My cheap-ass solution for a second board

[MathOfInsects]

I have been casually looking for a weighted-action board to complement the NS3 Compact. The smug bastard of a Nord has not made the search easy by being so damn versatile. But I do have one or two gigs on the books, including a New Year's one, where a second (first?) board Midi'd over to the NS would help things along greatly. It's those, "Can you grab those horn stabs? We do things like the record," gigs where the time building splits and layers does not really pay off in the way that other one-board accommodations do.

 

I've gone down a couple of dead-end roads. I bought and then sold an SV-1. It was like dating a 20-year-old. Fun and sexy but eventually I am going to want to talk about politics and philosophy. So...broke up.

 

I have hit on a few weighted controllers. But the fact is, if I spend a single $, I am not going to enjoy shifting over to software for one-board gigs where the weighted-key board is my only axe. I am proud of my compact little self-contained set-up and don't feel like adding a layer just to run a board I would literally have bought to avoid adding layers.

 

I went to GC and played some used letter-P boards from Casio and Yamaha. I find the Casio action a little sloggy and the Yamahas stiff. But I would have adjusted. All relationships take compromise.

 

But then I remembered my first girlfriend. She was on the heavier side, but let's just say the best action I've ever had. My old Kawaii MP9000 has been sitting at mom's in her studio ever since I decided she was too chubby for me. (The board, not mom.) One day last week I realized, if that board works, and shipping is cheaper than any other second-board options even used, she might be perfect. Most of the time she's going to sit in my studio, making the weight issue moot. Every so often, she will come to gigs with me and be the perfect weighted-action complement to the feistiery redhead I usually play with.

 

I checked. Mom hasn't touched it for years. Shipping would be $161. $40 extra to have them pick it up from mom's and box it up before sending.

 

I pulled the trigger today.

 

In seven days, my mail-order bride will arrive, and I will be back together with my first love, the only true "hammer action" board I've ever had. I already cleared out a drawer in my dresser for her--not for her but for the back brace and hernia medicine which will soon be an inevitable part of my future. But for $200, I don't think I am going to do any better, and likely a heck of a lot worse.

 

Thus the ends the update no one asked about. One of the many services we offer here at the Insects house.

 

 

[OB Dave]

And there we have it folks, this week's Post Of The Week.

[cphollis]

MOI, I'm doing something similar.

 

I've set up the Nord Stage 3 Compact with presets using the A/B panels independently. For each song preset, the B panel has "weighted" sounds (pianos, etc.) and the A panel has "unweighted" sounds (everything else)

 

When I feel like using a weighted controller, I drag along my older Nord Piano 2 as a midi controller. At under 40 lbs, it doesn't have a weight problem, besides being fun to play.

 

And when I'm feeling lazy, just the NS3C (along with a tiny stand, folding stool and CPS SSv3). I've gotten used to toggling between the A and B panel during a song.

 

Not as much fun, but a nice single board solution with an easy expansion option.

 

It's funny how I'll show up to a new situation, set up my skinny rig and you can see the skepticism in people's eyes, e.g. is that all you brought? Hehehe.

 

Enjoy your redhead!

[Doerfler]

And there we have it folks, this week's Post Of The Week.

 

[MathOfInsects]

And there we have it folks, this week's Post Of The Week.

 

Ha! Slow week....

 

 

MOI, I'm doing something similar.

 

I've set up the Nord Stage 3 Compact with presets using the A/B panels independently. For each song preset, the B panel has "weighted" sounds (pianos, etc.) and the A panel has "unweighted" sounds (everything else)

 

When I feel like using a weighted controller, I drag along my older Nord Piano 2 as a midi controller. At under 40 lbs, it doesn't have a weight problem, besides being fun to play.

 

And when I'm feeling lazy, just the NS3C (along with a tiny stand, folding stool and CPS SSv3). I've gotten used to toggling between the A and B panel during a song.

 

Not as much fun, but a nice single board solution with an easy expansion option.

