Every time I thought I had those EQs just the way I wanted, they were not right when I got to the job. For the life of me, I was unable to figure out what was going wrong. Then I talked with Deane (Hammer) and DonM, both of which pretty much told me the same thing.
One of the great attributes with this keyboard is its onboard amp, which really sounds incredible. Problem is, the onboard amp was specifically designed for the keyboard. It has been finely tuned to perfection so when you're playing at home, in the office, or studio it sounds just fantastic from that onboard amp.
Problem is those sounds are not the same as the sounds coming from the output jacks. Deane told me that in order to get the keyboard ready for job he had to use the headphones in order to adjust the EQs and compression. Don said pretty much the same. Don also said, "just set the EQ's to flat and work from there. A little seems to go a long way with this keyboard." Don hit the nail on the head.
Today, I arrived at the job about 10 minutes earlier than usual, set up the gear, then fired up one of my regular songs "Bring Me Sunshine." I set the EQ to flat, recorded the song on the onboard MIDI recorder, hit the playback and walked out into the room. The sound was OK at best. Next, I upped the mid and high just a notch, or two, walked back out into the room and WOW! What a difference.
The next step was to try my vocals, which I obviously cannot walk away from the keyboard to test. Plus, you really cannot test your own vocals unless you record them first. Therefore, I had one of the activities ladies listen, a person whom I really trust when it comes to providing an honest assessment of what she hears. She's not at all bashful and believe me, she will tell you flat out if something sounds like crap. I performed California Blue while she walked around the room. She returned to me and said "It just needs something, but I'm not sure what." I did the same song again, only this time made some minor changes on the vocal processor's EQ and compression settings. When I hit the song's bridge she smiled and gave me a two-thumbs-up. It sounded better to me as well.
At the end of the job one of the residents came up to me and said "Gary, that's the best damned music I've heard in 20 years. When are you coming back - I want my daughter to hear this." Ironically, I knew this individual from nearly 40 years ago when I owned a fishing tackle and boat store in Forest Hill. He was a regular customer and I built him a custom-made fishing rod back then.
Unfortunately, he is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and while he still has most of his memories, they will soon fade away. He's a super-nice person and I know his entire family as well. He remembered me, and said he used that fishing rod until a few years ago, then gave it to his grandson, who still uses it today.
Back to the S950. Some of the SA voice effects are triggered with the aid of a foot pedal, something I discovered by merely pressing the #7 (info) button on the voice page when the voice is highlighted. The information page also provides you with the playing technique required for that particular voice, plus by pressing the bottom of the #8 button you can listen to the demo of those techniques being used for that particular voice. Just another added bonus.
Another note of interest is that when the EQs are set just slightly above flat, those right hand voices that were overbearing with my previous settings are now very well balanced. Additionally, they don't sound as harsh. The voices are more realistic sounding, very full, yet quite robust.
Another couple weeks and the 3000s will probably go on the market.
Cheers,
Gary
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