What's up everyone. Wolf here after.. many years. Some might remember me from the days of Scott Yee (no idea on his whereabouts) and drunken singing laced with profanities.. I had the Tyros5 last, went on gigs.. alcoholism finally got me, Covid years meant I was working from home boozed up from early morning. I beat up the old wife and she had enough, took the dog and we sold the house. I nearly killed myself with alcohol, pancreatitis was just as bad as they say.

Just before getting fired from work I went to the 12 step rehab, and the damn thing worked miracles. I been sober nearly 3 years now. Turning 50 this year, I'm kind of rebooting my life, entering the latter phases. Discovering aging and how much it sucks, how my body no longer does things it used to.

I sold all my music gear during the last phases of alcoholism as I no longer could perform. I thought I needed the booze to be able to sing, but that was wrong thinking. I've done karaoke now and I still got it. All I need now is the final push, which is some new gear. I can't go back to *old* Tyros5 or even the Genos. Genos never worked for me, it didn't even have a tiltable screen, I read lyrics that way. And it seemed more like an old-man-livingroom-type device anyway, not for live gigging. Out came the Korg PA5X, I went to try it at a store.. almost took it, but I somehow felt all the styles were just modeled after some existing hit song.

Now there's some new Ketron, I don't have much info about that yet. Gotta watch Youtube I guess, not sure if it would cater to my needs. Since I always played a Yamaha like from the PSR2000 days, I would feel comfortable still going with Yamaha, but WHERE IS THE NEW ARRANGER? It's been how long since the Genos, they have to be working on something right? Any rumors? And don't give me the Genos 2.0 crap, software alone can't improve that device.

So yea I'm just waiting now. I got cash to splash, give me a keyboard. I still want out there on the stage some day.

Anyways just thought I'd drop a message, shoot me some stories or whatnot, how's it going in your lives.

-TheWolf

Hi Wolf, I’m glad to hear you’re doing well with you sobriety and I wish the best for you on that journey.

As far as your keyboard dilemma, remember it’s you that creates the magic, not the keyboard. Many members here ,past and present , like Hammer, DNJ , and Don M, have played just about every brand and they all sounded great on whatever board they played on.

For me, it’s the content, not the brand that determines what I play. The basic SOUND, and which arranger has the most, best, most varied styles in the genres you tend to perform the most. And truth is, a lot of recent arranger keyboards come with some fairly heavy baggage, either unfixed bugs, or difficulties importing older content (styles, samples etc.).

Maybe something a bit older might work best? I haven’t really heard anything (that isn’t buggy) recently that makes me feel like ditching my ten year old BK9. There appear to be a LOT of PA4X players that won’t migrate to the PA5X until it’s fixed and a bunch of missing stuff is restored, and there’s still a bunch of Tyros users that don’t want to move to a very expensive 76….

My take on Ketron is, the audio styles are killer IF… you like them the way they are (audio styles can’t really be edited much) and there are enough styles in the genres you want to perform (imported MIDI styles aren’t going to compare well with the live audio stuff).

Older arrangers may pre-date the move to cheap Chinese componentry (my old G70 was built like a tank!).

Congratulations on beating your addiction (one day at a time). I lost my wife to it, I know what a battle it can be. But during the intervening years, I don’t think the arranger industry has made much progress. Maybe the best move is to go back to what USED to work for you and let familiarity help you reintegrate into performing (work on YOU, not the gear!) and being vigilant with your recovery while you perform for drinkers…?

Happy for you Wolf

I drank an old fashion glass full of straight brandy an hour for 4 hours a night, 6 nights a week for over 30 years.

Quit cold turkey in 1985. My ear father-in-law was a psychiatrist who specialized in addiction. He said I was not a chemical alcoholic. My addiction was social...very rare and really easy to handle. I just switched to coffee. There are people who say they have never seen me without a coffee cup.

For years, I was afraid to play bars. I chose hotel dining rooms and restaurants. Then, I realized my purpose in those places was to sell BOOZE.

Here, lots of bar folks get together at a local restaurant with an attached lounge. It's SAD!. Many in their 20's have lost their licenses, cannot tend bar legally, lost their family, etc.

On top of that, many members of my family have issues with alcoholism.

It's rough out there.


All the best,


Russ

Think I'll start drinking early today!

Bottom's up,

Gary

Going from band work to solo work seriously cut into my recreational substance usage! I just can’t sing worth a damn when hammered, and no one around to pick up the slack…

My liver is thanking me, even if my colon isn’t! 😂🎹