CHarrell
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Posts posted by CHarrell
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9 minutes ago, KeyboardEric said:
The home office deduction would be questionable for me since I live in a studio apartment. I've read that it needs to be a separate dedicated room in your home for it to fly with the IRS. I'm sure people still deduct a portion of it anyways. Something to think about. 🤔
I live in a studio as well and was able to get a home office deduction. I can't remember what I measured out specifically, probably my desk and keyboard area, which happens to form a convenient box (I have a Keylab under my desk, and a larger keyboard such as CP88 perpendicular to my desk). I've gotten this deduction for the last 3 or 4 years.
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I've noticed this too, especially when using the Ivory piano expansion. Was playing in a band audition with it when I realized what was happening. 😅 I didn't think to turn off Internet or anything.
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1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:
What does it need some key replacement?
Sounds like it needs either a rubber contact strip cleaning or replacement, maybe one key replacement, and a new fader knob. The music desk socket is busted too but I don't usually use those anyways.
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Bought a CP4 for about $750 incl tax and shipping! It's gonna need repairs, but I got a local quote and the repairs will most likely still keep just under $1000 total, with perhaps a stronger guarantee of a longer shelf life than if I bought a more expensive one in better shape and declined to have it worked on. The hardest part is gonna be the waiting.
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Didn't know where to put this, but how feasible is it to put a keyboard into a gig bag that has smaller dimensions? Specifically, I have a CP88 soft case with the following dimensions (this might include some very easily removable insert pillows that are velcroed on the internal sides):
And the CP4 dimensions:
Just looking at the internal, it looks the width (using the CP4's definition) is about an inch short, and the height is about a half-inch too short. The case isn't super rigid so it could potentially stretch a little to accommodate.
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On 2/22/2023 at 1:27 PM, ProfD said:
The cats being mentioned in this thread are the definition of a musician's musician.
Every last one of them is an ultra-badazz because they came up playing with equally or more talented musicians.
IMO, those types of musicians, whose playing can be identified from listening to a recording are slowly dying on the vine.
Especially when it comes funky music, fewer musicians are forming bands and/or playing on records like that anymore.
Cats like Greg Phillinganes and Mark Stephens have always been in the background making records and artists sound better.
IMO, those musicians are perfectly comfortable with not being household names. They don't have to deal with the same BS.
Also, if anyone has ever heard Phillinganes' solo record, there's a reason he stays behind the scenes. Artist is not his forte.😁
However, Phillinganes has done very well for himself as a musician. He can sit down at any restaurant in LA and enjoy his meal.
OTOH, some of the artists with whom Phillinganes has worked wouldn't have been able to sit down and have lunch with him there. 🤣😎
Your post reminds me of Fred Wesley's autobiography he wrote in the early 00s, about how much he enjoyed being a sideman because of how much extra stuff he got to miss. He gets a little weird in some parts talking about how he thinks he could create something more creative and engaging than Bootsy and George (okay Fred well you got yourself a band 20 years later, and ain't any of that, so what you were talkin' about then?), but it's still a really cool read.
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Since we're on the subject, I will say that I think Ludwig Goransson is by far the hippest dude working in mainstream Hollywood at the moment.
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Sites like Reverb also give you the ability to look at sold listings (don't remember the trick to sort by date, though), that could tell you what people have actually been willing to pay for one.
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Storytime update: I've been on a carousel of keyboard-related purchases for the last two years, and I wanna get off. I think the CP and YC88 are my favorite keyboards I've ever played, but I've had to be very real with myself to recognize that those just aren't in my budget for the foreseeable future.
I've been flirting with lighter boards and software, but no matter how much I tell myself the better sound quality will give me expressive options, I just haven't found a combo that clicks, and if I want one, I'll probably have to dip high into the weight class...and at that point, doesn't that remove the point of convenience I was even looking for?
So, add all this together and what do you get? Well, I'm back on the CP4 train. At my local GC, they had a "great" condition CP4, and I got to extensively try it out. I could immediately tell the unit wasn't as great as they list: superficially it seems that way, but I was getting consistent, random velocity spikes on several different keys. But when I was playing in a "safe" range (it seems that mostly the C3 to C4 octave was affected), I had forgotten just how easy it was to express myself over the keys. I could do super-fast arpeggios and not feel it at all...I went to the FP30x right next to it and could feel it after a minute--I'd like to think that's not physical weakness, especially since the NW-GH action is supposed to be heavier than the PHA4. Funnily enough, a pianist from New York was looking for the best substitute for their NY Steinway they could find here on the West side, and after checking out all the other keyboards, including the RD2000 and Fantom 8, she felt like the CP4 was by far the best option. (I did let her know about all the hybrid consoles available at stores not called Guitar Center).
