outputs, the Player’s unbalanced stereo outputs should not be a problem at all. Also, you may find that some of the Player’s effects augment the physical pedals you have.

After a few days playing with this unit, my reactions: - Great build quality. Feels “pro” where a Tonex doesn’t for example. - Sounds fantastic - Onboard controls and indicators are pretty intuitive - Control via mobile app and Mac/PC works well - Understandable that existing Kemper owners are frustrated that 3/4 of Kemper’s effects are missing, along with the Morph function for transitioning instantly between two “Rigs” at the push of a foot switch or gradually with the swing of an expression pedal - Waiting to see if Kemper enables the two missing combined switch controls. With only 3 foot switches, use of the app or a MIDI pedal seems a requirement for anyone trying to simulate a loaded pedalboard. Just like my Virus TI2 exhibits Cristoph Kemper’s inventiveness and deep understanding of what musicians need, this unit is built for players. I achieved good guitar tones in short order, and that without using any included Rigs or amp Profiles. I am pleased, but await the inevitable software updates.

Judging by the scuttlebutt in many forums, this is one heck of a controversial product. That said, demand is clearly much greater than Kemper expected. People are excited. I’m so interested that I ordered the KPP and a Mission Engineering expression pedal for wah and volume. It will likely replace my Tonex and running through the effects of my Virus TI2.

@D. Gauss I also had this issue. An entire octave suffered from faulty velocity sensing. The authorized repair center in my country (Israel) replaced a “voice card” and contact strip. The CP4 now responds correctly.

@Benny Vilner have you checked at Kley Zemer? They claim to have the P125A. I’ve bought from the Jerusalem branch (Yamaha YC61 for myself and a classical guitar for my son) and also had my Yamaha CP4 serviced by them. I am completely satisfied.

This is not at all exciting to me. When a great brand is absorbed by a mediocre one, you end up with “bean-counters” determining and often limiting how much influence the real music people have over the product. I own a Headrush MX5 guitar modeler-pedal. It does the job, after lots of tweaking. If that sounds like a lukewarm non-endorsement, you heard it right. I’m pining for a Quad Cortex! Owners of Headrush products complain about the non-responsive Headrush product support people. Plus, the release of a new generation of Headrush (the “Prime”) with not a word of support for the MX5 or about bringing the new capabilities, mediocre though they seem to be, to the still-new MX5, doesn’t inspire lots of confidence in the longevity of products. Contrast that with Yamaha’s purchase of Córdoba, owners of my beloved Guild guitars brand. I’m confident that Yamaha will develop Guild wonderfully, based on my experiences with my CP4 and YC61 keyboards, and by the passion other guitarists have for the Line6 products. Yamaha is clearly run by people who understand and actually care about musical instruments. When I needed my Sweetwater-purchased CP4 serviced here in Israel, it was no problem at all. The parts and expertise were readily available, despite that the CP4 was discontinued several years ago.

I love my CP4, and would never consider replacing it with the CP88. The CP4 fingers-sound generation connection is the closest I’ve ever felt to an acoustic piano. There’s something about the “SCM” modeled AP’s and EP’s that works for me, whether I’m playing Bach, Debussy or rock. I also have a YC61, so I understand the differences between these two generations of Yamaha stage keyboard. The YC61 interface makes sense to me for organ, sampler and synth sounds. I don’t need that immediacy for my weighted 88 key. The sounds I use are dialed in on my CP4, and I select them and play. Playing the YC sounds through the CP4 action doesn’t change the perception that the CP4 is a way better “piano.” The CP4 interface allows for fairly deep editing of all kinds of parameters that make perfect sense in an electric and acoustic piano. I’ve set them and that’s it. As the AP’s and EP’s are modeled rather than purely sampled, there is very direct editing of parameters such as the Rhodes pickup position and the key-off sound. This isn’t possible in a board that relies on Yamaha’s AWM2 sampled sounds. The YC61 has great sounds, but as a classically-trained pianist, I find the keys-sound connection of the CP4 is on a completely different level. Even my PHD-degreed piano teacher, who is fundamentally against using anything other than a real acoustic piano, tells me that my playing through the CP4 sounds like a professionally-recorded artist sitting at a 9’ grand. Why would I change that?

