TapperMike

Country Comfort - Elton John

Big Country - In A Big Country

Only option I had. I've got the picks on the other computer and have uploaded them to fb but they need to be resized and compressed for here. It was a day that can last a lifetime. And a day was all I had. I'm seriously considering moving down to the Fort Myers area again. Here's the thing. I can make more money doing what I'm doing now (cooking) and the cost of living is cheaper. Right now I'm paying 650 a month for rent, gas, electric, water combined for a one bedroom apartment. Down there I can get a mobile home for 540 everything included. Up here I'm making less then $10.00 an hour and putting in a 28 hr week. Down in Florida cooks jobs are 40hr weeks and many start at $15.00, I'd leave today if I could but I have to take care of several obligations and build up some cash.

Family Affair - Sly & Family Stone \

So I just got back from my one day vacation. Drove 22 hours from my home in the suburbs of Detroit to Fort Myers FLA Spent one day trying to do as much as humanly possible. Rob if you are reading this.... I posted that I was going in the chat forum. Would have loved to have met up with you while I was there. Here's my one day schedule. Started in Tice where I rented a cheap hotel room. (Man has that gone to hell in a hand basket) Headed to Lovers Key. Park admission was $2.00. Pure Nirvana. I was the only one there when I first arrived. Strolled the beach Kicked off my shoes and went for a little walk in the water. Did some shelling before the crowds (not much of one) came in. Talked to a few tourists who rented charter pontoons and played tour guide. *Even though I'd never set foot on Lovers Key, I've driven on it to get from Ft Myers Beach to Naples before. Came back up to Ft Myers Beach around 10 am to check out the latest spring break fashion show http://www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov/ Ft Myers beach used to be my old stomping grounds I used to play in a traditional (swing era) jazz band and we were the house band. Headed to The River District Fort Myers to check out the face lift My goodness that area has been fully gentrified since I lived there From there I went to Pine Island where I'd lived and worked before. Bumped into an old friend who actually remembered me (26 years later) http://www.pineisland-eagle.com/page/content.detail/id/527624/Mel-Meo-opens-new-studio-in-old-location.html?nav=5047 Then I went down to Captiva Island to watch the sun set on the gulf. Yes, the sunsets are that beautiful without retouching. When I get my pictures back from fotomat (j/k) (actually when I have time) I'll share them.

Behringer ,,, yikes. I hope it works out for you. I for myself have sworn off Behringer for life.

Great cover, Spot on

I've taken a few days off from practice to deal with various other matters. It's a very strange process indeed when you are your own teacher on an instrument with no set rules. Trying to balance possibilities of techniques with limited time to devote to developing muscle memory along the way is quite the challenge. Scales for both hands combined (in variation of fingering) Scales for left and right hand with great variance. Having thumbs to target notes is an odd development for a guitarist. Everyday I set aside time for scales. Time for the left and time for the right. playing out the various positions in one, two and three (even four) octave runs. There is little joy for me executing a simple scale nut it's a matter of building foundations for future playing. I've spent no time playing the guitar or other instruments since acquiring the Linn. It's that addictive. I had purchased the upgrade to Guitar Pro 6 as it has settings that allow for eight strings. I thought that having gp6 might be useful writing my own exercise regiments and other things. I was wrong. Firstly Even though I can set up the linn for channel per row (as midi guitars are set up) GP6 refuses to accept 8string channel input. So It's back to number pad and cursor buttons in order to input tab scores. Secondly GP6 refuses to convert piano scores into tablature. GP6 has turned out to be a huge waste of time and effort and money in regards to developing exercise material. BIAB has limited fretboard arrangement. I'm left with.... Standard Notation for practice material. Yes I can read notation but I'm slow as molasses in winter at it. I haven't had to read notation in a good 15 years or more. Oddly I've disabled some of the Instrument feature for now. I'm more about developing a organ/piano type of approach to the instrument. Without bend / slide and pressure sensitivity (yes velocity works without afterpressure pressure sensitivity) It becomes a more stable more uniformed control It also is much more the feel and expression one might attain on an actual piano (sort of). In regards to finding material other then scales. I've dabbled slightly in jazz standards but admit I've got a long way to go. It's all about developing the muscle memory first. I've got a certain disdain for classical music that can't be wiped from my soul. Nonetheless the Bach preludes are proving themselves to be quite handy. When I first saw an image of starr labs z-board (same concept although it came out in 1990) my heart was aflutter. I'd dream of playing it night and day knowing I could never afford the $6000 price tag. Oddly the z-board still has more features then the linnstrument. .And I believe it to be easier to play due to the smaller "keys". I'm finding that new frontiers (at least for me) take a lot of time to get there.

