J.F.N.

May 22

Re: Back to black

"It isn’t surprising to see tracks from Back to Black among the singer’s top tracks.

What may be surprising is the amount of streams these tracks have accumulated over the years. On Spotify, all singles from this record have reached 100 million streams, with some of them going as high as 300 million – simply outstanding results for an album released in 2006."

Source:

https://chartmasters.org/amy-winehouse-albums-and-songs-sales/

May 22

Though in all fairness, they've missed some legendary records here that changed the history of music, this feels like some youngsters who have no idea what really happened in the 20th century.

May 22

43 minutes ago, CyberGene said:

1. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), Lauryn Hill

2. Thriller (1982), Michael Jackson

3. Abbey Road (1969), The Beatles

4. Purple Rain (1984), Prince & The Revolution

5. Blonde (2016), Frank Ocean

6. Songs in the Key of Life (1976), Stevie Wonder

7. good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012), Kendrick Lamar

8. Back to Black (2006), Amy Winehouse

9. Nevermind (1991), Nirvana

10. Lemonade (2016), Beyoncé

I must be missing something enormous here but I've never heard about Lauryn Hill before, and apparently it's not a new album since it's from 1998 and I was born in 1979. I just started listening to it and I couldn't, it sounds like complete crap to my ears!

Can someone explain to me what dafuq is going on here?! Is that something US people know well and love? Do you consider that album the GOAT? 🤔

FWIW, I haven't heard of Kendrick Lamar or Frank Ocean either. And not sure if I'm somehow biased, out of my mind or just missing a huge part of our world but for the life of me I can't understand how Pink Floyd might not be in Top 10, whereas Amy Winehouse is 🤦🏻‍♂️

Hello GrandPa!

May 22

On 5/21/2024 at 2:35 AM, NewImprov said:

I know it's not very interesting, but, I got new keyboard stands!

I set up in an L configuration on bigger gigs, with a Rhodes facing front, and a 2-tier stand on my right with a Crumar Mojo and a Sequential Take 5. I don't use the legs on the Rhodes, I've found it way faster to use a a stand and just set the Rhodes on top. I had been using an older Z-stand for the Rhodes, and a K&M 18880 for the Crumar/Take 5. The Z-stand is fine, except it needs to be disassembled to move. The K&M broke recently on a gig, due to my own stupidity, clumsiness, and pure pissed-offedness, after a gig for which we ended up not getting paid, I was tearing down while mad and in a rush, and over-tweaked one of the bolts. Anyway...

I viewed this as an excuse to upgrade my stand game. I got this for the Rhodes, a Gator Frameworks WS250:

This stand is perfect for the Rhodes, it folds down to a small footprint, is really strong, and easy to setup.

And this for the 2-tier, a K&M Omega:

I have to admit, the price of the Omega kinda hurt, but, I gotta say, this is one of the nicest stands I've ever used. I like that you can set up the 2nd tier at any width, and it doesn't have to be centered on the lower keyboard, the Take 5 is considerably narrower than the Crumar, and I like to have it offset to the right, I had to put it on a shelf with the 18880, with this, I can put the right upper tier at the far right, and the a little off of center, and it works great.

So far, I'm really happy with both stands.

Here they are in use:

I bought the Omega recently, with the stackers as well, though not the version with the folding legs but I assume they're very similar for the rest, VERY big and sturdy construction. I was seriously surprised about how industrial strenght and BIG it is, my Prologue and Opsix looks like toys on it.. hehe!

May 22

I have an iPad 8gen that I during a period was running for midi tasks in my keyboard lab, to connect it I first bought a non apple (nobrand) CCK on Amazon, everything worked fine, for most of the time apart from that it was picky with the charging, under some circumstances the iPad wouldn't charge even thought I had power coming in on the CCK. I still have it as a spare in a drawer, but instead I ended up buying an Apple CCK and never saw that problem again.

May 22

Always enjoyed The Road to Hell and it still is one of my dad style jokes when something effs up based on people being greedy/stupid/evil etc.

"Well, there's a reason we only have a Stairway to Heaven, but a Road to Hell.."