 

It's funny how I'll show up to a new situation, set up my skinny rig and you can see the skepticism in people's eyes, e.g. is that all you brought? Hehehe.

 

Enjoy your redhead!

 

Cool solution. I do something not too different, which is to use the mod wheel as volume-control for a second type of sound. Most often, it's--say--Wurly when the wheel is down, and organ when the wheel is up. Simple to do by having the mod wheel control the volume for each patch. Basically every bread-and-butter sound I have, has this set-up with organ ready to deploy via mod wheel. Funny enough, the patches for which I like to have the option of modding in real-time, tend to be mono-synths and the like, which I rarely use in the same songs that I might use organ in, so I don't have to forfeit the wheel in those cases.

 

Another option is to set up a "song" with organ in position one, Wurly in position 2, synth lead in position 3, etc, and jump up and down mid-song as needed. I got a footswitch for this purpose (after making a thread about it here) and that footswitch has become one of my most versatile bits of equipment. Just hold down a tone and kick up or down until I land on a solo patch, for instance, and boom, instant color change without using hands to turn that little wheel to hunt for the next sound.

 

Finally, I only recently discovered the "spin to sound 1" thing built into the Program knob. Did you know about this? Slow spins go patch by patch, but a fast spin will drop you automatically onto the first patch of the next bank. This is another way to quickly access a "next" patch on the fly: just drop one in (for example) A:01 and the next in next in B:01. Then you don't have to be careful spinning the knob--any big spin will take you right to the next patch.

[cphollis]

It's a VERY clever board for gigging stiffs like me

 

Significant audio firepower, incredible control capabilities, small package, historically reliable, etc..

 

And it comes in RED.

[Kawai James]

Enjoy your redhead!

 

She's starting to go silvery/gray on top...

 

http://www.kawaimp.com/mp11se/images/background/history/img_ph_02.jpg

 

James

x

[AnotherScott]

I only recently discovered the "spin to sound 1" thing built into the Program knob. Did you know about this? Slow spins go patch by patch, but a fast spin will drop you automatically onto the first patch of the next bank. This is another way to quickly access a "next" patch on the fly: just drop one in (for example) A:01 and the next in next in B:01. Then you don't have to be careful spinning the knob--any big spin will take you right to the next patch.

It only works for me about 80% of the time. And if it doesn't work pretty much every time, it doesn't work. Maybe I don't have the proper spin technique.

[MathOfInsects]

It only works for me about 80% of the time. And if it doesn't work pretty much every time, it doesn't work. Maybe I don't have the proper spin technique.

 

Hmmm....I literally cant get it not to work (for example, if what I really want is A:35 and not B:01). I do wonder if its in the technique somehow....

[Moonglow]

Maybe I don't have the proper spin technique.

Here you go:

 

[video:youtube]

[U.Honey]

Cool solution. I do something not too different, which is to use the mod wheel as volume-control for a second type of sound. Most often, it's--say--Wurly when the wheel is down, and organ when the wheel is up. Simple to do by having the mod wheel control the volume for each patch. Basically every bread-and-butter sound I have, has this set-up with organ ready to deploy via mod wheel. Funny enough, the patches for which I like to have the option of modding in real-time, tend to be mono-synths and the like, which I rarely use in the same songs that I might use organ in, so I don't have to forfeit the wheel in those cases.

 

Another option is to set up a "song" with organ in position one, Wurly in position 2, synth lead in position 3, etc, and jump up and down mid-song as needed. I got a footswitch for this purpose (after making a thread about it here) and that footswitch has become one of my most versatile bits of equipment. Just hold down a tone and kick up or down until I land on a solo patch, for instance, and boom, instant color change without using hands to turn that little wheel to hunt for the next sound.

 

Finally, I only recently discovered the "spin to sound 1" thing built into the Program knob. Did you know about this? Slow spins go patch by patch, but a fast spin will drop you automatically onto the first patch of the next bank. This is another way to quickly access a "next" patch on the fly: just drop one in (for example) A:01 and the next in next in B:01. Then you don't have to be careful spinning the knob--any big spin will take you right to the next patch.

