Re: XB2 upgrade impressions

[joek@apollo.hp.com]

Hi,

> crosses the Parkway (on the westbound side). They have an xb-2 on 
> display that you can try. (I tried it a few weeks ago in headphones and 
> thought it sounded too sterile. Probably due to the lack of tempered 
> harmonics.) 

I would guess that one reason that it sounded too sterile was that
it wasn't going through a Leslie. I've got an XB-2 - I spent the first
week running it through an amp at home.  When I finally got it to
our practice place and ran it through my Leslie 122 I was blown away
by the difference!

I got the upgrade yesterday and I'm impressed by the percussion
enhancements. In particular, on my setup I move between a
Kurzweil Midiboard (weighted action) keyboard and the XB-2. I set the
percussion so that it plays for all notes regardless of whether
one is already held down.  This makes the transition between
keyboards much easier for me - I can concentrate more on the notes
in a solo than worrying about my Legato technique :-)

I also like that you can make the precussion fade as you go up the
keyboard.  This is more like the B3 and makes the top end notes
much less shrill than before the upgrade.

There is a review of the XB-2 in the B-3 issue of Keyboard.  The
upgrade addresses a lot of the problems mentioned in that review.

Joe