I'm looking for any thoughts and opinions on this studio desk from Amazon to replace my current separated computer desk and keyboard with stand. It has good reviews and the price is great, my concern is the fit of the slide out keyboard shelf and the SX900. Both about 40" wide. Could be a tight fit.

Or if you have a recommendation for something similar, as I'm also interested if anyone uses a studio desk.
Thanks

I don't really use a desk, actually I don't have one anymore. Sounds embarrassing, but I conduct most of my business on a couch :-)

I respect that a desk is still more comfortable way of working for many people. But personally I'm not so sure that it is that vital unless you have to write a lot with a pen and work with papers.

When a computer mouse can run on any surface and you can type with your keyboard on your laps, I'm not sure there's a good reason to be so disciplined and decent at home as if it was in an office (which tends to move to home lately anyway).

Yet, I don't have a lot of free space either. If I'm lucky to get a large apartment I might reconsider some of my views about the comfort.

PSR is quite a large and heavy keyboard, perhaps desks like this are more suitable for keyboards without speakers, mostly MIDI controllers, but who knows, it could be a good match after all.

Some good points Kabinopus, and thanks for pointing out the weight of arrangers and the slide out tray that may be a problem. I didn't even factor that in, I was more worried about size, rather than weight.

And yea, I'm still using a PC. There is just something more productive about sitting at a desk, maybe it's less distractions, sitting upright, for me, just more productive. I'm semi secluded in a small room, and can I can simply concentrate more, even though I also do the laptop on the sofa thing.

My problem is room size, and trying to cram a keyboard, and PC/Desk in a 9x10 area. That's my reason for a possible studio desk, or maybe I'll scrap the PC setup altogether and downsize to a smaller laptop work area.

Funny stuff!!! Kab, you have quite the sense of humor

I solved this problem many, many years ago, when I designed and constructed a custom console that held all my power supplies, my TC Helicon Harmony-M vocal processor, played a soft strip light on the keyboard for nighttime use, had a lighted sign on the front, and my Acer Netbook PC was mounted on the top. It takes up no more space than a standard arranger keyboard stand, and there was less weight to carry, set up time was less than 7 minutes, and it all folded flat and fit in the back of my Dodge Grand Caravan with stow and go seats.

The mouse for the PC was placed on a relatively small, wooden platform, held in place on top of the keyboard stand's right arm by the weight of the keyboard. Not a lot of wires showing, just three, and this photo was taken in the marina where I kept my boat just prior to doing a nighttime party.

Gary

Cool setup Gary. All these years, I don't recall seeing this photo.

It appears your keyboard stand is deeper (front to back) than normal to accommodate a keyboard and your custom laptop holder.

What you shared is a space saver for sure, and would work for me. Do you have a patent?

I think it’s better to put the keyboard on the top, stable surface and put the computer keyboard on the pull out shelf….

A friend of mine just did a similiar thing to Gary's. I gave him a table type stand and he made a box to sit on it. Keyboard, wires, plugs, and a light go inside the box. The flat top allows him to put a computer or laptop ( or tip cup ) on there is he wants. I just got a two tier stand from Geekstands.com and the upper tier could be used for a computer if you put a shelf across the upper tier arms. Very inexpensive and well built. Unfortunaltly doesn't fold up for transport so its just for the studio.

Larry, no patent, however, I did post a complete set of instructions on how to build this on the PSR Tutorial site.

Diki, my keyboard is very stable, and the laptop/netbook is held in place with industrial strength Velcro. Additionally, there is room for a plastic beer pitcher, which I used for a tip jar. (Loved watching that beer pitcher get filled with greenbacks!)

I built about a dozen of these for some of my internet friends on music forums, and with few exceptions, they are all still in use today, more than 10 years since I constructed them. The cost of materials was about $60 and I purchased the aluminum from a local welding shop, where I had them bend it into the shape I wanted. The Lexan for the front of the sign, and the top of the console, was purchased at Home Depot, cut to fit, then held in place with 1/4-inch pop-rivets. I painted the aluminum flat black using Krylon High Temperature spray paint. It does not chip very readily and held up well through thousands of gigs.

