From bw@ashbysolutions.com Thu Jan 24 07:22:49 2013
Subject:Re: Yamaha Entering The Fray ??? / My New Approach

Sorry, sounds like big-company marketing hype to me. And given Yamaha's
past record -- lots of synths and workstations, almost no clonewheels --
I don't expect their new keyboard(s) to give Nord or KeyB any
indigestion. Maybe I'm wrong ...

________
It's weird: I'm kind of GAS'd out this year. I made a decision in July
to rein in my 'next greatest thing' urges and start to really delve
under the hood of what I have. I remember a 'mini-shootout' that I and
two other members of this list did a few years back. It was my BX-3 vs.
an NE2 and an XK-3, all through my LowBoy From Hell™ Leslie. Each clone
had good/bad points, but my BX-3 won, by agreement of all three
participants. But here's the thing: *none* of us was willing to say,
"So, the BX-3 is the best clone to buy." At that point, thought, I had
owned the BX for 4-5 years, preceded by a CX-3. Given how tweakable
Korg organs are, I had 6+ years of fiddling under the hood to make that
Korg sound as good as possible. I started with Dave Jacques' data from
comparing his four B-3s to the Korg, then changed my mind about leakage,
overtones, EQ (organ and amp), etc. four or five times while listening
to some of my early influences. The end result was closer to the mark
than most rigs. If we had more time -- probably a LOT more time -- I
would have considered going under the XK-3's hood and seeing what I
could do along the same lines. The NE2 is a lot less tweakable, but a
little EQ and menu fiddling might have changed things there, too.

Anyway, this year I decided to take the same approach with the gear I
already have. The release of a sound editor for my Kurzweil SP4-7
helped the decision a little. (The SP4 has a lot of synth editing
power, but no built-in UI.) Then, to 'nail the lid' on things, I did
something I always wanted to do: completely duplicated my stage rig!
(I love to play; I hate to schlep gear.) I now own *two* NE3s, *two*
SP4-7s, and *two* DSI Tetra synth modules. They sit on identical
Standtastic keyboard stands, and go into identical Behringer rack
mixers. I stopped short of duplicating the amplification system due to
cost -- I've probably got an extra $500-600 invested in 'pretty-ness'
that isn't really necessary for the tone -- and because my stage amp
system is kind of overkill for a practice room. But the main rig sounds
so much like a pair of studio monitors that I subbed with a pair of
Prodipe Pro Ribbon 8s. So, now I can jump from the gig to rehearsals in
style. But to move to something else, I'd have to sell twice the gear
(or get a divorce!), and take twice the hit while selling it. So, I'm
not in the market for any keyboards in the near future.

Guitars and PA? Not so much ... :-D

Regards,

-BW

Bruce Wahler
Ashby Solutions.com™
bw@ashbysolutions.com
http://music.ashbysolutions.com
877.55.ASHBY (877.552.7429)

On 1/24/2013 8:41 AM, Peter J. Previte, Jr. wrote:
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