The Rhodes pianos I don't remember sounding so good over headphones, but they definitely worked through the monitors the GC employee got me hooked up to. The pianos have a charming artificiality to them: they sound sampled, but...there's a character to them, I felt like a Latin player at Montreux in the mid 00s when I was playing them. Unfortunately my ability to test the dynamics and expressiveness of the pianos over amplification--not through headphones, which I've discovered can greatly impact how I feel about a board's playability--was compromised by the somewhat-faulty keybed. My impression is the louder layers got triggered too easily, but that could just be a matter of touch sensitivity and tweaking the depth and offset parameters.
Would I prefer the CP88 interface? Hell yeah I would, but after trying so many digital pianos these past few months with varying degrees of wonkiness and/or inaccessibility, I think I'll take the compromise. The CP4 interface isn't super-quick, but it is relatively intuitive for a menu-based approach. Quicker than me trying to jerryrig a separate MIDI controller to on/off and tweak software effects, for sure.
So now it comes down to wanting to find a CP4 in good quality, and a good price. Pickings are on the slimmer side right now, and this unit I played got me a little wary, so I'm a little nervous, but there's really not much I can do but order from somewhere online and hope for the best. The one they had at my GC was $1,300+, which seemed too high, so I'm hoping to hit the $1,000 range.
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20 minutes ago, D. Gauss said:
it's regularly $29. (ipad not desktop btw)
Ohhhhh, that makes sense, thanks for the clarification.
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1 minute ago, D. Gauss said:
wam tenor for $19 bucks
That's a hell of a deal! Acousticsamples has really good Black Friday/holiday discounts as well, but I don't think they go that low. Personally I'd pay the extra for the quality, as well as the interface--the VHorns have great customization to create more realistic mannerisms and space placement. I bought the SWAM Saxes for a project in 2017...I was so happy to use them, until I realized, after about a month of denial, that I actually even preferred my Korg M1 VST sax patches sound. : (
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For those like myself who are not enamored with the sound of SWAM saxes--even in professional use they sound gross to me--I recommend as an alternative the sampling/modelling hybrid instruments from Acousticsamples VHorns:
https://www.acousticsamples.net/Bundles/vhornssaxophones
While there's a little bit of thin-ness one usually expects from modelling, I find them to be really fun to play and create dynamic performances out of, and with a timbre that's much more agreeable. Another nice thing is that you can purchase them either in bundles or individual instruments.
They've been expanding their range into traditional orchestral instruments, but are still updating these to be higher quality as well, another huge plus.
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33 minutes ago, o0Ampy0o said:
Bugs's representation has varied some over the years but 99% of the time they have retained life and personality. That is by far the most anemic official rendering of Bugs. Just awful.
Musicians such as Lang Lang get blasted for extroverted showmanship, now Bugs Bunny gets blasted because he looks really concentrated on the music? No one can win, smh....
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37 minutes ago, timwat said:
Apparently Ryan Gosling is actually playing what is purported to be 'jazz piano' in La La Land
Heh.
Best actor instrument miming I've ever seen is Spike Lee' Mo' Better Blues. The actors must've spent so much time sitting in with musicians and watching them, down to all the little tics musicians do between phrases etc.
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6 minutes ago, ProfD said:
Yet, I cannot think of too many contemporary Jazz musicians who will have a similar influence on future generations.😎
Skill issue. 😉 That influence is going to happen regardless of whether any individual is able to perceive or forsee it.
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20 minutes ago, ProfD said:
IMO, not really. For the most part, music consumption is generational.
The music that resonates most with people will be that which constitutes the soundtrack of their lives and experiences.
IOW, the old or new music we grow up listening to is responsible for our musical heroes and points of reference.
As we get older, we're less likely to discover or appreciate *new* music.
Any new music will be subconsciously filtered through that prism i.e. soundtrack of our lives.Look no further than the music our fellow forumites choose to listen to and/or play or musicians they hold in high regard.