My foot pedals were also held in place inside using Velcro during transportation, thereby almost eliminating my possibles bag where they were previously contained along with mics and spare cables. I don't think I opened that bag for nearly a decade other than to get the mic out.

Hope this helps,

Gary

Gary, my post was about the OP’s rig. Those slide out shelves aren’t all that rigidly locked. Maybe it’s because I am from a pianist background (although I played a lot of organ too) but I need a keyboard that doesn’t move a millimeter no matter how hard I play. Pianos don’t bounce! 🎹😂

Perhaps it seems unimportant, but consider how a keyboard recognizes velocity… it is the speed that the key moves at when you hit it. All fine and dandy until you start to have the keyboard itself moving. Now the speed that you strike the key gets either added to or subtracted from the speed that the keyboard is bouncing at. This leads to a slight degradation in how accurately it is detecting YOUR force.

This is why I always have my keyboards on the most stable stand I can use. In the case of live performances, a ‘leg at each corner’ type keyboard stand, in the studio, on top of the desk, not suspended underneath it on some flimsy sliding shelf!

When I play a keyboard, the ONLY thing I want to move is the keys! 🎹

Larry, Will your SX900 fit on the pull out shelf and can it support the weight?
Mitch

I think Larry’s got the right solution, but it might be a lot better with a couple of mods…

For starters, I’d put the arranger on the top surface. Stable, no bounce, no risk of wobble or the shelf becoming looser over time (those shelves are usually only supported by wood screws into the underside of what is likely to be particle board wood). Put the computer keyboard, mouse and other things like the interface on the slide out tray. A LOT easier to get to while recording than having to reach over the top of your arranger while you play it!

Next, I’d extend the monitor shelf wider. To accurately monitor audio, you should be sitting at the apex of an equidistant triangle. From that photo, looks like those monitors are a bit close together. A lot of computer desks today haven’t kept up with the size increase of monitors, leaving very little room outside for speakers. Either a plank full width or a couple of shorter extensions either end would help…

If you think about it, what are you likely to be doing most..? Playing on the arranger, or editing music? Hopefully, it’s playing! Prioritize that in how you lay out the gear and it will be a comfortable music creation environment.

By the way, a good adjustable height chair that you can lock from rotating will help with posture when either playing (higher) or editing (lower), as it won’t be long term comfortable with just one height. And rolling office chairs that spin and slide are tough to play in!

Mitch, that is my main question, and I'm not so sure. The slide out shelf has been answered (from others on Amazon) as 40" wide and the SX-900 is 39 1/2" wide, so it's tight, but most likely will fit.
And I'm also not sure if the slide out shelf can handle the weight of an SX-900, but Diki might have the right solution. (see quote below)



Good points Diki. One user has his music keyboard on the slide out tray, the monitor, mouse and computer keyboard on the main tier, and speakers on the top tier. So there are options. I'm going to continue to search around. One other note, the top is not a perfectly flat smooth surface, instead it has a slight texture to avoid sliding.

Diki, I am among the few individuals on this forum that have actually seen you play an arranger keyboard - you hit those keys as if you have a ball-peen hammer in your hands. I have never had an arranger keyboard move on my stand while playing over the past 30 years while I was on stage - never!

My custom console is being used by players throughout the globe and it reduced my setup time from 30 minutes to just 7 minutes. (I think you may have seen the video I posted on You Tube). This allowed me to keep things going smoothly while taking up the least amount of space.

