My foot switch collection

 I’ve been fighting  foot pedals all year it seems.   I first used an Roland EV-5 to click the drum machine on and off on the Juno Stage.   Then I started using both the BOSS DR-880 and the internal Juno Stage drum machines.   So I purchased a BOSS FS-6 dual switch where I had a separate cable going to the Juno Stage and other to the BOSS DR-880.   Unfortunately if you don’t unplug the cables after you are  done every day the little 9v battery goes dead after several days in that FS-6.   That sucks and surely I would not care for that worry if I was doing gigs  so now I’m using two of the little Roland DP-2 foot switches.   The DP-2 is relatively cheap and doesn’t use a battery. 

The Juno Stage Rig as of August 2010

I also purchased used on EBAY an OnStage laptop/mixer stand that I had planned to put the Dell 22″ Monitor on.   But that doesn’t work out at all as you can’t get it as close I a need for my  eyes to read music on it.    Anyway I put one of my KC-60′s on it and the other KC-60 on top the subwoofer.   Before I used just one KC-60.   I like the more stereo sound I’m hearing but for some reason I can’t turn the volume up near as loud now as we get feedback easily in the mike.    With both right and left mixer jacks going into one KC-60 we can turn it up loud without feed back ..  I  don’t understand why that is.     I’ve had the  Roland PK-5A pedal unit for several months now but I’m not very fond of it.    Just a little bit of practice on it seems to make the left leg tired and also my back cramp.   I am going to start doing some basic scale drills on it each day spending at least 30 minutes.    If I find I don’t like it .. well it’s gona go on the EBAY block.       Other rig news is I’ve sold my vintage Roland PRO-E arranger keyboards.  I found I just didn’t like playing on 37 keys.

Monclova Home Coming Festival

I didn’t make it down Saturday but did spend a couple hours Friday evening listening to the All4It rock band.   The members of the 4 piece band (lead, bass, drum and keyboard)looked to be in the mid-50′s age group and they played great old cover songs from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s like they had been doing it for 40 years.    A different keyboard player took the stage most of set two so I guess they had two guys sharing that job.    It’s always great to watch a keyboard player doing his thing with a band ..  unfortunately my ears seem to have troubles hearing the keyboard over the guitars most of the time.   My observation was a good percent of the songs the keyboardist was using a gritty rock organ sound.     However he had a few solos that I’ll have to try myself sometime.   He did a solo introduction with vocal of 3DogKnight’s   ”I  May Be Weary”  that was interesting.    Also the keyboard solo in Hotel California  sounded good also.   

All4It! Band

It was great to have live music and beer I could walk to.   The crowd was a little sparse I thought so I hope more people make it over to Monclova for the 2011 event.

Inside GearFest 2010

SweetWater is a music gear equipment company head quartered in Ft. Wayne  Indiana about a two hour drive from me.    They are a different kind of music warehouse company.  For example when you purchase gear online from them you get a personal followup call from your assigned sales engineer.      When I seen the invite from Sweetwater to GearFest 2010 I didn’t think much about it at first.   Then I read there would be like 150 companies exhibiting products plus some free seminars so I signed up.   Still I was a bit concerned it might be time not so well spent.     I can say now that I’m extremely glad I went because SweetWater’s GearFest was a totally awesome experience.    The SweetWater facilities are incredible and I surely will go back again.       The highlight of the trip for me was a 90 minute talk by a mixing engineer.  

Mixing Lecture

Outside there were several large tents set up with over a hundred exhibitors.  Everything on display was for sale at GearFest prices.  That meant any gear you saw exhibited could be bought on the spot.    Well not that exact unit but a new unit right  from the warehouse shipped to your front door at a crazy low GearFest price.  I don’t want to tell you every little thing about GearFest because that would be like telling you the end of a new movie you been wanting to see.    Buy some gear from SweetWater and get invited to GearFest 2011.

Roland KC-60 and Behringer Truth B2092A

I use a Roland KC-60 amp which has a sub-woofer output jack on it.   Unlike  the Roland KCW-1 the Behringer Truth B2092A doesn’t have a volume control.   Instead it has an input trim control.   As it turned out the output volume was near perfect for my small 15 x 11 studio room.    However I thought it need a small boost so I got a Behringer MicroMix MX400 mixer.   That worked out great and acts pretty much like a volume control.

Behringer Micro Mixer

The end result is that I’m happy with this setup.  That said I wouldn’t do it again simply because the Truth is a large heavy box with no handles.  It’s really hard to move and takes up a bunch of room at 24 inches tall and  23 inches deep and 13 inches wide.    The other thing is it has a noticeable buzz to it so between that and my PC I don’t have the quiet environment I’d like to have when I’m not pounding on the keys.  One last note is I tried connecting direct from my main mixer L and R outs to the Truth then from it to my Roland KC-60.   Even on the lowest input trim setting the bass volume was way to loud.   At 360 watts the Behringer Truth B2092A can shake down the house.

