From jake92028@yahoo.com Fri Nov 25 15:53:23 2005
Subject:Re: "Beefing up" a clonewheel...


> >Do most of you do that? Turn your keyboards full on and use a
mixer or
> >whatever to match the volume between units? Just curious, because
I've
> >always set my keyboard volumes at about 50-60%. That gives me a
little
> >wiggle room in case I need to bump the volume on the fly.

This turned into a very interesting thread. I'm surprised that most
posters to it don't set up volumes like the keyboard players I run
across and what has mostly been my habit - which I thought was kind
of status quo. The guys I've seen not doing set-and-forget with their
main keyboard volumes are those who don't use a volume/expression
pedal at all and only adjust their volumes during a performance with
the keyboards' volume control knob or slider.. actualy not a bad idea
if you can manage on the fly.

The main point for me is to use my volume/expression pedal as a "pad"
(as in L-pad) to stop volume creep as the night wears on and most
bands tend to get louder and louder. I start off with a volume check
and "this" is how loud I'm going to play at the loudest, with main
volume up, pedal full down, mixer to match volumes for multiple
keyboards, amps or cabinet volume level settings - it's been more
recent that the MIDI Solutions boxes have fixed some things so I
don't always need a mixer. But my final onstage volume is the last
link in the chain, even if it's at my amps, then I really work on
dynamics and almost forcing the band to come back down to the
baseline playing level after solos and more dramatic parts of songs,
intro's, endings. If we've drawn (or been lucky enough : ) to get a
big crowd to soak up the sound, then I'll go up a notch at the mixer
or amps.

Back in the days of V5 and Spin and Roland A30-33 controllers with
Sound Canvas modules, I would set/save individual preset volumes at
about MIDI 100 vs 127 with the main volume slider. Then when I'd
change a preset, that'd be the volume range the preset would play in.
If I needed to crank up, I could "bump" the slider which was about at
MIDI 100 level to get MIDI control and push it up then back down when
the extra volume wasn't needed. So at that point, for awhile I was
doing basically the same as the posts per this thread. But as the
newer keyboards have come out, many with not very strong standard
volume outs, I've gone back to my old routine from years ago of
cranking the main volume up and using volume pedals and amp settings
as the loudness control.

I remember a little picture in the manual of my '93-94 Roland E-86
that showed the volume slider just above half as their recommended
setting.. bah! what do they know? O'well - I see you guys are "right"
too. Likely we should all wind up onstage at the same place aurally?

Walter j <:O you dunce

> >--- In CloneWheel@yahoogroups.com, "jake92028"
wrote:
> >It's kind of standard operating procedure, as far as I know, to
always
> >turn keyboard volumes full on for the best sound output, with
volume
> >matching levels adjusted at mixers, amps, cabinets - then with the
> >keyboard(s) overall expression or volume pedal(s).