Jump to content


Please subscribe to MPN’s YouTube Channel!

JamPro

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    351

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by JamPro

    Official NFL Thread 2024-2025

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    1 hour ago, jazzpiano88 said:

     

    I don't know if they're the best, but I use YouTubeTV + Sunday Ticket.   I've never had any issues except the local blackouts and occasional exclusive deal like that one game on the Peacock Network that the YouTube doesn't carry.    I just checked and still have access to all of last years games.    I watch on both desktop web browser and AppleTV on the TV.  Ususally on playback as I don't have the patience or time to sit through a live game.

     

    Thanks JP88 - exactly the kind of thing I need to find out.  I should specify I am hoping to watch on my smartTV (not a phone or mobile device), and I hope to view both regular and post-season games.  I am surprised how difficult it is online to find out what services offers what games.

    Elton John vs Liberace. Who's the better piano player?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I want to say how cool it is that well-known piano players all sound different from each other: Elton sounds different from Joel; Dr. John sounds different from Elton; Bruce Hornsby sounds different from Dr. John; Herbie sounds different from Hornsby; Emerson sounds different from Herbie; Stevie Wonder sounds different from Keith Emerson; and so on.

     

    While for the most part, I cannot distinguish the playing of Slash, Val Halen, Clapton, Page, Gilmour, Keith Richards, etc.  I can sometimes recognize differences in guitar tone among these players, but not differences in chord or note choices.

    I love my new Krumar D9x, but how to mount it?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I have used adhesive-backed velco strips to mount effects boxes right on my keyboard.  One side of the velcro goes on the device, the other side of the velcro goes on the keyboard.  The hardware can be separated for travel, and can be velcro-ed together for playing, and will stay in place no matter how aggressive your keyboard glissandos get.

     

    A word of warning: I did this with an old Hammond XB-2; the adhesive glue and the velcro fasteners were so strong, I ended up pulling up the wood veneer that covered the XB-2 when trying to separate the keyboard and FX device.  So be careful if your keyboard or FX device has some kind of veneer on it.  Really, I only needed a small square of velcro to hold the FX to the keyboard.  The long velcro strips I used were not necessary, and were what caused the veneer to pull off the keyboard.

    Keyboard amplification

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    OK.  A mixer is a device that can accept multiple signals of varying strengths (signal levels), and output a signal of a specific strength (line level).  Along with that, a mixer allows the adjusting of these different incoming signals to balance them against each other, and may also include some tonal adjustments as well (bass, treble, etc.).  A mixer can be really useful for a keyboard player with multiple keyboards that need to be heard thru a single speaker unit.  Those Roland KC amps all include a built in mixer.

     

    A preamp is sort of a mixer but with only a single input.  The idea is the same: accept a signal of varying level, boost the signal to line level, and adjust volume and tone.

     

    Both a mixer and a preamp can add gain to a signal to make it louder at the speaker.

     

    I am surprised about your experience with powered speakers being too quiet.  With my Yamaha DXR powered speaker set at unity (no gain), I cannot set my keyboard volumes above 50% - it would kill my hearing.

    Noob Question: Getting the sounds

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Welcome JVLee - don't be discouraged by impolite actors online.

     

    "SO Finally to my question: Do you know of any video or webpage tutorials that focus on this question? It's not very easy to Google this one.

    And maybe there's just no such thing, and the only answer is experience?"

     

    There is no simple answer to your question.  Sometimes you can find a keyboard preset to do the sound you want.  Sometimes you can make small adjustments to a preset to get it to sound they way you want.  Sometimes you have to create a sound from scratch.  Sometimes, it is not possible to mimic a given sound, so you have to accept using a substitute.  It will depend on the sound you want, what keyboard(s) you have, your willingness to spend time to get a given sound, your knowledge of synthesizers and synthesis.

     

    The Kurzweil K2700 has a good deal of programmability, so at least you have not limited yourself by your choice of keyboard.

