After decades of occasionally picking up a guitar or plunking out a few chords on the piano, I recently became quite serious about my music. Now, after a few years of serious classical study with an amazing teacher, I am advancing quickly.

Between Bach, Beethoven, Scarlatti and Debussy, I am learning to be a serious pianist and enjoying the challenge of interpreting some of the most beautiful music of all time.

After the Hanon exercises and classical pieces, I move over to blues and rock. Mostly I am doing exercises and learning blues patterns to build my chops on piano and organ. It’s here where my brand new BeatBuddy is such a joy - I’m not playing alone any more!

I am an engineer, and my rig reflects this.

My “stack” is based on a Yamaha CP4 stage piano, Yamaha YC61 organ/stage keyboard and Blofeld synth module. These are midi-networked through an iConnectivity MioXM (I can’t recommend this device highly enough) and connect to my TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 Extreme vocal processor, Softstep 2 midi pedal board, BeatBuddy and Behringer XR18 digital mixer.

I control all of this gear using Camelot Pro on my iPad (somewhat like Mainstage but also manages hardware), connected through network midi. When I record, I use Auria Pro on the iPad, which is connected via USB to the mixer.

For a time I tried using softsynths on my iPad. I found this frustrating in many ways, hence all the hardware, which I find works so much better for me.

Lately I have been jamming with a guitarist using a free app called Sonobus. It’s a peer to peer low-latency solution to playing together over the Internet. It’s simple and works surprisingly well!

I joined this forum to learn how to maximize my results from my incredible new Beat Buddy, and to help others who have technical challenges with their gear.