Indeed it is. Rather then mucking about in my old computer I've decided to download fresh versions of my software off the web. For my work alone I have over 200 products to install. 20 programs and the rest add ons we offer to the products. Work comes first.

So it arrived Tuesday afternoon just before I headed out to work. FedEx. Guy literally throws it to the top of the steps, knocks and runs. No signing anything. Pathetic. UPS and USPS (US Postal Service) Are always professional and respectful with the goods they deliver and the people they deliver them to. No extras as promised by the seller for the discomfort of him forgetting to send the item. That being said. It's awesome. The refurb was outstanding. Not a scratch, DVI-D and DVI-I ports, 4 hdmi ports, 4 USB 3.0 ports 8 USB 2.0 ports Fastest newest i7 on the market. I can't be more pleased for the price to value ratio. While I've only done a few software installations on it so far. I'm extremely impressed with it's performance.

Cornelius Brothers And Sister Rose Treat her like a Lady

Could very well be. In my area we have a similar service "Lyft"

So sad Rudi. Glad you finally got it. Honestly I've never had a bad shipping issue with UPS, I'm not saying that because my stepsister works there. FedEx on the other hand is another matter.I have seen them sling guitars onto the final step and infront of a door rather then carry them the distance and knock. I too have spent my days waiting for a package to arrive (fedex again) that's scheduled to only to find out after they have returned to the warehouse the delivery was rescheduled. A common practice amongst drug dealers is to ship via fedex to suburban households. Knowing that the residents won't be home when the package arrives and that fedex will drop and run. With Amazon a new trend is emerging. The use of Uber to deliver packages. All one needs to be an uber driver is a driver's license and 20 minutes to watch a youtube video.

My current desktop is running Vista. I've had it for about 9 years and it's been a good run. Vista is no longer being supported by MS and many vendors will no longer be offering updates for Vista Users. This created a dilemma for me should I pay for the full version of Win10 (MS does not offer upgrades from Vista) or should I simply buy a new computer. 9 years is a long run for a computer. I've decided to step up to Windows 10 Pro. This is what I'm getting,,, Dell XPS 8700 Desktop PC Windows 10 Pro i7-4790 16gb 2tb DVDRW WiFi So yeah beefed up Dell or thinned down Alienware. The only difference is the power supply and the video card. I'm not a gamer, I'm sure the video card will work just fine for me. I ordered the computer on the 26th of january. from a California company and paid the standard shipping rate of 65 dollars. No tracking number USPS (us postal service) I'm used to tracking numbers for items of which I pay for shipping (even free they still offer tracking numbers. The expected delivery date was set to Feb 4. Feb 4 comes and goes. Check my ebay account and it states that now the expected delivery is between Feb 4 and Feb14. Today I get curious so I contact the seller. He never shipped the damn thing. Claimed personal emergency. 14 day personal emergency that he couldn't be bothered to contact me about. I'm very disappointed. The seller stated he added extra's (not mentioning what those extra's were) and has changed the shipping to FedEx. Here's the thing... I have three days off this week. If not waiting for the computer to arrive I would have treated myself to a mini vacation. Pack the car,,, drive somewhere for 8 or more hours. find a cheap hotel and drive back. Well I couldn't because I was waiting on the computer to arrive. And now I get to wait longer (no shipping details from fed ex) till it arrives.