 

Great tips!!

 

[MathOfInsects]

Enjoy your redhead!

 

She's starting to go silvery/gray on top...

 

http://www.kawaimp.com/mp11se/images/background/history/img_ph_02.jpg

 

James

x

 

Its a little creepy to post pictures of another mans wife online.

[SteveCoscia]

...I decided she was too chubby for me.

Clever post.

 

Brought back memories. At about 19 or 20 years old, I got in big trouble calling a girlfriend "chubby."

[Josh Paxton]

Sure, getting back together with you ex from years back... what could possibly go wrong?

 

(Ironically, since I went Nord-free a few years ago after selling my fourth or fifth one, I have started describing Nord keyboards as "like the ex girlfriend you've finally stopped getting back together with and then breaking up again, because you've finally figured out that she's never going to change.")

[MathOfInsects]

Sure, getting back together with you ex from years back... what could possibly go wrong?

 

(Ironically, since I went Nord-free a few years ago after selling my fourth or fifth one, I have started describing Nord keyboards as "like the ex girlfriend you've finally stopped getting back together with and then breaking up again, because you've finally figured out that she's never going to change.")

 

To be fair, the only thing I didnt like about Lady Kawai was how impractical she was as a gigging keyboard. Up and down three flights of my Brooklyn brownstone...blecch. That real hammer action was sweet...

[Tripp323]

enjoy the MP9000. One of my very favorite digital keyboards (excellent action, nice internal grand, rhodes, strings and organ sounds, splits and layers and MIDI control for externals so easy to do). Jam on!

[Dave Weiser]

I have been casually looking for a weighted-action board to complement the NS3 Compact. The smug bastard of a Nord has not made the search easy by being so damn versatile. But I do have one or two gigs on the books, including a New Year's one, where a second (first?) board Midi'd over to the NS would help things along greatly. It's those, "Can you grab those horn stabs? We do things like the record," gigs where the time building splits and layers does not really pay off in the way that other one-board accommodations do.

 

I've gone down a couple of dead-end roads. I bought and then sold an SV-1. It was like dating a 20-year-old. Fun and sexy but eventually I am going to want to talk about politics and philosophy. So...broke up.

 

I have hit on a few weighted controllers. But the fact is, if I spend a single $, I am not going to enjoy shifting over to software for one-board gigs where the weighted-key board is my only axe. I am proud of my compact little self-contained set-up and don't feel like adding a layer just to run a board I would literally have bought to avoid adding layers.

 

I went to GC and played some used letter-P boards from Casio and Yamaha. I find the Casio action a little sloggy and the Yamahas stiff. But I would have adjusted. All relationships take compromise.

 

But then I remembered my first girlfriend. She was on the heavier side, but let's just say the best action I've ever had. My old Kawaii MP9000 has been sitting at mom's in her studio ever since I decided she was too chubby for me. (The board, not mom.) One day last week I realized, if that board works, and shipping is cheaper than any other second-board options even used, she might be perfect. Most of the time she's going to sit in my studio, making the weight issue moot. Every so often, she will come to gigs with me and be the perfect weighted-action complement to the feistiery redhead I usually play with.

 

I checked. Mom hasn't touched it for years. Shipping would be $161. $40 extra to have them pick it up from mom's and box it up before sending.

 

I pulled the trigger today.

 

In seven days, my mail-order bride will arrive, and I will be back together with my first love, the only true "hammer action" board I've ever had. I already cleared out a drawer in my dresser for her--not for her but for the back brace and hernia medicine which will soon be an inevitable part of my future. But for $200, I don't think I am going to do any better, and likely a heck of a lot worse.

 

Thus the ends the update no one asked about. One of the many services we offer here at the Insects house.

 

 

We salute you and hope for continued updates!