PLAY MUSE’S “UPRISING” IN MINUTES! ®

www.keyboardmag.com Yamaha S70XS Go-To Gig Axe

M-Audio Axiom Pro Control Freak

Dave Smith Tetra Poly Analog Monster

A NEWBAY MEDIA PUBLICATION JANUARY 2010 $5.99US $6.99CAN 01 Pianoteq Pro Modeling

0 09281 01011 1 Magic ColumbiaCollegeChicago

...it keeps getting better!

Nathan MFA Candidate Music Composition for the Screen

MFA MusicComposition for the Screen

You’re talented, creative, and serious about making it. You’re ready for a graduateprogram that understands your ambition and is focused on your success. ColumbiaCollegeChicago’s MFA program inMusic Composition for the Screen is a complete education in the art and business of composing and producing music forfilm, television, and new media.

COLUM.EDU/ SCREENMUSIC NOW ACCEPTING 312.369.7260 APPLICATIONS FOR GRADSTUDIES COLUM.EDU Fall 2010

Photoby Nolan Wells Introducing the silent rehearsal studio

Play anywhere, anytime.

Unprecedented 3-time Neighbors can’t hear it. Parents can’t hear it. Cops can’t hear it. Best in Show Winner But you won’t believe what the band can hear.

Every band has the same problem: rehearsing is too loud for most locations and studio space is expensive. But now you can play anywhere, anytime virtually silent to the outside world: quietly enough for your bedroom, dorm room, apartment or hotel room. JamHub™ was created to let you play more, and the experience rocks. Just pick a color section and plug in your instruments, mics and headphones. Then control your own individual mixes with new clarity, and no volume wars. You’ll hear yourself like never before, and improve faster. JamHub is also portable and affordable. And whether you’re a garage band or touring professionals, there’s a JamHub model designed for you. So start jamming more without disturbing the peace. ©2009 BreezSong LLC. JamHub.com FUTURE

CLASSIC

The Poly Evolver Keyboard is a nearly-knob-per-function knockout that sounds unlike any other synth. Don’t like a high-end hardware synth that requires wading through endless menus to program? Not an issue with the Poly Evolver’s 78 knobs—60 of them now potentiometers—and 58 buttons.

The Poly Evolver is capable of producing sounds ranging from classic, real analog to biting, edgy digital textures. It is also multitimbral, with the ability to play up to four parts simultaneously through separate stereo outputs. And it can process external audio.

Find out why Keyboard hailed the Poly Evolver as “nothing less than a future classic and a major event in synth design.” For specs, demos, and more, visit davesmithinstruments.com.

Visit us at NAMM booth 5900

Check out the AX-Synth at www.RolandUS.com/AX-Synth. JANUARY 2010 CONTENTS KEYSPACE MUYAHARA MUGA 12 ARTISTS ALEX BROWN JAMES TALK BROOKE WAGGONER UNSIGNED ARTIST OF THE MONTH ADVICE QUICK TIPS: RACHAEL SAGE SESSION SENSEI CAREER COUNSELOR COMMUNITY CD REVIEWS GO SEE WEEKEND WARRIOR FEATURES 26 HIROMI The fleet-fingered fusion master returns with a stunning solo PLAY IT! piano album — and takes Oscar Peterson to Vegas in the 42 POP process. Learn all about the inspiration, composition, and Play the signature synth riff from Muse’s “Uprising.” technique behind Place To Be, right here. 44 AMERICANA Get close and comfortable with the Floyd Cramer 32 ADAM FREELAND country slip-note. Check out the plug-in tricks and production secrets the 46 JAZZ reigning king of breakbeat used on his slammin’ new Spice up your voicings with upper-structure triad textures. album Cope™.

38 JACK’S MANNEQUIN Piano rocker Andrew McMahon on songwriting roots DO IT! and the resurgence of the piano as a rock instrument. 48 DANCE MIX Think you can’t change vocal melodies when sculpting remixes? Learn how to re-pitch the vocal and keep the feel here. MORE ON THE WEB 50 N OTATI O N @keyboardmag.com Harness the power of ReWire with Notion 3. B-3 MASTERS CHECK OUT 52 SOUND DESIGN CLONEWHEELS Eleven essential tips for recording your own sample library. Booker T. Jones, Chester Thompson, and 54 SOFT SYNTHS Tom Coster converged on our offices to Rock down to “Electric Avenue” and re-create the “motor” discuss the influence of the B-3 organ on sound from Eddy Grant’s one-hit wonder. their musical lives, and compare some of the latest clonewheels. Learn from some of the best organists to ever hit the keys in LINKS our exclusive videos. 8 EDITOR’S NOTE GEAR iGOT RHYTHM 56 YAMAHA S70XS 10 LETTERS Continuing his iPhone music app blog, 60 DAVE SMITH electronica guru Francis Preve focuses on INSTRUMENTS TETRA 20 NEW GEAR groove and beat-oriented apps in this 62 MODARTT installment. PIANOTEQ PRO 71 PRODUCT 68 M-AUDIO AXIOM PRO SPOTLIGHT 72 SAMPLE LOGIC GEEK OUT MORPHESTRA 73 CLASSIFIED 74 Warfus “Moon” Powell has 75 keyboard ADS and rack synths in his studio. We fit Cover photo by Pak Ok Sun as many as we could onto one page.