It's very similar to our parents and grandparents not really digging *our* music. It's a generational cycle.😁😎I don't think it has to be that way, though. As a great example, look at P-Funk. They influenced tons of then-young people coming out the gates in the 80s and 90s: Public Enemy, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Digital Underground, De La Soul, the list goes on. After that, what happened? Those younger people started to influence the OGs! So you hear Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, and to a lesser extent Bernie Worrell, and their material in the 21st century on either had direct input from younger generations, or deeply incorporated elements of what was modern. It's a beautiful cross-stream of generational influence and sharing.
You also see this pattern with musicians such as Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter, amongst others, where they consistently sought fresh talent from younger generations to create music that was of the contemporary spirit.
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1 hour ago, dalpozlead said:
I wonder if Modwave have the same capabilities to create creammy unisons like DW-8000..., any one had the chance to recreate old DW patches faithfully?
You could always download the demo for the software version. It's a 20 minute session restriction but no expiration.
Just now, GovernorSilver said:You can probably find out by trying the demo version of Modwave Native. It should allow you to try anything you want with the synth engine, within certain limits - no saving, 20 min. max run time.
Dammit!
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4 minutes ago, Kawai James said:
This doesn't answer your question, however the P-125a is the version of the P-125 *without* the useful USB audio interface.
If you wish to connect your digital piano to a computer or phone/tablet and have the sound from the device output through the instrument's speakers, the USB audio interface is a really useful feature.
Kind regards,
James
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The weirdest 4th quarter switch-up of a product I've seen (I know professional courtesy will prevent you from commenting much on this). I'll be in a GC and I hear people constantly believing the "a" model is an upgrade, and I have to butt in to let them know that it's actually a downgrade, and the GC associates are surprised too. The 225 has USB Audio, so it's not like it was a permanent gear shift in feature set, either.
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@pjd wrote up a really good review that my fingers agreed with last year when I tried it myself. The keybed was surprisingly "springy", at my local GC the 125 and 225 were right on top of each other so I got to immediately A/B them and found myself preferring the 125.
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Have fun with the keybed.
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10 minutes ago, allan_evett said:
I'd check out the CK88 again. The action is a well-weighted 88, but my hands don't experience fatigue from it. Compared to our Kawai upright, it's a nice break - especially when dealing with some mild carpal tunnel symptoms, also finger tip tingles - courtesy of the current med I'm taking (which will hopefully be reduced over the next several months).
The CK is a well-designed instrument, with many thoughtful features. The variety of pianos are highly playable, and it works wonderfully as a controller for RV 275, Synthogy Ivory and the premium NI pianos.
I've never actually tried GHS as a VST controller, how's its velocity output? I go really back and forth on PHA4, but its range of MIDI output is impeccable.
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35 minutes ago, Justin Havu said:
I'm almost leaning towards the CK88. I remember liking it to an extent when I tried it at a GC back in May of last year. However, the morons at GC had it sitting on a set of angled brackets, which should be absolutely prohibited when displaying any hammer/weighted action keyboard, especially if any part of the mechanism relys on gravity to any extent.
I'm not a big fan of GHS, but it's a really fun board.
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7 minutes ago, Adan said:
I wonder if it makes sense to say an action can be heavy but at the same time not fatiguing. For me, this kind of gets into an area where semantics starts to fail, but that could just be because I don't know the right words. i can play the Numa X GT for hours without feeling fatigue, but maybe it doesn't follow from that that I should be calling it a "light" action?
I know exactly what you mean, and that's how I feel about NW-GH. I don't know if it's cushioning or what that gives it that comfortability. I'd love to try the Fatar wood actions but those are never in my area and the weight is a nonstarter.
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2 hours ago, Adan said:
It's been awhile since I played the Yamaha wooden core action, so harder for me to make a comparison. It's probably not the lightest action you can get, but it's a much higher quality compared to the Yamaha GHS.
They have a reputation for being heavy, and I get it, but it's a very smooth and firm action, with a satisfying repetition speed and good pivot length to allow for that back of key playing.
Any good tax guides for musicians out there?
in The Keyboard Corner
Posted
Not particularly, and I haven't seen cause to worry over the past few years, but as Nowarezman said, always best to consult with a pro. I was deemed low risk by Turbotax, but functionally, the area I claim--through careful measurements of my work area's dimensions--really just is used for work, so if an auditor wanted to investigate further, I feel like the truth will bear me out. As long as they don't find the bodies, I think I'll be okay.