May 22

A Blackstar 15w practice amp for guitar, will be interesting to see and hear what you get for 90€ these days!

My level of guitar playing is quite limited, but I like to play and have an Ibanez hollowbody that I use to hack stuff onto recordings when needed.

This compact little amp will be perfect in the living room fiddling while watching some crap on Netflix..

May 21

Yes, this problem should be gone with the USB-C iPads, else they'll experience the EU commission going medieval on their hiney...

May 21

10 hours ago, CHarrell said:

It's definitely hard to argue with that, and I don't wish to, but I can only speak from my personal experience--VI Labs instruments were my primary way of testing these, which show velocity in/out numbers in real time as a helpful reference. And no matter how hard I struck the keys, I could barely get past 107-8, if I remember the specific numbers. Now there could be all kinds of variables at play. Who knows, maybe my seat was too low when I tested it.

If people are able to get the full velocity range without any adjustments, that's great. And ultimately I think so much software now is so sophisticated in how they allow us to tweak velocity response, that I see the full 0-127 response of a keyboard closer to a non-issue than otherwise.

The remaining 19-20 steps are for Jerry Lee Lewis style players.. kind of like "11" on guitar amps... aka "Toddler safe"..

May 21

They probably come from the same product line for the electronics in them, all of them...

May 21

The UA Volt interfaces wont require any extra power, can be powered externally if you prefer though. I use a Volt 2 with my iPad Air M1.

You could also use something like this one if that covers your needs.

https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperdrive-6-in-1-hub-for-ipad?variant=19292802187326

I use that to get both charging power and USB connection to the iPad at the same time, and it's also convenient with the headphone jack on it.

Bought mine on Amazon for 15€ and it includes a short extension cable as well as an option.

May 20

I guess the key here (no pun intended) is context. I just started playing in a hobby band after being off the stage for 22 years, my ambition is to get back in the saddle to the point where my chops and self confidence are at the level where I can start participating in public jam sessions, something I did a lot back in the days, and one of the few things I REALLY love when it comes to music (to the point that this is the only thing "live" I can imagine doing these days, I just need to get up to scratch with my shit..). I was lucky to find this band, competence level is okay, and most of the members are pretty nice people too, and most importantly there is no ambition other than having a good time and eventually taking a pub gig or two, locally, for the H of it, but that's about it.

However, the band leader (bass player) seems to once upon a time have been very active and in many ways is handling things as if he expects us to be a commercial product, a band for hire, from what I have understood based on information from the singer who "found" me (they were looking for keys), but at the same time they are in agree they are not. I had the first rehearsal with them last week (lots of energy, everybody was super excited, good fun!), and already before the rehearsal the band leader had tried pushing me by sending me (clogging my phone) audio and video clips (music videos) of other artists "versions" of the song, playing it the way HE wanted it to be like, and the singer has told me this is how he often does.

Bad try, I'm not a kid, and I know what I want and don't want, so during the rehearsal he started talking about horn parts on some song, and I just took the word and explained that I am not there for this, if we want horns, let's get horns, as there is absolute zero economical interest, let's put up a note at some music school/conservatory and try to engage some young students who are looking for experience, the worst that can happen is that nobody calls! Then I explained that as a keys player, unless you are in a commercial act, a product - band for hire - playing horns, strings, and other BS parts, is not amazingly fun and that it's a completely different thing when you get 300 bucks in your hand after the gig, but in a hobby band for the H and fun of it, no way José! The rest of the band laughed and agreed, and the bass player kept kind of silent.

So, no horns on my shift, but I'm not in it for the money, neither is the band I play with, if I was into making money I probably would have handled this differently, but considering my goal with this band, returning to the "scene" again, I just want to play, improvise, get the nerve back, on the stuff I like to play, which is definitely not horns, strings or any other "fill in" for something that else would be necessary for making the act sound credible in a public context aiming at adding value for the customer.

(he's also imnsfho a quite shitty bass player... haha)

May 20

44 minutes ago, Dockeys said:

There doesn't seem to be any jazz related drum content in the session player. I could do with that occasionally.

