....and instead of "all the food you could eat," they offered you "all the speakers you could play through?"

I went to a German Festival tonight....sat there and watched the band. Worst band (or close to it) I ever heard. Like something out of your worst reality TV show!

The accordion player sang out of key and nowhere near his proper vocal range, the rhythm guitarist forgot to change chords, and even the bass player played wrong notes. The music coming out of the speakers was just a big blur. I couldn’t even make out the beats.

What they DID do, though, was sing a lot of eeeeeee-ah’s, yodel here and there, and whip them up into a frenzy doing Ein Proseit. But the people were dancing up a storm. I was the odd one out actually listening (it’s a curse being a musician).

I sat there and thought about everything. The first thing I thought, obviously, was....why bother practicing every day? People really don’t really care about the quality of music, only the “volume“ and the “excitement.” But....that’s OK with me....if that’s the way it is, then that’s the way it is.

Then I remembered years ago, I went to a local bar to see a friend playing. Before I got in the room, I was listening to someone playing I Will Survive. I thought they put a band in that night, but it was my friend playing a new keyboard setup. Controller keyboard working a rack of modules and a left hand bass going through a huge JBL bass bin. Everything amplified by a big watt Crown amp. What a sound he had!

So my next thought was: I was wondering what my PA3x (or a Tyros or Audya) would sound like if I had all that amplification on it. Bass going through a separate channel and into something like 20 bass bins. Drums coming out of their own output and EQ'd on the mixer. Then speakers all over the stage for the main sound. Of course, I’m exaggerating, but I’m thinking would I sound as big as that band tonight if I did do something like that? Which leads to....I’m wondering how close you can come to competing with a band (or many bands) like I was watching tonight if you were a very skilled one-man-band (“power player?”) using enough speakers.

Mark