Dave Maffris

Man, if I had known you'd list your Stage 3 I would have jumped, although I recently purchased a new one at a fanstastic price because of a mixup that the Store went out of their way to make up for. As far as the Leslie emulation on the Nord, a lot of very wonderful musicians I know who are also Nord owners have said they didn't like it--and I don't know what I did to customize mine, but I love it and consider it as good as any I've played (well, maybe the Hammond itself, the real thing, and who knows, there might be many more), not warbly on fast, and I love using the drawbar emulation, drive control, and percussion, etc. People who hear me way it sounds great, too, but again, very individual thing, I know. Also, I seem to have mastered the onboard controls very early in my ownership, and I use it a ton. So much so that when I decided to pick up a Yamaha CK 88 as an additional board, I did so because it, too, has a fair amount of on board knobs, sliders, etc. that I enjoy using to create instant sound variations without designing separate patches. To each his own, and I get it if someone else doesn't work the same way I do. The result is what matters and your own personal comfort and inspiration is what's most important. Playiing my Yamaha and Nord side by side (or up and down keyboard shelf), the superior sound of my Nord is obvious in many many patches, especially acoustic pianos, and yet so many keyboardists complain that Nord's ac piano is bad and praise yamaha to the hilt. Mind you, I'm comparing a $5000 vs. $1500 keyboard, so I get it. But I've played other brands and find the Nord (as I've customized it) White Grand, for example to be richer and more complex than any other keyboard's. As far as Kronos, I've always been interested in them, but a couple of things stand out to me--I've heard it's a long boot up, which is no biggie except when you have to reboot during a show, and it's weight. I may be uninformed here, but I can't lug a keyboard more than 30 pounds or so anymore, so that eliminates a ton of great machines (Nautilus, Montae, some Rolands, etc.) no matter how great they are. I gig a lot and I'm old and getting weaker every day--or more lazy. I've heard great things about the Kawai keyboards, but their sheer weight would make it impossible, especially since I do a lot of solo gigs. I hae three sub 30 lb keyboards, my Nord 76, casio 3100 and yamaha CK 88. I'd add a Kurzweil PC4, but I think I'm all out of money and space in my studio or car, lol.

Well, I have done a lot of work on my Nord over the years to get it sounding perfect in nearly all situations, from straight jazz solo piano to Tribute Band stuff, to Rock/Pop/Funk. Not using much of the factory patches, mostly my own, doctored ones, downloaded sound banks from Nord artists as well as 3rd party. Seems I can usually find what I need. Probably the weakest link, IMO are the brass sections and such, but I tweak them or layer and it does a decent job, and I don't hear too many other keyboards whose sounds are much better, although that is definitely a matter of taste and type of music.

Yeah, I know you can work around Song mode, but I don't feel the upgrade is worth it and I need as much patch space as possible in my tribute band, etc. As far as the Montage, I won't ever buy a keyboard for gigging that is super heavy, and for me, I prefer the 30 lbs or less, as my age, build and general health require this...and I gig too much to be shlepping too much, which is why I have a Nord in the first place and don't necessarily need two or more keyboards or a computer/tablet to do my shows. For studio, I would consider something heavier, but for what purpose, when in my studio most of what I do is software/controller driven, and I want to rehearse with the band and use the same equipment I use on a gig, anyway. There are so many great keyboards, but the heavy ones are just not for me, not even safe for me to try and deal with them anymore. I now also have a Yamaha CK88, which meets the weight criteria and has 88 weighted keys and sounds very good--not Nord good, but good enough for my jazz and variety band cover gigs, but not my Tribute work, where I use the Nords extra pedals, arpeggiator and other features extensively. As far as Song Mode, Yamaha Live mode isn't bad, but not as good at all, plus they don't have a software editor for me to organize my sounds and sets. So I'm gonna be ok with what I have now.

