I’ve have great success the last couple months creating my backup band bass and drum patterns on the DR-880 drum machine.   I record them using Sonar and save them as midi files which I load onto the USB stick I plug into the FP-7F.    Bascially I’ve eliminated the need to take a drum machine with me on a gig .. well if I ever gig that is.    I created a You Tube video showing this process and what it looks like on the FP-7F.  Also I did a video showing what one can do with the Looper feature.

I’m just starting on a new project to create a  booklet titled  “First Stride”.    It is not going to be a detailed all encompassing manual by any means .. just a brief starter guide with some easy beginner practice routines.   But I do want to work to get it published .. so I can say I’m a published author!  

Also in 2012 I hope to find a sax player and practice to perfection a set of a couple dozen  boogie woogie blues songs.    I’ve recorded snipets of the song set and have my backup tracks for the sax player to practice with.      I’ve been working on getting a small mixer rack ready and have speakers  enough I’ve believe to fill smaller venues.    Of course the kind of music I’m playing is basic and surely non-pop .. so I’m not so sure if I’d find an audience.   But we .. shall see!  

Roland FP-7F

 My search for a next keyboard took several weeks but I finally decided on a Roland FP-7F that has the new PA III ivory feel escapement 88 key bed.   I’m not going to do a review on it here but I do want to mention one of the big selling points for me.      The built in song player on it will display lyrics.    So that means I can record my Boss DR-880 patterns into Sonar, add chord notations and then play them on the FP-7F.       This is something I really wanted to be able to do.    I’ll be creating a detailed video slide show on Youtube about how I manage to port my DR-880 patterns over to the FP-7F.

FP-7F showing chords

M-Audio Venom

At Sweetwater Gearfest 2011 in June I got some hands on time on the new M-Audio Venom and attended an hour demo there on it.   It’s a new product,   under $450,  and comes with a lovely computer based program editor to help setup user presets, sound and arp beats on it.    But a warning … the Venom is not for someone looking for a keyboard to learn piano with as it doesn’t even have piano voices on it.   Instead it is loaded with aggressive synth sounds and arps.     Definitely not my type of music but I want to expand my horizons and thus I went for it.   

In a user setup  you can layer and or split the keyboard  with as many as 4 sounds.    Each sound is associated with an arpeggio so you could get 4 arps playing at once.      Buttons on the keyboard allow you to control the 4 sounds during a live performance.      So that’s the skinny on the M-Audio Venom.    Watch for a Youtube of me using it later this fall.

1.   I purchased a 48″ x 8″ long shelf from the hardware store.  Cut a slot in both ends and added it underneath the table stand.   I have a power strip on it and place the AC/DC adapters there on it also for the stage and drum machine.   The surplus cordage is gathered in with velcro wire tie straps.  I’m using velcro to keep the power adapters in position.   

Rig power shelf

2.  Though a bit hard to find in the picture I have a second table stand with a smaller 36″ shelf right next to the Juno Stage.   That stand has my mixer,  computer and VK-8M on top.   The shelf board  also has a power strip on it  which the power strip under the Stage plugs into.    I also mounted a third power strip under the long table I have along the wall there.    The results is I have no cables except for my foot switches on the floor.  

Overall it is just pleasant to look at and a neat image compared to the spaghetti ball of cables that was there previously.   I’m working on a third board now for the traveling rig I’m putting together.   On that one I’m adding some extra holes to strap down power supplies and I’ll sew up a padded bag for transporting it.

Yamaha RY-9

The second drummer I got was an Roland MC-303.   There have been several Roland MC-### models made over the period of like the last 25 years.     The MC-303 is way more than a drum mahcine,  Roland calls it a Groovebox.    The presets are mainly techno  trance beats.   I was surprised that it contains several rhythm sets as well as a bunch of tones and a bunch of specialty sounds in preset banks as well.     I’m still learning how to program beats on it as there are tons of options.    The display is neat and bright and the kinda keyboard buttons on it along with all the little led lights .. well it’s cool to

Roland MC-303

just look at when it’s beating.      After fiddling with this girl a few hours I now love the EZ-Composer feature on my Roland Boss DR-880 drum machine even more.      The EZ-Composer is just such a big time saver as it lets you quickly preview a bunch of different combinations very quickly to come up with a good matching drum beat and bass line for a song.     With the MC-303 you need to have what you are looking for in your head first .. then you can program it and go wild with effects.      I’m looking forward to spending some serious time with this little girl.