Additionally, I loaded all my gear aboard my sailboat, sailed it single handed down to Marathon Key, Florida where I spent the winter living aboard the boat, and played 3 nights a week in that town, where most of the entertainers were "Have Guitar Will Travel" players were pulling down just $35 to $75 for a 4 to 5 hour gig, while I managed to pull down $200 plus tips at the best places in town. I was able to call a cab to haul my gear to the Hyatt Regency Resort and it all fit in the back seat, while I was in the front seat. My cost for the cab was just $5 from the boat to the resort - I could not have done that prior to designing my console.

Now, because I was not a former piano player, I adjusted the sensitivity setting on the arranger keyboard to my lighter touch, which still provided all the velocity I needed to trigger the special effects. The audiences, obviously, enjoyed what I had accomplished - my Beer Pitcher tip jar was filled to the top nearly every night, and probably averaged about $200 or more, which made for an extremely lucrative evening. Additionally, until my lung disease forced my retirement, my vocals were pretty damned good, which made a huge difference in the overall pay check.

Now that I had to retire due to health issues, I still get an occasional call from that part of the world, asking if I would be returning in the not too distant future. While flattering, my days on stage are over, but I still manage to get enough medication in me and supplemental oxygen to belt out a song on my my S-950 and record it with the onboard USB recorder. A few weeks ago, I was able to pull off a recording of Brandy, a song about sailing. Brandy

All the best,

Gary

Gary, I like wisdom and success. Love your story.
Thank you, John C.

Gary, the force I play with is mostly a product of firstly a continued interest in playing the piano, which doesn’t have velocity curves (although a good tuner can lighten or stiffen the action a little bit to taste) and needs good finger strength to be able to cover everything from ppp to fff, but also a need to be able to play rhythmically totally accurately, and a lot of funk and other styles need complex syncopation with a ton of dynamics. This, I find extremely hard to pull off consistently with a very light touch, you can get rhythmical, and you can get dynamic with a light touch, but both at the same time is not easy!

Looking at your playing in a DAW or sequencer is a really good way of seeing if you are really using the full dynamics a keyboard can produce. How close to 127 do you get, how close to 01 do you get, and how tight to the grid do you get at each extreme?

Plus, for me, it’s about the ‘sound’… yes there are good drummers who play extremely quietly, but they are as rare as hen’s teeth! To be in the pocket and with a good groove, most players need at least a certain degree of force. If you thought I played hard, man you should see some REAL pros! Liszt used to break piano strings all the time..! To be honest, compared to some of the greats I’ve had the pleasure of playing and recording with, I’d put my ‘touch’ on the medium low side… 😂

One of the issues with turning down the dynamics on an arranger is, yes, you can make it more sensitive to medium strength playing and give the impression you are playing harder, but you don’t get any increased sensitivity to lighter playing. There’s a basic lowest velocity the sound will play at no matter what the curve is set to. So what you are doing is reducing the resolution the machine recognizes velocity at. You are trying to squeeze 127 degrees of velocity out of 90 steps, but you haven’t made the low end any more sensitive. It’s not a ‘shift’ in touch sensitivity, it’s a ‘compression’. Bottom line, you’re losing range.

But everybody gets used to what they feel most comfortable with. Me, I’m comfortable playing with close to a pianist touch. That way, I can easily do a stint on a piano and not fatigue my fingers.

Anyway, as I pointed out, my comments had nothing to do with your rig, they were addressed at the OP. I actually DO have a music production desk very similar, a bit bigger and more heavy duty because it supports full sized studio monitors as well as the keyboard and computer, and I can assure you, hanging your keyboard from the underside is going to stress the wood screws that support it into the underside, especially if you play with anything but the most featherweight of touches. Mine have stripped out a couple of times, and that’s with no weight on it al all other than me resting my forearms on it from time to time! The problem is, the screws which support the tray do so from the middle of the underside, which puts quite a lot of moment angle on them once the drawer is fully extended with the keyboard on it. Too much for me to trust a $2000+ keyboard on, at least!

