Official : Show your keyboards & racks thread

[aireydon]

saw the impressive drummer kit thread. 8O
we have guitar and bass pics littered around too, but no softies' keyboard rack kit.?

anyone interested to start.?
:twisted:

keyboard setups should be more interesting i guess, with the possibility of synths,racks, modules, PCs, midi contollers, pianos

come one! G4s or triple layer stands or stage pianos, show us all!! 8)

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i wonder if this works,never posted pics b4..here goes:
simple 2 tier triton LE black with SY 35 below.
hidden below is laney ck30, roland and korg pedals, and yamah dx100 collecting dust.

i'm so glad i didnt sell the sy 35. i would have died with the LE's horrible piano.

no soft synth for now, using onboard sequencer. works wonders for me in jams.

-----------
some additon to the family since may:
Korg sp200 digital piano and yamaha KX5 limited black. i'm a sucker for 'black specials"..its a childhood Tamiya fetish...

 

[Cheez]

I'm a minimalist - so have nothing to show!

But I'll be keen to see a few people's gears - namely Iansoh, lowjk, keyboardman and bongman (esp bongman!!!).

 

[Outatune]

I need to get a digital camera and take some pix... but this is my rig:

Live Rig/Left:
Yamaha Motif ES7 over a
Kurzweil PC1x

Live Rig/Right
Nord Lead 3 over a
Nord Electro 2/73

Stage Monitoring:
Hartke KM200

In the Rack:
Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter (x2) with MPG-80
Studio Electronics SE1
Oberheim Matrix 1000
Waldorf Microwave XT
MOTU MTP AV to tie it all together

All the stuff in the rack (except the Waldorf) is for sale as I don't use it as part of my live rig. For small gigs I just bring Live Rig/Left. The ES7 has two analog modeling cards and a DX card installed, so I can cover a lot of sonic ground just with the ES7.

Did I ever mention I'm a hardware guy

 

[Cheez]

Outatune, that's pretty impressive! Wish you are able to post a picture.

 

[lowjk]

Keys - Edirol PCR-1
Hardware synth - Roland SH-32, JV1010, Nord G2 Engine (<- geh kiang, order this then find out modular synth is way over my head. Sounds nice though).

Synth card - EMU0404 with Proteus X, Creamware system (with Minimoog, Juno106, Prophet 5 emulation).

Sequencer - Cubase SE (not the version 3)

Softsynths - Minimoog V, PPG Attack, PPG Wave 2.x among others.

Others - Reason 3 (but don't use it a lot cos no step entry - hey, I can't play very well ok?)

 

[Cheez]

Hey lowjk, which Creamware system are you using? SCOPE? Not cheap.... Any reason why you use Creamware together with Emu?

OK, my minimalist setup:

Roland A70 controller (in Singapore; when overseas - Yamaha S90)
Mackie 1202 VLZ-PRO mixer

That's all! (Sold everything else)

Hooked to notebook via:
Midisport 1x1
Soundcard: Echo indigo io

The "invisible rack" (the "heart"):
Gigastudio 160
Logic Platinum 5.5
Samples: Peter Siedlaczek's Advanced Orchestra, Kirk Hunter's Symphonic Orchestra (Emerald), Symphony of Voices (Spectrasonics), Pure E-basses Vol 1 (Yellow Tools), X-sample vol 8 (Harp, Psalter, Klavicymbel), Ethno World (vol 1 - East West; still waiting for complete version 3 to arrive in mail), GigaPiano, White Grand Jr (Sampletekk), Afro-Cuban Percussion (Sonic Implants), Prophet-5 sequential circuits (Worra), DX-Rex (DX11; Worra), distortion and strat guitars (sonic implants), 2 x Hammond B3s (sonic implants), Blue Jay Ambient Drum Set (sonic implants), various percussion from Wizoo (Yamaha Toms, wind chimes), SAM trumpets and tympanis (the free versions), Acoustic Essentials Vol 1 & 2 (6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, e-bass, drums - Worra), gigabytes of license-free gigastudio and converted wav samples (ethnic, orchestral, FX, percussion, analog, loops etc etc). Getting Metamorphosis (Spectrasonics) next (birthday present).

 

[lowjk]

Hey lowjk, which Creamware system are you using? SCOPE? Not cheap.... Any reason why you use Creamware together with Emu?

SCOPE system.
Why EMU? Because Creative listed the price as $179 when it first lauched Proteus X. Tempted, I bought it thinking it was a promotional price. Turned out that they made an error and it was just the price for the software upgrade.

Anyway, you need a EMU card to run Proteus X although it's just a VSTi. And I like it more than Creamwares' sampler (loading is a bit hit & miss -> sometimes cannot detect an Akai disc).