Jim, I agree with many of your points. I recently got the Keylab 88 and it is a very sluggish action, not sure it's going to work out, but I'm planning on just studio work with it, and as a pianist I can handle the weight ok, just not like my Nord Stage 3 at all. Also agree on the knob per fuction, but I don't really thing this particular keyboard is for those of us that are that sophisticated. In fact, I rather like the idea of prepping my sounds in studio--although, as you say, having knobs would make more sense but possibly add more cost. As far as polyphony, I missed that spec somehow, and agree it's limited--I did mention before the minimalist split function of only two sounds, because I use more than two frequently when I play out, as well. But I wouldn't use this for piano at all..I'm a trained pianist and I cannot and will not play piano on a non-weighted keybed--it just sucks...only in an emergency and on a limited basis. So this would be most likely a 2nd, top tier keyboard, and piano could be controlled by your 88 key master keyboard. Is that ideal, heck no. I'm avoiding 2nd keyboards and with a Nord I haven't needed one--but, alas my Nord is in need of a repair and is stuck in a shop now awaiting it's fate, so the idea of something to suppliment my other 88 note keyboard that isn't Nord-capable might work, due to the sheer amount of sounds you can dial in. I don't usually design sound on a gig, so perhaps the macro controls will appeal to folks who do their tweaking at home, like I mostly do. And BTW, I still will not upgrade to Stage 4 no matter how much better it is than Stage 3 because of--Song Mode--the workarounds people are doing do NOT appeal to me whatsoever, nor does recreating years of patches designed to fit my daily purposes. If I had your tech knowhow I might feel differently, but that lack of Song Mode just completely turned me off. I'm old and set in my ways, lol.

that would be interesting, great find by you...price would probably be pretty high, but I agree with other posters that they could have considered at least putting the Arturia line of instruments as a package deal, even though by itself Analog Lab has a ton of sounds and emulations.

I seem to have a minority view of this new product--I think it has great potential for musicians like me--who hate to bring a computer to their gigs and set up all the MIDI connections, program them via software like Mainstage and Gig Performer, etc., and would like to have the flexibility of software instruments (a very wide range of them via Arturia's software, which I already own) without the hassle of extra equipment and wiring etc. While I do feel the price is somewhat high (although you will be performing with sounds for over 33 instruments) and it doesn't include the full Arturia Suite, which I already have), it looks great as a stage piano. Since I already do a fair amount of sound design/programming in my studio for my Tribute gigs, for instance, if I spent the same time doing it on this product, then I would have a self-contained keyboard to plug and play, particularly since you can setup set lists, etc--it may be similar to what I do with my Nord Stage's Song Mode, having each song in the set point to various sound setups without haveing to duplicate patches. I do have a few quibbles with it, however, some of those have been mentioned by others online: For one thing, it's only offered as a 61 note keyboard-for me I would use it as a top-tier 2nd keyboard, and if I wanted to connect my 88 weighted keyboard to it as a controller or even just independently operate it, I could, so it's not a huge deal, but certainly not an all-in one solution for me. 2nd, the split capability is limited to only two sounds, and I often use 3--but again, as a 2nd keyboard, it makes sense and would be more efficient in some ways than using MIDI for all of that. I mentioned the price, I think it will go down a bit in time...but I've already seen it for $1599, and really, there aren't too many keyboards that can emulated all those instruments "in the box" that would cost less. Lack of polyphonic aftertouch will be a deal-breaker for some--but not for me, I barely use aftertouch of any kind...but it woud be nice to have in a brand new product, for sure. Having a weighted keyboard option (73-88 keys would work), more current aftertouch, and more split/layer functionality are probably the only real drawback. And it does look pretty, too.\ I recently bought an Arturia Kaylab 88 Mk ii for my studio, and currently I can't get the transport of other DAW functions to work at all in it--so it's not like I'm totally in awe of Arturia's products. While I own Keylab, I also own Kontakt's full suite and use this more extensively than I use Analog Lab and all their other instruments--but the instruments are very good, and for live use I have zero problems with using it as my main sound source, or as a supplement to my bread and butter, 88 note weighted Yamaha or my 76 weighted key Nord stage pianos. I do not mind editing the sounds in my studio and porting them to the Astrolab for live use. I do most of my sound design and patch mods in studio in advance, anyway. And there's just enough control with the macro controls to do some tweaking on the fly during a concert--I mean, who is really going to do any extensive sound programming while performing a live show? Not me--just the basic things I need to vary during a song or set. I hope we can have a conversation about this product, I'm seriously considering it, even with it's limitations and price, and even though it's a 1.0 product that is sure to improve in a year or two of further develpment and user feedback. If it were under $1000 I wouldn't even hesitate, but that's just not realistic, in my view, for this type of product--others disagree, but as a gigging musician and studio producer, I see loads of potential here, and immediate gratification--again, for those old guys like me who would rather not lug a computer and spend hours and weeks setting up MIDI control/patch changes. We will see what the market says.