     

    Some guys will write in to this forum to ask about a particular sound they want or are working on, to get tips and suggestions.  Sometimes forum members are able to share a particular keyboard preset to cover a wanted sound.

     

    As a general suggestion, I will suggest you learn about the basics of subtractive synthesis: what an oscillator is; what a filter is; what an ADSR generator is; etc.

     

    Let us know how it is going.

    • Like 3

    OT: Alternatives to You-Tube

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    15 minutes ago, ProfD said:

    TikTok. Facebook.  Instagram.😎

     

    I guess I should re-phrase the question.  I would like to explore some alternatives to You-Tube that do not involve a large corporation geared towards web monopoly and homogenization - i.e not You-Tube, Facebook, Tik-Tok, or Instagram, and the like.  Open-source would be a plus.

    • Like 2

    Patron Small Talk / Chat

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I prefer to let them do the talking.  So I ask these kinds of questions:

    Where are you from?  Did it take long to get here?

    Are you here on vacation? 

    (for couples): How long have you been together?

    Tell me about your kids (or grandkids or pets).  How many?  Hold old?  What do they do?  Do you like their music?

    What do you do for a living?  How did you get started in that?

     

    I find people love to talk about themselves to I give them an opportunity to do that, and then prompt them to talk some more about themselves. 

     

    • Like 5

    Lead sheets, where?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I have a home-made chart of Valerie if you want.

     

    Musescore - someone else mentioned this.  It is a useful tip: free downloadable working notation software. This has proved pretty useful to me in making charts.  I recommend it.

     

    Mind for Music (here: https://www.mindformusic.com/)  Advertised as "the internet's largest collection of Jazz and Contemporary sheet music, arrangements and transcriptions, all completely free!"  It has a lot of music; not everything, but a lot.  A worthwhile place to visit when you are looking for a chart.

    • Like 1

    Lead sheets, where?

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I use the "hit-r-miss" method: I enter a search string into Google "song pdf name of song".  This returns a usable file fairly often.

     

    Sometimes I enter into Google "lead sheet name of song".  This often returns a usable file.

     

    Often I end up making my own charts based on what I find online.  I keep these on my computer so I can print them out as needed.

     

     

    • Like 1

    Attenuate sound from keyboard

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    Umm....why not turn the volume of the DXR10 down further?  Be sure the DXR is set to receive a line signal and not a mic signal.

     

    On my DXR (set to receive a line signal), with the DXR volume set at unity, I have to keep the keyboard volume at <50% or else the speaker output is unbearably loud.  It seems unusual to me that you are getting unbearably loud output with the  DXR volume set to -20 and a keyboard volume of 20%

     

    Alternatively, you could buy a small mixer so you can send the keyboard signal to the mixer and then send one volume to your DXR10 and send a different volume to your FOH/recording device.

     

     

     

    How do you handle one-off gigs

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I do it the old-fashioned way: I listen to the song, make notes, and then write out a chart for myself.  Sometimes the chart is nothing more than my notes ("key of A; mid-tempo blues shuffle; Intro by guitar, enter after 4 bars; bridge on IV after 2nd and 4th verse; end walk down from I to V, repeat 3x).  And sometimes I need to write out chords for every measure like a fake book.  I want to have something on paper I can look at before the song starts, or read along as the song progresses.

     

    It seems I lose 20-30 IQ points by stepping on stage (I think the loud noises make it harder for me to think and concentrate), so I don't trust my memory.  I want to have it on paper to look at it.

    • Like 4

    Guitarists Rejoice - Session Organ EKX for EZKeys 2 (Finally)

    in The Keyboard Corner

    Posted

    I hear again and again from guitarist, drummers, bass players, etc. how difficult it is to find a willing and able keyboard player.  So yeah, I imagine a lot of home studio enthusiasts will embrace this product.  I have no doubt some producers  will use it to make "commercial musical content", and may even find its way on stage as backing tracks.

     

    Note to all: AI is coming, and it doesn't need to spend hours on scales and arpeggios.

×
×
  • Create New...