Category Archives: sounds

Yamaha MX-series Keyboards — Finally a Great-Sounding Yamaha at a Reasonable Price!

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MX61

As you know, I’m a great fan of reasonably affordable, high-quality, professional keyboard instruments. Until relatively recently, they’ve been getting harder and harder to find. Finally, Yamaha have properly entered the fray (the MM-series is horrible), joining Korg and Casio, with their MX-series keyboards.

An MX61 could very well be the next keyboard I purchase. Yamaha have about the best sampled piano sounds out there, and they also do a great job with horns and strings — both of which are lacking in my current rig.

For those with cash now, you can get the MX61 at Musicians’ Friend or your favorite retailer.

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TryAPedal.net — Like Lensrentals.com, but for Guitarists

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I came across an interesting link today: tryapedal.net. Someone has taken the Lensrentals.com / Borrowlenses.com model, and applied it to guitar effects.

The rental prices seem reasonable, and many pedals have the option to either “rent-to-own” or “try-and-buy”. It’s a great idea if you’re considering a specific “boutique” pedal, but don’t want to plunk down the big bucks just to discover it doesn’t really work for you.

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Behringer Bargain Mini-Review

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This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Pedal Board

Earlier in this series, I mentioned that I’d post my thoughts on the Behringer el-cheapo effects pedals that I purchased to use as temporary effects until I can find and afford my “holy grail” pedals. Last night, I had the opportunity to try the “complete” pedal board at practice. The overall results were almost exactly what I had hoped for, especially on electric piano and organ sounds. Summing the project up in one word: success!

So, let’s talk a little bit about what $25 will buy you in an effects pedal.

I purchased the UT300 Ultra Tremolo and the VD400 Vintage Delay.

Commonalities

I’ve already mentioned that the construction is, well, cheap. The box is made of some sort of high-impact plastic, and that seems to include the hinge-point where the foot pedal switch connects to the chassis. I also already mentioned that the big, rubber pad on the base pretty much fell off in my hands when I was velcroing one of the pedals to the board. If you’re a heavy-duty stomper, I really don’t know how long this construction would hold up. I’d be especially concerned if you’re not using some sort of pedal board.

Moving on to the controls, each pedal has three controls that operate smoothly, but they are, again plastic. They’re also not attached to the chassis, but only held in place by the solder joints on the circuit board. The same is true of all of the input and output jacks.

The foot switches are not true-bypass, for those who are super-concerned about such things. I know that I eventually want all of my pedals to be true-bypass, even though this is not as much of a consideration for a keyboardist as it is for a guitar player.

Both pedals have a “standard” 2.1mm, negative-tip 9V coaxial power jack located on the right side of the chassis, next to the input jack.

Now that we’ve gotten through the common bits, let’s look at the pedals individually

UT300 Ultra Tremolo

There are three controls on the tremolo: Rate, Depth and Wave. The Rate and Depth controls are pretty self explanatory — they control the rate and amount of the effect. The Wave control is pretty cool. It allows you to select between a sine wave for a nice, smooth pulsation or a square wave for severe chop effects. But, it’s not a switch, and that allows a choice of wave shape anywhere between sine and square waves for a wide range of effects.

In use, the UT300 is very transparent, in that there’s no apparent coloration of the sound. Just a nice tremolo effect. I also noticed that there’s no pop or volume jump when you turn the effect on — gain is effectively at unity and the electronic switching is dead silent.

In all, the UT300 is a good sounding, predictable analog effect at a bargain price.

VD400 Vintage Delay

The VD400 Vintage Delay is a basic, analog delay that offers up to 300ms of vintage, bucket-brigade echo. Again, there are three controls involved: Repeat Rate, Intensity and Echo.

In this case, the Repeat Rate is the delay time. Turning the control to the left makes for shorter delays and turning the control to the right lengthens the delay time, from slap-back timings to the spacier 300ms setting. Intensity controls the number of repeats, and Echo is the mix between dry and wet signal.

Again, the sound quality is very impressive. Short delays and lower repeat rates are clean and warm. Cranking the Intensity control results in a delay that “gets dirty” as the repeats build, very much like vintage tape echo.

As with the UT300, switching is silent, and gain is nicely balanced — no pops or jumps. Just nice delays.

In conclusion

Based on my experience so far, if someone told me that they were on a tight budget and needed some inexpensive pedals, I’d very likely tell them to consider the Behringer effects. While there are certainly caveats to the build quality, I think that as long as they’re treated decently, they’ll perform quite nicely — especially if they’re on a pedal board and powered using a 9V adapter. Obviously, you can’t be jumping on these and simply throwing them into the back of your amp. But, for someone who needs something now while they’re putting a better rig together, or for someone just starting to use effects, they’re a bargain.

Behringer list American Musical Supply as the only on-line dealer for these, and that’s where I ordered mine. Some local music stores carry the Behringer pedals as well, and if you can, I always suggest supporting your local music store. In my case, I would have bought at Coffey Music in Westminster, MD, if they had been in stock.

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I Said I Needed a Pedal Board…

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This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Pedal Board

Three weeks ago, I mentioned that I needed a pedal board to keep the area beneath my keyboards under control. Well, three weeks later …

And here it is. There are still a couple of details to fill in. I’m short one jumper cable, and a couple of the pedals are inexpensive “place holders” until I can find/acquire better ones.

