I worked, worked some more, started full time in 66, and then retired from the full time part time job, then the full time job, and after a years started to work again due to boredom. But I'm very demanding. Usually $40 to $50 an hour,and I try and limit that to 20 hours a week.

The advantage of having the JV1010 in the mix was I could layer another sound, I could control it with my fingers. The Ketron has no knobs, just a volume slider.

I tend to make a huge home setup, and on the day I play the gig, take just the keyboard, mic and Bose system. Its a keep it simple plan, and it works fine. I can be way more creative, but many people just don't appreciate that. And if I get a really good sound I've people asking me where I get my Karaoke tracks.

If you were into production and had all that stuff you'd put it in studio, migrate everything to RealBand and have at it.

Once you compare a nice fiddle track and slide track from Realtracks the synth may go back in the closet. When I'm happy with my tweaking of the original french version (57) of Let it be me, I'll put that up for a listen. I'm trying to negotiate rights to it from France right now, too bad it wasn't Canadian, here an under 200 press version was going to be about $50 bucks for any cover.

Try and listen to all the demos. And then go head to head with yourself, the results might surprise you. As I'm retired I tend to use the software for about 4 hours a day, and have used about 6 synths. I'm sold on
1. RealDrums are normally not always better.
2. Adding one or two Realtracks boosts the end result.
3. The Bose makes me a much better singer and the Audix 5 adds to that a lot.
4. I have more fun trying to make it sound better live, forget being an amateur recording engineer, fighting about headspace and plug-ins.

Just my musings on a night where the pills won't work and my feet are killing me. 4 hours of sleep last night, and one hour so far tonight. Zombie would describe me. LOL.

John Conley
Musica est vita