Boogie Beau's Stand Rig

 The mike stand is an On-Stage Stand MS9701TB and I love how it adjusts.   I had planned on mounting the mike on a goose-neck via an attachment that went right on the tier bar.   However that didn’t work.    When you get playing hard there is a thump when you hit bottom on the keys and that sound vibration gets transferred to the stand and to the goose-neck arm and to the mike.   So a mike arm not attached to the keyboard stand is the only way to go.

Consew 199R sewing covers

On the Roland RD-700 the output cords and power plug stick out the back side so I make a little flap there so the cover fits down nicely.

RD-700 protected by a Boogie Beau made dust cover

 The covers really help keep the keys clean and in this case the sun off also as the keyboard is next to a window.

Table top stand, with mike, sheet music and light

 I have now switched to a table top type stand as seen in the picture above.    The legs angle out on it and I’m happy how quick it folds  for transport also.   I’m going to be adding to this table stand a bit as I want to put an add on bar on the back for a microphone goose-neck and a full length sheet music rack with lights.    As you can see in the picture I now have a mike stand and  sheet music stand on the floor plus a light which is mounted on the table next to the keyboard.    Those three items I hope to make disappear into my table add on.     The only downside of the table top stand is it is not near as stable as the other types as the legs are not very wide.  I would only want to use it for sit down playing.    If you had kids running around in the house then a Z stand would be a better choice.    I’m also looking into how I could make my Z stands a bit wider.   If I could do that I’d be a bit more happy with them.

There is more to a stand than just the stand.  I didn’t mention that most companies sell teir attachments (sometimes called risers) so you can add another keyboard or two on the same stand.   Other attachments include mike booms and sheet music racks.    A type of stand I didn’t mention so far is the column stand which is one big support column with feet and stand arms that fold in for transport.   The column stands sure look cool on stage but run in the hundreds of dollars range in cost.   Yet another type of stand I’ve seen I call the swing set stand known as an  A-Frame stand.  They literally look like a kids swingset and are big and strong for supporting multiple big heavy keyboards with attachments.

In summary just let me say that you probably will never find the perfect stand.  But surely you will have fun trying too.   There are several companies selling keyboard stands however currently I like the On Stage brand of stands the best. 

Yamaha YPG-235 - sold

I’ve had a couple emails from people thinking of buying one asking me why did I sell mine?   Well mainly because I just only have room for like two full size keyboards in my little play room.   Also I want to practice most of the time on the keyboard I plan to perform on and that is the Roland Juno Stage.   One person asked if they should get the 88 key version instead of 76.   Well for someone starting out 88 keys  surely are not necessary.  This keyboard only splits two ways so you still have a lot of keys for each hand to cover.   More expensive keyboards will usually allow you to split the keyboard into 4 parts or even 16 parts like my Roland Juno Stage does.   Those 16 parts by the way are each a separate MIDI track.     There are plenty of songs where the keyboardist can use a piano and an organ and one a 88 keyed keyboard split in the middle can easily cover that.     That is something someone in a performing band might really need but it’s not something a beginner would use.   The internal speakers on any of these portables are a little weak for my tastes.   I had the YPG-235 plugged into a Roland KC-60 and a Subwoofer and it sounded fantastic.

Roland RD-700 (2001 - 2003)

So why did I want such a big keyboard?   Well that comes to the second big announcement.   I’m taking piano lessons at Owens College here in Toledo starting early January!  It’s a one hour per week for twelve weeks of private instruction from a music faculty member.    Several times over the last few months I’ve  plunked around on an acoustic piano or weighted keyboard at Guitar Center for a few minutes.   I’ve found it terribly hard to adjust to the hard pressing keys.   The semi-weighted keys on my Juno Stage I thought would help me transition to fully weighted keys but it hasn’t.    I don’t know for sure but likely I’ll be on a fully weighted keyboard in the Owen’s piano lab for the lessons.    In any case I felt I needed to make the jump and verify whether my tired old fingers can chop on fully weighted keys or not.  So far so good and I plan to increase my playing time on the RD-700 a bit each day.

If you are interested in the piano lessons at Owens Collegesee the Workforce and Community Services flyer for January – April 2010 Personal Enrichment Courses. The presonalized piano lesson description is listed under the Play section on page 7B.   Classes aren’t back in session until Jan 11 so there still may be time to sign up as of this posting.

Roland PRO-E Intelligent Arranger - vintage 1989

When I looked closely at this guy I was shocked at how much technology was in a keyboard made over 20 years ago.   The auto accompaniment features are great with around 36 built in styles with dazzling drum intros and endings.   You can save I think 48 setup registrations.  It can even record midi songs or loops but I need to buy the optional 32K memory card.  Those vintage cards go for anywhere from $25 to $99 so it might take me a while to find one on the lower end of that range.   There are many more features this old board has and to learn about them see the PRO-E manual on this manuals page at the Roland Web site.

The only little problem I’ve noticed so far are two high keys don’t have any velocity control to them, they just sound loud when pressed.   Some day I’ll get brave and take the cover off to see if I can clean inside it a bit.   The big benefit I’ve found with playing on a keyboard with just 37 keys is that it is forcing me to use chord inversions all the time.   In split mode either hand can’t wander at all and I’m starting to get into the chord inversion practice this guys gives me.   I should soon have a demo PRO-E song recorded for your listening pleasure.