Dig My Rig--Let's see your setup!

[obxa]

Finally some shots (and long post sorry.....).

 

 This is my "oldies-pit band" set up.  For once, I  was actually happy with this rig.   Couple of theater shows  from this past weekend with the Drifters and Coasters.     First time out  replacing my Yamaha slab and using the Numa with them, which I (and band) were delighted with.      Finally found the sweet spot to tweaking Numa  for live use: Turn the string release and duplex to bare minimum.  Not seen: Macbook air.  Nord does heavy lifting  strings/organ. Mainstage does additional layers with 8dio, Spitfire, and Wavestation app .   I could probably just do one keyboard, but my brain is wired for weighted piano type stuff on bottom and everything else on top.  Had no problem using just 73 keys- and loved the compact size. 

 

Some stand  notes:  Based on some great advice from others here,  I ordered a K&M1880 & 81 tier stand from Thomann.  Great price. They shipped it on time, but UPS  held it past the delivery day.   Arrived too late to mess with before leaving town.    But happy ending, and  something On-stage FINALLY got right:  https://on-stage.com/products/view/13522   I found this used,  super cheap on Reverb a couple of weeks ago and took a chance. 

  This is not the same as that goofy 2 tier thing they had before with tiers  spaced too far from each other.  I removed the 3rd set.   Worked great for my  platform stand and was able to get the pretty much where I comfortably needed it.  The second tier fit in my old Z stand bag along with throne and ipad stand.    Still love the lightweight aspect of the K& M and will use it as well,  but I'll need to do some more tweaking.     

 

The pic was before rehearsal,  so hadn't dressed my cables yet- 2nd "purple"  shot I cleaned everything up. 

 

Only weak link is the old Mackie mixer.  It's one of the few compacts  that allows stereo sub, aux,  and alt  mixes essential for the  IEM setup.  One mix is keys in stereo for FOH  My mix is Keys, house monitor mix (with keys removed to avoid phasing), plus an ambient  PZM mic.  Ipad mini controls their monitor mix.    I wish there was simpler way to do it, but most places can only send mono.  

 

 

 

[Morrissey]

Great setup.  Thanks for all the details!

28 minutes ago, obxa said:

Finally some shots (and long post sorry.....).

 

 This is my "oldies-pit band" set up.  For once, I  was actually happy with this rig.   Couple of theater shows  from this past weekend with the Drifters and Coasters.     First time out  replacing my Yamaha slab and using the Numa with them, which I (and band) were delighted with.      Finally found the sweet spot to tweaking Numa  for live use: Turn the string release and duplex to bare minimum.  Not seen: Macbook air.  Nord does heavy lifting  strings/organ. Mainstage does additional layers with 8dio, Spitfire, and Wavestation app .   I could probably just do one keyboard, but my brain is wired for weighted piano type stuff on bottom and everything else on top.  Had no problem using just 73 keys- and loved the compact size. 

 

Some stand  notes:  Based on some great advice from others here,  I ordered a K&M1880 & 81 tier stand from Thomann.  Great price. They shipped it on time, but UPS  held it past the delivery day.   Arrived too late to mess with before leaving town.    But happy ending, and  something On-stage FINALLY got right.     I had found this used,  super cheap on Reverb a couple of weeks ago and took a chance.   https://tinyurl.com/8z75b7jj  

   This is not the same as that goofy 2 tier thing they had before with tiers  spaced too far from each other.  I removed the 3rd set.   Worked great for my  platform stand and was able to get the pretty much where I comfortably needed it.  The second tier fit in my old Z stand bag along with throne and ipad stand.    Still love the lightweight aspect of the K& M and will use it as well,  but I'll need to do some more tweaking.     

 

The pic was before rehearsal,  so hadn't dressed my cables yet- 2nd "purple"  shot I cleaned everything up. 

 

Only weak link is the old Mackie mixer.  It's one of the few compacts  that allows stereo sub, aux,  and alt  mixes essential for the  IEM setup.  One mix is keys in stereo for FOH  My mix is Keys, house monitor mix (with keys removed to avoid phasing), plus an ambient  PZM mic.  Ipad mini controls their monitor mix.    I wish there was simpler way to do it, but most places can only send mono.  

