blind keyboard player needs help

[dfibraio]

Hi, everybody. Haven't posted here in years, not like I post much anyway, but I'm reaching a critical state and could use some fellow keyboard player's help.

 

I am a totally blind keyboard player from central New Jersey. My style leans towards the classic and progressive rock and metal genres with some 80s pop thrown in for the hell of it.

 

I've had more than my share of gear over the years. it's been an ever rotating arsenal of keyboards, most of which haven't really been very blind friendly. I've reached a state where most of my gear, I spend more time trying to figure out how to program it or make it work with my computer or fight with my daw than actual playing music. I'm quickly burning out. I'm mostly self taught in the ways of playing and midi and sound design and whatnot. Sadly, I don't know any other keyboard players who do what I do, so I don't have a lot of help when I need it.

 

My current rig is a Nord Stage 2 compact, Yamah MO-XF6, Korg Kronos, King Korg, Nord lead a1r and a few midi controllers. Recently, native Instruments have made Komplete accessible through their complete control and so I've dabbled with that and by proxy, arturia v-collection omnisphere, superior drummer and other soft synths over the years. My daw was sonar 8.53, but that is becoming problematic, so I'm transition to either rreaper or logic and I was considering trying to use mainstage.

 

There are a lot of things I don't know regarding midi and sound design and trying to get this unruly beast tamed so that I can spend more time playing and creating and less time being an engineer. And when I need sighted help, I have no idea how to direct them to address the issues that my eyes can not.

 

What I need is help from other keyboard players. I'm surrounded by guitarists and drummers and bass players who have no idea of how any of this works, and they offer to help, but I have no easy means of guiding them. If anybody here is willing to be of assistance to me I'd be highly grateful. Some of the stuff I use is fine, mainly the nord keyboards which are truly wonderful keyboards due to their ease of accessibility, and others like the Kronos, sound beatufiul but beyond accessing the presets, I can't do anything else. Even with the software stuff, there constantly areas where my screen reading software can't helop me, importing contact libraries, installing things, getting things configured, all of this has been a dead end in varying ways and it becomes an endless source of frustration for something that is supposed to be fun.

 

If anybody is in the Jersey area cnd can help I'd be grateful beyond words. Failing that, I'd take any help I can at this point as long as this tangle of gear can be made sense of and usable. Thanks for at least listening to me vent and I appreciate any responses I get.

[progfan]

This forum you've posted on has very little activity these days. I would post your request over at Keyboard Corner. It's a far more active community of keyboard players who are generally quite helpful folk. Link below...