# I just noticed this advert here on VI Control...



## David Cuny (Mar 12, 2021)

This raises _so_ many questions:






How can she read the music from _behind_ the screen? Is she holding the violin, or trying to play it? Who plays kneeling down? What's up with the unflattering hair part?

Most importantly, _is that an arm reaching behind her_? Should we be concerned for her safety?


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## Polkasound (Mar 12, 2021)

The first time I designed my band's business card on Vistaprint, I used Vistaprint's stock photo of an accordion. I had 500 cards printed up. I gave one to my drummer who immediately remarked, "What's with the upside-down accordion?"


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## Stringtree (Mar 12, 2021)

Uncanny valley. I'm not sure I'd click on anything. This is visual chop-shop.


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## Mike Greene (Mar 12, 2021)

Polkasound said:


> The first time I designed my band's business card on Vistaprint, I used Vistaprint's stock photo of an accordion. I had 500 cards printed up. I gave one to my drummer who immediately remarked, "What's with the upside-down accordion?"


I'm not sure which is funnier - that the accordion was upside down ... or that an accordion player thought he would need _500 business cards_!

Kidding .... KIDDING!!!


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## Polkasound (Mar 12, 2021)

Mike Greene said:


> I'm not sure which is funnier - that the accordion was upside down ... or that an accordion player thought he would need _500 business cards_!


ROFL!!!! 

I'm not sure how old this joke is, but here goes...

A club was throwing a New Year's Eve party but the band never showed up. In a panic, the club owner asked his friend, an accordion player, if he could whip his polka band together and play the gig. The friend said, "Sure," and the polka band played all night.

At the end of the night, the happy club owner said, "Thanks for coming through at the last minute! You guys were great! Can hire you to come back and play next year?"

The accordion player said, "We'd be glad to. Mind if we leave our stuff set up?"


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Mar 12, 2021)

Polkasound said:


> "What's with the upside-down accordion?"


Quick, have it evaluated! Maybe it's another inverted Jenny


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Mar 13, 2021)

She’s holding her bow like some (orange-tanned) people hold a (borrowed) bible!


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## NYC Composer (Mar 15, 2021)

Ned Bouhalassa said:


> She’s holding her bow like some (orange-tanned) people hold a (borrowed) bible!


If held upright it might burst into flames and consume him.


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## creativeforge (Mar 31, 2021)

David Cuny said:


> This raises _so_ many questions:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Here is the image in context. Now everything makes more sense...


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

The cans check out. They're not being used. 
His shoes are... umm... maybe in style?
The laptop is soo doped-in
There's no apparatus for recording or monitoring that would be satisfactory, maybe not recording
The blonde tailpiece is interesting; is the violin good? It looks expensive
As an environmental shot, there's no artwork or green plants
I'm supposing he's using the trackpad and nub to enter data? Not sure

More questions than answers.


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## creativeforge (Mar 31, 2021)

Stringtree said:


> The cans check out. They're not being used.
> His shoes are... umm... maybe in style?
> The laptop is soo doped-in
> There's no apparatus for recording or monitoring that would be satisfactory, maybe not recording
> ...


Two words = STOCK PHOTO. Actual actors. Photoshoot. Not an actual real-life scene.


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

creativeforge said:


> Two words = STOCK PHOTO. Actual actors. Photoshoot. Not an actual real-life scene.


Oh, brother, I did that and I was really feckin good at it. Too many decades looking at photos to not know what's what. Take a cheap piece of furniture and make it look like Versailles' waiting room. Light, shadows, and WTF.


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## creativeforge (Mar 31, 2021)

Stringtree said:


> Oh, brother, I did that and I was really feckin good at it. Too many decades looking at photos to not know what's what. Take a cheap piece of furniture and make it look like Versailles' waiting room. Light, shadows, and WTF.


Ah, so you see through the glossy veneer, the illusion of reality, the clumsy pretend smiles, etc.


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

A university near home. A group of white kids blown up on wall-high. One dude with a really big head, added in Photoshop. Happy graduates, or whatever.

Retro-tokenism. Sharp intake of breath when I first saw it; oh my gourd, that's awful and lazy. These people were never together.


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## David Cuny (Mar 31, 2021)

I doubt it's truly a "stock photo" - it's a _very _specific combination - a guy with music, a gal with an instrument looking at the music, and a computer. Obviously the screen is comped in, but that's normal.

