My Big Red Paperweight

[Morrissey]

On 12/19/2022 at 8:56 PM, HSS said:

I usually carry an extra board to band gigs and even rehearsals.  It's a Numa Compact 2x which is relatively cheap and light (~15 lbs.) and can adequately cover the sonic territory (AP, B3, EP) I need for the dive bar blues and soul gigs I mainly do.

 

 

Similar --- I bring a Roland VR-09 as my backup.

[AnotherScott]

On 12/19/2022 at 2:14 PM, Reezekeys said:

Anyone do a poll here asking how many of us carry a spare keyboard around? I suspect that number would be very low.

OTOH, having that kind of redundancy is part of why so many gig with two boards rather than one to begin with. But yes, among those players who only use one board, I wonder how many have any kind of backup plan. These days, there's pretty much no excuse not to. Which brings me to...

 

On 12/19/2022 at 3:10 PM, MathOfInsects said:

I can't help but wonder what kind of cars, families, weather, or neighborhoods people have where they would just leave a keyboard in a car all the time. 

12 hours ago, obxa said:

I do however always leave one of those 37 note Korg Micro keys with a pre-historic Alesis Nanosynth.  Both stored in a Ukulele case....And.... a $15.00 melodica.

With everyone having smartphones these days, it's pretty darn cheap (and pretty theft-resistant) to tuck some little controller somewhere inconspicuous, and hook it up to your smartphone if need be, and play VB3m organ for the rest of the night. Or if you use an iPhone (or maybe travel with an iPad for charts, etc.) there are tons of very gig-playable sounds you can use. And if you really don't want to leave the keyboard in your car, some of these things weigh no more than a pound, toss it into your cable bag. e.g. Nektar SE-25, Alesis Qmini Compact. For less than one gig's pay (I hope!), you can have ever-present backup.

 

That said, I did one gig this year on a single board, where it was important to go as small and light as possible, and I did the whole gig on the AX-Edge keytar, so I didn't even have to set up a keyboard stand. But there was no need to tempt fate, and I should have had some kind of backup available. I just so rarely gig with only one board that I didn't think about it until after I'd left the house. Luckily all went well. 

 

On 12/20/2022 at 8:44 AM, RichieP_MechE said:

Any good equipment power supply design should have a fuse somewhere, but not all equipment manufacturers make them accessible from the exterior of the device. 

Yes... and that's something else that Nord does right.

 

 

[stoken6]

I had a (near-) nightmare when a board failed at a gig. Luckily, it was my soundless controller, not the sound-producing board. So I could limp through the gig - I didn't have my meticulously prepared splits/layers, and my patch changes were all wrong, but it could have been worse.

 

Now I've changed to a controller board which can make sounds if required, so that I can limp through even without my primary. However... if I have to gig with one board only (and there have been a few this summer - mainly festivals with 5min changeovers) I would do well to keep this thread in mind.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Stokely]

I have left a spare keyboard in my car, and would do so again, but I pretty much use two keyboards at every gig at this point so it's not needed.   Part of the reason is that taking the 2nd tier off my Omega pro is a bit of a hassle, it's also just easier to play when I can have patches sitting there on a 2nd keyboard (mainly organ, on the sk pro).  It's not that much extra work to set up two keyboards than one.

Those quick changeover gigs mentioned above are the times I want everything super light and simple, one keyboard--but I haven't done one in years and none are on the horizon.   Ironically those can tend to be "high exposure" ones so you don't want a gear failure...

I wouldn't leave a Nord Stage in my car, it would more likely be something like my old pc361 that has a couple issues (but could get through a gig).  Or better, because it's lighter, a Juno or other older workstation.   Or as mentioned, a cheapo controller to drive what I already have on my ipad (though I definitely couldn't play organ on everything so I'd need to build a few general-use patches in Zeeon or other app, and it would be nice to have some sort of piano.)

And sad in a way to say--I'm the only member of the band that could skip a gig and have the band play without a keys sub.  They did it many a time when I stopped playing some gigs (kids were young) and later for covid.   Life of a keys player in classic rock, especially guitar-oriented rock.   I reckon if my keyboard died I could just play with no sound and nobody would kick up a fuss, only a few songs that start with keys that either the guitarist would start or we'd drop.

[Moonglow]

I don’t take a backup board to gigs where I can dash home to pick up a spare. For all others, I bring along a MODX-7. I always take it into the venue so I don’t have to worry about it being stolen. I have 4-5 custom screens set up that mostly cover the array of sounds needed if either of my main boards went down.