After reading about MS discontinuing updated for 98/vista and constant reminders from many software programs (including chrome) about their subsequent discontinuation of support for Vista, I've decided it's time for a new computer. I've had this vista computer since 2007, I can't get the free upgrade to win10 so I'd have to purchase it separately. Looking at my dated specs I decided it was time. I found a refurb\upgrade on ebay that is still under warranty and fully supported by Dell. The specs are. OS - Windows 10 Pro Harddrive - 2 terabyte @7200 rpm Additional 256gig SSD Ram: 16 Gigs Processor: i7-4790k I checked out a lot of reviews for the product as it's a refurb and a year old. The only caveat gamers have is that the power supply is underpowered as is the video card. If you want to replace the video card you also have to replace the power supply. Don't really care, not a gamer. Care more about the sound processing power and... security. The pro version of windows 10 has added features for greater control over things like ...scheduling updates. It's also (believe it or not) less intrusive and doesn't use your computer like a torrent.

A few things of note. Are you using a Windows computer? If you are running Win7,8,10 you may need to run it in compatibility mode The reason why I ask is that.... Some folks run xp via parallels or VMware and it screws up the file paths. Also XP, Vista are being discontinued. If you are having issues and Windows XP is the source of the fault don't expect MS to release a bug fix. Sometimes during updates new bugs are introduced. MS catches them later and fixes them. A .dll file does not contain always contain all the information required to run a plugin. Sometimes it is used as a reference to other files that must be run through the .dll Which is why all the files from the zip need to be stored in the same pathway as are stored. As memory serves me (too lazy to look) the Tascam Piano is 1GIG. That's impossible to load into a 32bit OS ram and then via your daw/host. What they used was "Stream from disk" Stream from disk was very unstable. MS protected itself with later builds that didn't allow stream from disk. Tascam wasn't the only one affected. Emu Emulator X comes to mind as I had that and many others from the emu / dsf family which simply didn't work after shucking out the big bucks Regarding CC Volume / Expression. Any decent vsti has both midi learn and midi select. Right click on a CC control and then you can assign which CC you want to use (remember to save). Most (not all) decent controllers also should have a access to setup which CC's are affected by which controls. There are better ways to create any virtual instrument these days that don't require gigs of ram. Expensive sounding pianos will cost. That's all there is to it. It costs a great deal of money to design and program. That being said http://www.supremepiano.com/product/piano1.html Supreme Piano offers an adequate (not great) free virtual yamaha C7. No it doesn't have all the richness and features of their pay version. (scroll down the page)

Yep did all that too. about a hundred times. Also tried all my usb connections with my midi - usb connectors and the direct usb from the linnstrument. Same thing. I keep getting "The device was not successfully installed" when I try to run things again. I think I just have an overload of usb-midi connectors that I've used through the years. I spent a lot of time with the device manager trying to get anything midi to run. Meanwhile I took the plunge. I bought a Dell with an 17 4790 (4th generation) processor. 16 gigs of ram and 256 gig ssd and a 2 terabyte hard drive. Looks like things are going to be a little thin this month. Vista is no longer supported by Microsoft and as a result many companies have or will stop supporting it soon. Even chrome gave me a flag saying it would no longer update my browser.