 

 

 

 

[kenheeter]

I have a similar rig with the Numa X 73 and a Nord Stage 3 Compact. I use a Behringer XR12 for stage mix. It is tiny and very powerful. It gives me stereo D.I, outs and I'm able to take a monitor feed from  the house into my system and send it to my DLM8s. I love the action on the Numa and the XR12 is a real swiss army solution. I can control the XR from my ipad as well as use it for charts. 

 

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I wonder who has posted on this thread the most? I definitely don't want to be That Guy™, but it is fun to share with all y'all when I put together a rig for an Unusual Gig.

 

A local singer I often play with had a 40th birthday concert with an "unplugged" theme a la 90s MTV (yes, we did do a Nirvana cover, and adding keyboards was really fun). It wasn't fully acoustic per se, but an unusual, more organic instrumentation with acoustic guitars, pedal steel, electric bass, two (!) drummers (which we were skeptical about but worked beautifully; both players were extremely sensitive to the room as well as each other), harmonica, mandolin, a bunch of voices, and...

 

 

The Wurli/glockenspiel combo was a lot of fun (we covered Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" with the glock replacing the synth lines), and my first real swing at doubling accordion in a set was a blast, though I still have to sort out my amplification a little bit. A fun night!

Not sure if these Facebook audience videos are public, but here are a few clips: 
https://www.facebook.com/612176802/videos/pcb.10161201667296803/1114626509231901
https://www.facebook.com/612176802/videos/pcb.10161201667296803/699247311592880

 

[Morrissey]

Awesome set up!

 

Now you know you're basically begging me to ask about the significance of the Zelda game.

 

2 hours ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

I wonder who has posted on this thread the most? I definitely don't want to be That Guy™, but it is fun to share with all y'all when I put together a rig for an Unusual Gig.

 

A local singer I often play with had a 40th birthday concert with an "unplugged" theme a la 90s MTV (yes, we did do a Nirvana cover, and adding keyboards was really fun). It wasn't fully acoustic per se, but an unusual, more organic instrumentation with acoustic guitars, pedal steel, electric bass, two (!) drummers (which we were skeptical about but worked beautifully; both players were extremely sensitive to the room as well as each other), harmonica, mandolin, a bunch of voices, and...

 

 

The Wurli/glockenspiel combo was a lot of fun (we covered Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" with the glock replacing the synth lines), and my first real swing at doubling accordion in a set was a blast, though I still have to sort out my amplification a little bit. A fun night!

Not sure if these Facebook audience videos are public, but here are a few clips: 
https://www.facebook.com/612176802/videos/pcb.10161201667296803/1114626509231901
https://www.facebook.com/612176802/videos/pcb.10161201667296803/699247311592880

 

 

[Joe P]

Brought the Wurli out for that one! 

[Stokely]

No pics just now but I made a potential tweak that is making me twitch.

Yes, I have the longer of my two keyboards on top...*twitch*

I'm trying a "hack" to my Omega Pro stand that brings the bottom tier closer to the top one.  Highly technical--I took the extraneous first tier arms and fastened them to the 2nd tier arms (which due to design is also what the bottom keyboard sits on) with velcro    In other words, they make the bottom tier taller bringing the two closer.   I was thinking to do it with a couple strips of wood but I had these sitting there...This has made the Modx7 harder to control as I can't see or easily reach some things.  The Hammond SK pro is now on the bottom, the things I need are easy to get to.   This has the additional advantage of the ipad being WAY easier to read and access as it's on the Modx's right side.

I'm used to playing piano on the bottom keyboard and organ on the top.  And the longer keyboard is now on the top!   It's got to go against some law or ordinance.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get another 61 key board instead of the Modx7.  I almost never do one-keyboard gigs anymore, and so the need for splits is greatly lessened.  The stage footprint is better and I have no issues playing piano without a bottom or top octave.  Question is, Kronos 2 vs Fantom vs Montage (looking used).   The white Montage looks the best  but it would be not so exciting since I have the same sounds already.  Kronos 2 is affordable and I'm sure would work well.  I'm leaning Fantom 6 but we'll see.  I need to try to repair my Forte 7 and sell a Summit first!