[CraigT]

I can see having a backup to my Nord Stage 3.  However, to recreate all the patches and splits on a backup would be a major PIA.  Playing straight ahead stuff with only piano, organ, or Rhodes/wurlie would not be an issue.

[Reezekeys]

I think we've covered this topic before. I use one keyboard and don't bring a spare. Living dangerously? Maybe. That one keyboard also makes no sounds. I've been playing gigs for more years than I care to think about and haven't gotten into trouble yet. I did have one failure on an AWB gig but there was a spare keyboard at the venue. Those gigs are of course backlined, so unless my keyboard fails in the middle of a show I'll probably be covered. I bring a Korg NanoKontrol that I can put on any keyboard that sends midi and have full access to my laptop (now iPhone) rig.

[Delaware Dave]

I bought the PC3 over a decade ago as a one board solution.  Used it like that for 5 years but always brought a 2nd board as a backup.  Since I was bringing a 2nd board anyway I decided that I might as well use it.  A couple of years ago I changed my 2nd board to an 11 pound controller.  My PC3 is still my go to board but I have a motif rack that I could get by with the controller in the event the PC3 were to go down.  The only thing i don't have redundancy to is my monitor, if it goes then i would need to use one of our vocal monitors.

[EscapeRocks]

I have mitigated possible issues in my Mainstage rig by always have one of the boards be actual hardware board.

 

Example:  Sometime I use my Roland A-88 MK2, and then I'll have my MODX 61 up top.  Or, I'll have my RD-88 or Fantom-08 on bottom, with my Keylab 61 MK2 up top.

It often depends on type of gig (festival, club, municipal), how close potential shops are, etc.

One piece of gear that I ALWAYS have in the rack is a 1U TrippLite UPS/Surge.  I got this when I had my Nautilus with it's long boot up time.

[Adam Burgess]

On 12/20/2022 at 12:10 AM, MathOfInsects said:

I can't help but wonder what kind of cars, families, weather, or neighborhoods people have where they would just leave a keyboard in a car all the time.

One thing about living in the UAE, is that theft really rarely happens… the punishments can be severe.
I leave gear in the car all the time. Always spares of most stuff to hand. The heat doesn't seem to affect stuff at all.

In bars, it's customary here to leave your phone on the bar/table to let people know that someone is sitting there, if you need the bathroom or whatever!
Would I dare do in the UK? Not a chance. Have to pack everything away if I'm doing stuff on a laptop, or whatever!

Only ever had two things stolen in my life. A massively heavy Yamaha 3-way keyboard amp and a bag of cables. First one I knew who did it, but couldn't convince the police it was mine, even though I know the guy's signature and date it was last serviced - only known by a sticker inside! Second was a car thief who drove onto the pavement and just grabbed it. Not particularly valuable, but a massive annoyance!

Having said that, when I was playing regularly with a band, we used to leave a Sprinter van full of gear (PA/lights/instruments) parked outside the guitarist's house and never had a problem. Not a particularly posh end of town, either!

[JohnH]

My first time being around spares was when I roadied for a well known keyboardist in 2002. That put the thought in my mind to start doing that when I could afford it and got a regular job. I have been doing that for many years now. I often see people say "but it's my only..." and they have nothing for the gigs they have lined up or had nothing on the gig they were on. Not a good situation to be in. Companies and servicers do not have loaners. On my gigs I always have two keyboards.

[Stokely]

Pretty much the only non-spare thing I have at most gigs is a stand.  My stand is the Omega pro these days so it's hard to imagine it not working (basically it's a big upside down U with support directly on the vertical legs.  Worst case, grab a table from the bar I guess  

With no wedges in the band (well, one for the drummer), I have to make sure I have backup headphone amp, cables and earbuds because I literally will not hear myself if one of those goes out.

As simple as it sounds, I improved my setup a lot by having all backup items be in a backup case--the main case gets only what is used if everything works   So it's empty when I'm done setting up.  Having backup stuff in there makes for confusion and delay (to steal a favorite saying from Thomas the Train!  Some of those old shows my kids watched really stick with you...)

[Moonglow]

1 hour ago, Stokely said:

As simple as it sounds, I improved my setup a lot by having all backup items be in a backup case--the main case gets only what is used if everything works   So it's empty when I'm done setting up.  Having backup stuff in there makes for confusion and delay.

+1

 

I do the same thing. Especially helps with gigs involving limited set-up time (e.g., festivals).