Category Archives: sounds

New Affordable Keyboards

Posted on by Geren
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I’m always happy to be able to report that something that I’ve complained about has changed. A couple of years ago, I complained loudly that there were very few good, affordable (under $750) keyboards. At that time, there were only a couple of decent-sounding instruments out there — Korg‘s X-50 and PS-60 (both of which I own), Roland’s Juno-D, and Yamaha‘s MM-6. I’m happy to report that the market is responding! There are now at least 15 sub-$750 professional-level keyboards available from a variety of manufacturers, with two new models on the way from Casio.

Casio XW-P1 Performance Synth (image courtesy Sweetwater Sound and Casio Corporation)

That’s right, I said Casio.

Casio brought out some of the first of the affordable synths and samplers (you can read an interesting history of Casio keyboards here and here), but with the exception of digital pianos, they’ve pretty much ignored the pro market until now. Casio will be releasing two exciting new instruments in the next couple of months — a pro-performance-level model called the XW-P1 (slated to ship in March) and a loop and groove oriented model called the XW-G1 (arriving in April). MSRPs on these models are right around $700, with one dealer listing prices of under $500! While I need yet another keyboard like I need a hole in my head, the XW-P1 is on my short list for purchase later this year — despite the fact that I just acquired a Casio CTK-6000 arranger keyboard.

I’m really excited by the resurgence of lower-cost instruments in the market. There are a lot of us weekend-warrior musicians who just don’t have the cash assets to plunk down a lot of money on equipment, but still need reasonable quality keyboards for our garage bands that only gig a couple times a month at best.

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Of course, I found some more info on the new Casio XW-P1 after I posted and shared. Here’s a video from Casio:

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A Thought on Music

Posted on by Geren
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Something interesting happened last night. We were auditioning a drummer, and I had misplaced my notebook with the charts for the songs we’d be playing. I’m pretty terrible at memorizing things, for various reasons touched on some time ago, so I was rather distressed. And, for the most part, my playing and singing was lousy, with a couple of exceptions. We played one song that we had only briefly worked on some time ago (Stevie Wonder‘s I Wish), and an improv jazz jam. On those two songs, I played quite naturally and pretty well.

As I was walking out with Steve (our guitar player) we were talking, and I apologized (again) for such a bad night. Steve’s comment was interesting — that I should play more by feel, and less from my charts. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but in thinking it over, I got to thinking that maybe I ought to change my approach to music. While I’m not exactly sure what that means just yet — it may be some time before I really figure it out. But, I do know that it’s going to be on my mind now, every time I play.

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More on the Future of UHF Wireless

Posted on by Geren
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Radio Microphone Receiver racks backstage at a...

Image via Wikipedia

I turned on the TV in my office this morning, and the first thing I saw was an advertisement placed by CTIA.org advocating expanding telecommunications further into the UHF bands, further reducing the UHF frequencies available to TV broadcasters, film and video producers, event production companies and convention centers, hotels, theaters and performers for wireless microphones, instrument systems and in-ear monitoring. This is becoming a very real threat. Yet the big players in the industry (Shure, Sennheiser, Audio Technica, etc.) are still steadfastly maintaining that UHF is their future.

CTIA’s latest ad touts “wireless freedom” for users of cell phones, etc., and promises reduction in the national debt. They sign off with “It’s simple. More spectrum means more freedom — for everyone.”

What it really means is that wireless microphone and monitoring users are going to have to spend millions of dollars to replace equipment that will be made useless. And, since the equipment can’t be legally resold (yeah, it’s a federal offense to resell the stuff!) or easily recycled, it will end up in landfills across America. CTIA has previously run ads about how “green” their initiatives are. If this kind of outcome is their idea of green, all I can see is red!

Folks, now is the time to contact your representatives in Congress. If we’re not heard, we won’t be heard!

