Desired piano sound- AP, DP, VI ?

Drew-r

I would like this thread/topic discussion to encompass both Knowledge as well as on or off topic Talk as may be needed or not. In other words, my requirements may appear more as “you don’t have any” like a member once posted. But, i have’em. They are actually present but simply may not be as readily apparent possibly because i am not as fussy, picky or demanding as compared to my fellow ‘Clackers. *

*in Pittsburg’ese , for years “guys” has been used interchangeably among friends to mean guys or girls or collectively both from a group-think view; likewise ‘fellow Clackers.

My main interest here: how many of you have a roughly accurate running total of your expenses incurred in assembling whatever combination of AP and or DP and or VI products you presently own, plus whatever other expenditures for necessary gear - cables, monitors, AI boxes, computers, apps, plugins, et al in your primary rig?

I realize that at one extreme of this spectrum, this can be more difficult to indicate for those of you who have multiple pianos and effectively have several distinct rigs. The other extreme will be simpler to tabulate for people who have either one AP or one DP which you have or have not supplemented with additional hardware and or software components. I currently have one cabinet-style DP rig and one slab-style rig, both used without one or more VI products and therefore generally does not require any separate computer(s) to operate - PC, iPad, smartphone or the like.

If interested, please post your estimates no matter where in this spectrum you currently are.

HZPiano

Drew-r accurate running total

Long story short: € 2,797.36.

😬 😭 🥴

😉,

MacMacMac

@Drew-r: So yinz are asking "how much did yinz spend on yinz's piano rig?"

Is that right?

Drew-r

@Drew-r: So yinz are asking "how much did yinz spend on yinz's piano rig?"

Is that right?

Right; and thank you for your support🙂.

Examples:

in late 2015’ i bought the HP508 from a combined broker (in Arizona) and, separately, showroom dealer also in AZ. My cost: 3300 dollars which included tax/tip/rust-proofing & freight delivery into my front door. I used this as-is/was until late 21’ when i bought a new iPadPro & USB4 dock/hub for approx. 1100 dollars so i could trial Piano Marvel for 30 days. Somewhere in there , just in case, i bought an extra plain USB printer cable plus a “usb camera kit adapter”. All told, i estimate 4500 dollars spent, so far, for this rig. I have not used PM past the trial and otherwise have no software programs/apps or accessories therein currently in use with this rig.
After i got rig # 1 working with PM, i then quickly tried the MP7 with PM just to confirm i knew how to get it working in a basic midi over usb setup; easy peasy even for me 🥴. MP7 cost me 1800 dollars, new in box summer 16’, bought in person from a shop in Greensburg PA. At that time, i already owned 1) an X—stand, as well as 2) an older-fashioned tabletop-style metal slab stand and a 3) pair of JBL-308 monitors w/1/4-inch plug , unbalanced audio cables. As such, i could conservatively say this rig #2 cost me 1800 dollars, or more liberally 2500 dollars. Either way meets the basic criteria i am interested in learning from yinz others.

Drew-r

PS.

To use you, @MacMacMac , as another example, i generally know you have a rig comprised of an older CLP which you prefer to use with one or more VIs not named PTQ, with or without headphones or internal speakers or PC sound system. Nonetheless, i am interested in knowing approx how much you have invested in your rig to include purchasing VI packages and/or PCs / accessories, etc. - like your rebuilt, post-surge incident from several months ago - that you subsequently found out you did or did not like the results of but nonetheless have invested ____ dollars, roughly, thus far.

Drew-r

HZPiano

2797.36, that is quite exact and i expect no less from you, but …Aw, c’mon HZ, i need to see at least some few of the most relevant details ….okay, may be i just want to see some but , the minimum meat of your short story is an FP10 wrapped around some important accessories and i’m pretty sure there is a regularly expanding & contracting ( buying/trading/selling) library of various VI packages , yes?

HZPiano

Drew-r Aw, c’mon HZ

😄/🤯

Yeah, well, I think it's sort of a shocking amount and I kept an excel thingy to tell myself what is going on with that digital rabbit hole.

It's the whole thingy except a computer which I already had. So FP-10/dust cover/M-stand/cables/pedals/modded pedal usb midi interfaces/monitor stands/six Wharfedales/two Onkyos/parts to restore the Onkyos with/piano bench/audio interface/some piano libraries of which Modern U is the only one that sees actual use, the rest is more or less binned. Anything I'm forgetting here? Phew…

Sooo…

🥴/😬

PS In my case, more or less, it was all 'financed' by the Covid lockdowns; I mean there was nowhere to go and no way to spend like travel money, go to a cafe or pub, my shoes didn't wear, you name it.

Drew-r

HZPiano

💫

Thank you.

- - - -

PS. Disclosures: For anyone so concerned, i have no affiliation with any of the governing agencies - neither domestically here nor across the pond in whatever sector in the East where you reside - gainfully employed in overtly and or covertly investigating and or auditing your outgo and income.

MacMacMac

Not to be outdone in the category of precision ... I looked at old sales invoices and did a tally.
All gear was purchased used, except for the piano and the various cables.

