[CAUT] keyboard lab

[Greg Granoff]

Scott,
Thanks for the great reply.  You speak of very familiar things.  We have the
old MLC-16 system.  First thing to go was the original Yamaha mono
headphones. We also went with Koss SB-30s originally, then SB-40s like you.
The hot mic thing was a problem and students were constantly pulling out mic
jacks (along with the adaptors necessary to use with the original mono
system) and stressing those connections along with periodically losing
adaptors.  What a pain.  We also used that free headphone replacement thing
with Koss as long as we could, and yes, the original Yamaha headphones
lasted longer, but were too expensive to replace.
We also ended up replacing several of the original station boxes and also
had to change out cables.  The cable thing you speak of, in addition to the
special impedance headphones are both nuisance, proprietary (and money
making, I'm sure) design features from Yamaha I'd love to get away from if
possible.
I won't go on since all this is technically OT, but I may email you later.
Thanks for sharing.  Very helpful.

I second your thoughts for everyone affected by Katrina and now Rita.

Greg


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott E Thile" <scott.thile@murraystate.edu>
To: "'College and University Technicians'" <caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:12 PM
Subject: RE: [CAUT] keyboard lab


> Hello Greg,
>
> I'm in the same boat here with maintaining the Keyboard lab. For what it's
> worth last year we replaced a 13 year old Yamaha lab with a new Yamaha
lab.
> I did use Koss headphones instead of Yamaha (much cheaper). Here is what I
> requested and received:
>
> 2 CVP-201s
> 16 CLP-115s
> 1 MLC-100 Music Lab System
> With 16 MLA-16 stations boxes (these are now stereo instead of the old
mono
> ones)
> 16 Koss Headphones model #SB-40
>
> 16 of the cords to connect the MLC-100 to the MCA-16s (this is the only
> proprietary thing that bugged me). The older cables you have won't work
BTW
> (ask me how I know ;)
>
> The faculty and I are very happy with this system. I've only had a couple
of
> problems with abused headphones, nothing with the rest of the equipment.
> Koss used to offer free repair or replacement for their headphones. Not
any
> more. I had at least 25 free ones over the last ten years, then they cut
me
> off. The Yamaha phones hold up a little better, but they are nearly four
> times as expensive. These Koss units have a slightly hotter dynamic mic
that
> can sometimes cause feedback if the headset cups are not sealing well,
> otherwise they work great.
>
> Happy to share any other particulars, but you might want to E-mail me off
> list.
>
> Hoping and praying Avery and all in the path of Rita dodge the bullet, and
> still praying for all those affected by Katrina. Also have a friend in
India
> who just lost everything due to cyclone related flooding there. Bad year
for
> storms for sure!
>
> Take care all,
> Scott
>
> Scott E. Thile
> Piano-Instrument Tech
> ---------------------
> Dept. of Music, Murray State University
> 504 Fine Arts Building, Murray, KY 42071
> http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/index.html
> mailto:scott.thile@murraystate.edu
> My Faith:
> http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/scott.thile/Christian/index.html
> Ministry: http://www.radioministries.org/
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org] On Behalf
> Of Greg Granoff
> Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 12:44 PM
> To: CAUT
> Subject: [CAUT] keyboard lab
>
>
> Hello CAUTs,
>
> Anyone out there have any observations/experiences with keyboard
> teaching labs by any other maker than Yamaha?
> Some of you techs at larger schools may not deal with it at all, but
> here at HSU it has gradually become my responsibility to keep basic
> functions of our 26 station Yamaha keyboard teaching lab alive.  Our lab
is
> 15 years old and its age is showing; replacing broken headphones, removing
> erasure debris, and cleaning off note names written on keys by dimbulb
> students is no longer adequate to meet the need.  We'd consider another
> Yamaha lab, but I would love to have some input regarding other makers
> setups from a reliability/usefulness standpoint.  Many aspects of this
> Yamaha lab seem to me unnecessarily proprietary and not really designed to
> stand up under daily abuse.
> Again, I realize many of you may not deal with this sort of thing at
> all, but I thought I'd try.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Greg Granoff
> Humboldt State University
>
>
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>
>