[SamuelBLupowitz]

On 1/19/2023 at 2:45 PM, Morrissey said:

Awesome set up!

 

Now you know you're basically begging me to ask about the significance of the Zelda game.

 

 

I was hoping someone might ask. The color theme for the show was orange and gold, so in addition to my stage wear, I just grabbed anything I could find that was gold to deck out my little amp area with. The drummer who shared my side of the stage is also really into Zelda, and he's been playing through that particular title for the first time, so it was a nod to him as much as anyone in the audience.

On 1/19/2023 at 2:46 PM, Joe P said:

Brought the Wurli out for that one! 

Always satisfying, other than the schlep! I've mostly retired it from gigging now that I have a home studio, but this was exactly the right gig for it. I love how Wurli blends with acoustic guitars. Also, even if I had wanted to play a digital piano, 88 keys would not have fit on the stage with two drummers!

[vonnor]

Thread was getting a little lonely on the back pages... 😎

Setting up and local audio/midi system check from last Saturday:

 

 

[kaptainkeys]

Where's the keytar? 😂

[vonnor]

1 hour ago, kaptainkeys said:

Where's the keytar? 😂

Krap! I knew I forgot something...

[D. Gauss]

Played a crowded, biker dive bar last night for drunken St. Patty's day. (Least fave night to gig after new year's eve.) Anyhoo, needed to play B3 on one single song. (rest of night i was geetar guy).  Brought tiniest setup i could that (hopefully wouldn't get destroyed).  Yammie Reface YC triggering VB3 in Ipad mini on a rockband ministand with an EH Lester going to my geetar amp (50's Tweed bassman).  Set it behind the subwoofer on my side of the "stage" (um, floor) to hopefully shield against drunken mayhem. Despite not one, but two different drunk girls falling down and knocking into it on separate occasions, it survived admirably.  

 

[Charleston]

1 hour ago, D. Gauss said:

Played a crowded, biker dive bar last night for drunken St. Patty's day. (Least fave night to gig after new year's eve.) Anyhoo, needed to play B3 on one single song. (rest of night i was geetar guy).  Brought tiniest setup i could that (hopefully wouldn't get destroyed).  Yammie Reface YC triggering VB3 in Ipad mini on a rockband ministand with an EH Lester going to my geetar amp (50's Tweed bassman).  Set it behind the subwoofer on my side of the "stage" (um, floor) to hopefully shield against drunken mayhem. Despite not one, but two different drunk girls falling down and knocking into it on separate occasions, it survived admirably.  

 

Nice!

[Al Coda]

4 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

Yammie Reface YC triggering VB3 in Ipad mini ...

but two different drunk girls falling down and knocking into it on separate occasions, it survived admirably.  

 

 

There´ll come the time you´ll need 2 octaves or less only,-  ALL,- you, the chicks and your axe will survive,- and these "GIRLS" will be yours !

 

 

 

A.C.

[Adam Burgess]

A slightly cut down version of the rig for the Whitney tribute show this year in Dubai.

Kronos 88 (rebuilt from my old 73 Kronos - with the weight - I should've kept the 73 keybed 😂  and built around that!)
Arturia 61 - power and MIDI straight to/from the Kronos
Spider Pro and a Gibraltar Electronic Stand thing.
M2 MacBook Air for some multitracks and clicks in QLab, and for dots.
Streamdeck triggering the tracks and patch changes on both the Kronos and the
XR18 on the floor.
FOH gets 7 outs and one out to the drummer for click and cues.

Last year had an SV1 88, Integra-7, Triton, the Arturia, and MainStage. Was gonna sample some stuff into the Kronos but the Kronos sounds were good enough. I did kind miss the D50-esque stuff from the Roland, but, hey. It's only a gig - and the flown in vocalist was very happy, so all ok!