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A-Wireless We Will Go

Posted on by Geren
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After our most recent gig, it became abundantly apparent that we need monitors of some sort, be they floor wedges or wireless or some combination thereof. Our bass player currently owns a UHF in-ear system that he’s almost never used. I’d like to go wireless, too, as would our other backup vocalist. But, as a seven-piece band with as many as five singers, this could be an expensive proposition. And, I’m concerned about the future of the rest of the UHF band.

When the government-mandated transition from analog to digital television occurred here in the US, a couple of other things happened, at least one of which directly affected musicians using wireless microphones, instruments and in-ear monitoring systems. Specifically a large chunk of the UHF radio band, which was previously used for our wireless gear was declared off-limits. I don’t have to tell you that decent wireless gear is expensive. The best price I’ve found so far on a decent-quality UHF personal monitor is around $350 for the Carvin EM900 system. UHF spectrum is like gold to the wireless communications industry (cell phones, two-way radios, etc.) who benefited most from the UHF frequencies made vacant by the DTV transition, and it’s only a matter of time before they lobby the government and win the rest of “our” airspace.

So, I began looking at what’s going on in other wireless market segments. The answer is that there is a large allocation in the 2.4GHz range for digital spread-spectrum systems. The technology is mature, and you’re already familiar with some of — cordless phones, wireless networking and even baby monitors are operating using this technology now, along with radio controlled model airplanes, cars and boats. Because so many consumer industries are using this technology, that also means that the it’s relatively cheap!

Digital spread spectrum is a great technology for our use as musicians because, once a transmitter and receiver are “paired” (just like a Bluetooth earpiece gets paired to your cell phone), they always “know” each other. When they first get turned on in a new location, they negotiate with other 2.4GHz devices so that many, many systems can operate together without any interference whatsoever. And, a single transmitter can be “paired” to several different receivers, just as easily as pairing that Bluetooth gizmo to your phone.

Jangus Music

Knowing all this, you’d think that there would be a ton of inexpensive 2.4GHz wireless systems for musicians out there. There are already amazing 2.4GHz radio control systems out there for under $100! But, as near as I can tell, there are only two companies using this technology. Line6 has products for wireless guitar/bass and vocals, but no in-ear monitors. The other company I’ve found is Jangus Music. Yeah, I’ve never heard of them either.

Based on a common transmitter/receiver pair, Jangus systems start at around $190. If you’re a guitarist, it comes with everything you need. For in-ear monitors, you’ll need to add a pair of ear-buds. If you’re looking for a head-worn mic, they have a “kit” or sell their very nice headset mic system separately (along with adapters to use their mic system with any wireless or wired PA).

If you’re a keyboardist, each system can support a single stereo keyboard, or two keyboards, if you run mono like I do! Guitarists might like their integrated strap/transmitter setup. There are no pictures of it on their web site, but they do mention it in all of their literature. The Jangus system also looks to be a great solution for videographers or digital film-makers using an HDSLR rig.

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VoiceTone Update

Posted on by Geren
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About a week ago, I mentioned that I had picked up a TC-Helicon VoiceTone H1 harmonizer. To say that it’s was a good choice would be an understatement.

The thing is nothing short of amazing, not so much because of what it does, but for how easily it does it! I’ve tried to use other vocal harmonizers in the past, and found them complicated to set up, and hard to sing with. The latter is, of course, my problem. Or rather, it was. And, it may have been in part to my being worried about tech, or maybe more about worrying about my singing ability. In any event, I’m really finding the box a joy to work with, and Friday night, we used it live for the first time:

TC-Helicon VoiceTone C1 HardTune and Correction

What’ s Funny About the Law
[Stiffy Goat and the Caaaaarazy Nastyass Honey Badgers (aka Honey Badgers - w/ John Reynolds, Emily Rose Hoffman, Geren W Mortensen Jr, Mark Cunningham, Lee Hatfield, and Steve Tobias Cairo Pavlosky) - Peace, Love and Understanding/I Fought the LawAn unintentionally passable mix straight off the board. The bass might be a little heavy, but really what could be so bad about that?]

