bitflipper

What is this "Facebook" thing you're referring to? Is it some kind of cult?

Oh, I'm sure they test it. But they are testing in-house installations with no network-based authentication required. So not a realistic user experience. To paraphrase something one of their developers posted years ago: "American users are just too demanding. They expect too much." My biggest question is how on earth does a license verification routine impact so many facets of a program, e.g. laggy UI and audio. Was it phoning the mothership to get permission for every sample? "We have to crack down on these pirates, they're making us look bad."

Is he oiled up?

Are you sure you weren't unknowingly on a prank show? Or maybe she's come up with a new concept for an OnlyFans channel. I'm out of the loop; are UPS drivers a trendy kink now? Hey, I've heard about furries, so it seems anything's possible.

SUCCESS! The package got delivered, albeit left at an unused door. I only found out it was there by checking the tracking page, which said it had been delivered. While walking around the house looking for it, had fingers crossed that it had actually been delivered to the correct address. It was, and the box was mostly undamaged. Nothing like a new toy to take the edge off one's fury.

Yup, that's the magic word. I'm OK with it if it's in the name of quashing spam. I hate spammers far more than I hate, um, you-know-who.

Testing Wookie's hypothesis...FedEx FedEx FedEx

I'm sure they knew it was coming, as he's been doing this for years. It's kind of his thing. I first saw him do it at a TED Talk. This is a demonstration of the "wisdom of crowds", the tendency to hit the mark in the aggregate even though any one individual might be wildly off the mark. Penn & Teller demonstrate this in some of their performances. They display a jar of jelly beans on stage before the show, and audience members are invited to write down their guesses for how many jelly beans there are and drop their guesses into a box. During the show all of the guesses are totaled and averaged, and the results are revealed at the end of the show. To everyone's amazement, the audience in aggregate accurately guessed the number of jelly beans with < 0.3% error. So when recording your own vocals, you don't need Melodyne, just keep layering overdubs!

That's how Amazon does it here, and its deliveries have been consistently on time or early. I've had orders show up the next day after ordering, even though I never pay for expedited shipping. But then we have multiple fulfilment centers here, and Seattle is of course Amazon's home base. I imagine if Jeff or one of the other upper-level execs got stiffed on a delivery, heads would roll. I'm guessing Tennessee residents similarly get pretty good service from FedEx. UPS is hit-or-miss. Once I thought that an expensive microphone had been lost in transit, but I found it in the bushes by my driveway gate where it had been lying in the rain for two days. Fortunately, it was well-packaged and the mic itself did not get wet. Fortunately, I am not on a main street where it would have been noticed by thieves. Fortunately, the need for the mic was not urgent. Fortunately, my granddaughter has keen eyesight and noticed the box as she walked home from school. On another occasion, UPS pulled into my driveway, turned around and left. I literally chased it down the driveway, but he didn't stop. That was my Hammond XK-1, and I'd been anxiously awaiting its arrival all day. But FedEx is the worst. Last year I bought a new mixer, a hard-to-get Yamaha DM3. Didn't show up on the promised delivery day, but we found it beside an unused basement door - with a badly-damaged box. I now have a sign on that door with a message addressed to FexEx saying don't dump deliveries here. Two years ago I ordered a Nord Stage 3. For three days in a row they claimed no one was home and couldn't deliver it. That's what really ticks me off, adding insult by blaming me for not getting my order. When I'm awaiting a musical instrument I pee in the back yard to avoid going into the house for even a minute lest they sneak past me.

The forum software has been extra peckish lately. Three posts were flagged as offensive just in this short thread, including my own OP. The auto-censor does not highlight which word was forbidden, so I don't know what's irritating it. Here's what I can't figure out...these delivery companies have advanced GPS technology and AI route mapping. They can tell exactly where a given truck or package is at any time, anywhere in the world. Why, then, is it so hard to let you know when your package will arrive, short of "before 8:00 PM"? And then be wrong about it.