 

[bongman]

here's mine:
Synth/controller:
Korg Trinity plus, Yamaha EX7, M-Audio Radium61, Korg SP300
Sound modules:
Roland JV2080 (exp boards: House, Techno, Dance, HipHop, BassDrums, Session, Vintage synth, Piano, World, Asia)
Roland XV5050 (exp boards: Ultimate keys, Platinum trax)
Yamaha FS1r, Korg 03R/W
Sequencer:
Digi002 rack Pro Tools Le 6.1 (bundled with Reason 2.5 adpated, SampleTank 2 SE, Ableton Live Lite 3)
MIDI Interface:
midiman MIDIsportser 8x8

it's an old-fashioned setup

 

[bongman]

The "invisible rack" (the "heart"):
Gigastudio 160
Logic Platinum 5.5
Samples: Peter Siedlaczek's Advanced Orchestra, Kirk Hunter's Symphonic Orchestra (Emerald), Symphony of Voices (Spectrasonics), Pure E-basses Vol 1 (Yellow Tools), X-sample vol 8 (Harp, Psalter, Klavicymbel), Ethno World (vol 1 - East West; still waiting for complete version 3 to arrive in mail), GigaPiano, White Grand Jr (Sampletekk), Afro-Cuban Percussion (Sonic Implants), Prophet-5 sequential circuits (Worra), DX-Rex (DX11; Worra), distortion and strat guitars (sonic implants), 2 x Hammond B3s (sonic implants), Blue Jay Ambient Drum Set (sonic implants), various percussion from Wizoo (Yamaha Toms, wind chimes), SAM trumpets and tympanis (the free versions), Acoustic Essentials Vol 1 & 2 (6 and 12 string acoustic guitars, e-bass, drums - Worra), gigabytes of license-free gigastudio and converted wav samples (ethnic, orchestral, FX, percussion, analog, loops etc etc). Getting Metamorphosis (Spectrasonics) next (birthday present).

Looks like hardware is phasing out.
There are more varieties from using software instruments.

 

[Cheez]

jk, is the Proteus X worth it the card? I've always been dreaming about Creamware's stuff. Is Modular III packaged into SCOPE? I will really like to hear some stuffs from your Creamware system!!!

Bongman, nice setup! But I think you are being modest. This must be your shrinked-down setup. Still, Yamaha + Trinity + XV - you have a very wide range of sound! Any plans to upgrade your Trinity to Triton and the EX7 to Motif?

And I've no idea you're a sampling fellow too! Do you have many libraries on SampleTank?

 

[bongman]

This must be your shrinked-down setup. Still, Yamaha + Trinity + XV - you have a very wide range of sound! Any plans to upgrade your Trinity to Triton and the EX7 to Motif?
And I've no idea you're a sampling fellow too! Do you have many libraries on SampleTank?

Not shrinked down lah, this is what I currently use;
lately have been playing with the Roland exp boards sound. No plans to upgrade to Triton becos I've seen people selling their Triton away after buying it not more than a year. Heard its sound is too digitised and hard to use. May get a motif-es rack or fantom-xr. yet to go swee lee test out the fantom-x sound. anyway as the current trend goes, software instruments sure have more varieties. Not many libraries on Sampletank, it came with the Digi002, so just use what is provided from the software. May venture into Sample libraries.

How about your setup? Is it a shrinked down?
guess you are right about soft-synths and soft-samplers,
it is the trend. No wonder Yamaha bought Steinberg.

 

[Outatune]

Looks like hardware is phasing out.
There are more varieties from using software instruments.

Software, like hardware, is just a tool. There is room for both hard synths and soft synths in modern music production and performance, and there will be for many years to come. Hardware is alive and well.

 

[Cheez]

My set-up is not shrinked down. That's all I have. I would rather focus on the quality of sound - hence investing in samples rather than hardware. I'm trying to prove that a musician needs very little equipment to produce quality music.

If you're serious about sampling, keep a close watch on all the sample libraries and try to frequent the forum at www.northernsounds.com. You'll find discounts, group buys etc that can come out really cheap. You just missed one - all Sampletekk's samples (including their 96 samples/note piano TBO) was going at 50% discount. If you keep a look out, you can get them at a good price. Samples are not cheap by nature - can go up to 3000 and 4000USD per library. I tend to steer away from those as they are too costly.

 

[bongman]

Looks like hardware is phasing out.
There are more varieties from using software instruments.

Software, like hardware, is just a tool. There is room for both hard synths and soft synths in modern music production and performance, and there will be for many years to come. Hardware is alive and well.

