DrLumen Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 For the keyboardists with a DAW, here is a sale on an excellent electric piano VSTI. It is Air Velvet 2. Currently $9.99 but normally $80. I got it in a previous bundle deal and love it. http://store.dontcrack.com/product_info.php?products_id=2554 Link to comment
oberkc Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Do you use this for live performance, or more for studio use? My interest is live, and I have tried garage band, mainstage, ableton, etc... but just never got comfortable quickly moving from one voice to another for different songs or dealing with problems under the pressure of performance schedule. I went back to keyboards with on-board sounds. How does this software compare, in your mind? Link to comment
larryllix Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Couldn't take the late nights drinking in the bars every weekend. Still have a Roland Synth sitting beside me and MIDI was going to be the new composing tool. Never happened and my MIDI tone generators and Rotating speakers got sold off. Those were the days when a MIDI cable cost more than that!. Link to comment
DrLumen Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 Do you use this for live performance, or more for studio use? My interest is live, and I have tried garage band, mainstage, ableton, etc... but just never got comfortable quickly moving from one voice to another for different songs or dealing with problems under the pressure of performance schedule. I went back to keyboards with on-board sounds. How does this software compare, in your mind? I don't play live as I just tinker at home so I'm certainly not an expert or pro. I can understand wanting and needing hardware synths for live. There is a ~new synth librarian that Akai recently released that you may want to explore. It is called VIP. It allows you to create instrument set lists along with easy overlays and keyboard splits. I can see where it would be helpful for playing live. I don't have an Akai keyboard but it pulls up most all of my VSTi synths and presets. It's pretty cool. Would I trust it live? I don't know. It has hung a couple of times trying to open some really old (likely 32bit) synths. As far as Velvet sound wise, going from memory of the EP's I played over the years and various recorded electric pianos, I would say Velvet is excellent. It does have 5 different ep's giving slews of presets (~350). Not to mention, there are plenty of ways to tweak the existing presets. For my setup, it just works as it fits the way and stuff I play. It has a SuperTramp preset that is dead on. For my midi only keyboard, I find the sounds are well balanced across the range. Of course, YMMV. Couldn't take the late nights drinking in the bars every weekend. Still have a Roland Synth sitting beside me and MIDI was going to be the new composing tool. Never happened and my MIDI tone generators and Rotating speakers got sold off. Those were the days when a MIDI cable cost more than that!. Hehe, yep. Working in bars was fun when I was much younger. It's interesting that you mentioned having a leslie. Those are like gold now! Too bad you didn't keep it. As a keyboard player, I love the sound of a hammond through a leslie. As a roadie, I hate those frickin' things! Right. Midi cables cost more and seemed to go bad with a look! Link to comment
larryllix Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 I don't play live as I just tinker at home so I'm certainly not an expert or pro. I can understand wanting and needing hardware synths for live. There is a ~new synth librarian that Akai recently released that you may want to explore. It is called VIP. It allows you to create instrument set lists along with easy overlays and keyboard splits. I can see where it would be helpful for playing live. I don't have an Akai keyboard but it pulls up most all of my VSTi synths and presets. It's pretty cool. Would I trust it live? I don't know. It has hung a couple of times trying to open some really old (likely 32bit) synths. As far as Velvet sound wise, going from memory of the EP's I played over the years and various recorded electric pianos, I would say Velvet is excellent. It does have 5 different ep's giving slews of presets (~350). Not to mention, there are plenty of ways to tweak the existing presets. For my setup, it just works as it fits the way and stuff I play. It has a SuperTramp preset that is dead on. For my midi only keyboard, I find the sounds are well balanced across the range. Of course, YMMV. Hehe, yep. Working in bars was fun when I was much younger. It's interesting that you mentioned having a leslie. Those are like gold now! Too bad you didn't keep it. As a keyboard player, I love the sound of a hammond through a leslie. As a roadie, I hate those frickin' things! Right. Midi cables cost more and seemed to go bad with a look! As we found out, Hammond B3 organs really didn't have that great a sound with their 300 pounds of coils and rotating magnet shafts.. It was the rotating Leslie speakers that did it. Yeah, 138 pounds up and down stairs and only 40 Watts of power. We had a lot of fun as kids picking copper coils out of the Hammond Organ factory dumpster though. We tied up lots of stuff as juvenile delinquents with those invisible #40-44 AWG wires. Link to comment
DrLumen Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 Oh, but the B3 is historic. Did you ever go through the factory? Link to comment
larryllix Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Oh, but the B3 is historic. Did you ever go through the factory?No. I think they closed up before I was about 20 Sent from my SGH-I257M using Tapatalk Link to comment
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