 

[MontageMonkey]

This is my first post and I wasn't sure quite where to put it so as this is about our rigs I'd ask here. I have a Yamaha Montage with an ancient Korg TritonLE on top. The Korg is muted and I play the Yamaha through it as a second keyboard for solos and such. This beloved Korg is 19 years old and spongy and on its last legs so my qustion to you all is - what 'dumb' keyboard can anyone recommend that just sits there and does nothing but host my Montage? I'm looking for non weighted and simplistic, but not necessarily cheap. Aftertouch for example. Any suggestions?

[stoken6]

Welcome to the forum @MontageMonkey. I suggest you start a new thread with your post, as it's not so much "Dig My Rig" as "Recommend an update/replacement to my rig"

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Adam Burgess]

13 hours ago, MontageMonkey said:

This is my first post and I wasn't sure quite where to put it so as this is about our rigs I'd ask here. I have a Yamaha Montage with an ancient Korg TritonLE on top. The Korg is muted and I play the Yamaha through it as a second keyboard for solos and such. This beloved Korg is 19 years old and spongy and on its last legs so my qustion to you all is - what 'dumb' keyboard can anyone recommend that just sits there and does nothing but host my Montage? I'm looking for non weighted and simplistic, but not necessarily cheap. Aftertouch for example. Any suggestions?

Just while I'm here, I really like my Arturia Keylab mkII. Well made, and the software to set it up is great. You can program most stuff from the front panel, but it can be a pain. 

It's well made, not heavy, but sturdy. Key action is pretty good, apart from organ smears - the keys can be a bit sharp side to side!

[Garubi]

18 hours ago, Adam Burgess said:

XR18 on the floor.
FOH gets 7 outs and one out to the drummer for click and cues.

Great setup, and really elegant!

do you use the XR18 just for your submixing or for the whole show? 

What do you send with the 7 out to the FOH?

[Adam Burgess]

5 hours ago, Garubi said:

Great setup, and really elegant!

do you use the XR18 just for your submixing or for the whole show? 

What do you send with the 7 out to the FOH?

For these tribute shows (no budget for BVs or a keys 2 player) I have multitracks and clicks from QLab on the Mac.

 

Cause we rarely get rehearsal time, and balancing my live sounds is hard enough as it is, from the XR18… 

 

1 BVs

2 808/Perc.

3 Strings

4 Horns

5 Xtra Synths

6 click to drummer’s IEMs

L/R for live keys (piano/pads/some synth/lead strings)

 

StreamDeck - starts the tracks in QLab, mutes FX/and a few level changes on the XR18, changes patches on the Kronos…

 

Was quite a small neat rig for what it did! 

[obxa]

16 hours ago, Adam Burgess said:

StreamDeck - starts the tracks in QLab, mutes FX/and a few level changes on the XR18, changes patches on the Kronos…

Very cool.    Using a Streamdeck is a brilliant idea!!    I do the smaller 15 pad  one in the studio with Abelton and Finale.  Never thought about using on gigs. Would be perfect for Mainstage.  I've got the midi plugins installed, but haven't done extensive programming.  

 

I'm curious, when you mention the Kronos, are messages sent via the Mac output and software, or are you sending actual midi messages directly to it from Streamdeck?

 

 

Thanks in advance!

[Adam Burgess]

8 hours ago, obxa said:

Very cool.    Using a Streamdeck is a brilliant idea!!    I do the smaller 15 pad  one in the studio with Abelton and Finale.  Never thought about using on gigs. Would be perfect for Mainstage.  I've got the midi plugins installed, but haven't done extensive programming.  

 

I'm curious, when you mention the Kronos, are messages sent via the Mac output and software, or are you sending actual midi messages directly to it from Streamdeck?

 

 

Thanks in advance!

It's actually all based in QLab as grouped cues. Each 'song' has the individual .WAV files, any CC messages for the mixer, and SysEx to any connected keyboards for patch changes etc. The StreamDeck just sends an OSC "/cue/xxx/go" command to QLab, and it starts all the 'children' in that 'song cue' in a timeline. Found that handy for patch changes midway thru a song, or to send a program change at the end of a song, so it's early for the next tune. Also, good for nudging slow attack audio parts around to get them better in time. Things you don't notice when doing stuff in a hurry!

