Sound module recommendations.

Now that I have a house gig playing keys I'm looking for recommendations for a sound module to use ..just in case the soft synths give me trouble.
I don't need a GM synth for BIAB. It's strictly live. It has to have good versions of these 3 sounds.
1. Grand piano--but a little more aggressive.Think Rock Piano
2. B3 with Leslie controlled by mod wheel
3. Yamaha DX7 tine piano.

The little Ketron SD-2 gets a lot of live use here.

And, its GM bank sounds very good indeed, so I use it for a lot of things.
For one thing, having the GM bank Patch List respond to files that have the GM patches imbedded in them makes life a lot easier, but with the SD-2 yields something a bit more richer than what most people have come to think of as that "GM" sound. It is not the fact that a synth is GM compat that makes many sound cheesy, it is a function of the Samples in that bank and the SD2 has some very nice ones by comparison.

The SD2 also has several Upper Banks soundsets as well, plenty of various sounding Rhodes pianos, more organ patches, etc. They obviously designed with the idea of getting rather rich sounds from the little thing, GM or Upper Bank.

And the small size of it is a wonderful thing, I attach mine directly to the top of one of my MIDI keyboards with Velcro hook-and-loop, where it stays put. Much nicer than some of my other, older MIDI hardware synths in that respect, some of which are 19" panel rack jobbies or rather large desktop boxes, by comparison, the small footprint of the SD2 is a great feature live onstage.

Sinmce keyboard also has its own internal sounds, I hook both to my keyboard amp's mixer, plus using only one MIDI cable from keyboard's MIDI out to the Ketron. Then I use the two audio faders on the mixer to choose between the two, depending upon the sound needed for the next song up on the list.

--Mac

John,
if it's mainly keyboard sounds you want, Roland makes an expansion board specifically filled with keyboards from the 60's and 70's

This isn't a particularly good price, but if you search I'm sure you can find one on Ebay or CL for less.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-ROLAND-SR-J...=item51a5d2b124

this ad will at least let you read about it and decide if it meets your needs.

In order to use an expansion card, You would also need a roland synth or sound module that has expansion slots. These are for sale all the time on ebay at rock bottom prices, and you may even find one that already has this expansion board in it.

to search, use the keyword: SR-JV80-08 (the official name of the board)

Quote:

The little Ketron SD-2 gets a lot of live use here.

And, its GM bank sounds very good indeed, so I use it for a lot of things.
For one thing, having the GM bank Patch List respond to files that have the GM patches imbedded in them makes life a lot easier, but with the SD-2 yields something a bit more richer than what most people have come to think of as that "GM" sound. It is not the fact that a synth is GM compat that makes many sound cheesy, it is a function of the Samples in that bank and the SD2 has some very nice ones by comparison.

The SD2 also has several Upper Banks soundsets as well, plenty of various sounding Rhodes pianos, more organ patches, etc. They obviously designed with the idea of getting rather rich sounds from the little thing, GM or Upper Bank.

And the small size of it is a wonderful thing, I attach mine directly to the top of one of my MIDI keyboards with Velcro hook-and-loop, where it stays put. Much nicer than some of my other, older MIDI hardware synths in that respect, some of which are 19" panel rack jobbies or rather large desktop boxes, by comparison, the small footprint of the SD2 is a great feature live onstage.

Sinmce keyboard also has its own internal sounds, I hook both to my keyboard amp's mixer, plus using only one MIDI cable from keyboard's MIDI out to the Ketron. Then I use the two audio faders on the mixer to choose between the two, depending upon the sound needed for the next song up on the list.

--Mac

I was thinking of this as well.I do have an old SD20 that'll get me through the night.The only issue with the SD2 is same as my SD20, no way to change patches from the unit it self. My Keystation88ES controller is a little cumbersome to change patches from.

Quote:

John,
if it's mainly keyboard sounds you want, Roland makes an expansion board specifically filled with keyboards from the 60's and 70's

This isn't a particularly good price, but if you search I'm sure you can find one on Ebay or CL for less.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-ROLAND-SR-J...=item51a5d2b124

this ad will at least let you read about it and decide if it meets your needs.

In order to use an expansion card, You would also need a roland synth or sound module that has expansion slots. These are for sale all the time on ebay at rock bottom prices, and you may even find one that already has this expansion board in it.

to search, use the keyword: SR-JV80-08 (the official name of the board)

I used a JV 880 with that exact expansion board for many years. I sold it abt 6 years ago.

Quote:

My Keystation88ES controller is a little cumbersome to change patches from.

Not really, it is just that the keystation uses the piano keys as button pads. See the manual. Once you get the hang of this, it isn't such a big deal to call up Patch Changes as well as LSB and MSB calls to go to higher banks.

I generally only use MIDI patches that correspond to actual real life kayboards, maybe some strings, so its not unusual for me to go thru the MIDI listings found at the end of most synth manuals to find the Patch Numbers and Banks settings. I print those out in bold on notecard sized paper and then attach that directly to the keyboard with transparent sticky sheets overtop. I even do that for my synths that have labels on the controls, BTW, because most of those keyboards use labeling that is too small and too dark to see on stages. Cheat sheet with what only what I need to see on the gig, using larger fonts and Bold to highlight the actuals needed, and the show goes on.

After a bit of playing with and using, the Keystation method becomes rather intuitive to use and can be very fast onstage as well. After all, we don't need to squint or have stage lighting in order to remember to find the Ab key below middle C. As an example.

--Mac

Quote:

My Keystation88ES controller is a little cumbersome to change patches from.

John,
will you be playing with backing tracks? If so, why not put the patch changes in the sequence?

Quote:

Quote:

My Keystation88ES controller is a little cumbersome to change patches from.

John,
will you be playing with backing tracks? If so, why not put the patch changes in the sequence?

This is a 6 piece Band.
1. Steel
2. Lead Guitar
3. Acoustic Guitar, Fiddle,Vocals
4. Drums
5. Bass,Vocals,Banjo
6. Yours truly on Keys,Vocals,Bass & rhythm guitar
Yes Mac this afternoon I've been making up those same very sheets for patch changes. Once I get the hang of it it'll probably be fine although I won't have much use for it as long as the lappy holds up.