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[BONES]

I had a Rise 25 and it was enormous for what it was. As you can see here, it wasn't a whole lot smaller than my 37 key Analog Keys and it was heavy, too -

WP_20180521_10_28_04_Rich_LI.jpg

OTOH, my current Blocks based set-up is super-slick, yet still includes two analogue synths -

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[dlandis]

I had a Rise 25 and it was enormous for what it was. As you can see here, it wasn't a whole lot smaller than my 37 key Analog Keys and it was heavy, too -

OTOH, my current Blocks based set-up is super-slick, yet still includes two analogue synths -

This looks really clean and compact; is this your gigging rig as well? I see the UNO in the lower picture, but what is the other analog synth? Also, what monitors are you using and are you happy with them? I will probably be replacing mine soon, so I'm getting opinions.

Light and compact is the opposite of my studio. It kind of sprawls a bit. The heaviest unit may have been the heaviest controller ever made (not sure on this, but wouldn't be surprised): a Kurzweil Midiboard. I think it's literally about 100 lbs. It's the controller I use the most after my WX5 Wind Controller. The Midiboard has 88 weighted (with lead) keys and has a touch somewhere between a Rhodes and an acoustic piano. It has several assignable sliders and buttons and has switchable poly and mono AT. The backup memory battery has worn out now and needs replacement, but the unit is still very playable as long as I reset it when I start. Eventually, I'll replace the battery, but right now, I'm not too concerned about it.

[BONES]

The other analogue synth is the little silver rectangle sticking out of the RHS USB port, a Trueno. I haven't used it for ages but it's a cool little thing.

My live rig includes a bit more than this - an Uno and a Korg microKey 37. I'll also probably find room for my Rocket. At the moment I don't have either Uno set up, it's just the laptop and the Roli stuff, which is all I need for production work.

My current monitors are a pair of JBL 104s -



They replaced a pair of Eris 3.5s which I'd used to mix and master our last album. Living on a boat means space is tight so I've got no room for big speakers. My bandmate uses my big Wharfedales now. I recently started a new job and got paid out five weeks leave from my old job, so I'm thinking of splurging on a pair of Genelec 8010s but it feels too much like pure indulgence. I've always maintained that you can do good work on any decent speakers, as long as you know their sound, so spending over a grand seems unnecessary but, still, it would be cool to have a pair of Genelecs.

[eBlue]

It took a couple of weeks but they finally got back to me with instructions on how to get FXpansion Strobe2 and Cypher2 to recognize licenses when ran as VSTi's. If you want to save yourself some time, just deactivate the current activations (from the Mac menu). Relaunch the VSTI from inside your host and then choose the [Unlock] option and allow the activation then. If it doesn't work, try a different VST host.

[dlandis]

They replaced a pair of Eris 3.5s which I'd used to mix and master our last album. Living on a boat means space is tight so I've got no room for big speakers. My bandmate uses my big Wharfedales now. I recently started a new job and got paid out five weeks leave from my old job, so I'm thinking of splurging on a pair of Genelec 8010s but it feels too much like pure indulgence. I've always maintained that you can do good work on any decent speakers, as long as you know their sound, so spending over a grand seems unnecessary but, still, it would be cool to have a pair of Genelecs.

I've never heard of Wharfedales. Did you like them? Are they indigenous to Australia?

I didn't know that you lived on a boat; that certainly helps to understand your aesthetic.

Space is a big deal for me and my studio is oddly shaped and medium-sized, kind of with natural baffles in the beams on the ceiling. I also have many books around the studio. I really don't have a clue about the "final ambience" (so to speak) so I also have IK ARC3 on the computer and the Waves Nx OceanWay Nashville for headphones. They both seem to help. I recently upgraded to a Thunderbolt 3 Antelope Zen Tour interface, which, while an improvement in sound, also oddly played up what seems to be deficiencies in my monitors, but I'm not sure. So, I'm keeping my options open.

[dlandis]

It took a couple of weeks but they finally got back to me with instructions on how to get FXpansion Strobe2 and Cypher2 to recognize licenses when ran as VSTi's. If you want to save yourself some time, just deactivate the current activations (from the Mac menu). Relaunch the VSTI from inside your host and then choose the [Unlock] option and allow the activation then. If it doesn't work, try a different VST host.