Anyway, each to his own, but when you have lightweight computer keyboards and other lightweight peripherals, why waste the sturdiest surface you have on them and trust your much heavier, much more expensive keyboard to the shelf designed for computer keyboards? 🎹😎

Diki, here's my basic setup: As you can see, everything is perfectly stable, safe and secure, setup time is less than 7 minutes, no wires showing other than the main AC power cord and the main line to the Bose L1 Compact. Additionally, all the essential components are housed within the console. I even had some strips of velcro on the bottom of the foot pedals so they would adhere tightly to the carpet.



All the best,

Gary

My setup is a little easier, LOL… BK-9 direct into a pair of QSC K10’s. That’s it! A TC VK-Perform just to do basic mic compression and echo into the BK’s mic in,

Lyrics, if I need them are already embedded into the file and display on one of the BK’s little LCD screens. Never been a fan of the audience being able to see you reading off of a laptop screen… I’m old school, no pop band I was ever in used sheets, only big bands. Plus, I think more and more nowadays, people tend to think ‘karaoke’ the minute they see a big screen with lyrics, and it’s hard enough as a keyboard player to get them to realize you are actually PLAYING, as good sounding as the backing is! Add in a big screen with lyrics big enough for them to see you reading, next thing they’re asking if they can sing!

I know things have changed quite a bit since my early days, and nowadays you can even find top concert groups like Dream Theater using iPads etc to display charts and lyrics, but I just can’t bring myself to use them. When my audience sees me, they see a keyboard, a mic and me. And that’s all I want them to see!

That's because you're a musician, Diki. There are two kinds of OMB's; those that can play and those that use technology to disguise the fact that they CAN'T play. Sadly, the average customer with 'three shots and a beer' under his belt couldn't care less about which one you are (the exception being jazz club audiences that come for the music, not to make idiots of themselves on the dancefloor). This whole thing of being worried that the audience may not think that you're playing, is mostly a 'musician thing'. Truth is, only an idiot would think it's you playing 5-6 instruments at once (all at an 'expert' level), while simultaneously singing your heart out. Audiences are pretty dumb, but not THAT dumb (watching you pick out one-finger notes with a full blown big band arrangement going on in the background). Now, nobody's going to think Marco Parisi isn't playing, even if he's got a Genos stacked on top of a Bk9 stacked on top of a PA4x. That's because his keyboard skills are SO in evidence. I'm guessing, so are yours, given your piano background and broad musical knowledge.

My guess is, but for the economy of it, most Pro's out there wouldn't be playing Arrangers in the first place (on a gig). Sadly, most of the available gigs out there these days can't or won't accommodate 3-4 piece groups and an increasingly dumbed-down audience seems more than willing to accept the technological substitute (There's a reason we've got multi-millionaire DJ's out there and trained, degreed, talented musicians out there starving to death). Oh well, a guy's gotta' eat.

chas

Gotta agree with that, Diki. All I wanted them to see is me and the keyboard, but with more than 3,800 songs roaming around in the cobwebs of my aging mind, there were times when that 9-inch netbook PC came in handy. Most of the time, however, I just left it closed and it went into a standby mode. The only bad thing about the standby mode is it took about 30 seconds to recover, thus 30 seconds of dead air, which as you are well aware, seems like a lifetime when you have a packed dancefloor and people headed for their seats.

I always loved it, particularly when I was performing the nite club circuit in Baltimore's Little Italy, and some drunken fool would climb on the stage and ask you if you had "House Of The Rising Sun" or some other song, in that machine while they were holding a glass of beer in their hand over the top of my keyboard. I usually responded by saying, are you bringing me a beer, at which point they would back away a bit, clutching that beer as if were a life ring thrown to them from a sinking ship. I then usually responded saying "There are no songs in this machine - they're all up here" pointing to the side of my head. Then I would sneak into the music finder directory, where the songs are listed alphabetically, use the scrolling wheel and quickly select the song. I probably played "House Of The Rising Sun" a couple thousand times in my 30 years on stage, so no need to look up the lyrics.

