Members dfibraio Posted February 7, 2006 Members Share Posted February 7, 2006 A brief intro: My name is Damon. I am a 31 year old keyboard player from NJ who currently plays keyboards in a Queens Ryche tribute band. I know what you're thinking. There are no keyboards in QueensRyche. Well, I am covering guitar parts, mostly, plus the few string parts there are, plus triggering sound effects sampled from the CDs. I am also blessed with doing backing vocals. My current rig for this endeavor is a Yamaha Motif es7 and a Kurzweil K261. I should also mention here that I am totally blind. Here's my problem. Managing this rig is a nightmare. IN addition to trying to use the keyboards without being able to read the screen and make the keyboard sound like a guitar, I am constantly setting up keyboard splits on the Motif, plus sampling parts of the CD and assigning them to keys. I haven't even gotten into sound tweaking yet, mostly using stock sounds with modified effects at best. Before each gig, I have to set up the Motif's master mode with all my sounds in a row to step through. The Kurzweil is not as simple, and I have to make extensive notes on what sounds I need at any given time. My song list looks something like this... Queen of the Ryche 138Eyes of a sTranger 16, 410Take Hold of the Flame, 76 You get the idea. Ever try to play and change sounds by typing in their number? It sucks. Not to mention trying to use two sustain pedals, an expressin pedal and a pedal to switch to different master mode setups in the motif. And singing backing vocals. You see where this is all going. I had many ideas on how to fix this, i.e. using setup mode in the Kurzweil and having the motif send program changes to the kurz, etc, but without being able to read the screen, you can imagine how far I've gotten, not to mentin that I really do need some custom programming done for some sounds and to try to improve the guitar sounds in the Motif to make them a little more realistic. And this is just one band. I also am playing in a prog rock/classic rock cover band with a whole different set of sounds and samples, and sometimes more gear, liek a Roland VK87M and a Novation A-station that I bought to use instead of my Ion. I had ideas of working my Triton Rack or xv5080 into the setup somehow, but the midi nightmare of trying to get all that straight without being able to see gives me ulcers. I need a tech. There's no way around it, but don't know where to look, how much one would have to pay, etc. I need to have things like my pedal situation straightened out, sound programming, midi setup, and other things simplified if possible so that I don't have to do as much work on stage. Does anybody know where to find these people, how much you pay them and anything else you can suggest to help me. I am not an idito, I have a working knowledge of things, hell, I can use master mode and performance mode of my motif pretty well, plus song mode, I programmed the Ion myself, mostly and do all my own patch changes manually on stage, so I am not an idiot, plus playing like somebody stuck a cattle prod up my butt and turned it on. I just need some assistance in the technical end of things that I can't handle and nobody I know is a keyboard player. I've been utilizing sighted help where i can, but it is not always available and nobody has the knowledge I need. Any help yu all can give me would be greatly appreciated. I want my sanity back and maybe you all can help me. I placed a musicians ad on HC, but don't know if I'll get any responses, but it's worth a shot. Any advice you all can throw me would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Prog Posted February 7, 2006 Members Share Posted February 7, 2006 You should be putting yor Setups in order (001, 002, etc.) and then configuring an UP/Down set of footswitches to step through them. I stopped using 10-key selection years ago. I know the Kurz (2661, correct?) excels at this kind of thing. Perhaps the Motif does, too. You might try a recording studio that has keyboards. Someone there should know how to work them and set things up. I'd get things running well if I lived near you, so I know someone exists. Other than that, there are plenty of people here to get you as close as possible. Also, find out who the Reps are for Kurzweil, Yamaha, etc. in your area. They should know who the local guru's are. They are supposed to be one, themsleves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GigMan Posted February 7, 2006 Members Share Posted February 7, 2006 Damon - Welcome! I'm in New Jersey also - I see on your website: http://www.visions692000.com/ ...that you've played at The Whiskey Cafe in Lyndhurst - I've played there, interesting joint: located on the 1st floor of an office building! Now in looking at this pic of you with your eyes closed on the website: http://www.visions692000.com/Damon.html ...it appears that you are serious - you are not just joking about having trouble seeing on a dark stage - you are actually, literally blind, is that true? First off I applaud your courage and determination - sh*t, some of us with perfect vision have a hard enough time on gigs, your situation really puts things in perspective. How do you post here on this forum? Do you have a speech-to-text software program installed? Anyway, as far the issue of getting a keyboard tech. - the Village Voice or the East Coast Rocker would be two publications you should consider, either to find out what are in the ads there already or to put an ad in for your specific situation. Good luck & keep rockin'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members packrat Posted February 7, 2006 Members Share Posted February 7, 2006 Originally posted by dfibraio A brief intro: My name is Damon. I am a 31 year old keyboard player from NJ who currently plays keyboards in a Queens Ryche tribute band. I know what you're thinking. There are no keyboards in QueensRyche. Well, I am covering guitar parts, mostly, plus the few string parts there are, plus