Well, the quest for "the sound" continues - I found another way to boost the signal a bit in the internal mic pre without the expense of that Joe Meek unit that I liked alot. ($250)
I have a small Rolls monitor mixer (PM350b) that boosts the gain through the HP out ... it's a tad dirty in the recording, but it sounds much better live. I'm taking it for a whirl tonight to lighten the load, and see if it helps enough.

Here's a rough (very rough) recording of Zac Brown's "Colder Weather" - I don't really know it well yet ... still brand new to me, but a cute waitress at work loves the song, so I try to oblige.

The overall level does have hints of distortion, but I didn't notice it as I was playing. I think in a live setting, it might be OK for these small cocktail jobs.
It's a simple "Standard 8 beat" played in full kb mode with bass inversion on - just piano and strings.

Please comment, but be gentle on arrangement, chords an such - like I said, I hardly know the tune, and I'm reading it it as I recorded it... and STILL managed to juxtapose a few lyrics ... grrrrr (HATE it when that happens!)

Enjoy!

Love the song, love your voice!
DonM

wow, if only my songs that I've spent years working on could sound half good as the songs you're just learning, I'd be a happy man

Very nice tune, Dave, and very well done indeed...voice is excellent.

Ian

Your "Ksintuck" girl just spit her false teeth out and peed her coveralls!


Ladykiller!

Russ (jealous) Lay

Good one, Dave. I could hear the distortion, while slight without the harmonizer, it was more pronounced with the harmonizer. Love the song - might have to learn this one as well.

Thanks,

Gary

I learned it this afternoon. Sorta. Great song. I love Zak Brown Band.
Too much like Jimmy Buffet for the Captain though. Not early enough 11th and 13th chords.
DonM

I keep bouncing back to "Please come to Boston" in my head ... grrrrr - I nee MORE CHORDS! Help me Russ!!!!!


Gary - yep, the distortion is there cuz of the high output headphone jack. It's just an experiment to see how the internal unit responds with different gain structures. It fails most times.
(sad face)
The KB is a winner in all respects but 2 - the VH is acceptable, but weak, and the MP3 playback is also weak compared to the SMFs. I had to raise the levels of all my MP3 trax that I use to make them balanced. My workaroud - use the iPad for Trax and the VLT2 for vocals and guitar.
Sigh .... I think I'm done testing - I'm polishing a turd here ... the internal mic pre is just average at best, and it won't ever get any better unless Korg does a hardware upgrade.

Thanx for all the positive cheer guys ... I'll post the finished product when I finalize the rig.

Summer almost over...so whats next? ....

Thanx Brian!
Dony, I still play 3 shows with school each year and once a month in Ewing .... this rig will get played!
(and there's always the odd one nighter that pops up!)

I know that silly!! miss the days you were in the trenches!!!!

Sometimes I miss it too, but the kiddies need me, and I get SO much back from them - they re a great "captive" audience!
And stop posting FAT pix!

There ya go.

Tottin' my own horn!

Who ARE those guys?

Uncle Dave,
What setting did you use for the harmonizer?
Is it a preset? Which one?
THanks! Great job!

The harmonizer is set at a custom prest I made with one lower and 2 upper voices.
V1-Gender 6 / level -10 / smooth 18 / pan center
V2-Gender 9 / level 0 / smooth 19 / pan +25
V3-Gender 21 / level -5 / smooth 21 / pan -25
Mono delay / brite room reverb
lo freq cut at 120
Dynamics: -25 / 64:1 / -55
EQ:
Low 508 -4
Mid Q1.8 1.6 5
Hi 8.1 7

Give it a try and see if you like it!

I do like it from what I hear, but to test only at a later time! When I will hopefully have the keyboard!

Nice singing, Dave, but I'm hearing what you are saying... It all sounds a little clouded, there's no crispness to the vocal.

Mind you, the piano is kind of sitting front and center to it all, makes it hard to hear the detail in the harmonies, and forget about the drummer! He might as well be in the next room!

Here's something to test... Do the vocals and harmonies get sent through any final EQ and compressor in the arranger? Maybe you could dial those back (or off!)? It's possible that they are overhyping the arranger (piano sounds a bit crispy) and making it hard for the mike to compete..? You might also be hitting the compressor a bit hard, and clouding the sound with that.

Try it all effects off, see if that helps...

Overall, I thought the basic mike sound was just a hair too beefy in the low mids, and lacked highs. Maybe the Korg wants to see something a bit thinner and crisper in the way of a mike?

And give the drummer some! Hard to lock in on a tempo you can barely hear over the piano!

