A Blog About Keyboards and Stuff
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Many Modern Synths Are Computers. Do We Care?
I'm entertained by the back and forth outrage of a four thousand dollar synth (Sequential Prophet X) being opened up (because it broke) by Espen Kraft, who then pointed out in a video the cheap $70 computer motherboard powering the thing. I think that many people on...
Is Behringer the Arcade1Up of the Synth World?
Yes. That's an easy one. I'm not going to lie - when you look at someone's synth collection and it's mostly or all Behringer, it's a lot like looking at someone's home arcade and noticing that they're all Arcade1Up machines. When I see that, I think two things: It's...
Rick Beato’s Version of “Good” and “Bad”
I'm a fan of Rick Beato, but that doesn't mean that I agree with every decision or opinion he has. In modern times, YouTube comment threads are often populated by fanboys who think the channel host can do no wrong. How stupid is that? One example from years ago was...
Superior (In Price) Drummer
After hearing that Jem Godfrey of Frost* used Superior Drummer and the Hitmaker SDX on "Life in the Wires," I decided I should look into it. I've looked at Superior Drummer before, but I'm a big fan of the AI Drummer in Logic Pro. The issue with Logic Pro's Drummer...
Why Jem Godfrey is my Freaking Musical Hero (FMH)
Hey, we try to keep things clean around here. I have no issue with F bombs, but I do think that you sound stupid when you use them too much. Jem Godrey is the main creative force behind the prog rock band "Frost*". He's a keyboard player, singer, songwriter, and he...
When Your Relatives Hear Your Music in Walmart
I got a call today from my father and my brother. They both live in New York and are probably moving down to Florida in November. It looks like they have two offers on my dad's house. We lost my mom in the summer of 2024 to cancer. They called to tell me about the...
Too Many Synths
We all know that the synth market is oversaturated. The Eurorack market is also oversaturated. These are to our advantage, though. When tons of companies are competing for your money, you win. But it reminds me of the guitar pedal market, which was oversaturated 10...
Why do we REALLY like hardware synths better than plugins?
If you look around my studio, you’ll see I have something like 20 guitars, three basses, a banjo, and a mandolin. But for keyboards, I only own 3 - a Yamaha MX88, an Arturia Keylab Essentials 49, which is just a controller, and a Casio CDP 100 digital piano, which is...
Apple Fanboy Hating on Apple
I'm a Mac user. I have a Windows 10 computer and a Linux computer in the house, but Windows is for gaming and Linux is for MAME. I prefer Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro because they're the best software in my opinion. I prefer the Mac OS to Windows OS, and I think...
AI is Exciting and Makes Me Want to Quit
I'm going to be 59 in less than two weeks. I mean, it's better than 60, but still, I'm old. Yes, it beats the alternative. But lately I've gotten bored with my attempts at songwriting. Everything I write sounds trite to me, and almost none of it sounds good. I...
Flying and a Toy Casio
I’m typing this at 20,000 feet. OK, actually, I have no idea how high we are. I have a window seat, and the clouds are below us. Above us, a blindly bright sun, and blue sky, nothing but blue sky. I’m on an $86 nonstop flight from Rochester, NY to Tampa, FL on...
Thoughts on the Arturia AstroLab
What is the AstroLab? I own the Arturia V Collection 9, and I think it’s killer for the money. It’s got tons of synths and keyboards from Moog, Yamaha, Roland, Arp, and others. It’s really cool. It’ll run on any good computer, so if you have an i7 from 2018, it’s...