I'm hoping that they get back to me about the notes dropping and crashes in Cypher 2 and Strobe 2. I wrote them four days ago.

[Cogency]

In the end it took 33 days, but I'm happy that it eventually succeeded.

Wow, that's super slow. What you were transferring? Was it a single license with their fee?

[stillshaded]

the fact that they've abandoned Geist 2, the fullest featured drum sampler of all time, makes me have a strong distaste for this company.

[BONES]

I've never heard of Wharfedales. Did you like them? Are they indigenous to Australia?

Wharfedale is a UK company who have been making hi-fi speakers since the 1930s. They are well regarded in audiophile circles and have been making reference monitors for a while. Mine are active Diamond Pro 8s, they also do them without amps.

Space is a big deal for me and my studio is oddly shaped and medium-sized, kind of with natural baffles in the beams on the ceiling. I also have many books around the studio. I really don't have a clue about the "final ambience"

That's what makes nearfiled monitoring so useful, it takes all that krap out of the equation.

I recently upgraded to a Thunderbolt 3 Antelope Zen Tour interface, which, while an improvement in sound, also oddly played up what seems to be deficiencies in my monitors, but I'm not sure.

That's one expensive interface! Are you a guitarist? It seems to be designed around recording bands, not so much for solo musicians. I've got too many interfaces but I can't honestly say any of them sound different from one another for playback. My Zoom U24 is a noticeably less noisy on input than the others but for output sound the only difference I can detect is in loudness.

[dlandis]

I've never heard of Wharfedales. Did you like them? Are they indigenous to Australia?

Wharfedale is a UK company who have been making hi-fi speakers since the 1930s. They are well regarded in audiophile circles and have been making reference monitors for a while. Mine are active Diamond Pro 8s, they also do them without amps.

Space is a big deal for me and my studio is oddly shaped and medium-sized, kind of with natural baffles in the beams on the ceiling. I also have many books around the studio. I really don't have a clue about the "final ambience"

That's what makes nearfiled monitoring so useful, it takes all that krap out of the equation.

I recently upgraded to a Thunderbolt 3 Antelope Zen Tour interface, which, while an improvement in sound, also oddly played up what seems to be deficiencies in my monitors, but I'm not sure.

That's one expensive interface! Are you a guitarist? It seems to be designed around recording bands, not so much for solo musicians. I've got too many interfaces but I can't honestly say any of them sound different from one another for playback. My Zoom U24 is a noticeably less noisy on input than the others but for output sound the only difference I can detect is in loudness.

I've got to check out Wharfdales. Maybe there are dealers here in the US.

The Zen Tour was expensive, but there was a promo, so it came with Edge Solo modeling mic and a year's subscription to Bitwig Studio, and it was worth it to me. I'm primarily a tenor/soprano saxophonist, also play flute (when I was coming up, most saxes doubled on flute as it was similar to the saxes in fingering. The embouchure is thoroughly different, however) and WX5. My jazz keyboard chops are not bad and I used to play acoustic bass as well (really, just because I adore the instrument.) When I was still teaching middle school, I also played/taught classical guitar for a few years, but that was a REALLY long time ago.

The Zen Tour was also a good choice because I want to leave room for growth. I always record a sax with two mics: an AT4033 modelling a Coles 4038 (through Antares Mic Mod, which interestingly has a input preset for the AT4033) and the Edge Solo modelling a Neumann U67. I don't do this based on my own experience so much as what I know of Michael Brecker's last album. It does sound nice and warm, so it's kind of been a starting place for me. If I decide to get the Edge Duo, however, I will need another mic input, and the Zen Tour has four.

[BONES]

Ah, that makes perfect sense, then. My schoolmates all played in the wind section - one played alto sax (or do they get stuck in with the brass?), another clarinet and a third was a flautist. I had zero interest in music back then. Until I went to see The Stranglers in 1979, I had never heard any music I really liked. That was a single night that completely changed the course of my life. In the years before I'd had a collection of pre-recorded cassettes that I used to play in artist alphabetical order, over and over again. It started with just a handful in 1976 and by the end of '78 was probably 16-18 albums. By the end of 1979 I owned more than 100 LPs and in 1981 I bought my first instrument, a Roland SH1000. Everything kind of snowballed from there.

