Spent part of a few days getting used to Pc361 just bought as upgrade to Roland Xp-30 Keys of 60/70 and Kurz SP88 setup to get better B-3, pianos ect. Want to use for live playing of rock and blues. Top board to midi the setups to SP-88 that has semi weighted keys. (retire Xp-30?)
I am not very experienced at programming so I watched Kurz videos, got some tips here from Del Dave and sort of slogging my way thought editing some setups for FX. So far it has been mixed bag. Any quick tips appreciated J as a lot to learn with manual ect.
I may be off on some comments below just out of newbie ignorance. I loved jamming with my son on bass and going through all the programs playing jazz/funk ect. Very nice array and sounds! But there are a few issues I am still grappling with setting up for playing with cover bands.(could use some advice to shortcut some of the fumbling)
· Key action - Sort of disappointed for my needs – harder then I like for organ (almost fatiguing with some techniques where my fingers end up in on the keys; and harder than I like for Doors tunes, ect ; and liked my Xp-30 action better for that. I thought I might start getting used to it but so far not (also have couple 70s solid state Hammonds [Theatre one and smaller one] at home got me used to that more organ type feel) – 361 subtly too heavy/spongy imo. I think it would make PC361 better for piano for those with one board setup but since I have the 88 piano style keys on SP-88 the PC361 action not ideal for me for organ work.
· KB3 – I like some of these and drawbars are nice. Jimmy Smith stuff comes out nice. Weird though where you have to sort of reset them from zero when coming back to setups. Not sure if that has to do with drawbar setup or what – need to learn that (sorry newbie mistake probably).
· Can’t wait to get the proper cables for expression pedal to work that Deep Purple gain distortion in Lazy ect (need polarity switched for my pedal – cables are in the mail).
· Lack of reverb - I cannot understand why out of box many programs have no Aux 1 reverb implemented. Does not sound right on most organs and even many pianos imo. I’ve been saving to new names but tempted to try to save over (just learning so not sure I want to). It appears most KB3 and many pianos are a bit lean on reverb – but then the reverb end slider goes way too fat on pianos and many VAST. I usually want something in between on pianos but that also seems to depend on the insert. Some EP are same way – others right on.
· VAST organs - One disappointment is how they programmed the vast organ sounds I am trying to midi down to lower keyboard for left hand. Need something leaner with simple 16, 5-1/3” with maybe touch of 8” ---but the few there have too much high frequency dbar sound. For now I am using one organ program with SP88 as much better for left hand. I am hoping there is way to tone that down in setup but since they are VAST not sure. I need to go back and look at how the VAST layers may be set up [have nto had time to get to layers] to see if they can be subtracted (did that with layer buttons on XP-30 to lower midi SP-88 and it worked great. [let me know if I am wrong if that is not possible with Pc361 VAST]
· One reason I tired of my Xp-30 60/70 card was they had only a couple nice B-3 setups (but for most there was a sameness) but admittedly couple that just nailed it (Hush, booker, whiter – cheesy copy setups). Other than the cheesy setups for cover I am hoping for more with PC361. I think the KB3 are much better B3 clone sound than Xp-30 but I cannot for life of me duplicate that unique sound they had for Hush for example. I realize Lord was on B-3 but I am still working on getting that slight hint of tube bend hush program had on my 60/70 card had- it was great for that tune and Hey Joe and that 1st gen DP – but so far not been able to find that sound with PC361 -so farL.
· Saxes/flutes for rock/blues music – So far all I find is orchestral sounding – too tame. Beautiful for playing for myself. But for rock are there ones with more dynamics or is that programming? They must be there I need to go find them..(Live with me, Brown Sugar, even wooly bully..)
· All the rest - I went through some of the bells and whistles and some that they programmed (even though I am not into the disco one finger playing) are amazing!
· Fatter orchestra strings – Sound fidelity is great! But I do need to find out how to fatten the strings up. My old SP88 has full sounding fast string that was dead ringer for Knockin’ at my backdoor by deep purple-- at gig folks came up saying how full and powerful that sounded – maybe just EQ?.
