CHarrell
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Posts posted by CHarrell
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30 minutes ago, Paul Woodward said:
This thread got long since I started it and I had an iPad gen 9 back then. Connectivity was easy but I since sold it on and I am just using my iPad Pro M2. Save me reading the whole thread, what was the general consensus on connecting the USB-C based iPads? I know we can do it easily through a mac (audio and midi over USB-C),but connecting to a keyboard was always a head scratcher.
Its not a biggie, if I ever needed an ipad for live, I would buy a cheap one, but I wanted to have a play with the sound apps I already bought. Tried bluetooth earbuds (Galaxy) tonight and the lag was ridiculous but the single socket is taken up with the cable for midi.
Have you considered using a Bluetooth MIDI adapter and then a cable for audio?
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22 hours ago, PianoMan51 said:
Chuck Sher has created an amazing body of work. Always my first pick for lead sheets.
Probably my favorite music publisher. Early this year I devoured this book on Chucho Valdes and Afro-Cuban music.
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1 minute ago, Paul Woodward said:
Happy ending? It wasn't that sort of meeting
Wait is that not how instrument trades are usually done? 😳
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Glad there was a happy ending, Paul. 🙂 Both of you got a feel for what you like, and only three people got seriously maimed.
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Well, the YC88 finally arrived today. I've been playing it for a little bit now, and...
Well crap I was gonna post a GIF of Han Solo saying "Chewie, we're home", but I guess GIFs aren't allowed here.
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31 minutes ago, mobi said:
Gemini,
That's the GSI Pure Sounds library or something, yeah? That one looks real promising as an all-in-one keyboard library on the go.
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8 minutes ago, AROIOS said:
Yup. I got into computer-driven music at a sweet spot in time. GUI based OSes had gone mainstream; MIDI sequencers was 90% as good as their modern counterparts; Roland and Yamaha were both releasing cheap but good sounding modules; and Creative made E-MU's excellent sampling technology affordable for most kids...
Compared to the low-rez user interface, crappy 3-operator FM sound, and expensive outboard synths that folks in the 80s had to deal with, the 90's was heaven. In fact, Yamaha's XG modules were so well balanced, I still use them today all the time.
In the attachment is a transcription I did in the 90's with Yamaha's most basic XG synth with no external processing. Still brings me joy every time I play it.
Even though I was way too young for any of this, I have to admit I romanticize this era of music production very much. Not just 'cause I love video games from that period (including ones for the NEC PC-98, with its Yamaha FM), but it seemed like a much more even playing field back then. I'm sure there were still pay barriers etc., but on the other hand, the same general tools seemed to be used by about everyone, regardless of professional stature or not. How much difference was there really in the quality of Roland Sound Canvas Strings patch vs an EMU, Korg, or Yamaha module? As well, it seems there was a lot of trickle down in sounds from different tiers of models, as demonstrated in Kawai James' posted video (with a suspiciously generous segment relegated to a Kawai board....🤔 😜).
All of this is to say that to my rosy-hued vision of that era, you could very well get similar-quality results regardless of the (much smaller pallette across the board) tools you had. Now, of course, if you wanted to say, do an orchestral mockup/VST piece, the gulf between a $500 strings library vs a $2,000 one can be very, very wide, and there's like 300 new libraries getting released very week.
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1 hour ago, AnotherScott said:
Irritatingly (to me), many boards and apps with clav sounds don't even have those four basic sounds in them. I don't think any Yamaha or Roland board has them.
It's so whack. I'm embarrassed to admit, my first exposure to clavs for years had been through sampled instruments, and it wasn't until I got the Korg app that I knew about the 4 pickups!
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15 minutes ago, Dockeys said:
It seems to focus on the fact that they tried to get the best parts of the GHS into a more compact format?
Like shovelling days-old, room temperature Sphagetti-O soup from a pot into a bowl?
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12 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:
I prefer the CP88 action to the RH3 action overall, though I wish they hadn't graded it quite so much... the lower keys get too heavy for my taste. Still a very nice action, though.
I agree 100%.
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4 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:
n general, a more "compact" action allows a shallower enclosure but with a resulting shorter distance to pivot point, which can increase the difference between how the keys play at the front of the action vs. at the rear.
The review I linked mentioned "full-size keys", but I guess that could just be in reference to mini-keys, slim keys, bulimic keys, etc.
5 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:I'd say odds are not great that this will feel better than GHS overal
My hopes wouldn't be very high, but there is at least promise that after many years, they've created an action for this level of keyboard they deem significantly different from their iterative GHS design to actually give it a new name.
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1 hour ago, Paul Woodward said:
but don’t want to waste his time on a promise I might take the CP…
Is him bringing the CP predicated on you probably buying it? If not, it sounds like a very nice and mutually beneficial opportunity y'all have where you can both sample a board you're interested in without going the route we almost all have to do now: buy an instrument online, check it out, return it if we don't like it, repeat.
So if there's no strings attached to both of you demo'ing each other's gear for sale, why not wait to ask the question of which you prefer until after you get to try it?
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50 minutes ago, Lou_NC said:
Interesting, the SKX is listed as being sold by "Jeff's Music Gear", and there's an SK2 listed from "Jeff" as well. I've exchanged a few messages on the SKX so far, and the person responding is "Mande". I wonder if "Mande" is a Sweetwater employee?