EQUIPMENT IN USE
--------------------------------------
Yamaha digital piano    Sep 2008  2550
Yamaha receiver/amp     Jun 2009    32
Teac equalizer          May 2009    36
Cables                  Feb 2009    41
Shure mixer             Nov 2012    47
MIDI cables             Apr 2012    23
Yamaha equalizer        Sep 2012    95
Adam Audio monitors     Feb 2019   400

ABANDONED EQUIPMENT
--------------------------------------
Teac equalizer          Nov 2008    24
Denon DVD player        Dec 2009    27
Radio Shack mixer       Oct 2009    23
JBL speakers            Jan 2009   100
Audiosource equalizer   Feb 2009    40
KLH speakers            Apr 2011    20
Polk speakers           Apr 2012    40
speaker stands          Apr 2012    25

As you can see I've not spent anything in over three years. Am I overdue? Or am I overspent? Whadda yinz think?

n-player

MacMacMac Oh you forgot to include VI expenses. . .

Drew-r

First and foremost, you, MacMacMac, have earned 🌟 as a bright and shining level of distinction I am honored to personally award you.

As to

MacMacMac Not to be outdone in the category of precision ...

while i should not be surprised, i am nonetheless impressed that you have itemized - electronically no less - records satisfying my area of interest/inquiry here.

You have earned the even more rare 🔥 eternal flame honor for far surpassing in the category of precision with depth of details therein.

A sincere thank you. 🙂

Frédéric L

n-player Yes MacMacMac has forgotten to say how much he bought Pianoteq licences.

MacMacMac

Drew-r First and foremost, you, MacMacMac, have earned 🌟 as a bright and shining level of distinction I am honored to personally award you.

Thanks for that award ... but I prefer cash. 🙂

MacMacMac

Frédéric L Yes MacMacMac has forgotten to say how much he bought Pianoteq licences.

That reminds me ... I forgot to enumerate the spend on the numerous virtual instruments. I can't remember the prices and I doubt I have the information on hand.

But I can give one very precise figure: PIANOTEQ -- ZERO DOLLARS.

I'd have preferred a negative amount ... as compensation from Modartt for pain and suffering induced by their demo version. Litigation is pending.

vagfilm

Well... My expenses so far are really small. 75 euros for a second hand yamaha non-piano keyboard, around 400 for VSTs (always on sale and edu discounts: Garritan, VSL steinway standard, modernU), 80 euros for Sennheiser HD599 (amazon flash sale at almost 50% discount), 59 for Reaper and 29 for Synthesia. Laptop was my old work computer so cost was zero. 😊 My next purchases will be a proper DP, upgrade the VSL Steinway to full, and a VILabs grand if they release one. No speakers or amps are on my horizon. I chose guitar vs piano when I was young because I could not stand how loud a piano is, so I have no interest in powerful speakers for realism (otherwise I would get an acoustic).

Frédéric L

vagfilm Hasn’t VILabs released 4 grands (American, German, Italian, Ravenscroft). You mean a new one ?

vagfilm

Frédéric L Yes, a new one, using the updated engine of ModernU that everybody praises. From the demos, I am not excited about their released grands.

Drew-r

MacMacMac

💵

Drew-r

in the early going, @vagfilm is the clear leader in the category of thriftiness of rig = 640€; especially economy of the centerpiece of such rig - €75 keyboard.

Thrift / economy, is one aspect of several i am interested in comparing from rig to rig.

@MacMacMac may need more time to tally VI-related expenditures. For now, there is ample time, by statute, for the tally to be completed before the need to request neutral observers be allowed to view his counting methods ….. from a legally-required distance …… through obstructed plexiglass …. while being harassed ….. using field glasses approved by the Governor 😏.

In the mean time, Here is a site ive used many years. It provides some sense of how the purchasing power of the $ has continued to decrease over time. Among the variables, there may be some difficult to pinpoint. For instance, 2020 is the most current period for which it can compare to previous years. Another for instance: a US dollar was once defined as an ounce of pure silver and generally accepted as legal tender BUT currently it takes a little over 20 paper dollars to buy one silver dollar. 🤔 2550 dollars from 2008 compares relatively to 3070 to 3610 dollars in 2020 with 3070 being a CPI comparison.

@HZPiano’s 2797.36 (assuming Euros spent) approximately 500-580 towards a DP and the remainder spent on various needed accessories to include often-used as well as binned VIs.

EB5AGV

I have also an spreadsheet of my music-related expenses… but that total 5 figure amount over the last 4 years is too embarrassing to show 😬

It has included big boys, as the Genos (new), two Montage 6 (black and white, so they are technically different 😅), the VPC1 (used), the Yamaha U3H (used), several MIDI controllers (Arturia and NI 61keyers among them, new), plenty of VSTs, NI Komplete 13 CE, a plethora of digital synths and accessories, four pairs of monitors (being the Adam A7X, used, the best ones) and lots of accessories, cables, interfaces, some computer accessories as SSDs, RAM and such.

My GAS affliction was mostly from 2018 to 2020. Now I just spend money on needed things, as the K&M Spider Pro keyboard support and the Behringer monitor I have ordered recently for my band upcoming gigs.

Q&A

Q: Am I rich and this is peanuts for me?. A: No!!!. I am self-employed, work 9-12 hours a day at home and all the hobby money is not needed for the family economy.

Q: Am I ashamed of having spent so much?. A: No!!!. I have spent less than a new medium car costs, and I am enjoying it quite more. And buying lots of items used or on offer has saved me lots of cash.

Q: Will I recover some of the expense in short time?. A: Probably, if I find that I need something else expensive, I will sell some synths and other items from my collection.

PS: to my wife, if she ever finds this, I love you 😘

Jose

HZPiano

EB5AGV total 5 figure amount

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!

🤯

PS Makes my expenses look modest enough, so thanks for that! 😇