I clearly remember one job where I was filling in for a friend who was recovering from a heart attack and spent six weeks in rehab after a pacemaker implant. He was really having a tough time and it was a Saturday Night job, a time when I rarely worked doing the senior circuit. There were three couples sitting at a table 20 feet in front of me, they were constantly talking, often very loud, when a lady got up from the table and came over to the piano bar where I had my keyboard setup. She was totally blasted, and began talking to me while I was playing and singing a song. She was obnoxious, to say the least, and finally I just stopped playing, left the mic on, and said "Maam, do you realize how difficult it is to play a song, sing that song, and talk to you at the same time? She gave me a weird stare, turned around and walked quickly to the table and in a loud voice said "Frank, I told you it was him singing, and it's him playing the songs, too." I almost wet my pants I was laughing so hard. Her husband/boy friend gave me a nasty look, got up from his seat and I didn't see him again the rest of the night.

This again, was in Baltimore's Little Italy, at a restaurant that has long since gone out of business, called Dela Notte, where the keyboard was pretty much totally hidden from view, and you were surrounded by a piano bar and you sat behind a huge Steinway. When my friend came back to work, I greeted him with open arms and said "I'm damned glad you didn't die - I'm outta here!"

I was glad to back entertaining the wonderful people I met doing the senior circuit, daytime jobs, no getting home at 2 a.m., no drunks to contend with, better pay, middle of the day, every day of the week.

All the best,

Gary

Yeah, chas… 90% of my audience don’t care. Fortunately, I’m playing for an audience of one, and he attends EVERY gig I do, so there’s no slacking off! The minute I stop loving my own show, I’m done with playing… 💔

But there ARE players in my area that sing well, but can’t play to save their lives, so they put a bunch of keyboards and other gear in front of them and mime. I don’t want to be mistaken for them, so I make sure there’s nothing that obscures the audience’s view of my fingers. Those that even bother to look at least have no illusions that it’s fake..!

As a solo, I consider my competition isn’t other keyboard players, it’s mostly acoustic guitarists in my area. There’s only a handful of keyboard players left, and even there they mostly are either duo’s or in bands. And the one thing a guitarist has over us is that the audience can easily see them playing, both hands! No wiggle room with a guitar… And I’m sorry, but I feel that a LOT more care than you might at first feel, otherwise there would be a plethora of guitarists miming. There are NONE. Show the audience your hands, blow them away with great playing, not just one note solos and restrict your LH to rote chord input, they DO appreciate the skill. Which is a good job considering I don’t consider myself a great singer! 😂.

Gary, couple of years ago I also played an Italian restaurant with one of those fake piano shells and had my BK-9 in it, but they did what quite a few piano bars do, had a mirror suspended overhead showing your hands as they play to the customers. I think you do the audience a disservice assuming none of them care. I doubt any venue would bother with the mirrors if they felt that way. But yes, the less you actually play, the more benefit there is to obscuring what you are doing!

One thing I can say with certainty. No one has EVER come up to me to check on whether it actually was me..! And let’s face it, if anybody does, it shows they care a bit more than you think they do 🎹😎

I don’t think the sliding shelves are sturdy enough. Especially when they are pulled out, there must be an up-and-down movement.
This is my desk, I also had a problem with the size of the my room. The depth of the room is not enough so I adjusted the dimensions of the table.
Homemade Custom PC-Synthesizer desk

Then I bought Genos and a problem arose but I solved it easily too.
Upgrade table

regards, casper

That’s nice, Leon…

Here’s my rig, sorry for the mess! I’ll tidy up and take a better one some day! (Yeah, right!)

https://pin.it/2NZGtgL

Unfortunately, Bush Furniture don’t make this one any more. I modified it by turning the end piece shelves out sideways to extend the monitor supports further out to get that equidistant triangle thing right. But I think it was under $200 or so. Mind you, 20 years ago or so, I think… Time flies!