Plus, the only hits I got when searching for the photo were from Steinberg. 

Her hair is still... defying gravity, but that's not unusual in this sort of commercial shoot. The curl of her hair so that the earring is clearly visible, the way the part is pulled up over her head, and the bit over her shoulder... looking at it makes my head hurt.

And the foreshortening on the guy's upper left arm make it look like he's got a stubby arm. 

Our vision system is amazing, in that it "normalizes" things until we pay attention to them. Sort of like how I keep confusing a pile of laundry for my cat.

What's _most _striking to me are the walls. Note that where they join isn't a vertical, but diagonal. There's a doorframe to the left, so the left wall isn't leaning back. that means the right wall is leaning, but the fill light gives it the look of an optical illusion.


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

Good point about the foreshortening. Lenses, uhhh, do things, as Jeff Goldblum would say. 

Her limb proportions are not shot with a wide lens. His seem to be. I don’t believe she’s handled a violin before today’s shoot. 

The fill light on her stage-left side of her face is not from the wall behind her, but from a close bounce card. That couch is a black hole. 

Quite a bit of restage in the music. Maybe a quartet or orch piece. 

Is Dorico this fun? 

And yeah, @David Cuny, we had our blackest-object-in-the-room cat pass away, and it was socks, a jacket, a hat, two gloves. I still see her loafing in various places.


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## JEPA (Mar 31, 2021)

Stringtree said:


> is the violin good?


it's a viola!


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## JEPA (Mar 31, 2021)

No way, is a violin! But the woman's head is thin... And the visual perspective lets the Head against the body of the violin look like a big violin...


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

JEPA said:


> it's a viola!


Oh, for goodness sake. I'm almost ready to give that to you. 

I can't believe we're going at this like it's the Rosetta Stone.


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

The perspective distortion, because other landmarks in the composite, confuses scale.


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## David Cuny (Mar 31, 2021)

JEPA said:


> it's a viola!


Thanks for catching that!

It looked larger, but I was too lazy to pull mine out and check the size.  

That, and the music isn't written in an alto clef. And I'm too lazy to check of that's high enough to justify using a treble clef.


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

One fine-tuner. Good tailpiece. A borrowed violin, not a prop violin. 

Yeah, Ooooh! Treble and not alto. And they're smiling and laughing, so it's obviously not a viola. 

(I love viola and its contributions, this is just an old joke. Viola is better than a violin because it burns longer.)


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

David Cuny said:


> It looked larger, but I was too lazy to pull mine out and check the size.


Day drinking? Holy crap.


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## JEPA (Mar 31, 2021)

I think the pieces are different..., second stave of the paper sheet could possible relate with the first stave in laptop, but the second tie is going up and not down...


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## Stringtree (Mar 31, 2021)

Looks like a lot of space. Is this the Mel Bay edition? 

I know there's more to this story. 

"In a world, fraught with the threat of extensive excursions outside the staves, and notation on extreme leger lines... One notation program offers enough space... to provide endless avoidance of the alto and tenor clefs, which are stupid and impossible for ordinary musicians to understand..."


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## JEPA (Mar 31, 2021)

Stringtree said:


> Looks like a lot of space. Is this the Mel Bay edition?


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## Sheridan (Apr 7, 2021)

Ad agencies have been on a roll lately. Would like to see the context behind this one. 😀


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## creativeforge (Apr 7, 2021)

It's an object of luxury for her, an Instagram photo-oppo... There's Keith Emerson who could do it, though...


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## FinGael (Apr 7, 2021)

This thread has been approved by The Professional Procrastinators *™*


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2021)

FinGael said:


> This thread has been approved by The Professional Procrastinators *™*


A yes. I have been meaning to join that club, but I ended up watching YT videos of sample libraries I already owned but forgot about, because when I wanted to download them I was watching this ad instead. Wait... what were we talking about?


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## FinGael (Apr 7, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> A yes. I have been meaning to join that club, but I ended up watching YT videos of sample libraries I already owned but forgot about, because when I wanted to download them I was watching this ad instead. Wait... what were we talking about?


"Your application for membership has been accepted. Welcome and enjoy your... Hey, what's that? Um, Have you heard about the latest...Oh, this is great. Great legato, but not enough round ro..."