QLab can also run AppleScripts, so maybe in the future, I'll try getting it to turn my pages at the correct moment for any sheet music in Preview… 

Found hitting a decently sized button much easier than mousing around, or even the QLab Remote on iPad. Really like the StreamDeck.

I did mail the developer of the MIDI plug-in about adding a changeable parameter to any SysEx messages (like you can with CCs) but, he said nothing will happen in the near future, which is a shame! Would loved to make some knobs and up/down buttons to control 'stuff'.

The MIDI spec for the XR18 is really simple, so quite easy to make a control surface for that. Although, you can go much much deeper with OSC!

EDIT:  Kronos/XR18/StreamDeck USB'd thru an OWC Hub in the rack. Power also provided to the Mac from there, too.

[Adam Burgess]

This is the basic idea. Arrows on the far right are Auto-Continues for any segues.

So, this now just runs in the background and StreamDeck does the GO button pressing.

Also had buttons for previous/next/panic but thankfully all really stable.

[obxa]

Thanks Adam for that. I checked out Qlab. Going to play w the free version a bit. 

 

 Not sure if you've considered using a bluetooth pedal for page turns?  If you're looking for more power in your chart reading:  Forscore now runs great as an IOS native app on  M-series Macbooks, and so does Paperless music.  Forscore can do timed page turns, DS's etc.  and of course bluetooth page turns.

 

You gave me some good ideas.   For the oldies/pit band stuff I typically do,  I may change my MO.  Currently using Forscore (on Ipad)  to send program changes via Bluetooth Midi to keyboards and Mainstage;  and songs are advanced with footswitch.  Forscore also does face recognition, where you nod your head to turn pages- but haven't gotten that perfected yet.     For Church world I'm using tracks/loops in Abelton Lilve on the Macbook.  I really like your idea of using Streamdeck -  normal Live hardware controllers take up too much space.  Qlab sounds perfect for some of the multiple things and video stuff I need to sync up too.

 

Thanks again!

[Jose EB5AGV]

Here you have mine on Saturday 25th March 2023

 

 

And this is the view of the full setup of the band, with Julie checking sound:

 

 

The Spider Pro is less intrusive that you may think. I sit high and my view from there was this:

 

 

All in all, we had a great time and the public was really happy with the performance 🤩

 

Jose

 

[Al Quinn]

Since I've started spending my winters in Florida I wanted to get a rig together. Part of the challenge is that my music room is two flights of stairs up from the car thereby making weight a top priority. I'm happy to report that a YC73 and a pair of TT08As sounds and plays really well. It's a bit of compromise playing organ on a weighted action, but it's on the light side (people describe it as an EP action) and I'm at peace with the compromise since I'm still able to express myself well. There are some things I can't pull off but it's good for most things and something's gotta give if I want to gig with a single keyboard.

 

I did my first gig with the one board rig on Friday and it was a success! The TT08As are on small folding stools behind me as Reezekeys has suggested for small gigs when not going through the PA. It sounded good to me, my bandmates, and the audience.
 

Here's a pic and a video of the YC73 B3 and AP in action. The AP is bit brighter than I'd like but that's easy to adjust in the future.

 

 

 

[D. Gauss]

20 hours ago, EB5AGV said:

 

 

 

All in all, we had a great time and the public was really happy with the performance 🤩

 

 

 

all one of them?    that's not a whole lotta seats. 

 

[Jose EB5AGV]

1 hour ago, D. Gauss said:

 

all one of them?    that's not a whole lotta seats. 

 

 

That was used by the sound guy to check... People later were standing up 😆

[Al Coda]

6 hours ago, EB5AGV said:

hat was used by the sound guy to check... People later were standing up

 

that´s for sure the best way getting standing ovations !

 

 

A.C.

[DeltaJockey]

I thought I'd finally get around to posting a couple of pics of my studio gear. There's nothing outstanding that you folks haven't seen, but here it is anyway 😐

(I'm a bit of clean and tidy freak, sorry).

I move stuff around from time to time, and this is a recent configuration, before pondering a re arrange.

as I've bought some new monitors I'm waiting on.

And I really need to finish my acoustic treatment!

My gear generally doesn't go traveling for gigs, so a private affair all round.