Nice, it’s called a creative mess. ;-)

It’s Florida, so a hot mess!

After all the input, I have come to the conclusion that the slide out shelf is probably too risky to hold an arranger keyboard. So putting the keyboard on the main desk area, with the slide out shelf used for the computer keyboard, mouse, etc. would work, and the slide out shelf seems wide enough for a pencil and paper too. Remember paper and pencils?

However I do use a 12" laptop, (a Samsung chromebook with a 3:2 display for reading sheet music, lyrics, etc.), along with a PC monitor. Not much room for all that on this studio desk, especially if you include the actual PC, along with any external speakers.

So for me, it might be more practical just to downside my current computer desk, and leave the arranger keyboard as is, right along side the PC desk. It's just a matter of sliding left.

Thanks for all the input. I find all your setups fascinating and informative.

Have you considered using he laptop’s HDMI to feed the monitor? A cheap HDMI switcher would allow you to share the monitor with the computer…

Diki, that piano in the photo was a real Steinway - not a phony shell, and my keyboard is positioned on the X stand directly over the piano's key bed cover, where only people to the side of me can actually see it. The output was plugged into the house sound system, which was lousy to say the very least. If I recall, consisted of a pair of 10-inch Peaveys and a 600-watt stereo mixer/amp.

As for being a musician, as have posted on this and other forums, I am not a musician by any stretch of the imagination, but I was a damned good, musical entertainer - and that's why people hired me. However, you are absolutely correct in that your competition is a bunch of "Have Guitar Will Travel" guys and gals, especially in Florida. Some of them are pretty talented muscians, but by and large, most are not. And that's why they work for chump change, and a good arranger keyboard player, especially one that can also provide good to excellent vocals, and produces a wide variety of songs, can get all the work they can handle, and often booked a year or more in advance.

One of my long since deceased friends and his wife worked for 5 decades as a duo - Jerry and Elsa Burns Duo. They began their career rolling in a baby grand piano into the jobs, but when the PSR-5700 came out, he gratefully switched gears and went with the arranger keyboard, which back then only tipped the scales at 52 pounds. By today's standards, a 52 pound arranger keyboard is a real back breaker, but back then, A lot of entertainers had them in our area.

Elsa was probably one of the best Jazz singers I ever heard and Jerry was a Peabody trained pianist who was an incredible player. They strictly worked the nite club circuit, but there were times when they performed with the Zim Zemarel Orchestra, and performed at the White House on at least 3 occasions. Jerry often said, he would never go back to lugging that baby grand around, and after playing an arranger keyboard, he absolutely loved the lighter touch and his hands no longer hurt him after doing a 4 or 5 hour performance. When I once asked him about the special effects of a real piano and his 5700, he said "I don't think the audiences give a tinker's damned, and in reality, they came to where I was performing to be entertained by both Elsa and myself. Without Elsa up front with that old mic in her hands, I would just be another musician, of which there are thousands of them out there looking for work. I have to turn down jobs every week!"

Jerry and Elsa are both deceased, but worked until Elsa passed at age 78.

Good luck,

Gary

Good idea Diki. Going to investigate that further.

On another note, and as a side comment about the arranger player musician debate, my father, a self taught and a lifelong organ, and accordion player, who had his own 3 and 4 piece bands. (As a kid, I remember helping him lug his Hammond and Leslie up steps, and around corners) He was a remarkable player, someone who I tried to immulate, but never quiet got there.

His age, and the advent of arranger keyboards came at the perfect time, as it was a true game changer for him. He no longer had to struggle, and really couldn't, deal with heavy equipment, and was now able to play out, on his own, at small venues, like Nursing homes, the VFW in Florida, and special small occasions. He had a partner, a retired drummer, who would accompany him. (Drums were really terrible on early arrangers). He was in heaven, he could still play "out" and entertain.