Hi Outatune, looks like we get 'out of tune' if we dun have both either soft n hard-ware??? They compliments each other. The hardware must interface with the software! Myself in fact prefers hardware, dun like the idea of bringing a laptop to stage. I have seen so many computers crash in my day job that I dun trust computers anymore. What happens if the laptop hang in the middle of a performance? Tell the audience to take 5 and we need to reboot the laptop?

I think softsynth and softsamplers is growing exponetially for the simple reason of cost. It is cheaper and also the production cost is lower and faster to produce. Hardware music manufacturer now have to worry about another source of competition other than their hardware peers.

The ES7 has two analog modeling cards and a DX card installed, so I can cover a lot of sonic ground just with the ES7.

You mentioned you use two analog modeling cards, do you mean you have 2 PLG-AN cards installed to the ES7 ??? Strange? Wouldn't it be better if you have installed another PLG card (AP or VL) to have another range of sound?

Or you had 2 similar cards to increase polyphony ?
Have a nice day !!!

 

[teraslasch]

lol.. i only got my s03 keyboard + garritan's personal orchestra .. + some free vst stuff and soundfonts + some *aheM* softsamplers ...o.o..................... im such a not hardware guy lol.. and softsamplers got alot *ahem* version for a young kid for me ..

 

[Silencer]

should be to increase the polyphony, but don't see why you would want high poly for analog sounds!

anyone has the AP? i've some problems with that card. i love the sound, but only on like headphones or desktop speakers. it sounds rather muddy on monitors and PA even with reverb. anyone else has that problem?

also if you don't press the sustain pedal, there's a tambourine in the background that annoys the hell out of me.

are there any good grand piano soft synths?

 

[Outatune]

With two PLG150-AN cards you can either have two 5-voice Virtual Analog synths or one 10-voice. I've set mine up as a 10 voice (what Yamaha calls "Poly Expand") as there are some pads I use that require more than five voices.

On the accoustic piano front, I'm using the Kurz for all my piano work. It fits well in a band mix, but is not stellar in a solo context. The Motif accoustic pianos never did it for me, but it is doing it for thousands of pro level players worldwide. I'm a complete hack... so maybe it's just me .

On the software front, boxes such as the Muse Receptor and the new ASB line from Creamware are interesting... software running on a dedicated hardware platforms.

You could say that is what most VAs are anyway...

If you believe my agent we'll be gigging again in a few weeks, and you are all most welcome to come on down and see the rig. Dates and location TBA.

 

[bongman]

that's very interesting,
this forum indeed is very informative. :idea:
I benefited and I hope I did contribute.

would be very glad if you can let us know your coming gig,
will drop by to see your rig and give you support.

 

[Cheez]

are there any good grand piano soft synths?

Tons of them!!!!

For standalones, you have:
1. Virtual Grand Piano (Art Vista -www.artvista.net/Virtual_Grand_Piano.html)
2. NI's Akoustik Piano (www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?id=akoustikpiano_us)
3. Ivory from Synthlogy (synthogy.com/pages/ivory.html)
4. Watch out for the new Garritan's Steinway - coming soon(www.garritan.com/steinway.html)

For samples requiring softsamplers (Kontakt/Gigastudio), there are:
1. Sampletekk - lot and lots of them, including TBO which has 96 samples/note (the largest sampled piano ever) - you'll need at least 2GB RAM and a P4 3 GHz just to play this piano but it will blow away anything you've ever played! (www.sampletekk.com)
2. PMI - also lots of them including their famous Emperor (Bosendorfer 290) and Old Lady (Steinway D) (www.postpiano.com)

These are by far the best. There are Steinway Cs and Ds, Bosendorfers, Yamaha Grands (C7), Malmsjos, (covers all types of music from pure classical to jazz and pop), comes in different perspectives (close or far miced, audience or player's perspective) etc etc. Each one has different character, sampled extensively with multiple velocities with both pedal up and down + release samples. No hardware will come anywhere close to these! After playing one of them, you'll never want to play a hardware keyboard piano ever again!!!

 

[iansoh]

i've given up looking out for piano soft synths. they're usually too big and require a lot of processing power, like the steinway in GPO or require an enormous amount of hard disk space, like The Grand. or something in the sound that i dislike, like the plugsound keyboards. kinda hard when i'm running a laptop with limited ram and hdd, and still got other VSTis to run during the gig. i've settled with hardware stage pianos, and for me it works better than almost anything else. ease of use, acceptable sound.

my home setup:

PC for sequencer and VSTis, Quatafire 610
mackie 1202 vlz pro
EX5
Karma


gig setup:
laptop with traktion, hammond B4, elektrik piano
Tascam US-122
cme uf7
newly acquired: edirol pcr-m80 controller from musician's friend

im based in seattle for now, btw.

i'll dig around and post some pics later.