[dlandis]

Ah, that makes perfect sense, then. My schoolmates all played in the wind section - one played alto sax (or do they get stuck in with the brass?), another clarinet and a third was a flautist. I had zero interest in music back then. Until I went to see The Stranglers in 1979, I had never heard any music I really liked. That was a single night that completely changed the course of my life. In the years before I'd had a collection of pre-recorded cassettes that I used to play in artist alphabetical order, over and over again. It started with just a handful in 1976 and by the end of '78 was probably 16-18 albums. By the end of 1979 I owned more than 100 LPs and in 1981 I bought my first instrument, a Roland SH1000. Everything kind of snowballed from there.

You know, I'm wary about commenting on whether saxes are to be classified woodwinds or brass. I cited the historical reasoning about this a little bit ago on KVR and was rewarded with some of the most asinine and unsupported opinionated drivel I've read anywhere. And you know, I get it: musicological etymology is probably a subject of which very few have a deep understanding or interest. That being said, however, one would expect there to be a certain reluctance to make a statement based on feeling alone or some vague, off-handed comment made in the remote past by someone possessing dubious authority for passing judgment on the issue. Yet, that is precisely what happened not that long ago. I will never understand this about people.

Saxophones are best classified by their use; Adolphe Sax intended and succeeded in creating an instrument with characteristics of both Brass and Woodwind families. As such, they are voiced and orchestrated with both woodwinds and brass depending on the situation and compositional need. They are not woodwinds because they use reeds (FWIW, "reeds" are actually made from a type of grass, popularly called "cane" [and not wood]: "Arundo donax" to be precise, similar to and related to bamboo, but not bamboo either. It is a separate biological classification.) Nor are they "brasses", per se, because they are made out of brass. So, in jazz or rock, saxes are often called "brasses" since they play and are voiced with trumpets and trombones. In Concert Band, often they tend to be written with the lower clarinets, oboes, english horns, bassoons or with french horns, baritone horns, and/or trombones. The few times they are used in Symphonies "proper", they are almost invariably used in some sort of solo capacity (e.g., Ravel's Bolero.) All to say, "it's complicated" and probably it's best to just call saxophones "bastard instruments" (as a classification and not a pejorative) and leave it at that.

The band that inspired me to become a musician was (not surprisingly) a Jazz Big Band (as opposed to an American Swing Big Band): the Stan Kenton Orchestra. My father had loved that band and secured tickets for us when I was a freshman. I was hooked after the first concert. I attended many more concerts and started listening to other jazz musicians like Coltrane, Miles, Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, and many others. I was very fortunate to have Zoot Sims and Pepper Adams befriend me as a teenager. I attended the summer weeklong Jazz Clinics that the Kenton Band taught and, finally, played on Stan's last tour in 1978 (I had to withdraw from college at North Texas State mid-semester to join the band.) I unfortunately got sick at the very end of the tour (so sick that I had to turn down Woody Herman when he called with a job offer.) From that point, I stayed in the NYC area, playing with various jazz, rock, and blues groups and finally got my Music Ed degree, teaching until retirement in 2020 (being a heart transplant recipient meant COVID isn't dangerous, it's a death sentence, period; we have no defense against it at any level due to the medication necessary to keep the heart happily ensconced in our bodies.) So, that's where I'm at.

I got keyboard skills studying with Kenny Barron and other classical and jazz pianists while finishing my Music Ed degree. Kenny was astounding; I'd go in for a lesson and ask him if he could play something (or we'd play a duet on a standard) and I'd hear him play something particularly amazing and ask him if he could replay it. As I watched, he would work backwards to the point in question and play it forward from that point. He left me continually awestruck.

[BONES]

My Dad loved jazz and I learned to really f**king hate it. But then, I hate a lot of music. I come at music from the exact opposite direction to you. Inspired by the Punk DIY ethos, everything I know about I have worked out for myself. My one little cheat was to learn how to form chords from a book, although generally I hate chords and never play them. They are definitely handy when arranging, though.

