From eslawson@comcast.net Thu Oct 10 18:52:40 2002
Subject:Re: Live Sounds (was CX3 Frequency Deficiencies)

Tony,

You're right...the MKS20 is a killer piano sound for live setting
(not so good for recording). I used one back in the late 80's/early
90's and liked it a lot. As for polyphony, it was only 16 voice
polyphonic (I refreshed my memory with my old Roland literature),
which was decent for a 1986 piece of gear. A drawback of this was
using the damper pedal resulting in some voice stealing and note
dropping. Right now, I am content with my 64 voice polyphonic RD600
which sounds great in the mix live and recorded.

As for the CX3 woes, you know my stance on that. I too love the
sound of the Voce V5 and Hammond's XB2/XK2, provided they are going
through a Leslie or Motion Sound. The CX3 is really "hyped"
sounding and gets kind of harsh in the treble range. I could never
get it to really cut through MS gear on the gig. However, on its
own (with Speakeasy preamp), it sounds really good to my ears with
its built in Leslie sim. And it smokes through a 122 as well. I am
willing to compromise a little bit on the ballsy tone in exchange
for the user interface (dual drawbars, chorus controls) and the
killer Leslie modeling.

I have worked with the parameters quite a bit and have found a
decent sound that overall keeps me happy (though the basic V5 is
still the best tone in my opinion).

I have done several recording sessions with my CX3, the most recent
of which was stereo straight to the board with its internal Leslie
sim and no preamp. When MP3s are available, I will let this group
know. Upon first listen of rough mixes, it sounds great, especially
the stereo Leslie sim spinning away.

Back in May, I did some recordings using the CX3 through Speakeasy
into my MS KBR-M. This was before I had it fully tweaked out, but
it sounds decent on tape. If you are interested in hearing the CX3-
>Speakeasy->KBR-M sound, listen to the first 3 MP3s at this link:

http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/284/buzby.html

The keyboards are not mixed really loud, but you can hear the
Hammond sound pretty well, along with some dirty wah-wah clav and
some tremolo Rhodes stuff. Enjoy.

Regards,
Eric

>
> As for your piano story: Try the old Roland MKS 20
> module: It's not as realistic sounding as the Kurzeil
> appears in home settings, but live...it has real girth
> and sticks out big time. Unlimited polyphony which
> was amazing for its vintage. Greg Allman STILL uses
> his live. And he has to cut through TWO drummers, a
> percussionist, Oteil, Warren and Derek. It still
> sounds great. (no effects on board except tremolo)
>
> Tony
>
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