I have identified one more of these devices that I would like to have for myself — the VoiceTone C1 Hardtune and Correction box — my vocals are definitely better than they used to be, but I am not perfect!

When One of You Just Isn’t Enough

Posted on by Geren
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This past Friday, we ventured out to Birdies for dinner with a friend, and happened to catch Jeremy W. Norris’ one-man-band act. Jeremy uses a variety of tools to make the show work, aside from his voice and instruments. I’d seen performers use loopers to build up layers of sound and a virtual backing band. And, I’d heard vocalists use harmonizers before (Jeremy uses the Electro-Harmonix Voice Box) to fill out backing vocals. Jeremy’s combination of both tools, and his mastery of controlling them, made his performance a lot of fun.

As the night went on, I got to thinking about using something similar to fill out the backups in my band. As I looked at the various products on the market, and at my budget, I realized that our needs were much simpler at this point. I really just needed the ability to have one or two additional voices. And so, I settled in on a TC-Helicon Voicetone H-1 harmonizer. Yesterday, I picked on up at a local music emporium.

The H-1 aims to be super-simple to setup and use, and it succeeds. I’ve tried other harmony boxes in the past, and they were very difficult to use, requiring specific programming to work right. When I unleashed the H-1 on my unsuspecting band-mates yesterday at rehearsal, less than a half-hour after leaving the music store, I was making useful harmonies almost from the minute I turned it on!

The H-1 has basically three knobs and a switch to work all the magic. The first knob selects the key the box will base the harmonies on, and can also switch to a mode that allows the H-1 to track chords being played on a guitar or keyboard to automatically determine the key. The second knob selects the accompaniment voices, while the third determines how the singers voice will be blended with the backing tracks. The switch kicks the effect on or off.

For the first few songs we did with the H-1, I chose to select the key manually. I simply turned the knob to the correct key, chose a voice arrangement, and sang my usual backup parts. When I wanted more “mes”, I simply hit the switch, and wow! Instant backups. I had all the Pips in my pocket.

After our lead singer got over his surprise, we did a couple more tunes with this setup, and then I decided to try the automatic tracking function. I routed a signal from our guitarist’s channel into the instrument input, spun the key knob around to the “guitar” position, and we were off. When I held a note over chord changes, my harmonies automatically tracked the right chords! The backing tracks on our cover of Aerosmith’s Remember were particularly impressive.

Of course, we didn’t record anything at practice, though we probably will at our next gig (and probably should start recording rehearsals). But if you want to see what this thing’s like in action, check out these videos:

This guy uses it a lot for his live gigs, and has a pretty good command of the box. He’s a little bit spastic, though, but seems a good sort… :)
It also works will with “monophonic” instruments, such as saxophone.

There are a couple other Voicetone Singles boxes that will eventually join the H1 in our rig, specifically the T1 and the D1 (voice tone and compression and also a chorus/detune).

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creativeLIVE: Live, Worldwide Creative Classroom

Posted on by Geren
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I recently learned about an interesting new web community called creativeLIVE that is offering a creative approach to creative training seminars. While I’ve yet to “attend” one of their offerings due to scheduling conflicts, the folks they’ve been attracting to lead these virtual retreats are pretty impressive — Rick Sammon, Bambi Cantrell and Zack Arias are among the photographers involved — and there are “courses” on all manner of creative pursuits, although photographers have been the most prolific thus far.

creativeLIVE

creativeLIVE

About creativeLIVE (from creativelive.com):

creativeLIVE is about providing the best free, live creative education on the web. From our studio in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, we offer free online workshops in photography, video, web and graphic design, app development and a wide array of other creative topics.

All of our live creative workshops are available to watch for free in realtime. Once a live workshop is over, we edit the best of this content into easily downloadable files available for purchase through our online store. It’s that simple.

At our core, we’re a dedicated group of creative-minded individuals. Our aim is to work with the very best instructors who want to share their knowledge and creative expertise with the world.