Synthzone friends,

I hope everyone here is having a terrific summer. It's been a very busy gig season here in sunny California, and as you might expect, includes lots of outdoor events & parties this season, so unfortunately haven't had an opportunity to post for quite awhile.

The one thing I've found frustrating about OUTDOOR keyboard giggin (with all electronic keyboards, not just Yamaha) is the total lack of LCD screen visibility outdoors. For this reason, I must always advise my clients that there MUST be a shaded location available for me to perform. If not, a large shade umbrella must be provided. But interestingly enough, even this does not always offer adequate screen visibility, as even bright ambient bright light produces screen reflectance, making outdoor screen visibility often (even in shade) challenging.

In attempt to reduce screen reflectance further, I constructed a screen hood out of cardboard. This provided some improvement, but it looked make-shift and funky.

Recently, I discovered a commercial LCD screen shade that helps to further reduce outdoor ambient light reflection. It's manufactured by CompuShade (Model # LAPTOP-UNV) and costs between $25-29.95 depending on retailer, and as low as $9.00 on Ebay. It's made of black vinyl plastic. I customized (cut down) mine to attach to my Tyros2 LCD tilt screen perfectly and looks professionally acceptable on the gig. It attaches to (fits) my Tyros2 tilt screen unit (secured with velcro) in less than 3 seconds, and folds & stored completely flat, making it a breeze to take along to outdoor gigs.

So, until keyboard manufacturers finally wake up and include screens easily viewable indoors AND outdoors, the CompuShade looks to me (for now) to be helpful.

Ok, here are a couple pics of me, taken over the weekend, performing on my Tyros2 (with the CompuShade) :





Scott Yee
Scott Yee Entertainment

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 07-30-2007).]