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Joined: Sep 2007
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![[Linked Image]](http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/5286/newaddition.png) On a one-month loan from R&D while I'm testing something.  I intend to MIDI it up to my Electro, but only have a USB-->MIDI cable at the moment. The action feels great though, and will give my fingers a real work-out compared to what I'm used to playing. Cheers, James x
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Joined: Jun 2011
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That's really sweet James! Looks fantastic, and truly heavy!  . Controlling the Piano sound of the Electro with it must be an interesting story... I really like the Nord piano sound, perhaps the most of all the on-board samples. That poor computer sitting there is probably developing a size and weight complex! Cool picture and setup, Rafa.
Roland FP-7F
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I see an mp8-II and pianoteq on the laptop. So...what's the new stuff that's tested here ? Or am I missing something...
J
Nice setup by the way.
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I'm testing my fingers.
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I think it's a new GF keybed in the MP8 Case... If I can read between the lines properly Attila
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Those were the days - pianos you could stack other boards on. If you're gonna make 'em heavy, make 'em useful! You're such a tease, James!
"you don't need to have been a rabbit in order to become a veterinarian"
mabraman, 2015
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What are you using the Vox for? Is it a keyboard amp?
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voxpops, those days may yet return. JFP, yep, OS X on a little Dell Mini 9 - runs very well, although I only tend to use it when travelling, or Skyping my family. origen, not a keyboard amp, just an inexpensive Vox AC15. It lacks the fidelity required for playing acoustic pianos (especially in mono), but the Nord's EPs sound quite nice through it, and the compact size is fine for small get-togethers. James x
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I wonder how much the bare GF keybed in itself weighs ; is that a top secret , or information that is allowed to be publicly available ? 20 kg ??
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Oh, I completely missed the different keybed issue! That is certainly exciting.
Roland FP-7F
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Just a quick update...
I've MIDI'd up the MP8II to my Electro so that the Kawai action is controlling the Nord tone generator.
Wow! It's fantastic! So much more expressive than with the Fatar action I'm used to - it's almost like a completely different playing experience, with the grands, uprights, and EPs suddenly bursting into life.
Makes me wonder what I'll do when the month-long loan is up.
Might have to buy myself a new [cough].
Cheers,
James
x
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yep, OS X on a little Dell Mini 9 - runs very well,
Hey James, how much messing around did you have to do to get OSX running on your Dell? I've got a desktop machine at home that I'd like to try turning into a hackintosh, but I'm wary of having to mess with scripts and custom-made drivers to make it work etc. How did you convince OSX that you have an Aiport card for example? Did you find a site that has all the drivers for your machine? I'm not on top of that enough to risk it if it takes a loss of messing about.
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ando, the Dell Mini 9 is perhaps the easiest system to install OS X onto. All the scripts and additional drivers etc. were installed automatically by a software package called 'Dell EFI'. I believe this package has since been replaced by a more modern/robust system, however I installed OS X on my netbook over three years ago and it's still working fine. My only concern is that some some software developers are dropping support for OS X 10.5 (Leopard), so there may come a point where I'll upgrade to 10.6 (Snow Leopard), which I gather is the last version that boots on the puny single-core Atom CPU.
Installing OS X on a desktop is probably a little more complicated. I actually have a Tiger partition on a separate computer which also runs pretty well, but it took a little reading around to get the audio and wifi working correctly. Again, this was several years ago, so I expect the compatibility niggles have been ironed out considerable - especially if you stick with hardware found in Macs. There's a strong hackintosh community, with a number of forums providing tutorials, so provided you have another machine available to check information online while setting everything up you should be fine.
Cheers,
James
x
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Wow! It's fantastic! So much more expressive than with the Fatar action I'm used to - it's almost like a completely different playing experience, with the grands, uprights, and EPs suddenly bursting into life.
Makes me wonder what I'll do when the month-long loan is up.
Might have to buy myself a new [cough]. Ha! Even with a lowly Yamaha GH the playing experience of a red board is so different. Now just imagine a licence agreement between a red and a black company, so we could get a new [cough] with the Nord sound engine... Ah, daydreaming...
Shigeru Kawai SK-2, etc.
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...So much more expressive than with the Fatar action I'm used to... Might have to buy myself a new [cough]. Yeah, I kind of thought it would!... it looks like a killer combo. Very glad you are enjoying that [cough] . Is it that much better to what we are used to in current models? Its a shame the nearest Kawai dealer is a full country away from me  , never have been able to play one. Thanks for sharing your 'testing' with us! Rafa.
Last edited by RafaPolit; 11/01/12 04:51 PM.
Roland FP-7F
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ando, the Dell Mini 9 is perhaps the easiest system to install OS X onto. All the scripts and additional drivers etc. were installed automatically by a software package called 'Dell EFI'. I believe this package has since been replaced by a more modern/robust system, however I installed OS X on my netbook over three years ago and it's still working fine. My only concern is that some some software developers are dropping support for OS X 10.5 (Leopard), so there may come a point where I'll upgrade to 10.6 (Snow Leopard), which I gather is the last version that boots on the puny single-core Atom CPU.
Installing OS X on a desktop is probably a little more complicated. I actually have a Tiger partition on a separate computer which also runs pretty well, but it took a little reading around to get the audio and wifi working correctly. Again, this was several years ago, so I expect the compatibility niggles have been ironed out considerable - especially if you stick with hardware found in Macs. There's a strong hackintosh community, with a number of forums providing tutorials, so provided you have another machine available to check information online while setting everything up you should be fine.
Cheers,
James
x Cheers James, I'll give it a go on the weekend, I think. There seems to be support for my motherboard on one of the Hack sites. Only thing I'm doubtful about is some of my peripherals - especially my wireless card. Not sure if it'll be accepted as an Airport card, being a generic cheapie. We'll see, I have a spare hard drive I can mess up especially, so it's not really a risk after all. I'll let you know how it pans out.
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Good morning chaps, ...just imagine a licence agreement between a red and a black company, so we could get a new [cough] with the Nord sound engine... Ah, daydreaming... Yes, that would be pretty cool - especially if newly sampled Kawai/Shigeru Kawai sounds were also part of the deal. Its a shame the nearest Kawai dealer is a full country away from me , never have been able to play one. I've just checked with one of my colleagues responsible for the South American market. He mentioned that 'Nova Music' (Ecuador) sell some Kawai acoustics, but currently no digitals, unfortunately. Cheers, James x
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Yes, that would be pretty cool - especially if newly sampled Kawai/Shigeru Kawai sounds were also part of the deal. New Shigeru Kawai samples - by all means bring them along, as large as possible!
Shigeru Kawai SK-2, etc.
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