triggering sound effects sampled from the CDs. I am also blessed with doing backing vocals. My current rig for this endeavor is a Yamaha Motif es7 and a Kurzweil K261. I should also mention here that I am totally blind. Strikes me that a heavily programmable external controller that could fire off MIDI control strings at your various synths would be the way to go. I'm not sure what's out there commercially, I'd tend to just build one. B> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dfibraio Posted February 11, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2006 Originally posted by paostby You should be putting yor Setups in order (001, 002, etc.) and then configuring an UP/Down set of footswitches to step through them. I stopped using 10-key selection years ago.I know the Kurz (2661, correct?) excels at this kind of thing. Perhaps the Motif does, too.You might try a recording studio that has keyboards. Someone there should know how to work them and set things up. I'd get things running well if I lived near you, so I know someone exists.Other than that, there are plenty of people here to get you as close as possible.Also, find out who the Reps are for Kurzweil, Yamaha, etc. in your area. They should know who the local guru's are. They are supposed to be one, themsleves. Sorry it took so long to reply. On the Motif es7, I am using master mode to put my voices/performances in order and I use the increment button to step through them. Working a footswitch into the rig. On the Kurzweil, there is quick access mode, but haven't figured out how to use that just yet. I also thought of trying setup mode, but haven't figured that out either. What I'd really like to do is midi the kurz into the motif and have master mode in the motif sent patch changes to the kurzweil from a single pedal, but I don't know if that is feasible, since that requires a lot of setup time and the set changes from show to show. Plus, the pedal situation, two sustain pedals and one expression pedal for the kurz, is getting messy, too. Tried using a guitar pedalboard with velcro, but it is too big and bulky. Without the board, pedals slide all over the place. And that is just one of a few issues, not to mention where to asssign samples on the keyboard in a splkit, or if I should just record the key press to trigger the sample into the sequencer and use a pedal for start/stop, thereby leave my keys on thye keyboard free for musical applications. A Phantom X or such keyboard would make this easier since I could assign the samples to pads, but that's more money I don't have not to mention another keyboard to deal with. IN addition, programming sounds, like different guitar sounds and strings, and other sounds is also tricky when one can't read the screen. I tried to customize some of the guitar sounds I use tonight and I just got frustrated and gave up, and that was just modifying effects, trying to make the sound punch through a little bit better. So, this is what I have tried so far. I'll have to see if the local music store has a guru or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dfibraio Posted February 11, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2006 Originally posted by GigMan Damon - Welcome! I'm in New Jersey also - I see on your website: http://www.visions692000.com/ ...that you've played at The Whiskey Cafe in Lyndhurst - I've played there, interesting joint: located on the 1st floor of an office building! Now in looking at this pic of you with your eyes closed on the website: http://www.visions692000.com/Damon.html ...it appears that you are serious - you are not just joking about having trouble seeing on a dark stage - you are actually, literally blind, is that true? First off I applaud your courage and determination - sh*t, some of us with perfect vision have a hard enough time on gigs, your situation really puts things in perspective. How do you post here on this forum? Do you have a speech-to-text software program installed? Anyway, as far the issue of getting a keyboard tech. - the Village Voice or the East Coast Rocker would be two publications you should consider, either to find out what are in the ads there already or to put an ad in for your specific situation. Good luck & keep rockin'... Yes, I really am blind that is not a joke. I use a screen reading program to read the screen and I type just fine. Yes, we played the Whiskey a few years ago. Different band, though. I'll have to check out those papers and see what I can find there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dfibraio Posted February 11, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2006 Originally posted by packrat Strikes me that a heavily programmable external controller that could fire off MIDI control strings at your various synths would be the way to go. I'm not sure what's out there commercially, I'd tend to just build one.B> Would be a little tricky to build and maybe harder to operate. I have two keyboards already that have extensive controller possibilities, just need the eyeballs and the man with the knowledge to teach me the ins and outs. I have some knowledge, but getting it to be applied is another issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GigMan Posted February 11, 2006 Members Share Posted February 11, 2006 Damon -If you live in Fords, NJ (I live up near Morristown, NJ) - what store do you usually go to: Sam Ash in Edison? Rondo Music in Union? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dfibraio Posted February 11, 2006 Author Members Share Posted February 11, 2006 Originally posted by GigMan Damon -If you live in Fords, NJ (I live up near Morristown, NJ) - what store do you usually go to: Sam Ash in Edison? Rondo Music in Union? Mostly guitar center in either East Brunswick or the one across the street from Sam Ash on Route 22 in Springfield. Sometimes Edison Sam Ash, rarely Rondo Music and once or twice to Victor's House of Music in Piscataway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.