Recent visit to GC

[ElectricPuppy]

Herein lies a brief report on gear I goofed around on at my local GC yesterday while I picked up my new FireStudio:

 

Radias: Really, this is a sweet little piece of kit. I found one patch on it, don't recall the name, but I was totally jamming out on it. Have you ever picked up a piece solely on the strength of one patch? I almost did, but remembered that I have a budget now. There was no price tag, so I don't know what they would have sold it for.

 

M3: They had 2, the full-size "weighted" key one, and the smaller keyboard version. I messed around briefly on the weighted-key one, and (after much hunting around) figured out how to pull up the basic accoustic piano patch. In a word? YUCK. And the action was somehow fighting me while I tried to play the patch, it kept "bouncing", for lack of a better term. Yech. Also: When it takes me 3 minutes to figure out how to do something on a synth, then something's wrong with the UI. Do Not Want.

 

Motif XS8: Niiiiiice. Big, probably really heavy, but the action was perfectly acceptable, and the patches were easily found and enjoyable. If I was in the market for a workstation, I'd give serious consideration to one.

 

Virus Polar: What a little cutie! The key action was average, I thought, but it nice to have goof around on the TI with an immediate keyboard. I have to kind of twist around to reach my TI while I play, so this was a nice change.

 

No P'08, though.

 

And that's how I spent an hour yesterday.

[Outkaster]

Motif XS8 is wicked.

[kpatz]

Nice visit. Our local Daddy's (no GC in my city) has mostly recent keyboard stuff but rarely anything totally "cool" (no Moogs or DSI stuff anyway). Last time I was there, they had the Motif XS6 (which I bought), a V-synth GT (cool), and a Fantom X6 (played with it before I took the XS home, didn't care much for it though). They also had a MO6 (if not for the XS I would have snagged this), a Korg X50 (but no M3), Juno-G, and a few digital piano type of keyboards, M-audio controllers, things like that. And some used gear, like a Motif classic, Roland S-50 sampler etc.

 

My wife hates it when I go there because she's afraid I'll buy something.

[ElectricPuppy]

I know, whenever I come back from GC my wife gives me that suspicious look and asks, "so what did you get?" Lately though, I think I'm more inclined to get stuff online than at that GC, anyway. I can never hear myself think in there, and they usually don't have what I want.

 

I remember now, I wanted to check out the Micro-X, what with all the talk about it lately. No stock.

[carbon111]

No Minimoogs lying around?

 

The "what did you get" look isn't as bad as the "WTF is in that huge box and what did it cost???!" look.

[ElectricPuppy]

The "what did you get" look isn't as bad as the "WTF is in that huge box and what did it cost???!" look.

 

TRUE.

[kpatz]

No Minimoogs lying around?

If my store had a Minimoog lying around, it would be in my house now, never mind what my wife says about buying keyboard-stuff.

The "what did you get" look isn't as bad as the "WTF is in that huge box and what did it cost???!" look.

I got that look when I brought my Motif XS6 home... heck, i got it when I brought the MicroKorg home too. Can't win I guess.

[Superace25]

No Minimoogs lying around? The "what did you get" look isn't as bad as the "WTF is in that huge box and what did it cost???!" look.

 

 

hmmm. idea:

 

1) purchase sweet keyboard

2) hide it

3) purchase domestic goodies (ie flat ware, nice towels, etc)

4) put the domestic goodies IN the keyboard box

5) answer the above question and win points.

[carbon111]

If my store had a Minimoog lying around, it would be in my house now, never mind what my wife says about buying keyboard-stuff.

 

That's what happened to me. My wife completely understood grabbing the Mini at my local GC - how often do you see a nice one...or one at all.

 

I consider myself very lucky, she actually "gets" most of the gear stuff...remembers synths, brands, etc.:love:

 

...dosen't stop those aforementioned "looks" though

[ElectricPuppy]

I try to mitigate "the look" by producing the occasional woodwork project for the house. These require a new tool with each project, however. :D:D

 

I'm just lucky that she's as lenient as she is.

[Gribs]

You want to know what was really interesting? I went to GC last weekend to listen to monitors and ended up trying out a bunch of keyboards, too. I found that I really like the sounds on the Korg Triton Extreme. I spent most of the time playing around with the synth-type pads and not pianos or or other sampled sounds, though some of the guitar sounds were entertaining. The basics of the interface were pretty easy to figure out, too. I have always thought that I was mostly into "synthesis" and synthesizers, but I found that I like that ROMpler.

[synthetica]

No Minimoogs lying around? The "what did you get" look isn't as bad as the "WTF is in that huge box and what did it cost???!" look.

 

Lol, at my house that is slightly modified I only get the "WTF did that huge box cost???!" look, she could care less what it is

[kpatz]

hmmm. idea: 1) purchase sweet keyboard 2) hide it 3) purchase domestic goodies (ie flat ware, nice towels, etc) 4) put the domestic goodies IN the keyboard box 5) answer the above question and win points.

Of course, my wife would be asking me why the domestic goodies are inside a keyboard box. Anyway, on the trip home from the store with the Motif XS6 in the back of the car, I stopped at the florist and got her a nice bouquet of roses. I think she's forgiven me by now.

 

Maybe the reverse approach would work:

 

1) Purchase sweet keyboard.

2) Purchase domestic goodies in box big enough to hold sweet keyboard.

3) Temporarily hide domestic goodies.

3) Put the sweet keyboard IN the domestic goodies box.

4) Wife sees domestic goodies box and is happy. Open box, revealing sweet keyboard, and exclaim in shock, "what the !@#$?? What's that doing in there!?? I'll have to take it back and exchange it!"

5) But of course, the keyboard goes into your studio, and your mixed-up domestic goodies box goes back to the "store" for an "exchange". Go out, put domestic goodies back into box, come home, tell wife you exchanged box, open box, find domestic goodies, wife is happy.

 

My wife completely understood grabbing the Mini at my local GC

You are lucky. My wife would give me the look since she would just see the Mini as "another keyboard". Or worse, "another @#$%!! keyboard!" Some people don't understand...

[mate_stubb]

My wife has a system which I have now appropriated for my own use.

 

1. Buy item.

2. Bring it home, sneak it in and hide it for several weeks.

3. Put it out in a far corner of the house.

4. Gradually move it closer to intended final location.

5. Move to final location.

6. By this time weeks have gone by, and you can truthfully answer questions with "this old thing? I've had it for a long time!"

 

[synthetica]

My wife has a system which I have now appropriated for my own use. 1. Buy item. 2. Bring it home, sneak it in and hide it for several weeks. 3. Put it out in a far corner of the house. 4. Gradually move it closer to intended final location. 5. Move to final location. 6. By this time weeks have gone by, and you can truthfully answer questions with "this old thing? I've had it for a long time!"

 

Another good idea but I think mine has caught on to this trick as the other day she said "hmmm let me go into that room of yours and see if I can spot whats new". (She never did actually go by the way, I think it was a test to try and get me to admit something was new). When she starts taking inventory and writing it down I will then be in trouble.