For those that make music with synthesizers.

[Punch]

I have a low-end yamaha synth keyboard that I bought years ago to learn how to play sheet music, do I qualify for this thread?

note: I didn't learn anything.

[esteban]

I have a low-end yamaha synth keyboard that I bought years ago to learn how to play sheet music, do I qualify for this thread?

note: I didn't learn anything.

Yes.

[SignOfZeta]

My second keyboard was a Yamaha that I later gave away and I haven't been able to figure out which one online, haven't looked very hard to be honest. This would have been around whenever The Final Countdown came out. 1987?

It had the same chip as a million other doodads at the time. 100 sounds, number 00 through 99 starting with Piano and ending with...Machine Gun, I think. It was polyphonic to some degree, maybe only on the simpler voices. No MIDI. I gave it to my grandma and I'm not sure what happened to it when she moved. IIRC it went out of tune at some point which seems odd given how advanced it was but I guess it can happen to anything.

EDIT: I just learned it was a PSS-170, a model line in which the numbers have zero logic that I can see.



You can hear a demo here: http://nurykabe.com/dump/text/PSS/page/demos/PSS-170_00.mp3

[johnnykonami]

Hey Zeta, I want to get a replacement keyboard that works well with ipad, do you have any suggestions?  My previous was an Edirol PCR 300, the main problem is that it isn't recognized in the apps I've tried with the apple CCK, but I'd also like to get something with more keys (maybe 49?) and I never really liked the action of the edirol keys.  I was toying around with getting the Korg Nanokey Studio for Gadget compatibility, but I'd really like something with real keys and sturdier.  Just thought I'd see if you had any ideas being the resident musician type.  I'm also trying to figure out what audio interface to connect my Chapman Stick to the ipad, it needs two high impedance inputs or I would have gone with the Focusrite Itrack Dock.  I'm afraid I'll have to get a preamp to use of the other line inputs.

</G.A.S. mode>

[SignOfZeta]

I don't do anything with iOS and music but the Roland A-49 is a terrific keyboard controller. No bigger than it needs to be and the keys feel great. It's for sure made with iPad in mind I know because I saw a lot about it in the documentation.

[Punch]

Mine isn't that old... In fact it wasn't all that long ago, maybe 10 years max since I bought it. I was trying to search for it and for some reason the exact model number came immediately to my mind: PSR-E203.



It's a cool beginner's keyboard I guess, but it doesn't have anything fancy. I wonder if it has enough simultaneous instruments to play DOS game music hahah. I'm not sure if I'll ever be interested in music again but I'll keep it in storage just in case

[johnnykonami]

Cool, thanks Zeta.  37 always seemed a little small, I hope 49 is enough of a span. I may go more, the iPad is more about the variety of midi patches and sound generators than it is portability to me.

[Gredler]

I've been on the fence for getting something so that I could potentially make music for catastrophy, but I think learning to play on a wasd keyboard is probably just as viable for our needs - am I wrong, or should I be on the lookout for a keyboard during the holiday mega-sales?

[SignOfZeta]

I guess it depends on what kind of music you'd want to make.

[Gredler]

Something that doesn't sound like garbage found spewed from within a demon baby diaper preferably.  Or old jazz standard style songs

[SignOfZeta]

Hey guys, I made a new track.

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/side-0001wav

Its side one of an LP that will be made if I ever actually do the art. You'll have to fill in the blanks plot-wise but I assure you there is a story. Think: Peter and the Wolf with nobody to explain it to you. A city blows up. There is an immortal alien. Someone quits their job and meets a fairy in the woods. Its crazy. I smoke a lot.

Side 2 was recorded at the same time but its taken me 6 months to mix and master because 18 min tracks are a HUGE PAIN. Why didn't anyone tell me this?

I thought you were joking about the warfare/narrative...but then I heard the melodic Lazers and Gunfire of The Battle. That concept reminded me of the early Human League "battle scene" tracks...but your music is stubbornly upbeat

Obviously, you need Side 3 (it should be ~18 minutes) to be a brooding, somber, dystopian dirge where we "soar deep into the cold, sterile celestial wasteland" ...only to be reborn/metamorphosize (Side 4) as "the last pulsar in the cosmos"... A beacon of futility. Minimalist pulsation from the cold vacuum of Nihil.  Everything stripped down to basics.

A beacon of hope?
Perhaps.
The last pulsar in the cosmos.



I want Side Deux.

Side deux is done:

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/side-0002wav

Lots of harmonious droning, a good beat, a metal dragon of the id, an intergalactic party ride, though no one knows the mentor.

Now to the remix versions....

[esteban]

Hey guys, I made a new track.

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/side-0001wav

Its side one of an LP that will be made if I ever actually do the art. You'll have to fill in the blanks plot-wise but I assure you there is a story. Think: Peter and the Wolf with nobody to explain it to you. A city blows up. There is an immortal alien. Someone quits their job and meets a fairy in the woods. Its crazy. I smoke a lot.

Side 2 was recorded at the same time but its taken me 6 months to mix and master because 18 min tracks are a HUGE PAIN. Why didn't anyone tell me this?

I thought you were joking about the warfare/narrative...but then I heard the melodic Lazers and Gunfire of The Battle. That concept reminded me of the early Human League "battle scene" tracks...but your music is stubbornly upbeat

Obviously, you need Side 3 (it should be ~18 minutes) to be a brooding, somber, dystopian dirge where we "soar deep into the cold, sterile celestial wasteland" ...only to be reborn/metamorphosize (Side 4) as "the last pulsar in the cosmos"... A beacon of futility. Minimalist pulsation from the cold vacuum of Nihil.  Everything stripped down to basics.

A beacon of hope?
Perhaps.
The last pulsar in the cosmos.



I want Side Deux.

Side deux is done:

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/side-0002wav

Lots of harmonious droning, a good beat, a metal dragon of the id, an intergalactic party ride, though no one knows the mentor.

Now to the remix versions....

I am in my way to work, but you know that I'll be listening to this tonight or tomorrow.



Maybe it will inspire me to create a nice gift for my wife. Like a homemade ___________.

Then again, maybe not.

[esteban]

Side deux is done:

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/side-0002wav

Lots of harmonious droning, a good beat, a metal dragon of the id, an intergalactic party ride, though no one knows the mentor.

Now to the remix versions....

OK, I think I prefer Side Deux?

NO, how could I say that?

King Solomon, and all that.

But, at the end of the week, it will be interesting to tally up and see if I have a preference for slide2

[SignOfZeta]

Side 2 rocks a lot more but Side 1 is better at smearing the sound all over the place.