Still loving my CP4, 5 years after purchasing it. I also have a YC61, so I have a good feel for the enhanced UI that the newest CP’s and YC’s offer. Somehow, the CP4 gives me more finger-instrument connection for my classical playing. The new boards have many advantages, but don’t replace the CP4 for me as a graded, weighted, piano-feel board.

Seconding this. The downward force of your heal really keeps this in place on my tile floor and has for 4 years. Shame it’s no longer available.

While we’re all focusing on CTTE, Tales and the like, how about “South Side of the Sky?” Hearing/seeing this incredible cover reminded me what an amazing piece of story-telling this song is: If you like this cover, listen to the others on the channel NelyTotevaSarah. These are incredible musicians who display a rare passion for some of the gems of 70’s prog.

@Tom Williamsthat’s good stuff! It has a kind of US midwestern/Rush-ish AOR prog sound.

Does prog exist today? Listen to the latest Styx album, Crash of the Crown, or the Neal Morse Band’s recent releases. They’re genuine “prog” of the American midwestern sort, again IMHO.

As a diehard lover of “prog” who aspires to write some of my own… I would argue that the Hammond organ was more central to early prog than the synthesizer. At the moment I’m listening to Steven Wilson’s 2012 remix of Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick. There’s nary a synthesizer here, but it sure sounds like “prog” to me! Rick Wakeman is my keyboard hero and a true inspiration. While Rick used and uses lots of synthesizers, the Hammond, acoustic piano and Mellotron sounds way outnumber the Minimoog on his early Yes material. Could Yes be prog without synths? For sure IMHO!

This argument is a complete waste of time. I choose the tools that work for me - a blend of hardware and software. Everyone should make their own choices, and get down to making music. What’s the point of arguing over the merits of a particular approach? If it works for you, go with it!

I am working nearly-DAWless. I sequence my keyboards, synth, drum machine and sampler with a Squarp Hapax. I record analog sounds (guitar, voice) as clips on my Blackbox sampler, which I also sequence with the Hapax. When it’s all solid, the audio is “played” by the Hapax through my XR18 mixer as audio interface into Cubasis on my iPad. I do mix in Cubasis with plug-ins, but even there I am relying as much as possible on 2 control surfaces. I don’t like mixing with a mouse, and like to “twiddle knobs” as I use my ears to get to the sound I want. I am not making “electronic music” at all. My songs lean mostly toward progressive rock, if anything. There are no loops! Is that “DAWless?” Not completely. I’m using the DAW for recording and mixing, but not at all for writing and arranging. Could I be completely DAWless? For sure! I could mix on the XR18 with its effects into a pair of channels on the Blackbox sampler. I’ve considered that long and hard, but decided against it in the end. The DAW offers too many advantages for mixing, including much more malleable and sophisticated effects. That said, I’ve eliminated the DAW for most of my creative process.

