How many Keyboard Players using MC6?

[outteh]

Oooooohhhhhh.., just remembered another very popular sound combo you'll find on more expensive synths/workstations and arranger workstations.

With (essentially) the same concept. A very good combo for Jazz Players is a sound that uses Piano and Brass Stabs. This set up triggers the brass stabs (with the piano) sound at higher velocities.

Great stuff squeakie, you obviously know your keyboards. I use an M-Audio Key Rig 49, USB interface, to record my midi efforts along with my guitar and bass playing. I have an M-Audio C600 audio interface. By the way, were you aware that many of the suggestions you have can be done in Mixcraft by going to the instrument details view. You can take a standard instrument setting (trumpet for example) and adust the pitch/velocity, volume, etc.. You can also use the VST instrument drop down to add an additional instrument to the setting (saxophone, tuba, etc) and adjust the settings for this also. I have recorded some brass accompianment for some songs I did and went into these settings to make the saxaphone an octave lower to add some depth to the ensemble. Also tweak the velocity and volume at times to give me the ensemble sound I am looking for.

[squeakie]

Yeah.., I know about the editing options under the Details section. If you look at my post on making that custom bass sound, I touch upon a few of those features.

What I would love to see is Acoustica add basic envelope control to the Acoustica Presets. The presets are pretty good, but Acoustica could really open up the possibilities by adding ADSR control (even some filters would be nice).

[SoundSquire]

Another key player here. Sign me up!

I use an M-Audio Keystation 88es with a buffer size of 128 for recording. This setup is great with a full range of keys and a foot pedal.

Thank you for the tips. I will try to contribute as well.

[TrevsAudio]

Hey guys!

Not just to revive this important topic, I wonder if the community would be so kind as to allow me to introduce this new theme.

HOW DO YOU KEYBOARD PLAYERS "THINK"

I think I may represent quite a few Mixcrafters who are "musicians" or even loopy loopers and yet are not trained musically.

I'm being perfectly serious here - take a listen to this. Not everybody's genre, but that's not important.

The late great Oscar doesn't have a speck of sheet music around - not even cheat notes written on the back of his palm. Moreover, he doesn't even look at the keys that often too. How many bum notes? Zilch! How does he do it?

What are you guys thinking when you sit down and bang out something like that? Is it chords, basic melody line, finger patterns and shapes?

I'm untrained but after 50 plus years on guitar can figure out basic chords majors, minors, maj 7th, augmented's - even flat 5's, 9's and 13th's. Don't ask me what they are - they just "sound" right in a certain situation.

Let us mere mortals into your secrets please.

[fredfish]

Hi Trevor

This isn't specifically about keyboard players. It is about how we all inherently "know" about music.

http://www.ted.com/talks/bobby_mcferrin ... music.html

Cheers

John

[gypsy101]

Hey guys!
HOW DO YOU KEYBOARD PLAYERS "THINK"

even though I'm not a keyboard"player" I was classically trained but after 30 years of playing I don't sit down & consciously think about it(theory) anymore.if you play certain styles enough you just get a memory for it IMO. like blues & pentatonics for example.
I do whatever an existing song calls for whether it be a melody line,a drone bed underneath everything,or write an actual song written for the piano,keyboard,etc.

[TrevsAudio]

John, that was a most amazing video! Thanks for sharing.

I'm off to tackle Beethoven's 9th

[Mark Bliss]

John, thats is such a cool video moment! Thanks for that!

It can be argued whether we are indirectly trained to recognize the notes of a pentatonic scale or that its just something in the way our brain works, I think personally its a combination-but mostly the former. Whats important and interesting is that the brain does recognize it so well!

But theres a lot more going on there in this simple moment caught on a 3 min vid. Bobby's ability to interact with the audience and communicate so much with so little effort for instance.

But one thing I thought about is how the audiences pitch sounded, knowing it was a blend of flats, sharps and the totally pitch clueless and still sounded so good all blended together! Think about that the next time you are laboring over getting every detail right on a composition........ and remember that more often than not, the right blend of imperfection sounds far better than having every detail ironed out perfectly!

[Tiasdad]

That was a great video, I really enjoyed it.
I think we're subconsciously brought up with the pentatonic scale with nursery rhymes and songs like Michael Row Your Boat etc.
Early learning is never forgotten.

Gary

[TrevsAudio]

I'm also blown away by the ability of very small children to sing naturally and in pitch. Must be a natural born thing that we neglect (through lack of practice?) as we get older - what a pity!

[squeakie]

Well I'm not trained by any stretch of the imagination. I'm completely self taught. I started playing the piano over 30 years ago. I've always had a "natural ear", and I was putting together chords on the piano at a very young age.

I'm one of 8 children (which has in an odd way benefited me musically as well). I'm the only one in my family who is musically inclined. Over the years my siblings would start lessons for various instruments and eventually give up. Because of that I was able to get a pretty nice collection of instruments to fiddle with growing up. When they gave up.., I picked them up and learned the basics on each one (flute, clarinet, sax, violin, and trumpet).

Gypsy is right in that once you play some styles enough, they just get burned into your brain. I'll sit down at the keyboard sometimes and play. My wife will then come in and strike up a conversation, and while we're talking, it's like my fingers have a mind of their own. I've gotten so used to playing some styles that at times it seems like all I have to do is put my fingers on the keys and say to them "have at it".., then off they go

[outteh]

I'm also blown away by the ability of very small children to sing naturally and in pitch. Must be a natural born thing that we neglect (through lack of practice?) as we get older - what a pity!

My granddaughter was spending the night, only 4 years old. We were watching Hotel Transylvania and at the end when the credits came on, the theme song started playing. She jumped in, words and all, on pitch, and sang along with it. Amazing! Where was my recorder when I neededit?
I'm not professionally trained either, been dabbling and playing since I was 6. But I find the keyboard intersting, since I don't have memorized patterns, like guitar playing, I just key in what sounds good and experiment with chord variations to get different "feelings". Takes a while to put someting together, but what the heck, I'm in no hurry.

[TrevsAudio]

Keeping this thread alive again!

Just what I was talking about: here's a new FREE course from Berklee College of Music on jazz improvisation. for any who may be interested.

I'll certainly enroll just for the videos Nice to see my hero Chick Corea in the video.