[dlandis]

My Dad loved jazz and I learned to really f**king hate it. But then, I hate a lot of music. I come at music from the exact opposite direction to you. Inspired by the Punk DIY ethos, everything I know about I have worked out for myself. My one little cheat was to learn how to form chords from a book, although generally I hate chords and never play them. They are definitely handy when arranging, though.

You know, somehow, I sensed that (you hated jazz.) And I'm really hoping that understanding at least something about chords doesn't keep you awake at night worrying about your Punk "bona fides." I'm busting you majorly here, but truly, no, you're hardly the exact opposite to me. I don't hate Punk or even most types of music (except, maybe, country.) And believe it or not, there are definitely things I am not crazy about even in jazz. FWIW, (although perhaps not worth much in Punk), I was told once by a Heavy Metal Band that I was the only tenor sax that they would consider hiring for gigs. And one of Alice Cooper's drummers tried to get me on Alice's band (we played together in a blues band.) It never happened.

I wouldn't say that we're exact opposites by a long shot, dear sir.

[dlandis]

I rec'd a reply to my request re: Cypher 2 and Strobe 2 (both dropping notes and crashing). I'll copy my request and the reply here (and I'll let the reader judge the efficacy of the suggestion.)

First the request:

(BOQ)

Creator Name - Dan Landis
Issue Summary - Missing note (in Strobe 2 as well since the Dashboard update), other inaccuracies

Issue further detail - While using Strobe 2 or Cypher 2 in any MPE-capable DAW (I tested in Studio One 5, Bitwig 4.2, and Waveform 12), many notes are ignored, both in single notes melody lines and in chords (i.e., four note chords turn into two note chords. Interestingly, Equator 2 is fine all the way around.) Also, pads with 20 or more voices (even in factory pads in both Cypher 2 and Strobe 2), often cause crashes in all three DAWs. Reducing the number of voices to 16 or less helps greatly for this, but can limit number of notes available for playing. I've only noticed this since the last update of dashboard. Oddly (and happily!), in Studio One an issue where Studio One attempted to revert to the original pitch of a MPE "glide" with an envelope with a long release segment has disappeared, again, I think since the update. Studio One, however, apparently does not recognize the MPE "lift" dimension. I'm not sure when this problem first occurred or whether it's a Studio One issue, per se, or not. The disregarding of lift does not occur in either Bitwig 4.2 or Waveform 12.

(EOQ)

I've since found out that the ignoring of LIFT in Studio One is not an aberration as such, but the PreSonus development team considers it a separate "feature request" (that they haven't gotten around to yet) though they claim to support MPE as a standard. I guess "4/5 of a standard" is good enough for them. Somehow, this reminds me of how they handled Poly AT in earlier versions.

The reply from ROLI:

(BOQ)

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for getting in touch with ROLI Support.

This sounds like it is related to MIDI channels coming from the Seaboard. Do you have the Seaboard Block in MPE mode, multi-channel or single-channel mode? Please ensure it is in MPE mode. Also bear in mind that MPE uses all 16 MIDI channels, so the maximum polyphony whilst retaining per-note modulations is 16.

Let me know if you had any other questions and I'll be happy to help.

Kind regards,

Joe
Creator Support Technical Lead | Luminary ROLI

(EOQ)

I, in reply, answered his question directly (which I won't quote here), sent them the Cypher 2 and Strobe 2 diagnostic logs (which do not look "correct" to me), some other info, a rating of "average" (I guess I felt charitable) and this last note:

(BOQ)

While it is true that the MPE setup directions contained in the suggestion enclosed need to be ascertained before one can proceed with any meaningful further attempts at remediation, in and of itself, the suggestion is only the first step to clear any obvious missteps by the user out of the way; it isn't a solution to the actual reported issue at all. The fact that other MPE applications are working as expected should immediately remove this suggestion from consideration.

(EOQ)

SO, while the techie did answer my request within four days, the "attempt at remediation" was useless in my case. I am waiting for a further response.

Offered in the spirit of FWIW.