Anyone have a MIDI Marimba?

[KuzinRob]

You know, one of them electronic xylophone doohickies? I've been looking on eBay for them, but I haven't seen one for sale... grr... Any info on them is appreciated

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My drums, y'all...
"Get out there and rock...
and roll the bones...
GET BUSY!"

[BtnkBndt]

http://www.alternatemode.com

Look at the MalletKat. Hope your ready to spend some cash?

[puttenvr]

Simmons made a Sillicon Mallet just before they died. Perhaps you can get one of these

[Mick Wade]

Hey, KuzinRob, I know you're a big Rush fan from previous posts, so I assume that your interest in a MIDI mallet instrument probably stems somewhat from the fact that Neil uses one. BtnkBndt was right when he said be ready to spend some cash, and, to reinforce his point about that, you also have to consider that the basic MalletKAT has no built-in sounds; it's just simply a MIDI controller. You would have to invest in a separate sampler (Neil drives an Akai sampler with his MalletKAT), sound module, etc. Alternate Mode does offer the MalletKAT WS (With Sounds), but you're looking at $2645.00 list. Even if you call it a street price of $1800.00 (and that's a big if), you're looking at an amount of money that would buy you a TD-8 module and a complete set of pads. Now, using Rush songs like "The Spirit Of Radio", "Closer To The Heart", "Xanadu", and "Mission" as examples, you can see that the mallet percussion parts on these songs are for the most part fairly easy to execute. If you had a TD-8 you would be able to use its built-in mallet percussion sounds, record your part in real-time using the pads or an outboard MIDI device (keyboard, etc.) or download it in sequenced form, and assign the entire part to one pad for playback. The TD-8 allows for three types of playback using a pad: Loop (the part will play continuously until the pad is struck again), One Shot (the part will play one time through and stop), and Tap (which plays the part one note at a time with each strike of your stick and allows you to control the tempo of it). Unless you plan on turning into Gary Burton or something, I think this option would be a lot more bang for your buck. Remember, you can do everything I just described with as little as one TD-8 module and one PD-5 pad if money's the issue.......

Hope this helps!



[This message has been edited by Mick Wade (edited February 25, 2001).]

[KuzinRob]

Sheesh, I'm happy with eight pads on a SPD-20...

Thanks guys, heh heh...

------------------
My drums, y'all...
"Get out there and rock...
and roll the bones...
GET BUSY!"