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## creativeforge (Apr 7, 2021)

FinGael said:


> This thread has been approved by The Professional Procrastinators *™*


Took them long enough ..


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## doctoremmet (Apr 7, 2021)




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## JEPA (Apr 7, 2021)

Sheridan said:


> Ad agencies have been on a roll lately. Would like to see the context behind this one. 😀


*it’s not a Casio, and she is a cellist, look at her right hand's bow position!!*


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## Double Helix (Apr 7, 2021)

I am unclear why either of them would need headphones to hear the violin/viola


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## Stringtree (Apr 7, 2021)

Overdubs? If it's a 3/4-scale viola, we've all fallen victim to villainous trickery. Remember, it's not the DaVinci Code. It's just an ad. 

Or is it? At any rate, that keyboard looks incredibly disappointing. Five octaves of disappointment.


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## JEPA (Apr 8, 2021)

Sheridan said:


> Ad agencies have been on a roll lately. Would like to see the context behind this one. 😀


It turned out it is in fact a Casiotone!


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## JEPA (Apr 8, 2021)

JEPA said:


> It turned out it is in fact a Casiotone!



loving the "Tape Flute" so far...


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## Stringtree (Apr 8, 2021)

No IN/OUT/THRU? No sale. That's like a doll that doesn't eat, pee, or serve as a CPR trainer.


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## Stringtree (Apr 8, 2021)

TBH, it's a decent "roots" keyboard for playing out in a band, but a simple MIDI controller hooked up to a laptop running Cantabile would sound miles better. Soundfonts would sound better, and be more configurable with a MODWHEEL. VST instruments offer so much more than chippy shet. MODWHEEL.

I keep seeing the Spitfire Cimbalom ad, and it looks like that poor lad is trying to not get his sneaks caught in between the strings as he dynamically scrambles. It's the difference between artfulness and stock photography that's literal. 

Christian's art for Albions was always beautiful. Exciting and dynamic instead of studio crap. So these ad photos we're kudgeling deserve the shit because they are terrible. I'm an artist? And I love the suggestive and the beautiful, not somebody who's obviously never handled these instruments.

And the sounds would offer a live performer so much more with modulation. How hard would this have been to implement on this keyboard? It looks in the Casio like a brand-stamping of something sad, that should have been offered fifteen years ago, but wasn't. 

It's a cheap late arrival that somebody could buy for a couple hundred bucks and play bar gigs. Acceptably.

I got my Nord Electro. That's the shizzle. Why should it cost that much for B3, Piano, Clav, and the few sampled sounds you can stick on it? That's not fair. It's not technically a question of whether a roots keyboard can be implemented, but by the market dynamics.

Dorico's great. This Casio is not the worst. Having a little history in marketing, I think these are terrible photographs that are pure cringe. 

As far as the "Tape Flute" goes, try to spider play actual Mellotron samples. That's what's sparkling to me. Pastiche is not necessarily a bad word, but that is what the Casio approach seems to me to be.


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## JEPA (Apr 8, 2021)

Stringtree said:


> TBH, it's a decent "roots" keyboard for playing out in a band, but a simple MIDI controller hooked up to a laptop running Cantabile would sound miles better. Soundfonts would sound better, and be more configurable with a MODWHEEL. VST instruments offer so much more than chippy shet. MODWHEEL.
> 
> I keep seeing the Spitfire Cimbalom ad, and it looks like that poor lad is trying to not get his sneaks caught in between the strings as he dynamically scrambles. It's the difference between artfulness and stock photography that's literal.
> 
> ...


You got a truly description. My "Tape Flute" comment was ironic, because it was the only sound that was near to something special for me in this video. "Sad" is the best word you've used to describe the unfulfilled expectations... A friend of mine had a Casio for her exercises home. I played her keyboard and was like, "why a company with the tech, the resources, couldn't make a better product?". And then I've thought about profit, capitalism, etc, etc.. But Roland succeeded, Yamaha, Korg, why not Casio? I had a Casio watch in my youth...

Edit: I must say Casio's target audience is not the professional musician.


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## PaulieDC (Apr 15, 2021)

David Cuny said:


> This raises _so_ many questions:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


As a pro photographer i would say that Steinberg needs to stick with software development and increase their advertising budget... "I hear our new programmer Fred is pretty good at photography... let's get him to shoot the new ad! It's only the SE version, it'll be good enough!".

That conversation is all too common actually!


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