I’m going to join in the “sport” that is so popular in these forums and contradict what you’re saying. Here’s a quote from a post by Yamaha’s famous “Bad Mister:” ”Each of the acoustic pianos also feature a 3Band EQ version of the microphone preamp. These are all extremely "musical EQs" and have a distinct sound of their own. They are a component in the SCM (Spectrum Component Modeling) engine that is used to recreate the piano and electric piano sounds in the CP4 Stage.” Another quote from Bad Mister: ”While the tech in the CP4 Stage is next level stuff, and plays extremely well, and records perfectly... On recordings it is indistinguishable from an acoustic - if you weren't told you wouldn't know. ” Phil (Bad Mister) doesn’t explicitly state that CP4 AP’s are SCM-driven, but he does seem to imply that. The following chart indicates that the tone generators driving the CP4’s predecessors are SCM based: https://usa.yamaha.com/products/music_production/stagekeyboards/cp_series/comparison_chart.html To belabor the point, here’s a quote from a scholarly article about Yamaha’s SCM technology: ”Why did Yamaha adopt spectral modeling? We need to consider the technology available to Yamaha in the 2010 time frame. In 2010, the SWP51L “Standard Wave Processor” was Yamaha’s workhorse tone generation chip. The SWP51L has a fixed address width to waveform (sample) memory. Acoustic pianos are notorious memory hogs. It’s possible that Yamaha run up against the physical hardware addressing limit of the SWP51L. Yamaha needed to break this barrier and the psychoacoustic compression offered by SCM was one way out.” In case of interest, here’s a link to the article: http://sandsoftwaresound.net/spectral-component-modeling/ It seems (at least to me) that SCM is used to produce acoustic pianos in the early CP series models from the CP1 through the CP4/40. This is conspicuously absent in the current CP and YC keyboards. I can’t prove that the difference is due to SCM not being employed in the newer models. But, when I play the CFX sound from my CP4 and then use the CP4 as a master keyboard to control the CFX sound in my YC61, the difference in “touch” is completely obvious to me. This seems most relevant when I’m playing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or Debussy, and much less so when I’m working on a Rock song. Of course, writing this note and finding all the references is a complete waste of time that could be put to much better use working on the aforementioned Bach, Mozart, Beethoven or Debussy, or working on the songs I’m writing, not to mention completely unhelpful to the OP. But, what the hey…

Seconding @JazzPiano88 The CP4 is an incredible-sounding instrument with a great action that feels quite close to a real grand piano, in a 17.5 kg (41 lb) package. Unlike many of the current sample-based AP and EP boards, the CP4 uses a very high-quality modeled approach to sound generation. If you’re used to the finger-sound connection of an acoustic grand, the CP4 will get you as close as I’ve ever experienced, in a fairly light instrument. As they say, YMMV. There’s one on sale in this forum’s classified.

After a recent update, forScore stopped responding to Previous Page messages. I verified that my iPad was receiving the CC, which it was, consistently. Curiously, Next Page continued to work. I reached out to the publisher, who blamed the problem on my MIDI network. Their answer made no sense. Of late, forScore started responding to Previous Page again. I have no idea why - I didn’t change anything in my MIDI configuration that I can determine. This isn’t really to answer your question, but rather to say that forScore (and it’s publisher) has behaved weirdly lately. Take a look at Camelot Pro. It’s not as powerful a score reader as forScore, but it’s a much more suitable tool for controlling settings on hardware and managing VST’s.

Previous Page has also become completely unreliable when using a network MIDI connection (I haven’t tried hooking my iPad more directly to my MIDI network). I have verified multiple times that the message is arriving completely reliably. forScore has simply stopped responding to this message since the first of the two updates. I contacted them a week ago, then followed up. There has been no response. This is one of the reasons I have moved almost completely to hardware. It works! It doesn’t get updated unless I install the newest firmware, so I know what’s going on.

Recently I was on vacation In Cleveland. I was in a house of worship there (a synagogue) when I noticed that one of the people I had been talking to was wearing an Analogues t-shirt. He was absolutely astonished that I knew what (or rather who) the Analogues are, and that I’m a huge fan. He had actually booked flights and a hotel to Europe to see them live, but the show was cancelled. The Analogues are truly awesome musicians who go where no one has gone before (another fandom cultural reference for the discerning)!

The Auracle app for configuring the MioXL and MioXM devices can access the device over an Ethernet connection. With that access, you are able to perform all configuration tasks with the exception of updating the firmware (that requires a USB connection).

Starting in late July, I traveled to New York for work and vacation (we now live in Jerusalem, Israel). During our stay, we had reason to be on 47th Street. My wife and I had planned to walk over to 48th street so I could relive my college days of gaping over keyboards and other gear at Manny’s and Sam Ash. What a terrible surprise I had when I learned that the legendary 48th Street music store district no longer exists! Fortunately, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (and many other cities in Israel) there are well-stocked music stores, staffed by knowledgeable musicians. You can never go back…