Still later in his life, and his health not good, his voice failing, and reduced playing ability, he relied almost entirely on saved midi song files on a floppy disk, to play at occasional outings. Many knew he wasn't really playing, but they really didn't seem to care. They were just happy to be entertained. I remember him saying "Who gives a damn, as long as it's fun for me, and the audience, besides it's all I got left"

He spent his last few years playing around with his beloved Technics KN7000, at home, for hours every day, that kept him going, kept his mind sharp. And yes he entertained my mother and on our visits every Sunday night, till the end.

I've learned to enjoy both the musician, like Diki, Chas, and my younger dad, and the entertainer, like Gary and my older Pop

I think I often detect a bit of defensiveness from those that consider themselves as pure 'entertainers' and not musicians. I don't have any problem with it, however you do your show is up to you, and if your audience is fine with it so much the better! If you are enjoying doing it, life is sweet...

But I often feel there's some pretty dodgy advice offered from time to time, from people with little experience with how a 'musician' plays. I generally find it better to offer hardware advice on the assumption that a keyboard is being played at a pro level, which will work fine for the less skilled, but advice from someone who plays very little, or very lightly, or with one finger, etc. can often lead better players down the wrong path.

As far as I'm concerned though, if you are enjoying performing in public, it doesn't matter a hair HOW you achieve it. But as a 'player', I must confess that the art of playing needs to come into the performance. It is primarily why I play, the audience's satisfaction is secondary, and the paycheck probably last! Truth is, there are LOTS of easier ways to make more money than gigging, with far less effort. If my skills deteriorate to the point where I can't enjoy the playing, I'm not going to go one finger, or karaoke. And the truth is, if money was the object, I'd already be running karaoke shows. I have a friend who has a great duo with his wife, they sound great, they use audio tracks, sound like the record, yada yada yada, but he gets paid significantly more to sit on his ass and run a karaoke show at the same venues he used to play at!

He can do that, but I can't...

I love PLAYING!

By the way, as a side note, I also hear a lot of defensiveness about using an arranger. So often I hear the old 'You don't see real 'pros' using arrangers' claim and I have to groan... That's a problem with the 'pros', not the keyboard! This is one 'pro' player that has been using arrangers almost exclusively for band gigs and studio work for 30+ years, and never have I once received a sideways look or a funny comment about it. The truth is, 'real' pros don't give a damn what you are using, as long as YOU make it sound killer.

And that's the rub. In a non-sequenced, non auto-accompaniment environment, can you actually PLAY? Because, if you can, the arranger offers a FAR friendlier live playing tool than almost any workstation keyboard. Faster access to the sounds, faster set up of splits and layers, consistent across the board volume evenness (a real weakness of most WS's) and fast and easy access to most meat and potato sounds (which are often buried in a pile of fancy synth sounds you'd rarely use on a WS). That few 'pro' band players haven't yet found this out is THEIR problem, not yours!

But what you WILL get is sideways looks and groans if you EVER use any of the automatic stuff while they are around! Stay off of that, play like a demon, no pro will EVER criticize what you play...!

Be proud of your choice...

For me, it was always the money. I had a wife and two young children to support, house and car payments, you know, the usual stuff that most people pay every day of their lives.

As for being able to play, yep, I can play, at least enough to be a good entertainer. As I said, I never claimed to be a musician, but does that single me out as a non-professional? Additionally, I was making a great living, enough to put together 3 retirement programs for that day that I could no longer be on stage, which abruptly came three years ago. Most of the pros that I knew went to their graves having no insurance whatsoever, not enough in the bank to pay their funeral expenses, and left huge piles of dept to their family.

Now, I cannot say enough about the musical skills and proficiency of a pro player, and I knew many of them during the 30 years I was an entertainer. Many were in my audiences, none ever came up to me with a sideways look, I believe because I was working and they were not. My dad has a great saying back in the day "The only thing that money cannot buy is POVERTY - You can rent all that other stuff." Dad was pretty damned smart and most of the time, he was right about many of the issues we encountered.