Hmm, didn't check that, but for sure in Garageband (iOS) the drummer there always had some jazzy options, will have a look at LP 11 on my iPad this evening.

May 19

15 minutes ago, Paul Woodward said:

Have you noticed that Module got the Oasys piano recently and that Korg Collection is getting the EP-1 and Vox engines from the Kronos? Maybe they are testing the waters for further Kronos engines, maybe adding them to Gadget at some point to make something akin to a software Kronos.

That or an awesome new flagship workstation in the works. Nautilus felt like a bit of a downgrade from Kronos….

Yeah I've seen that too, and indeed, Nautilus feels like everything else they've released as "the new shit" during the last years, recycling of whatever pieces they had in stock for no use... Like last days before salary cooking, it's okay food but not very interesting, and sometimes a bit questionable combinations...

May 19

Will be interesting to see what Korg is up to, the Nautilus cant be the end of that software suite...

May 19

If you have plugins on the master, disable them while recording, known fact that the latency compensation is effing things up else.

May 19

23 minutes ago, RABid said:

Check the 5:45 mark of this video.

Crap!!

May 19

Wow, how is this possible in 2024???

May 19

11 minutes ago, Delaware Dave said:

Lately ive been using kb3 and a vent. 👌

I do recall we having a conversation about it in another thread, I definitely will source a Leslie sim at some point soon, just having a hard time deciding who to give my money... 😂

May 19

1 minute ago, Docbop said:

As chip tech and AI advances I imagine the session player will be able to be feed your past work and they will learn to be you on bass and keyboards. Then you would take a song your writing and AI session players will generate a Demo version, as a starting point to build from.

The moment of truth (for ourselves...) hahaha 😂

May 19

48 minutes ago, Paul Woodward said:

Finally had a play. Definitely had fun with drummers, but bass and keyboards were all over the place. I need to lay down simpler chord based tracks for them to analyse. Chromaglow really brought the drum sounds out, but I found it easier to play bass and keyboards in myself. Old habits and all that...plus I like to think I have my own style so AI keys not really getting used beyond trying them out.

It takes some time to get on hands with them, and making them play well together is my challenge for the next time I'm sitting with it, didn't go so well now the first time but it's an interesting challenge!

May 19

I just got back into this game after 20ish years off the stage. when I decided to get back again I grabbed a PC3 (76 key), I paid 800€ for it and that is about what you find them for, a tad less if you're lucky, these used to be a flagship for quite some time and imho still definitely kind of ish is. Looking to get a Forte 7 very soon, weeks, months... to not have to lug the PC3 back and forth to the rehearsal as I do play and compose at home too.

I think for me this is as flagship as it gets, I am not overly familiar with the Kronos, Motif and Montage, and Fantom machines, the reason I decided to go with the PC3 was that VAST is to my knowledge based on earlier experiences in my life, a very versatile and powerful platform which feels in a lot of ways timeless. If I would have any regrets it would be that I didn't go with the PC3k instead, though I doubt I would spend a lot of time importing samples and fiddle around with that in any larger scale in reality...

The Nord platform never appealed to me, I am sure it's an incredible platform for many of you working guys out there, no doubt, but I think the depth of the VAST was the dealbreaker here, and the fact that I do have my Hammond in the HX3, in saying that, I will grab a rotary sim (vent, burn etc.) and try how that works with the KB3 for convenience when needed, as the Leslie sim in the PC3 do feel a bit limited in sound quality due to age.

May 19

I had a look at these in a local music store at the end of 2023 when they arrived, they look fabulous, sounds and feels okay, but it felt like way too much money for what you actually get, I am sure these will end up as nice accessories in some fancy peoples show off living rooms, but I for sure definitely wouldn't waste my money on one of them.

May 19

Went with the 1 month demo on iPad and fiddled around with the players for an hour, always been a big fan of the Drummer in Garageband iPad, and I definitely think the Bass and Keyboard players can be useful once one gets the hang of how to use them in deep, cool stuff!!

May 19

Checked his skills out on the internetz, great player, definitely deserves cool gigs and a stunning CV!!!

Hat of for that - 🍾 !!

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