Thanks Rudi. Looks like I'm getting a new computer whether I like it or not. When testing I noticed that the linnstrument would fall asleep over time (an hour) due to lack of current running through the usb. So I'd have to close the program, disconnect then reconnect the usb and reopen the program. I got tired of that and decided to use a power supply as it has a power supply input and I have a power supply that matches the input. I decided to switch from the supplied usb cable to a midi-usb cable I have just for testing purposes. It worked fine. And then..... and then.... When I went back to using the usb out on the linnstrument the usb was not recognized. I tried to re install the drivers to my damndest to no avail. What's worse is that now my usb-midi cable was not being recognized either. I had another usb-midi cable lying around so I tried to use that.... Nothing. The midi out on the linnstrument works fine on the only non computer midi device I have. My ztars are also not responding via the midi-usb cable. Conclusion. It's my computers hardware registry. I tried updating, uninstalling re installing. Everything. So I go on the web with chrome and there is a little note from google. Chrome will no longer be supported in Vista as MS no longer supports vista. It's time for a new OS. The problem is Windows is not offering upgrades to Win10 from Vista. If you want to buy Win10 you can but it's got no warranty and my hardware may not support the OS. Yippie The linnstrument took a lot out of me financially. I do have a windows10 laptop but it's simply not powerful enough. It was a dell refurbished unit that got an os upgrade to windows7 from which I got an upgrade to Win10. It's got a centrino (yikes) processor not much ram or hard drive space. It's a business class computer (stripped of features) that I only use for work. I'm reluctant to plug the linn in and run it through there. So I'm going to have to wait a month before I can price desktop computers. I'll prolly get a Dell