I hope this is not posted in wrong place as it is sort of a review.
I am not very experienced at programming so I watched Kurz videos, got some tips here from Del Dave and sort of slogging my way thought editing some setups for FX. So far it has been mixed bag. Any quick tips appreciated J as a lot to learn with manual ect.
I may be off on some comments below just out of newbie ignorance. I loved jamming with my son on bass and going through all the programs playing jazz/funk ect. Very nice array and sounds! But there are a few issues I am still grappling with setting up for playing with cover bands.(could use some advice to shortcut some of the fumbling)
· Key action - Sort of disappointed for my needs – harder then I like for organ (almost fatiguing with some techniques where my fingers end up in on the keys; and harder than I like for Doors tunes, ect ; and liked my Xp-30 action better for that. I thought I might start getting used to it but so far not (also have couple 70s solid state Hammonds [Theatre one and smaller one] at home got me used to that more organ type feel) – 361 subtly too heavy/spongy imo. I think it would make PC361 better for piano for those with one board setup but since I have the 88 piano style keys on SP-88 the PC361 action not ideal for me for organ work.
· KB3 – I like some of these and drawbars are nice. Jimmy Smith stuff comes out nice. Weird though where you have to sort of reset them from zero when coming back to setups. Not sure if that has to do with drawbar setup or what – need to learn that (sorry newbie mistake probably).
· Can’t wait to get the proper cables for expression pedal to work that Deep Purple gain distortion in Lazy ect (need polarity switched for my pedal – cables are in the mail).
· Lack of reverb - I cannot understand why out of box many programs have no Aux 1 reverb implemented. Does not sound right on most organs and even many pianos imo. I’ve been saving to new names but tempted to try to save over (just learning so not sure I want to). It appears most KB3 and many pianos are a bit lean on reverb – but then the reverb end slider goes way too fat on pianos and many VAST. I usually want something in between on pianos but that also seems to depend on the insert. Some EP are same way – others right on.
· VAST organs - One disappointment is how they programmed the vast organ sounds I am trying to midi down to lower keyboard for left hand. Need something leaner with simple 16, 5-1/3” with maybe touch of 8” ---but the few there have too much high frequency dbar sound. For now I am using one organ program with SP88 as much better for left hand. I am hoping there is way to tone that down in setup but since they are VAST not sure. I need to go back and look at how the VAST layers may be set up [have nto had time to get to layers] to see if they can be subtracted (did that with layer buttons on XP-30 to lower midi SP-88 and it worked great. [let me know if I am wrong if that is not possible with Pc361 VAST]
· One reason I tired of my Xp-30 60/70 card was they had only a couple nice B-3 setups (but for most there was a sameness) but admittedly couple that just nailed it (Hush, booker, whiter – cheesy copy setups). Other than the cheesy setups for cover I am hoping for more with PC361. I think the KB3 are much better B3 clone sound than Xp-30 but I cannot for life of me duplicate that unique sound they had for Hush for example. I realize Lord was on B-3 but I am still working on getting that slight hint of tube bend hush program had on my 60/70 card had- it was great for that tune and Hey Joe and that 1st gen DP – but so far not been able to find that sound with PC361 -so farL.
· Saxes/flutes for rock/blues music – So far all I find is orchestral sounding – too tame. Beautiful for playing for myself. But for rock are there ones with more dynamics or is that programming? They must be there I need to go find them..(Live with me, Brown Sugar, even wooly bully..)
· All the rest - I went through some of the bells and whistles and some that they programmed (even though I am not into the disco one finger playing) are amazing!
· Fatter orchestra strings – Sound fidelity is great! But I do need to find out how to fatten the strings up. My old SP88 has full sounding fast string that was dead ringer for Knockin’ at my backdoor by deep purple-- at gig folks came up saying how full and powerful that sounded – maybe just EQ?.
I hope this is not posted in wrong place as it is sort of a review.