Envious. Mine said $199, still might do it, however, I like the idea of the new stuff

I recently picked up an older Mackie Control Universal control surface (the one with the old faders and no USB connection, just MIDI), and have it up and running, more or less, despite some issues with a fader or two. However, I also picked up an Arturia Keylab 88 Mk II, and I cannot get it to control cakewalk at all--it barely allows me to select Arturia's software patches, and no transport control, select tracks, record, etc. So far, I tried to set it up as a 2nd control surface, using the Mackie protocol. Not only does it not work at all, but I had some problems with the Arturia keyboard not producing audio--if I delete the 2nd control surface (Arturia) at least Cakewalk works and my Mackie control works. I'm wondering if it's not possible to have both the Arturia controller active and the Mackie at the same time, or whether the settings fare conflicting (for example, I need to check "disable handshake" for the Arturia controller to connect, but Mackie works better with that box unchecked). Has anyone successfully set up both control surface simultaneously in CbB? If so, perhaps you could give me some tips. So far, whatever I've tried (not much) has failed, so it's frustrating to have this keyboard with so many features and not be able to use them. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the link and the information. I was hoping for something a bit easier, but at least there is a fix. I got this unit for free, so perhaps a small expense and time to fix will be worth it, although I am not at all mechanically inclined. At least I know people that are, lol. Thanks.

Update--everything's going pretty well, other than the fact that when starting it up, it calibrates the faders, but I get an error saying that Fader 6 will not calibrate, and that I need to contact Mackie Support. This is a legacy unit, so I'm not sure they would support me on this issue--so the fader (6) doesn't seem to be working properly, if at all, so for the time being I'm avoiding this track in my Daw, which is kind of lousy, but it's at least a workaround for now. Anyone know if there's an easy fix for this calibration issue? Other than that I find the unit is working well. Thanks.

Thanks, I haven't had time to look at any instructions much, but I'll check out that link, I definitely could use a few tips I will keep looking into it, because I'm in the middle of a massive new paid recording project and trying to use this is a mix of helpful and not helpful, because the faders seem to always snap to zero (I mean inaudible, bottom of the board) when I open a project, instead of reading where the faders are set in the project, so I have to adjust them and sometimes they "stick" and I can't adjust them until or unless I remove the automation lane from thet rack temporarily. A work in progress for me.

I got it working when I connected to my Audio interface s MIDI in and out ports. Although there are still something's not working, so perhaps you can send me screen shot of your settings for the Mackie unit. I want to make sure I have the proper items checked and unchecked. I find that the faders are not always consistent in their behavior, and at start up my Master fader is at zero and sometimes has a mind of it's own, even though the project tempate loading has the master fader at the unity position. THanks.

Latest update, it’s working for a lot of things now. Still can’t get a track to be set for write automation, though. I have the Lexar template for Sonar, I can disable read automation globally, can’t set read or write per track and there is no button for global write automation, only read. Would be nice to be able to arm the automation from the Mackie control surface, perhaps I can map it manually, I do t have a manual, but have looked online a bit.

Each keyboard has its own usb port. Mackie is older and only has Midi Din connectors, so I put that into my Presonus Quantum’s Midi in and out ports. I added the control surface using Mackie control profile. The faders respond, I can arm a track, solo, mute, etc. But my keyboards are no longer responding to midi messages, it’s like it’s short circuited. NOT about your ACT question, please elaborate if you can, step by step, and much appreciated.

Not sure I understand, Craig, I’ll follow the article and see. But I have Windows 10 Pro installed. Like I’m say, the Mackie device seems to be reading faders, tracks, etc, but I can’t get my keyboards to respond and input any data. Normally if that happens it’s because my input on the track isn’t set up to read all Midi Channels. I’ve never hooked up my Quantum Midi connections before, and again the Mackie is connected and responding. I’m frustrated at this point, don’t know what else to try. Could it be I need to uncheck “disable handshake” in the controller properties page?