Hannah Vasanth and Her Trusty MOTIF XS MOTIF NEWS GUIDE
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MOTIF NEWS GUIDE THE OFFICIAL NEWS GUIDE FROM YAMAHA & EASY SOUNDS FOR YAMAHA MUSIC PRODUCTION INSTRUMENTS Edition July 2010 Contents Hannah Vasanth Keyboards for Rihanna 2 Brandnew: MOTIF XS „FM Xpanded“ 4 hape13‘s column 6 MOTIF XS / MOTIF-RACK XS S90 XS / S70 XS: Expanded Articulation 7 Yamaha DTX-MULTI 12: Quick Guide 13 Sounds & Goodies 17 Imprint 28 Hannah Vasanth and her trusty MOTIF XS MOTIF NEWS GUIDE July 2010 Hannah Vasanth - Keyboards for Rihanna Last Girl on Earth - that‘s the name of pop- So after a grueling 10-hour flight I arrived in LA and star Rihanna‘s tour. Playing nice sounds with went straight to Sony rehearsal studios in Culver City keyboards on stage - and hopefully freed from to meet the band. The musicians were some of the best the dancing performance - is Hannah Vasanth. players in the US – Eric Smith on bass, Chris Johnson With a little help from two MOTIF XS. For on drums, Adam Ross and Nuno Bettencourt (yes, Yamaha Hannah writes a mini-blog about her THAT Nuno!!) on guitars, Kevin Hastings on first experiences in popstar world. keyboards and Ashleigh Haney and Kim Ince on BVs. 18th May 2010, 4:18pm After quick introductions the band proceeded to play Hi everyone! Last time we spoke I was just finishing through the one and a half hour set – they were all at off Anastacias summer tour and was starting with the the final stages of tweaking the music when I barely Sugababes. knew the names of the songs! Gulp! So as you can imagine, the next 4 days were spent with me barely Anyways, it was mid-march when I got an email from taking a break and programming, learning parts, pro- esteemed American MD Tony Bruno, who I had met a gramming and learning yet more parts…! couple of years back. All the email said (ominously!) was „call me now“…! I called Tony and without a lot At least I had one constant to rely on in this whole of small talk he asked me if I would be interested in crazy situation, and that was my trusty MOTIF XS playing keys for Rihanna’s upcoming tour. It was all – for this gig I was using an XS7 and XS8. The XS extremely last-minute, but after a few days of back came through for me once again, and I was able to get and forth with Tony and management the gig was con- really close and detailed with the sounds I program- firmed! I was on an airplane just a few days later, with med. As with most of the bigger gigs these days, the nothing but a live rehearsal tape on my ipod …! original stems of the keyboard parts from the albums 2 MOTIF NEWS GUIDE July 2010 were available to me, this makes the job of matching away from our place in London. It has been wonder- and programming sounds so much easier, as you can ful to have my family and friends come and see the really analyse and zone in on exactly recreating the show – I still can’t quite believe that I am on a gig like sounds for the job, and then hopefully taking them one this! I have to admit that I am still ironing out a few level further! A feature on the XS that I use time and bits and bobs – there is always room for improvement, time again is the in-built sampler, I was able to load right? in quite a few of the sounds from the original stems We finish the European tour at the beginning of June, via USB, and build presets around them, this made have 3 weeks off and then start a 10 week US tour. for some great sounds which I kept tweaking and This is going to be my first time touring the states slowly the basis of the set was formed. Thankfully, and I am really looking forward to it! I will keep you the keyboard tech on this gig, Dan Roe, was English updated - It’s nice to be back blogging! and therefore understood the importance of a cuppa! Numerous cups of tea and about a week later, I was Speak soon, Hannah x more or less there, and finally took a deep breath and Hannah Vasanth is a keyboard player/song writer/pro- tried to start to relax into the set. ducer currently playing for Rihanna. Previous bands/ Rihanna joined us a few days into rehearsals and sang artists include Sugababes, Jay Sean, Jason Derulo, through the set with us. She sounded amazing! It was Anastacia (European Summer Tour 2009), Daniel fantastic to work with Tony Bruno - as he is a guitarist Merriweather, ABC, Will Young, Jon Lord (Deep himself, the arrangements were musically very com- Purple), David Jordan, Bugz in the Attic, Gnarls plex but still raw and audience-friendly. Tony’s