In the top row, right to left, we have the Lovepedal Rubber Chicken (a dynamic filter/auto wah); a Behringer tremolo and analog delay (these are the cheap-o place holders); the Tech 21 NYC Blonde amp simulator/overdrive; and the Line 6 Roto Machine rotary speaker emulator/over drive).

On the bottom, from right to left, is the volume/expression pedal for the PS-60; the DSSP dual sustain pedal; volume/expression pedal for the X-50; and a master volume pedal for the effects loop. The open space on the lower left is reserved for a TC Helicon Mic Mechanic vocal effects pedal. A Gator soft case is on order, and should arrive on Tuesday (it was supposed to arrive Friday, but FedEx totally blew it).

The big, fat “cable” coming off the top-center is the umbilical to the keyboards, bundle up in a wire loom to keep things looking neat. The big bundle off the top right are the cables to the amp.

Overall, I’m really pleased with the result from this project. Long term, I will probably replace the amp simulator/overdrive with a more straight-forward overdrive pedal. While I’ve got it dialed in a little better, the Blonde is still really, really sensitive, and goes from clean through overdrive and into hard distortion way too easily.

Some thoughts on el-cheapo effects…

When I ordered the two Behringer pedals, I knew that for $25 a piece, they’d only be but so good, and I was right. It’s not the design and sound that’s disappointing — they’re nice copies of some vintage pedals — but the build quality is pretty cheesy. On the outside, almost all of the construction is a high-impact plastic. Inside, low-cost made-in-China circuit boards and components are the rule.

Mounting the Behringer pedals was somewhat humorous. The bottom of the pedals have thick rubber cephalopod-like feet. I stuck a big hunk of Velcro to the underside, plopped the pedal on the board, and then went to position it. The rubber pad came right off the bottom. Fortunately, the stickum on the Velcro is really good, and I didn’t waste a 2″x4″ hunk of that! After discarding the rubber piece, the Velcro grabbed to the stamped metal plate on the bottom of the pedal (I think it’s the only metal part in the entire thing) and is holding the pedal fast.

I knew going in that these were intended to get me an effect I need quickly while I search for the “holy grail” pedals. For instance, Lovepedal is working on an upgrade to the Gen5 Echo, and I can’t imagine it being anything but stellar. I love the sound of the Gen5, but I want to hear the new one before I buy. And, Earthquaker Devices have the incredible Dispatch Master. I know, the Dispatch Master has a digital delay, but it sounds really, really nice, and the price is quite tempting. What’s more, Earthquaker Devices are made in Akron, OH. That’s where I was made!

For the trem, I’ll be looking for something along the lines of the Suhr Guitars Jack Rabbit. The features that make it the top of the heap, in addition to great sound, are the array of modulation controls — variable wave shape is a big deal that will allow going from subtle pulsing to radical chop sounds like those heard on The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again.

Finally, the replacement for the Blonde will probably be something along the lines of the J. Rockett Audio Designs Blue Note OD. It sounds super-smooth and subtle.

The project to build the pedal board ended up costing more than I had hoped, and took longer than I wanted it to. But, in the end, I’m getting exactly the pedal board I need — there simply isn’t a commercial pedal board that’s made that’s “right” for a keyboardist. I did play with it in an incomplete state at our last practice, and everything fell into perfect place.

Now to learn four new tunes by Thursday…

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I Need a Pedal Board!

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This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Pedal Board

It’s pretty normal for guitarists to have pedal boards. They usually have an array of effects to modify the sounds of their guitars — overdrive, fuzz, reverb, echo, modulators, and more. Keyboardists, on the other hand, generally rely on effects built into their instruments.

That’s all well and good, in a studio. Most modern keyboards have all kinds of incredible effects that sound really great. But, they’re a pain in the backside to control quickly and easily on stage. Guitarists have really got it made when it comes to effects that are portable and easy to use live.

Before the days of digital keyboards, when rock keyboard players had things like Hammond B3 or Farfisa organs, Rhodes or Wurlitzer electric pianos and Hohner Clavinets, they used guitar “stomp boxes” for their effects, too. I’ve decided that, for my “rig”, I’m going to go old-school and build a pedal board. I’m getting tired of chasing three volume pedals, sustain pedals, and effects around under my keyboard stand.

The picture shows my planned pedal board layout. Along the bottom, from left to right, are a master volume, dual sustain pedal, and separate volume pedals for the Korg PS-60 and X-50 keyboards. Picking up on the top row, moving from right to left, will be a Rubber Chicken, Pickel Vibe and Gen5 Echo from LovePedal, a Line Six Roto-Machine Leslie simulator and a Tech 21 “Blonde” amp simulator.

Of course, I don’t own all the effects yet, but I’ll start building the pedal board and add the “missing” pedals over the next few weeks or months. And, based on sound, cost, and availability, the actual pedals used may change (or I may put cheaper pedals in temporarily).

Not shown on the board will also be a couple of vocal effects units. I’ve already got the TC-Helicon H1 harmonizer, and I’ll be adding their new Mic Mechanic pedal when it becomes available. They will not reside on this pedal board, as I will operate them with my hand instead of my foot.

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New Affordable Keyboards

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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

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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

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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

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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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