If you want to leave space for the sounds to develop, or if you want to avoid your arrangement turning to mush under the weight of filters, distortion, modulation, delays and discarded pizza boxes ... or whatever... it might be a smart choice to simplify the harmony and thin out the chords. Thin ...

Did you have a cheeky bid on anything? That sofa your missus liked for example? No, unfortunately, and even I’m not that attached to a dusty Linn Drum. :) I had a Linn Drum for a while. Its snare chip didn't work. It cost me the equivalent of about ten quid. It was interesting poking around to see w ...

If you had about £500 to spend on something ES-335 like, what would be your choice? I'm not that fussy about looks (I mean you've only got to look at me), but "vintage" pickups would be a must, I'm not after a high output sound. Just want something workmanlike and reliable. There's a huge range in ...

But Bigsby's aren't... they are just a lump of ironwork specially designed to make the guitar go out of tune... :D It's like saying the Morris Marina wasn't a cr@p car... I learned to drive on one of those. Due to rust, the rear suspension collapsed at one point. The car was about four years old.

Pop music has always been crap. Most of us here grew up on stuff that was harder, more arty or somewhat underground. So that's nothing new. On the specific question of key changes (conflated with chord changes in parts of the thread): There could be some legitimate reasons for fewer changes when ...

MarkOne wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2025 3:51 pm I'd also add that much of Rick's work has been just on piano. From his classic work on Morning has Broken and Life on Mars to his 18 Piano albums

Good point. Damn.

Could we multiply number of albums by sales per album and take a weighted average?

Also Rick Wakeman did much of his work on, Minimoogs and Hammond organs. Both have titchy keyboards. Although he also played piano sometimes. But he has always made up for it by making sure he has a lot of them :) https://pienemmatpurot.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/wakeman_1973.jpg Looks like 4 ...

Rick Wakeman did much of his work on, Minimoogs and Hammond organs. Both have titchy keyboards. While a 49 note (4 octave) keyboard is probably workable if playing accompaniment in a band, it would be pretty frustrating for solo work. Agreed. My assumption is that synths played live by humans ...

Saying that pros would use an external keyboard was his way of saying 49 keys are crap without actually saying it. OK, I'll say it for him, 49 Keys Are Crap. :) Just to add diesel to the flames: Most jazz piano happens within two octaves either side of middle C. Any lower and the bass player gets ...

The thread briefly resurrected Hollowsun. That was a sad loss

.... and here comes a crippling case of GAS.

Happy New Year, gentlemen, and thanks for all the extra insights. It seems that a new controller is launched every couple of months, so "Which is the best now?" is probably question that will keep on coming back. Mark One's point about keybed quality being apparently a lesser concern with ...

Many thanks for the insights, Gentlemen. I feel better informed and suitability guided. Perhaps unwisely, I have just consumed one of the items in my Christmas sock: a large bottle of Soul Barrel Bourbon Wood Old Ale. 11.2% ABV. It doesn't feel like that figure was a typo. Time for a lie down, or ...

Mr Elf, I vaguely recall you quite liking the launchkey 88, or did I imagine that? I do like (and use) it, but not really for its keyboard action, which is OK-ish. Novation call it 'semi-weighted' and the manual claims a 'piano-like feel', but I think those are words from the marketing team. Its a ...

ajay_m wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2024 7:11 pm

SecretSam wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2024 3:39 pm Thanks Ajay.

On the synth side of the equation, do you have any favorites?

.... if you have the money....

Ah. That's the tricky bit. I love my pal's Udo Super Six, but I won't be buying one of those either. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

My cheeks aren't what they were, either. But that's age for you.

Mr Elf, I vaguely recall you quite liking the launchkey 88, or did I imagine that?

.... just in case secondhand Kurzweils suddenly get hard to find, which would be consistent with my usual luck.

IAA wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2024 5:19 pm ... Arturia key lab 88 ....

Ian.

About double what I was thinking of spending, but over the long term, I have never regretted spending too much on an instrument!

The Elf wrote: ↑Sun Dec 29, 2024 5:00 pm I'd definitely suggest grabbing a Kurzweil, if you can. In addition to a decent keyboard you'd have an incredibly powerful and flexible synth/sampler.

It's a long time since I got my hands on one, but it was great. Are old ones easy to service/maintain/repair?

Wow, that's quite list, DGL. My current keyboard is an old Edirol, which is listed there as having a Fatar keyboard. It still feels good, but is only 49 keys, and the knobs are acquiring an unpleasant, gooey surface as they age (fill in your own punchline here). Also, the sliders have always been ...

Thanks Ajay.

In the past I found the keyboard on a D-50 to be a workable compromise (I was dumb enough to sell), but maybe I am asking too much of a single instrument, and two separate gadgets would be the right answer.

On the synth side of the equation, do you have any favorites?

A moron writes: What midi controller does the hive mind like these days? I am a rubbish keyboard player (probably about Grade 4), who mostly uses Ableton and Arturia stuff. Integration with that would be nice, but I am more interested in a decent keybed in case I ever find the time and motivation to ...

Has anyone tried simultaneously recording the guitar with a clean sound and then using peak detection to create quantise templates for the MIDI? Clever idea. I wonder if the latency varies sufficiently with pitch that the template would have to be pitch dependent. I have no intention of doing the ...

zenguitar wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 10:57 am ... capo ...

Andy

I never thought I would hear that word coming out of your mouth. I am shocked and slightly ashamed.

On the other hand, physics.

“There are finish issues. The way the neck is fit into the guitar is inaccurate"

So the counterfeiters got something right