Diki, I am very, very proud of the choices I have made during the past 8 decades on Planet Earth and being a professional, musical entertainer was among my best achievements. Helping others who wished to do the same was among the best achievements, as well. That's why I am still here.

All the best,

Gary

Great points, Gary.

A matter of perspective for sure, but from MY perspective, how you perceive your success in life depends a lot on where you've set the bar. Some people have dedicated themselves to their art and been criticized for it because they weren't working as regularly as their less-talented (but more business-oriented) brothers whose "good enough is good enough" approach to music were busily 'paying the rent and feeding the kids'. Truth is, there is no reason these things have to be mutually exclusive. No member of the Philadelphia Orchestra makes as much as Taylor Swift but they're able to feed their families. So, if you see a talented but unemployed classical or jazz player sitting in your audience, don't sneer at them; applaud them for their uncompromising dedication to their art.

Below is a list of artists and musicians who gave the world gifts that will endure for generations to come. They all have one thing in common; they all died penniless. Clearly they put their art ahead of living an obscure life eking out a mediocre living. But hey, to each his own (why do some people say 'each to his own'?).

Emily Dickinson. ...
Claude Monet. ...
Johann Sebastian Bach. ...
Franz Kafka. ...
Henry David Thoreau. ...
Johannes Vermeer. ...
Edgar Allan Poe.
Vincent van Gogh. ...
Mathew Brady. ...
Franz Schubert. ...
William Blake. ...
Oscar Wilde. ...
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Charlie Parker...
...and countless others..

Although I've been accused of it, I DON'T HATE ARRANGERS. I have owned about 8 and currently own 4. I just have never used one on a gig, but that's because it doesn't lend itself to the kind of music that I like to play (on stage). I've only played organ and Rhodes for all these years. I've played some amateur gigs on piano but knew I wasn't good enough to play piano on a professional stage. I do agree with Diki (and Paul) that if you're a player, the (type of) keyboard doesn't really matter that much. If you're not, then I think some form of backing tracks is a more honest presentation. I'm sure that most high-end performers, absent a live band, use backing tracks as opposed to say, live arranger-keyboard backing. But again, that's just MY perspective. Bob, my sometimes guitar player (he's fabulous), will sometimes play a chord that just makes the hair on my arm stand up and I'll say whoa....what was that...show me that chord...; usually it's something that can't even be played on an arranger except manually. Those are the times when I know I never want to play any other way, and that transforms music from a pastime into an art. So yeah, I'm sure there are a lot of 'starving artists' out there but I'm not sure they see themselves that way. Oh well, I guess once we're dead and gone it won't matter much....oh wait, yes it will.

chas

Yep, I agree, once were dead and gone, no one will even know our names a week after were gone, let alone the music we performed. I'm real close to dead, so at this point, I could care less about what people think. Chas, how much I wish we could have met on my voyage to the south Florida Keys. Stay well, old man,

Gary

Easier said than done. I'm just as old and decrepit as you; I'm just not about predicting my imminent demise....I'm going to wait and see. Who knows, they may suddenly come up with a miracle cure for old age and bad attitudes . Quite a few of us will benefit from that.

BTW, loved Larry's story about his father's musical journey. Precious memories. As to his search for the 'perfect' studio desk, I'm with you, in that the only way to get that is to build it yourself....plus, it'll probably end up being cheaper. Home Depot, 2x2's, 2x3's, paneling/luan/plywood, coner moulding, and a good design (the fun part - just copy the best features of all the 'store-bought ones) and off you go. Expect a few bruises, smashed thumbs, and curse words you didn't even know were in your vocabulary, but in the end you'll have the pride of creating a masterpiece.....OR...the bewilderment of why you ever undertook this insane project that produced this monstrosity.

chas

One thing I’d recommend if building your own perfect music production desk is (lockable) wheels or casters. It is amazing how often you need to get round the back to the cabling!