mcgoo

If I could have a tenth of her talent and a tenth of her stage presence, I would be 10 times the performer I am now. She's pretty bada$$ in my book.

Shame on the music director for making you work that hard to figure out what he/she wants. I'm the MD at my church. I don't use Planning Center because I've never seen the need. I post a pdf book of the charts and provide mp3s of the recordings (CCLI Rehearsal License covers that) in a shared Dropbox Folder. I've thought about sending out a Spotify Playlist, but then I wouldn't be able to share edited versions of the songs. I frequently edit recordings because they're insanely long. I also post transposed versions of the songs since much of the music gets transposed. So for me, a shared Dropbox with mp3s seems to work better.

I think a lot of folks are evaluating it on the basis of what it isn't... a ROMpler. Assuming you already have the V-Collection, it seems like it could be a really good top keyboard in a 2 kbd rig for someone doing a pop gig. Or, pair it with something like a Nord Electro, and you've got a decent rig for a Pink Floyd tribute band.

I'm running out of room in my studio, and I really don't need these because I've got the PolyBrute, but I may have to make room for some or all of the sound force controllers.

I'm not sure if it's a culture thing, but the thing that struck me from the OP is, what church doesn't have a piano? That's not a criticism, just a bewildered observation! Congrats on your niece's wedding and kudos to you for helping to make it special.

I'd recommend giving the PolyBrute another look. The layout has never felt crowded or crammed to me. The 1st time I sat down in front of it I spent 20-30 getting lost in sonic exploration. I went thru only 2 actual patches because I spent so much time tweaking. It's very inviting. The ease of assigning anything anywhere is addictive. The PB Connection software is very cool and makes managing patches a breeze. There are excellent tutorials to help you get started. 3 years later I can still get lost in tweaking nirvana, but I can also reach for it and quickly dial up what's in my head. My two cents, because you asked!

Oh. Never mind.... b*tch. 😜

And Billy Preston

I brought the church's RD-800 home once to do some programming on it. As I was schlepping that thing upstairs to my studio, I remember thinking "there's no fricking way I'd gig this board!" With the advent of nice feeling 88 note boards that weigh 30 lbs, coupled with a Laptop / NUC / tablet, I see little reason to break my back these days.

Yeah, it all seems a bit like the Y2k panic. Let's hope it's nothing more than that!

I'm in A Pink Floyd tribute band that has 3 gigs in and around Bloomington for the Eclipse (1 Sunday and 2 Monday). I'm just a LITTLE nervous about getting from our first gig Monday to our 2nd. Could turn out to be quite the Spinal Tap moment.

My updated Gig Rig. FP-30x used for note entry only. The controller on the left is an Atemp MC-1. All sounds are VSTi's with Gig Performer as a host. Instead of a Laptop, I have a touchscreen mounted right in front of me on top of the FP-30x and a NUC mini PC mounted on the pedal board. Lightweight, small footprint and very easy / quick setup / tear down. 1 iPad runs the mixer app to control my IEMs. The other runs Unrealbook. I have charts for everything, but typically don't need them. The charts primarily send program changes to the NUC to call up different Rackspaces on GP. By the way, for anyone interested... I use iPads for nothing other than Unrealbook and M-32 (mixer app for the IEMs). Both run just fine on iPad 3s. You can buy iPad 3s for about $30 on ebay. I have 4 of them.

I had an X2, the single manual version, for several years. Other than not having Chorus (it had vibrato only), it sounded wonderful thru a vent.

I think Steve Coscia (SP?) used to work for Ensoniq. Perhaps he can help. You might also look for Chicken Systems. They specialize in sample translation from one format to another, but got their start doing modifications for Ensoniq gear.

I'm more interested in sounds I haven't heard.... so I'm going to go with the PolyBrute, which I already own. Hours of discovery tease and tempt me every time I sit down to play it.