Ok, Ok, so I took a couple (or so) weeks vacation from sz..is that any reason for me to feel like Rip Van Tinkle (as in tinkling on the keys, not the other)

Bad enough the technology speeds by so fast..now I've fallen behind on the acronyms, too? never saw TOTL before, now I see it everywhere. Guess i have to hit sz every single day or I will be superannuated if not archaic.

Somebody pleeeeeeeez fill me in..TOTL?

Take Out Thai Lunch?
Tapdance On The Loungegig?
Trash Our Terrible Leader? (hope it's that one)

Miami Mo

PS..anybody but me sick enough to think about using the Korg X-50 or Roland DW7 or any other even lighter or more micro advanced Kb's out there as sort of a Keytar? anybody actually tried doing that? I just bought and sold a Yamaha keytar on ebay..had fun at a jam for one night, got a lot of positive attention, but that's not the axe i would want to use again...and I wouldn't want to have to
carry around a module to jam w/the Casio Ax1 or Roland AX7. That x-50 has the two handles on the ends you could hook a strap up to..and seems like some controls are convenient to the left hand on the upper left of kb..C'mon, fess up, come out of the closet, keytarists!

Top Of The Line - as in the best.

No keytarist here. It would be difficult with an 88 key Mediastation.

Thank You Richard.

MIAMI MOTL

ps..88key mediastaion as keytar?
now why didn't i think of that!
BRILLIANT!

I still have a Yamaha KX5 strap-on, and still use it extensively for jamming out or sitting in. I use a Roland MGS-64 module with it. It is the perfect tool for sitting in without taking up hardly any space, and I love the 'one hand' approach for jamming, stops you from playing too much! I even had a 4-piece gig at a casino in Tunica that the stage was SO small ('how small was it..?') that there was NO room for a full keyboard, and I used just the KX5 for about six months! You learn a LOT about 'less is more' that way!

Other, more recent strap-ons have far better MIDI implementation, and bigger and more keys, but there is something about the KX5's pitch strip that I find MUCH more comfortable to play. It just falls under your fingers like a good guitar neck, and allows you to do incredible things like hammer-on/offs, trills, legato passages with horn sounds (just 'jump' to the note instead of playing it, and the note doesn't re-trigger - kind of like a poor man's SA voice), pedal steel licks.... I love it!

But it's MIDI sucks! Only PC#'s up to 64 (that's why I use the MGS-64, you can reprogram the PC#'s), only velocity to about 110 (like the old DX7), only MIDI channels 1&2... It's definitely a relic! I wish Yamaha would re-introduce one with modern MIDI but the same form factor (especially the controls)....

I have touch strips on my K2500 and Triton, but there is something different about using one when your hand wraps around it like a guitar neck. It just feels natural, and I still tend to use the KX5 for studio productions to drive other synths when I need touch-strip bending tricks.

Anybody else still using strap-ons? (No, not THAT kind, Donny! )

Depending on the type of group I was playing with, I would use a Yamaha CS-01 Synthesizer as a strap on...small, mini key and great analog sound...and it had a breath controller!

It didn't have MIDI but its own sound was quite fat and rich...monophonic only, but a super lead synth.

Great for bass...it had a 32' oscillator setting.

I still have it.

I also used a Casio CZ-1000 as a strap on...never used the MIDI, but, like the CS-01, it wasn't needed...the sound was great.

The CZ-1000 was also 8 note polyphonic so I could comp on it as well, although it sounded better in double or stacked mode with the resultant loss in poly(down to four).

The keys, unfortunately were not velocity/after-touch sensitive, but they were full size and the instrument was very light and easy to use in the strap on position.

It had a wicked feedback guitar patch.

Ian



------------------
Common misconception...size and weight equal quality and performance. Don't be fooled.