That's the peep I've had correspondence with! I've had no issue with them, a very pleasant experience with a 7 day return policy. There wasn't anything wrong with the instrument, I just wasn't satisfied, and they sent me a return label through FedEx. The return label was listed to go to Sweetwater Sound Inc. in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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30 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:
Looks more like one clav with ten different efx settings!
Yeah, one clav with different pickup presets (which is nice), plus one for muted (which is nice), plus a few with effect presets (which is cool, I guess).
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Okay, pretty sure there's no 5-pin MIDI. Interestingly, this board seems to feature VRM, so depending on how good this new action is, it might be a decent lower weight and price alternative to the P515.
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37 minutes ago, stoken6 said:
Presumably no 5-pin MIDI?
Hard to say, this video didn't really show the back, but they also didn't advertise 5-pin MIDI, either.
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https://yamahamusicians.com/yamaha-launches-new-p-225-p-145-p-series-digital-pianos/
I didn't see this on here, so thought I'd post it. The most significant feature...a new keybed! No longer the GHS, they are using what they're calling the Graded Hammer Compact, or GHC.
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I actually just went through the process of buying, then returning, a CP4 from Gear Exchange, my first transaction with them. It was very smooth! I got it specifically from Jeff's Music Gear, which I believe is Sweetwater's "used" department. I was surprised to see no sales tax on my purchase!
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When y'all had these tech set ups, did you ever think 20, 30 years from then that you'd look back at them with nostalgia and fondness?
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2 hours ago, David Emm said:
Heh! Good one. I once encountered a decrepit piano that was missing several keys, but I sure had fun playing around the gaps. I've always had a better grip on the avant-gardists like Cage, Subotnick and Jon Hassell as a result. Inspiration can come from many cockeyed places.
Those have always been some of my favorite pianos to show up to find at a venue. I enjoyed the challenge of adapting whatever the music would be to accommodate an octave of black keys sounding liked picked mutes or whatever. I haven't experienced that in a while, since so few venues I encounter have a house piano.
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That image is the most West Virginia thing I've ever seen.
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4 hours ago, Stokely said:
Just to wrap this up, fired up my new Yamaha DXR10 today. I'll be setting it up with my Key Largo later, but for the first test I just went right out of ch. 1 of my Nord Stage 3. Volume about half up on the keyboard, which is where I have it at gigs. I plugged into the 1/4" input #2, turned speaker volume up to 3 out of 10. It has a slight fan noise when you turn it on, I don't think I'd want to use a pair of these as studio monitors (not that I would anyway).
It about took my head off. Holy hell do these get loud. Once the KL is hooked up, it would probably be louder still. Suffice it to say volume will not be an issue with this. First gig with it is next weekend, subbing with a band with rather rudimentary monitoring and where I'll probably need to be communicating with the band leader, who calls out songs without a list (ie, no in-ears).
It sounds a tad mid-forward "boxy" compared to headphones but so does every monitor I've ever used, the best of which til now is probably the QSC 10, or maybe that RCF supplied at a gig that pushed my interest in the brand. I bought the cover which can stay on during use and which should preserve the speaker nicely (if I ever want to sell, upgrade etc). I'm feeling pretty happy with the purchase, especially between the 2-year Sweetwater warranty and 7-year Yamaha warranty.Did you just buy one for mono?
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On 7/1/2023 at 8:02 AM, JFN said:
The amp sim that is the front panel (Rtr A, B, Case, etc.) can be assigned to one part only. However, the Keys A and B effect slots have amp sims, distortion, and rotor effect you can select.
John
Are you talking about the distortion effects? I was looking for amp sims in the manual effects lists but didn't see any.
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1 hour ago, Tripp323 said:
Compared with SL Numa x 73?
everyone has different opinions about keybeds. I like the CK-61 (light-weight!) but Numa X 73 has weighted keys -
Your comments are helpful - checked a few stores near me, and these keyboards were not available for a test drive.
Thx
Other than the very hard bottoming on the Numa X (members here think it might be the aftertouch), it feels really nice and responsive. It's a pretty light and fast action.
2023: CP4 instead of CP88?
in The Keyboard Corner
Posted
Sorry for the late response! Been so busy these past several days.
It's interesting playing the YC after now having experience with both the CP4 and 88: I can see now that in many ways it's the sequel to the CP4 that the 88 isn't (wasn't?). Its flexibility in adjusting sounds, its broader palette of sounds and effects, etc. Maybe it's because I've been spending the last few months touring like 35 keyboards, but the gripes I had with the YC's interface a couple years ago are much less pronounced now. I don't play organ enough to feel like that aspect is truly justified (I suck at getting good drawbar registrations that don't sound so samey), but the extra effects, speaker/amp sims, and overall larger feature set put this over the edge of CP88 for me.
This has also made me acutely aware of just how much Yamaha designed themselves into a corner with the CP88. Because they relegated everything to specific, hard-wired categories and labels, such as the effects in the EP section, it must be a hell of a challenge to update with anything beyond more voices. Like if they wanted to add another phaser, for example, where would they put it? You'd have to tie it to some menu feature somehow, like if you could go to Phaser 3, which then makes a menu item appear on the screen, where you could then toggle to another phaser. And that's a relatively simple one! What about something like VRM, which has been in hot demand by many users? You'd probably have to completely dive into a menu if you wanted everything to stay local to the board. Granted, something like that might have to be the same for the YC, but who knows, maybe they could even cannibalize it into an insert effect similar to damper resonance. How would you do that on the CP?
I'd still be interested in seeing if they can squeeze a great update out of the CP, but unless it's drastically life-changing, I think I'll stick with the YC88.