I've had a day (a full one at that) to play with this magical device, And yes it's lived up to all my expectations. Now if I can simply stop playing it to actually finish this review. At $1499 US (current retailers price) This is by no means cheap. Still when one considers all the features the alternative midi controller has to offer it's hard to resist. I purchased mine through Ebay from Perfect Circuit. In The Box The Linnstrument One 10ft USB cable The case. Strap buttons A nice letter from Roger Linn. Registration is online (via email using the units serial number) as is the manual and the firmware updater. Specs Dimensions: 22.4" (570 mm) x 8.22" (209 mm) x 1" (25.4 mm) Weighing in at 5lbs (2.26799) With a metal top, aluminium chassis and cherry wood sides. It's a very solid feel whether you are resting the linnstrument on a keyboard stand or using the straps and playing it in "the guitar position" The inputs and outputs are along the right side of the instrument. Power Input jack, Midi I/O USB and TRS. A separate power supply is not provided. As RL states on his website: Here's my experience. Though the unit does have a low power setting which lowers the light output. When using the usb power supply from the usb with high power sometimes the unit "falls asleep" The lights still work but the signal stops. Fortunately I've kept every power supply I've ever received and the power supply for my ztar works just fine. This may have nothing to do with the linnstrument itself. I have an aging Windows Vista computer which has had intermittent issues with power being supplied via usb on other devices. I'm really glad that they did include the power supply input. In regards to the TRS it serves as both a sustain and a volume pedal port. So if you want to use both in a footswitch you need a Y cable. I have such a Y cable somewhere in a dark corner tangled amongst my other unused cables in a milk crate. I'm just to lazy for all that digging. And it's too damn fun to play for me too walk away. On the top panel there are SWITCH 1 AND SWITCH 2. Which can serve as sustain buttons along with other functions. Along the left side of the unit are 8 rubberized buttons for accessing feature. The Playing Surface From RLD website Thank god it's not glass. To describe the "keys" as pads seems a misnomer. Tiles would be a more accurate description. Rubberized tiles but tiles nonetheless. The surface has a porous feel to it. Meaning it grips your finger. You can still slide to your hearts content but that solid feel means you won't have notes slipping away from you. Part of me wishes the tiles were smaller, the other part is glad they arent (when it comes to the expressive powers) It's a solid feeling surface with some resistance to it. Which means there is a physical feedback "feel" as you hammer on to the tiles with your finger. It's still a short throw. While I could spend days explaining the settings (which are actually quite easy to understand and program) I'd rather focus on the playing experience with a few other nuggets thrown in for good measure. All I have to say is... It's a joy to play the surface of this controller with it's 5 way expression control. Left/right pitch shift up/down modulation (Or other) Pressure. It's important to note Velocity (which is the initial attack of the note and Pressure which is the subsequent pressure applied to the note after the attack are separate. This is true after-pressure and when using Note per channel it becomes fully independent polyphonic after pressure. Also as the left/right and front/back (or up/down if the instrument is in a standing position) react independently per note. I can't sing the praises loud enough in regards to expressive playing attainable via the Linnstrument Experiences / Testing Computer Setup is a snap. Plugged the usb in. Windows installed the drivers and all my hosts/daws immediately recognized the linnstrument as a midi device. Open the host find the midi settings and off to the races we go. I tested it in several daws including Studio 1, Samplitude, Mixcraft, RealBand but mostly in my tried and true https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/ It's important to note if you are going to use "note per channel" or row per channel it's best to set your midi channel input to Omni. Note per channel works like it reads. Each note is assigned it's own channel as you play it. This is how polyphonic aftertouch is achieved even on instruments (virtual or hardware) which may not be able to attain the independent aftertouch. By default the linnstrument is setup in this manner. However you can specify one or more channels per split via the per-split settings button on the top left of the unit. So I'm all set and ready to go. I find a nice string patch in my KLC M1 and it's off to the races. Amazing and weird. It sounds like one of the notes is out of tune... How could this be? Well I wasn't targeting the tile center enough and the bend/slide as well as the modulation were being excited. A quick adjustment of my technique and a review of the pitch / timbre controls via the Per-Split was all that was required. It should be noted that Velocity and Pressure settings are available via the global settings. I for myself am finding that high sensitivity (light touch) and medium pressure are working out to be the best for me. YMMV Something odd was happening for a combi patch I couldn't put my finger on. (well actually putting my finger on was the problem) Pressure is assigned to CC 74 which was designated for cutoff in the M1 A simple adjustment to the pressure sensitivity or simply using a different setting for cutoff. How does it sound? Amazing. Breathtaking, Humbling and Addictive. If you can appreciate the value of a high priced fully realized keybed/keyboard over a cheap walmart thowaway keybed then you'll appriciate what the linnstrument brings to the table. Only more so. It's truely addicting. I look at the screen, see myself typing then look back at the board and want to stop typing immediately and play. The Linnstrument is exerting mind control over me. Even before I acquired it I'd already made up my mind that F# was not going to be my lowest note. C was (and is now) the lowest note on my Linnstrument. I wanted the full five octaves to start on C. This was amazingly easy to setup using the Octave/Transpose settings. While the lowest row also has the power to operate as a sequencer control It's not something I see myself using for the time being. Playing the Linnstrument There are no how to play the linnstrument books video's or other sources. We linnstrumentalists are left to our own devices. Fortunately for many of us we come from a multi-instrumentalist background playing guitar/keys is a real plus. It is an embarrassment of riches. one need look no further than a primary chord. A primary chord (major/minor/diminished) consists of three notes. C Major for example C-E-G. On a linnstrument there are three basic shapes for each primary chord type. Once you have the "shape" down you can transpose the same shape. It's important to note that more then one note can be played per row (string) on a linnstrument. Here we can see Cmajor (C-E-G) laid out in "Shape1" as I like to call it. Shape 2 Shape 3 Whats not specified is which fingers to use. Take Shape one...with the right hand you could use... Thumb, Index, Ring. or Thumb, Middle Pinky, or Index, Middle, Pinky or Index ring pinky or if you like to stretch middle ring pinky. Using your left hand or combinations of both to produce the same "Shape1" of a primary major chord produces more options. The perplexities / fingering options only increase as you expand to larger chord voicings. As for melody (scales etc) There are more options then hours in a day to explain.. As a guitarist I found the left hand fingering to be what they are when playing a linnstrument in the desktop position. Upside down and backwards. I'm adapting much better then I originally expected. It's still practice. As a tapper and even more so a ztarist tapper the right hand has adapted amazingly well to this new approach. For years now I've been a ztar evangelist. I have two and they've allowed me to play in ways I could only dream about before acquiring them. I loved my ztars, They are going to be collecting a lot of dust from here on out. My guitars may as well. I've become a linnstrument evangelist overnight.

Thanks,

Here's my review

Bump... Linnstrument arrived earlier then expected. I had less than a half hour with it before I had to run off to work.