Well, I'm admittedly a little off-center today because this morning I discovered I was out of coffee. Normally, I'd run to the store and grab some, or hit the corner coffee stand. But not today, because I dare not leave my front porch for a minute because FedEx is coming with my new synth. Earlier today the shipment's status said "on truck for delivery". Yay! Just as promised. But I don't trust them, because the last time I had an important delivery, they didn't show up. They changed the status to "Customer not available or business closed", even though I was here the whole time, waiting. They actually did that three days in a row, changing the status from "out for delivery" to "nobody home". So guess what? Today at 1:00 in the afternoon they changed my current shipment's status from "out for delivery" to "nobody home". F You, FedEx, I've been here the whole time, even going without coffee lest you sneak up while I'm away. I'd even un-checked the "require signature" box so they could leave it if I didn't hear them come up the driveway. Damn you, FedEx, and damn you Sweetwater for switching to them from UPS. At least UPS would toss packages into the bushes down by my gate in the rain. I'm almost pissed off enough to start going back to Guitar Center - ok, no it isn't. [/rant]

Oops, my last comment included a forbidden word and required moderator approval...I said yes, it's OK.

I think that's what they call a Xanax overdose.

That's a fact. Twice I've had mine accidentally unplugged mid-song, and I was dead in the water for 2 minutes while it booted back up. Compare to the Nord, which takes < 10 seconds. That's because the Kronos stores libraries on SSDs and transfers a user-specified working set of them into RAM on boot up. The price of having 80GB of storage. And it is a heavy beast. Even worse (~81 lbs) when residing in its plywood flight case. I usually solicit aid from one of my bandmates when moving, setting up and tearing down, lest I do a number on my back. Still, the Kronos has been a real workhorse. Scrolling through the patch list is like scrolling through Omnisphere's enormous selection. I've also added some third-party libraries. So when the band asks if I've got a particular sound in there, I often tell them to check back with me tomorrow. Its UI can be rather obtuse when editing, even for basic things such as routing fx. In performance, though, it's great. The large color touchscreen is the best I've seen on a synth. I can create any number of set lists, organize patches any way I like, color-code, pan, transpose and EQ each slot - all without altering the underlying patches. From what I've read in the Montage manual, its Live Sets are just lists. Will know more after it arrives on Thursday. I think I will, too. Even though I can do the equivalent of Scenes with the Kronos (e.g. I have a bunch of EPs in one set list slot for easy switching/layering), the 8 illuminated buttons on the Montage will be quicker and less error-prone when playing live. In the edit screens, I'm seeing a common UI philosophy with my Yamaha mixer, which I like a lot. Yamaha's definitely gotten better at that sort of thing over the years. Maybe they've learned a thing or two from Steinberg. Apologies to the OP for hijacking the thread, and for all the words. I'm just excited to have a new synth on the way.

Yes, that's a good word for it. Not one I'd use, though, as it's a bit woo for my pragmatic sensibilities. It's definitely an altered state of consciousness, and I've heard and subsequently forgotten a clinical term for it that psychologists use. Other possibilities, according to the Thesaurus: euphoria, elation, exhilaration, jubilation, joy, and "frenzy" (?). I guess that last one might fit for those joyous nutjobs thrashing about in a mosh pit. An activity I cannot relate to, unless it involved a bunch of soft ladies in a vat of pudding.

That's good advice. I do that with all my patches, especially grand piano, in order to keep from stepping on the bass. The Korg has a nice parametric EQ across the entire instrument. Hopefully, the Montage has one, too.

...for that state of euphoria that music can sometimes elicit? I know there's a word for it. It's the dragon I'm always chasing. This literally brought tears to my eyes.

That's really the key, isn't it - knowing your tools well enough to adapt them to your needs. I'm the same way with my Kronos, having heavily customized it over the past decade to suit my application ('60s-'70s cover band). Unfortunately, I never clicked with the Nord in the same way. I thought the real-time controls would be cool, since the Korg is not easy to modify on the fly. But after nearly 3 years with the Stage, I still find myself turning the wrong knob in the heat of performance and suddenly I've applied a flanger when I meant to kick in a delay. My biggest disappointment is with the Stage's Leslie emulation. It's OK on slow but too warbly on fast. I've got a Neo Ventilator but no longer use it in order to minimize setup time. So even though I had intended to use the NS3 for organ, I do most of that on the Kronos with its superior Leslie sim, often playing on the Nord's keyboard for its faster action. I think I'd need a whole music store's worth of instruments to be truly content, but then I'd need a bigger van. And a couple roadies to lug it all. Well, last night I took the plunge and ordered a Montage, then listed the NS3 on Craigslist at a bargain bin price. My hope is the Montage can suitably take over the Kronos' duties (mostly piano, strings and brass). If it does, then I'll likely add a Hammond XK-5 to the stack. Then surely I'll be happy for my remaining years.

