Have I missed something ?

I have been wondering that too. I miss him!

It's been a while since we could see Diki active here.
According to the User List:
Last Online: 24 December, 2021 17:22

Hope everything is OK and that he is well.

I hope Diki is doing fine. There was some disagreement and misunderstanding in the topic not related to music; I imagine Diki was disappointed with how it was handled and lost his motivation to contribute further to the forum. This is my speculation, and I don't bring up the details as I fear it may do extra damage.

I have moved house, got really sick (bad flu, not Covid), had to change internet provider and lost my old email address, hurt my back moving my piano (!) and to cap it all we had the kerfuffle about John Smies’s removal, which had absolutely nothing to do with me but several members assumed it was, which disappointed me how quickly some here are willing to jump to conclusions without even asking first. Would that have taken more than a couple of minutes?

To be quite honest, I got sick of it all. It’s astounding how the internet and lack of looking someone in the eye will make them say the nastiest things, then they get all bent out of shape when this is pointed out to them. Maybe we are all getting too old for this, I know I am!

Anyway, moved, recovered (although the back pain lingers!) ISP issues resolved, I am back, but I think at this point I’m going to only linger on the Roland sub-forum and restrict my contribution to simple technical help. There was a reason I left years ago and posted much happier on the now defunct Roland-arranger.com site, as that tended to avoid the toxic bickering about ‘mine’s better than yours’ that prevailed at the time, and now has devolved into ‘my President is better than yours’ and ‘my rights are more important than yours’ which I guess is the end game of switching off your cognitive faculties!

I tried my level best when I rejoined to get a discussion about simple MUSIC rather than button pushing arcana, it does seem that few here were up for it. For me, button pushing has become tedium, a distraction from music and musicianship, but it still seems a strong focus here. So, you want button pushing help on Roland’s, you’ll find me tuning in from time to time over there.

Take care….

Your Wit will be missed !

Diki, I've been here for close to twenty years and I don't remember it EVER being about MUSIC. it's been way more about "wow! I can play Mustang Sally to a Samba beat" (good taste and musicianship be dammed ). But if you dare suggest that this forum might not be the absolute best platform for the professional musician, you will immediately be cast with the likes of Hitler, Mussolini, Charles Manson, The Boston Strangler, and ....Prince Andrew . That's because many of the self-proclaimed 'professionals' aren't really professionals. 'Filling the dancefloor' with music created mostly by professional style creators may satisfy your ego but it doesn't necessarily qualify you as a professional musician. Hence the 'Professional ENTERTAINER'.....which is another way of saying "I can't play for sh-t and everybody knows it, so I'll just re-classify myself and constantly remind my fellow forumites how much the ladies love me.

Am I being too harsh? Maybe. But all I'm saying is that this forum has always been more 'social' than 'musical'. An excellent source for technical information.....if you're into Arranger keyboards (very few true professional musicians are), but technical information and musical information/education are two different things. I have plenty of 'haters' on this forum, past and present, and I like to think it's because of what they PERCEIVE as my attitude towards arranger keyboards but I'm not naïve enough to thinks that's all of it. For the umphteenth time I DON'T HATE ARRANGERS. I just think they occupy a certain level in the hierarchy of musical instruments, more like a very handy, sophisticated, and potentially (in the right hands) convincing arranging tool......OR, a toy for the rich and talentless .

Uh oh, it's crept past my dinner time. Diki my brother, hope your health problems get sorted out. Is this just a local move or.....? I still have some Roland gear (VM770, A70, Bk7m, Sonicell, Roland G7, A33, some other old module (memory fail) but I don't require a forum for those as I'm too old (and dumb) to learn anything new. I think all my instruments except my organs, have the original presets . Lazyness may also play a part. Well, time to go eat. Good luck and stay healthy.

chas

There's nothing wrong with saying it like it is, Chas. I totally share your views.

Great to have DIKI back !
I am a professional musician and although it wasnever my main source of income I did ery well . The Arranger became a necessary evil to keep playing out. Bands were getting replace by DJ's and I was doing trios with a female vocalist and guitar player. Played two keyboards , bass pedals, drum machine and sang. Finally got tired of running a band and went solo musician / DJ. Don'thate me, it paid very well and thats what parties wanted.. Then saw my first Arranger so why bring all the equipment when it could do the same job. I now use a BK9 and DJ the stuff I can't play or sing.
I would really prefer to go back to my old way of playing but there is no demand for it and who wants to move all that stuff.
At home I prefer to just play my Roland FP90 piano and learn new music I like. New chord vocings, turnarounds, riffs, songs I will never do on a gig, whatever.
So this forum has served me well and I hope will continue to in the future with experts here to answer questions.

Diki,

Glad to see you survived the move, but I can attest, first hand, that getting old is not all what it is cracked up to be. In 30 minutes my daughter will be driving me to the VA Hospital to have some lab work done, which I have to do every 6 months in order to get some prescriptions filled and visit with the doc for a few minutes. She is driving me there because I can no longer feel my feet, legs, arms and hands due to neuropathy, so the MVA took my drivers license away and gave me an ID card in its place. Additionally, my lungs are shot to hell along with my colon. Hard to keep down solid food, regardless of how much I need it.

I've been on this forum, since birth I think, I came here looking for help, then ended up providing assistance to many others since then. I confessed many times that I am not an accomplished musician, my musicianship skills are no where near the level of most others on this and other forums, however, I have managed to garner the technical expertise, particularly with Yamaha arranger keyboards, which has allowed me to solve a lot of problems for other players and musicians that can be dumbfounded by the complexities of an arranger keyboard, regardless of brand. That's why I stay. And it provides me a few minutes relief from providing health care for my invalid spouse of 60 years.

The mine's better than you attitude is something I have abhorred since I first arrived at the Synthzone, which never seem to go completely away, and likely never will. I never understood that attitude, and talked with Nigel several times about the problems it caused. He agreed with me, but in reality, other than deleting the entire post or thread, there was little that anyone could do.

I know I am not as active here as I was in the past, but getting old, losing some functional body parts, and turning my house into a nursing home has caused me to lose interest in all the forums I used to frequent.

Good luck on what ever you decide upon,

Gary

Gary
You Diki and others are the people we rely on for help. Everyone has a question now and then. and beginners, home players, or working pros all contribute to the forum in different ways.
I can comensurate with you health problems on a very small scale. I'm still recovering from ankle reconstructionfor months and have been very limited but coming along. I hope your issues can be somewhat resolved and you can enjoy playing at home and helping others on the forum
Lets just all enjoy MUSIC !

On more than one or two occasions, Mr. Diamond, you reached out and helped me here on the site or via the several enjoyable conversations we've had over the last 16+ years.

Arrangers were a whole new world back in the mid-2000's for me and guys like yourself, Cass P, Donny P, Don Mason, Tom C. from Michigan, Russ and others I can't remember each helped me understand a certain thing. I'm not sure where I would've wound up without the help that everybody extended to me.

I was 45 when I bought my first arranger and now at 61, I've had at least 6...Time does fly.

Gary - Thank you for all the help you sent my way and I wish you and your better half all good things.

Thanks Bill, I truly appreciate those kind words and I am so glad I was able to help you along with your very successful career.

All the best, old friend,

Gary