whole Barkley, Charlotte Church and more. She also writes, concept was: „I don’t wanna go to a gig and hear the produces and remixes and is currently completing an album versions“, so the arrangements were really fun album with singer Jo Harrop - four of those tracks can and interesting to play with quite a few tricky bits that be heard on her MySpace site took a while to get under my fingers! www.myspace.com/hannahvasanth After a while we moved on to Production Rehearsals. This shortened blog is taken from I was completely blown away by the sheer scale of http://yamahadownload.yamaha-europe.com this show – no expense had been spared! From mo- our download portal with tips & tricks, tutorials, ving platforms to lifts – from aerial work to dancers features and all the latest downloads. on stilts – from a ramp with a treadmill to cars being bashed up and a pink tank being danced on – the list just goes on and on and on. It was literally an assault on the senses and it took a lot of concentration for me to play the parts and not get distracted by what was happening on the stage! So, I have now been on the road for about a month. We have been in Germany, France, Belgium, Swit- zerland and are currently playing in the UK for a few weeks. I had the pleasure of 2 „homecoming“ gigs – the first in my hometown Berlin, where I was born and raised, and also the o2 in London, a couple of miles 3 MOTIF NEWS GUIDE July 2010 Brandnew: MOTIF XS „FM Xpanded“ EASY SOUNDS is developing an extensive synthesizer world upside down, leaving synthesizer soundset for the MOTIF XS. The sample-based legends like Moog or Oberheim behind. sound library „FM Xpanded“ will contain a comprehensive and high-quality collection of After the groundbreaking success of the DX7 the sounds produced by FM synthesis. FM synthesis has found its way into a large range of Yamaha synthesizers. FM is the abbreviation of This list contains only Frequency Modulation. some of the most popular Here oscillators are mo- machines: TX7, TX816, dulated by other oscilla- DX21, TX81Z, DX27, tors – their amplitude and DX100, FB01, DX7II, frequency then characteri- TX802, V50, SY77, zes the sound. SY99, FS1R, DX200, The FM synthesis was EX5 developed in 1967 by the The last device from american scientist Prof. Yamaha using FM Dr. John Chowning at the was the plugin board Stanford University and PLG150-DX which can was made public in 1973. be installed into host syn- One year later the Yama- thesizers like the MOTIF ha Corporation bought ES, MOTIF-RACK ES, the patents for this revolutionary synthesis system. or S90 ES. The PLG150-DX is a (in most points) true- In 1983 the Yamaha DX7 was introduced and put the to-theoriginal replica of the DX7. 4 MOTIF NEWS GUIDE July 2010 Sample Partial-Programming (SPP) for dyna- The electric pianos and clavinets are heavily inspired mic and expressive FM Sounds by the most popular classic DX7 Voices and will make you feel like playing on a orignal FM synthesizer. Thanks to the sound library „FM Xpanded“ now sam- ple-based FM sounds with very high dynamics and Impressive stereo programmings strongly reminiscent authenticity can be used in the MOTIF XS. The library of the widespread panning of the DX7II. contains sounds, which are heavily based on the best By creatively combining the FM sound components DX7 sounds, and new innovative creations that go far with each other or with Preset Waveforms we also beyond the capabilities of the original DX7. created new keyboard sounds with their own distinctly The Multisamples are complied from Samples of independent character. These include „hybrid sounds“, multiple dynamic levels to perfectly capture the high in which conventional electric pianos and clavinets are dynamic of FM synthesizers. mixed with FM sounds. But we didn‘t just sample complete FM sounds in the The sounds of this first volume „Electric Piano & conventional way. Instead EASY SOUNDS developed Clavinet“ are not limited to be used in conventional FM sound components, which are then combined by music. With the help of the MOTIF XS effects a the Voice Elements of the MOTIF XS to all new FM number of trendy keyboard sounds were programmed sounds. This technique of Sample-Partial-Program- that can be used in all current music styles. In addi- ming (SPP) offers a tremendous flexibility in sound tion some drum loops in WAV format and keyboard design. You don‘t have to be a FM expert to edit your sequences in SMF format are included to be combined sounds.