Diki,
Thanx for listening - I've decided that the Compressor/EQ is the weak link in the harmonizer. You have the option to bypass it, but there's almost no gain without it and the sound is WAY worse. As for drums and balance - I just pushed the buttons - in fact, I usually do it with just piano. In a live setting, so many things are different, and the feedback I get from the crowd is my barometer, so I stick with settings that please the masses.

The Compressor is not much different from other units I've had - it's sensitive and temperamental, and almost unnecessary for my type of singing style. I hardly ever shout, I work the mike for dynamics ... it's really almost useless except for the input gain.

Every demo on line has the same "sock over the mic" sound ... it's obvious that the quality of the mic section is just not a priority for this model. The 3x is a totally different animal, as is the VLT2.

UD,

Here's one decisive (maybe) test for Voice Processor:

Could you please record something, voice only (or very low instrumental volume) with 2 (two) harmony voices added, panned hard left and hard right, with the default settings for all the effects (comp/eq/rev/delay).

For some reason, maybe because of the added effects, to me the panning of the voices did not appear obvious at all.

Could you do that?

Thank you!!!

PS: The compression can very easily ruin the life of a track. I understand the need for gain, but the comp setting above will seem maybe a little bit drastic...

I agree, but I learned a long time ago to adjust controls without looking at the settings, and trust my ear. (Ray Charles taught me that) Believe me, I've tweaked and RE-tweaked this mic section to every possible configuration over the last week or so, and the somewhat extreme settings that I have now are simply what works best at the moment. As for pan ... I do that to lighten the load on the internal speakers - I use a mono PA, so it's not an issue in the house. I'll see if I can do that test for you in a little while - people are still sleeping in my house. shhhhh........

Could the MONO be the problem using a STEREO VH signal?

Nope - dirty is dirty in mono or stereo. It's cloudy and muffled in the internal speakers too. I have to face it - it's just not the best choice for a mic processor. Korg really missed a great opportunity here. This thing is no where near their usually high standards.
(is anybody at Korg listening ???? reading ???? R&D guys - c'mon - fix this !)

Here's something to try, Dave...

Instead of hooking up a mike, try running an mp3 player through the mike section, and turn off the VH. This might get you a better idea of whether the mike section is coloring the input.

I still think that, as Korg say the input is an unbalanced one, putting a balanced mike into it may not be the best bet. Usually, on pro gear, if an input is unbalanced, you need to convert a balanced signal to unbalanced first, and boost the gain externally. Or simply use an unbalanced mike.

My take still is that, if the mike pre and EQ are not up to snuff, turn down the input level, and use an external mike pre and EQ.

But try simply running a high quality MP3 or .WAV into the input in stereo, and then play the SAME MP3 from the Korg's MP3 player (that way, your output will color both the same). Take great care to make sure they are both at exactly the same volume (check your PA's meters) then see if the mike input is noticeably clouding the sound.

One thing about this test is, the MP3 player's outputs will be line level and flat (turn off any EQ in the player) and will hit the pre at an unbalanced level. If you don't hear any difference at this point between the input and the built-in player, then we can put it down to either the mike itself or the preamp section of the input (it will be putting on a LOT more gain than the line level outputs of the player need). At this point, you may well be stuck with using an external pre and EQ to boost the mike to line level.

But if the MP3 player sounds clouded and colored, that's basically IT... The input section is naff, and you need to start making waves over at Korg Forums, and see if Korg can't upgrade the mike in board. Chances are, it's a separate circuit board than the main board, possibly upgradeable. I doubt that the VH code itself is the issue. Even the main mike straight sounds muddy...

Remind me again what mike you are using...

two Burger King fans ???

Hold on a minute... I finally found a hi-res picture of the back panel. There's no XLR input at all...

How are you getting your mike's XLR converted to the 1/4" input?

NICE !!! ... 'I can't wait' to hear what it sounds like when you LEARN it !!! ...

Dave- great song. technical problems aside, as they have been identified several times here, I am in awe of your talent. Nice song- reminds me of "Long December" by Counting Crows.

Dili - I use a standard XLR to 1/4" unbalanced cable.

You should use a transformer cable..I still have an old Peavy cable when I need to go to 1/4"..

I never needed a transformer before ... On any mic input. I really doubt that's the trouble.

It's an easy thing to check, though.

Thing is, if the mike pre in the PA900 is killing the sound, doing all the work BEFORE you hit the inputs is probably the best way to get what you want.

But if the issue is with the entire signal chain in there (maybe the A/D converters) then the pre won't help a lot.

See updated results:
http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthread...rong#Post371295