The solution I came up with was to drill two 1/4″ holes in the riser tier arms and put in 6″ long 1/4″ long bolts which I slipped  1/4″ inside diameter fuel hose over for padding.     I placed on the bolt arms  a 22″ monitor.  When I have paper music the 6″ arms are longer enough to add on a piece of cardboard to protect the screen then the top of a music stand to hold the paper music sheets.     An unseen benefit was this moved the music a few inches closer which I’ve found is more in tune with my eye glasses.    

BoogieBeau's Rig Jan 2011

The computer keyboard is a wireless Adesso which has a touch pad on the right side of it.   On the upper left there are left and right mouse buttons.     The touch pad has a scroll feature where moving two fingers up or down it does the scroll wheel thing.      The computer keyboard itself sets on a 1/4″ x 15″ x 18″ plywood board that slides between the top of the stand and Juno.  It just happens the OnStage table stand is bent in the middle and there is a gap there and that worked out like perfect making it easy to slide the plywood around to position the computer keyboard just where I need it.  Being wireless I can easily remove the computer keyboard in a second if I get bugged by it.  But so far I’ve found it isn’t in the way at all.   I’ve switched to a chair that has side arms on it that allow me to rest my elbows on when I’m using the keyboard.       

With this new setup working I signed up with a popular online music lesson site http://www.jazzpianolessons.com/.      Most of the practice lesson sheet music is in PDF format and being able to view it on the monitor in perfect position is really nice.    Previously I was always printing sheet music out which was a real pain to keep track of and costly in paper and ink.   The next few months I aslo plan to spend time experimenting with my DAW software Sonar 8.5 LE before I produce my 3rd CD in  December 2011.   The monitor and keyboard are talking to a lower end HP Z200 mini tower computer.  It’s not a 3D gamer computer as it comes with a standard graphics and audio support but it should be fine for what I need it for.    It’s running Windows 7 64bit Pro so at least I’m up to date OS wise .. or at least until Windows 8 comes out.

Also  I keep getting smarter at using Sonar.    I’m now using the Lyrics feature in Sonar Staff view  to match words up to the lead melody notes.    Previously I would  transfer the midi track over into the composer program Finale SongWriter and create lyrics there.      

A rig problem I really wanted to solve I have.   The loud hum issue in my recording rig that occurs when I plug my USB MIDI connections from my drum machine and keyboard is gone.  YIPEE YAHOO !!!!!    I purchased from Sweetwater.com  a Cakewalk UM-3G box which  takes up to three MIDI in/out connects and converts them to one MIDI USB connect to the laptop.    While making my first CD I was always plugging and unplugging the USB cables  which was a real pain.   That nasty hum also got into my  instruments audio tracks so I’m very pleased to have it gone.

Cakewalk UM 3G

A nice side feature of Sonar LE  is  “The Publisher”.    With it you can upload  mp3 tracks to your Web site.     It gives you three options of Shockwave Flash players.    I’ve been using a WordPress Plugin to play MP3 files and I am hopeful this Sonar Publisher utility is going to be a time saver.   Unfortunately the interface is perhaps not quite all there yet for developers and thus it’s a bit easy to mess up your saved publishing settings I’ve found.

Yamaha NP-30

The NP-30 comes with  a sheet music holder and metronome which are two must haves for me.   After playing it several hours over the  last couple weeks I can say I’m satisfied with it.   The price was right, I’ve seen them for as  low as $239.   I got mine from Sweetwater Sound where you get a free two year warranty with the purchase and the shipping was free.   As with most of the cheap Yamaha units the power supply is an addtional cost so add another $30 to the cost of getting one of these.  I didn’t get a carry bag for it yet,  Yamaha sells a NP-30 bag but it looks like everyone is out of stock on them but I expect they will be available again soon. 

Negatives for me are that it only has  ten voices, no rhythm machine  and no digital display however I’m sure the simpler the unit the longer it can run on battery power.    I’ve grown to love the semi weighted key action on my Roland Juno Stage.   The key  action (Graded Soft Touch Yamaha calls it) on the NP-30 is very lightweight in feel compared to the Juno Stage and I’m not so sure I’m going to be satisfied with it.   The keyboard bed on the NP-30 is about 1″ shorter in length than the Juno Stage key bed.   You wouldn’t think 1 inch spread across the 76 keys would make a difference but I think it does.   Playing the NP-30 makes me really appreciate the key action on my Juno Stage.    My third keyboard is a Roland RD-700.   I love the sound coming out of that board and the heavy realistic piano key action feels great.  However my old fingers will be sore if I do a  long practice session on it.    I’m thinking there is a Goldilocks joke in this post somewhere.

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.