Category: Gear

Well, more fiddling with the Yamaha Clavinova CVP-50 Garbage Picking find has revealed that you can set up a rhythm section with harmony. And the harmony, for some reason only uses the piano 1 setting can be expanded to have two voices by splitting the keyboard and selecting a different voice for voice two. And that second voice doesn’t just play the same progression, from what I can tell. So you end up with a pretty creative sound to which you can add a melody to.

Unfortunately, the sound volume of the rhythm/harmony section is much higher than the melody, so you have to tweak the volumes of each of the sections to level things out. I kinda wish the 30 watt speaker system was a little more powerful, but I’ve purchased RCA patch cables so that I can record to both my Zoom H8 handy dandy recorder and my iOS devices. We’ll see how that goes.

And as a side note, here’s a link to the English section of the owners manual: https://www.manua.ls/yamaha/clavinova-cvp-50/manual

And remember to check out the original post and this one periodically as I add content to them. See ya later.

I go out for a walk evenings when the temperature has dropped, and in this part of Vegas trash day is Friday. I occassionaly find goodies left out as trash to use in my found art creations. But last Thursday night I came across a different kind of find, somebody had tossed a Yamaha Clavinova. a CVP-50 to be exact. So I got my handtruck and proceeded to haul it home. Damn, it weights a ton. I guess Yamaha finally learned how to cut the weight in later models, but I’m guessing its 125-150 pounds. My back still hurts from lifting and hauling it around.

Then I dug up a copy of the manual on the internet to see what was state-of-the-art Clavinova in 1989. Turns out this model is roughly as powerful as Yamaha’s cheapo models now, with one gent basically telling people to spend no more than $200 for one. It does have features that newer models don’t have, like a 30 watt per channel sound system. But basically its a 16 voice polyphony, with a selection of 22 voices and a drum section “synthesizer”.

It also has a rhythm section with 31 selections and a variation button. On top of these 31 selections of popular rhythms, you can also record a maximum of 10 rhythms of your own choosing. I think you store these 10 rhythms to the floppy drive (remember, this is 1989 tech), though it may store them in memory because there’s a warning if you store stuff in the Clavinova, turn it on every couple of days as that’s how long the memory persists without power.

Now for the negatives. Every E key makes no sound, as well as all the A# keys. And one of the black keys sticks, so if I want a fully functioning instrument, it apparently means a teardown.

I have been playing with my Behringer Neutron, a semi-modular analog synth. It’s a great way to get into modular gear at a reasonable price point. It’s got 2 oscillators, an LFO and other good stuff. It’s even made to be mounted into a modular rig, if you so desire.

If I choose new gear, I want it to interface with my existing gear. That means the interface would be either an XLR connection or a 1/4” jack. 1/8” inch means an adaptor which would potentially degrade the signal or worse.

I’ve been playing with the Mother-32 and Mavis. Dug out the manuals and will go digging on YouTube to see if there’s any useful videos there. The Mother-32 manual has presets in the back of the manual for a start if your’re stuck as a beginner, but they’re a bit lame.

The one thing about the Moog gear, when there’s a firmware update, you need to remember if your gear has it installed, as there’s no way to check which version is installed. I supposed you can review the manual addendum to see if the added features exist on your gear, but, for the money you pay for the Moog name, there should have been a more user-friendly system in place. And with the Mother-32, the update process id a bit convoluted.

I ordered a Handpan from Temu and I’m a little surprised at the size. It’s a big sucker. I’m guessing its about 30-36 inches across. I also have a small tongue drum, another far-eastern drum, which I’ve used to record some ambient-type sounds and released them. Looking forward to releasing some music made with this handpan.

I just find, that even though I like my Roland gear, that the workflow is non-intuitive and functions that you want to use are buried in multiple keypresses that just make NO SENSE. I’m constantly having to refer the the manuals to get, in my regard, functions that shouldn’t be buried. Admittedly, the two devices the S-1 and the SP 404 Mk 2, have a smaller footprint than other devices I have, but usability doesn’t seem to be Roland’s forte.

Just one example of this is the preset save feature on the S-1. The save feature, on key 16, called “write”, takes a shift -write and then you have to press the 2 key, enter, whereas on most devices the save feature would be located near the play and record buttons instead of being spread all over the device.

Bought a couple of pieces of gear from Playtronica. Just got shipped. Can’t wait until they arrive. I hope to be able to make some new music with the Touchme and Playtron. Also bought a few accessories to go with these devices. Time will tell whether I’ll release music made with them.