.

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 11-14-2009).]

Ha Ha...that's a riot.

Jeez, Colleen is now wreaking havoc on the Roland forum...she managed to stir up YPKO several months ago, and SVP World a few years ago....she gets around.

Nice lady in person...I met her in Scarborough Ontario on one of my Yamaha seminars...she's a music teacher.

Good to see she's still posting....haven't heard from her in a while.

Fun read.

Ian, did you catch that little plug from Diki?




-mike

Yes, I did, Mike...too funny.

Looking at the dates on the posts, this was quite some time ago...I thought it was recent.

I believe I was in having my surgery when this stuff was posted...that's why I missed it.

Anything for a cheap shot, uh? And then go whining when it turns against you. Bah!

Taike

------------------
Bo pen nyang.

Actually, I thought Diki handled himself rather well....and it was rather funny.

Oh, I'm not referring to Diki, Ian. Just wonder what's the main reason of this thread. It's certainly not about the G70.

Taike

------------------
Bo pen nyang.

I'm sorry, my friend...I understand exactly what you mean, now.

I hope it's not a desperate move.

I very nearly did something similar sometime ago, and, if it hadn't been for friend Chas bringing it to my attention, I would have made a big mistake, and lost my credibility, at the very least, in the eyes of those who mattered to me.

I know I will always be grateful to Chas for his diplomatic intervention...even though, rumor has it, he doesn't like arranger keyboards very much.

Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 11-03-2009).]

Huh, what have you been smoking? I've never done anything diplomatic in my entire life, and to heck with anyone that says I have.

As for arranger keyboards, I have mixed feeling about them (sorta like Russ).

PRO's:
They're a lot of fun and they even sometimes inspire ideas for writing or arranging.

They're great for studying parts (like drums, bass, or brass) that you might not otherwise be familiar with.

They make nice simple-to-use drum machines, although a tad expensive.

CON's:

They never play a song the way I want it played.

I (and this is just me) just don't view them as legitimate musical instruments WHEN USED IN ARRANGER (STYLE) MODE, no matter what technique you use; full keyboard mode, etc.

They force you to play in an unnatural way to accommodate chord recognition and completely 'blows' your left hand technique.

They draw ridicule from the other 98% of musicians who DON'T use them. Whether this is justified or not is arguable.

Except for OMBs, almost no one uses them on normal gigs (although some of the features would make them quite easy to use in a band setting).

There is a stigma that says, 'you can't play' or 'if you can, you don't play that well'.

Everything arranger-based sounds dated (to me). Although the capability to tweak or individualize styles is there, very few actually do it, making arranger performances VERY identifiable and leaving only vocals (or sidemen, frontmen) to differentiate one arranger performance from another.

Other than that, I like the little buggers. If I had to rate all my current keyboards (plugged in and active) in terms of pleasure/fun/inspiration, etc., it would be something like this:

Nord C1-------------95% (would be 100% if there were no B3's in the world)

Roland VP550--------70% (soon to be replaced by VP770)

Triton Classic------75% (still love it)

Korg PA1X Pro-------50% (haven't seen a need to upgrade, yet)

Fantom G7-----------45% (just wrong board for my needs)

Yamaha Motif ES-----35% (don't use arps, etc., just voices).

Roland A70----------30% (used with SonicCell and softsynths).

Tyros 2-------------15% (don't like the styles, love the guitars which I use to record).

-----------------

I think the guys that do the factory style creations are absolute geniuses, but in the end, it's their music, not ours. JMO.

chas

Well, my friend, I remember that time very well..it was early on a sunny Sunday morning, actually, and of course, neither of us were in church.

Me and Diki were having one of them there "difference of opinion" spats, and you know what an able opponent he is, so I was about to use a "cheap shot" to, I thought, gain the upper hand.

It would have made me look pretty low.

I'm glad you were the voice of reason.

Anyways, thanks again...sincerely.

I can see your point of view about arrangers...I'm primarily a piano player, but, I like arrangers. I like 'em in the same way I like playing Gran Turismo4 on my Playstation2(with the Logitech G25 wheel and pedals...yeah..."big kiditus"...I have it bad (and that ain't good)...mmmm...I feel a song coming on...

The arranger was originally my escape from the formalness(?) of piano, and who would have thunk it would become a major source of income for me, both on my personal gigs, and of course, with Yamaha.

I was already using the Electone accompaniments and drum machine as part of my playing, so the arranger wasn't a big learning curve.

The hardest thing to learn was keeping my left hand still.

The clinic I did with Oscar Peterson on the PSR-9000 Pro had him saying, "How do you discipline yourself to play all the chords in one small area?"....no kidding.

This was after his stroke, and he wanted a lighter actioned instrument that he could record on...sort of a scratch pad (like you were saying)...he was at several of our acoustic piano and Clavinova seminars, but this was the first time I had actually met him.

He was great guy...very down to earth, and he made me feel very comfortable, and even though I was more than aware I was in the presence of greatness, I was able to stop my hands from shaking eventually.

But I digress.

Arrangers are tools...to me they are just another separate instrument, like the organ, piano, guitar...but while they probably will never reach the status of those instruments, there's no denying their usefulness...at least from my own experience.

I have a a terrific MasterCraft flat blade "Comfo-Grip" screwdriver circa 1970...a real quality piece, that has has been used for (besides a lot of screwing ), a pry-bar, a hole-puncher, a chisel...even a hammer, but it's best use is screwing.

I also have one of those all-in-one tools, that's everything from a nail file to a corkscrew, and, I must admit, it is some handy...I actually have two...one for the car.

Now, I can sure appreciate that MasterCraft screwdriver...it even looks cool and rugged, even after a lot of years of hard screwing, it still works great...simplicity, and pureness of design.

Like the piano...like the Hammond...like the Rhodes.

The arranger is like that multi-tool.

How's the hip doing, by the way?


[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 11-03-2009).]