Yeh, it's pretty good, if not $249 good. Is it better than the PSP FETpressor? Honestly, no. But for $30 it does the job.

Well, 30 bucks has a lot to do with it. iirc that's what I paid for it the last time it went on sale.

Thanks so much, Jim! Your insight comes at just the right time for me. Guitar players routinely pick up new axes the way some people casually buy a new pair of shoes. Keyboard players have to be much more prudent. And not just because it's a lot of money (my instrument cases alone each cost more than a nice guitar amp) - each acquisition represents a serious learning commitment. And like Jim says, you don't find out the limitations until later. I, too, bought the NS3 simply because every band on the planet seemed to have one. My decision was cinched when I saw Brit Floyd, a jaw-droppingly good note-perfect Pink Floyd tribute band. All those critical Rick Wright organ, piano and synth parts were credibly reproduced on an NS2. But I'll just say it: Nord synths are over-hyped and overpriced. My now-ancient Korg Kronos bests the Nord by every measure except weight. Its progressively-weighted keys feel more piano-like than anything short of a dedicated digital piano. The piano samples are comparable to anything in my Kontakt collection. It contains 9 synth engines, basically the entire Korg history in one box. Sadly, neither the Korg nor the Nord replicate a Hammond to my satisfaction. I am thinking it's time to go back to Suzuki for that, as the XK-5 seems to have nailed it. At the moment I'm picturing the Montage 7 on the lower tier and the Hammond on top. That combination's eight grand not including flight cases, and the combined resale value of my current instruments is about four grand. A big purchase for a guy living mostly on social security. Arturia, you almost solved all my problems. Please keep trying.

Ditto. I still think back on the bamidi mystery and its sad resolution. If I were to suddenly kick the bucket, I'd hope that craigb might note that bitflipper hasn't posted in awhile, thus leading to the discovery of my rotting corpse slumped over my keyboard. I'm counting on you, Craig.

I have been researching replacements for my NS3, and am seriously considering the Montage M73 (for stage use I prefer 73 over 88 keys, and the 88's polyphonic aftertouch isn't a compelling feature to me). However, there are no retailers here (or anywhere outside of LA, it seems) where I can sit down with one and see if it'll work for me. Every video demonstration is someone playing solo, and I need to assess it in the context of a live band. All those pretty stacked pads are useless to me in a 70's cover band. I need bright, dry pianos, brass and strings that cut through a live mix. Like my old Yamaha MO8. Would like to hear your thoughts on the M8x and why you're thinking it might be a good replacement for the NS4. In the course of my search, I came across Arturia's instrument. The idea is great: a cheap, rugged hardware synth with downloadable VIs. My jeans get tight imagining a keyboard instrument hosting Keyscape! But Arturia's libraries just aren't suitable for a classic rock cover band, and 61 keys are often too few. So sadly, I have crossed this one off my list. Me, too! I bought my Nord specifically because it was light. My current main instrument is a Korg Kronos. It, too, has downloadable VIs, but they are specific to the Korg format and many are feature-reduced versions of their DAW-based equivalents. My biggest complaint is that even though it's the 73-key version it still weighs 82 lbs in its flight case and requires two people to lift it onto the stand. That's a selling point for the Montage - still a beast but about 25 lbs lighter. The Nord has largely been a disappointment. As a sampled-instrument player it leaves a lot to be desired. The pianos are nice-sounding in solo, but not much use in a rock 'n roll band. I mostly use it as a lead instrument, for synth leads. I thought I'd like all the real-time controls more than I actually do, as in the heat of the moment I really don't want to do a lot of fiddling.

This has been my go-to FET-type compressor ever since my previous favorite went iLok and then tricked me into a "free upgrade" to surreptitiously install the Pace driver.

I was a fan of the video game ("game" singular, since FO4 was the only one I liked) and am looking forward to seeing the adaptation. But not enough to give Amazon permission to dip into my checking account every month for all eternity. Some will say "just sign up for the free trial and then cancel". Nah, I am still scarred by my AOL experience 30 years ago. No corporate entity is getting my routing number ever again.