01.2010 KEYBOARD 7 FROM THE EDITOR eyboard VOL. 36, NO. 1 #406 JANUARY 2010

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Stephen Fortner SENIOR EDITOR: Michael Gallant MANAGING EDITOR: Debbie Greenberg EDITOR AT LARGE: Craig Anderton

ART DIRECTOR: Patrick Wong MUSIC COPYIST: Elizabeth Ledgerwood

GROUP PUBLISHER: Joe Perry [email protected], 770.343.9978 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, NORTHWEST, NORTHEAST, CANADA, & NEW BUSINESS DEV.: Greg Sutton Music or [email protected], 925.425.9967 Stephen Fortner ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, MIDWEST, MID- EXECUTIVE EDITOR ATLANTIC, & SOUTHEAST: Technology? Jessica Sullivan [email protected], 661.255.2719 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, SOUTHWEST: Yes! Albert Margolis [email protected], 949.582.2753 When someone asks me “What’s your players. The point? The instrument we see SPECIALTY SALES ASSOCIATE, NORTH: Reggie Singh New Year’s resolution?” I usually say, “To the today as the epitome of musical purism was [email protected], 650.238.0296 root major seventh, recorded at 192kHz” with- once seen by some as a technological cheat. SPECIALTY SALES ASSOCIATE, SOUTH: Will Sheng out blinking. If they don’t begin backing away Let’s ride the wayback machine even fur- [email protected], 650.238.0325 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Amy Santana slowly, I know I’ve found a kindred spirit who’s ther. Pythagoras wasn’t just the reason you into both music and technology. had to study all those triangles in freshman MUSIC PLAYER NETWORK VICE PRESIDENT: John Pledger The pun between the music theory and geometry. He was a musician, and was so EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Michael Molenda SENIOR FINANCIAL ANALYST: Bob Jenkins audio recording meanings of “resolution” points impressed by the correspondence between PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT MANAGER: to an identity issue that always faces tech-savvy musical intervals and the physical world — cut Beatrice Kim DIRECTOR OF SALES OPERATIONS: keyboardists. It’s the old dichotomy of “Are you a string in half and the pitch goes up an Lauren Gerber WEB DIRECTOR: Max Sidman more about music, or more about technology?” octave, hit a fret two-thirds of the way down MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGNER: Tim Tsuruda In the case of guitarists, bassists, and horn play- the string and you get a fifth, to take just two MARKETING DESIGNER: Joelle Katcher SYSTEMS ENGINEER: John Meneses ers, causal observers tend to perceive that it’s of his observations — that he saw music as the ASSOCIATE CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR: Christopher Dyson mainly about the player and his or her talent — purest expression of the mathematical secrets whatever technology is involved (whether that’s that drove the universe itself. To put it another NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE PRESIDENT & CEO: Steve Palm an amp, guitar synth, etc.) is seen as being way, technology didn’t make music — music CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: Paul Mastronardi there to improve the listeners’ experience of was the source of all technology. VP WEB DEVELOPMENT: Joe Ferrick what’s already being performed on the instru- If technology is the use of tools to improve CIRCULATION DIRECTOR: Denise Robbins HR MANAGER: Ray Vollmer ment. Stand behind something that has black our lives, then the first time a caveman hit IT DIRECTOR: Greg Topf ’n’ whites and a power cord, though, and at something with something else, then hit it CONTROLLER: Jack Liedke SUBSCRIPTION QUESTIONS? best, you have to answer some version of the again, then again, just because the sound 800-289-9919 (in the U.S. only) 978-667-0364 [email protected] above question. (I get “So do you play piano, or and vibrations felt good, that was an applica- Keyboard Magazine, Box 9158, Lowell, MA 01853

keyboard?” a lot.) At worst, you’re a button- tion of technology. Find a back issue pusher, a cheat. Why the waxing philosophical? Because the 800-289-9919 or 978-667-0364 [email protected] You’re in good company. In our cover story next time you get some form of that recurring beginning on page 26, Hiromi points out that annoying question, I’d like to suggest an alter- Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited manuscripts, photos, or artwork. the piano lets you think of your fingers as different native to showing them you can play Rachmani- KEYBOARD (ISSN 0730-0158) is published monthly players in an orchestra. That’s precisely why noff, Keith Emerson, or “Giant Steps.” That just by NewBay Media, LLC 1111 Bayhill Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. All material published in KEY- even the stately, highbrow acoustic piano was plays into the “either-or” of it, where the above BOARD is copyrighted © 2009 by NewBay Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in KEYBOARD is forbidden without permission. KEY- once a technological controversy, believe it or examples prove it’s more of an “and.” Instead, BOARD is a registered trademark of NewBay Media. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Bruno, CA and at not. The piano gave you the polyphony, note when someone asks you if you’re more about additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KEYBOARD P.O. Box 9158, range, and tonal variation to work out melody, music or technology, take a page from another Lowell, MA 01853. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement harmony, and dynamics for any orchestral part great ancient Greek smarty-pants, Socrates, #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. you could think of, and unlike the pipe organ, and answer with a question of your own: you could keep one at home. So, musos of “Music? Technology? Can you help me under- Follow Keyboard online at: the day worried that patron-backed stand the difference?” composers would spend less time interacting If they don’t begin backing away slowly, offer with — and less money compensating — orchestral to buy a round of drinks. Immediately.

8 KEYBOARD 01.2010 >> Exclusive Keyboards! >> Exclusive Bonus Content! SWEETWATER EXCLUSIVE! Moog Little Phatty Stage II UlU tra-hip Solar Orange housing Here at Sweetwater, we’re total keyboard plp us a CV-output hot rod! fanatics — and you benefi t from our obsession! Since we’re connected to the brains behind today’s coolest keyboards, we regularly cook up EXCLUSIVEE instruments for our customers (Exhibit A: the hot Moog to the right). More than that, we’ve got an in-house sound- design team devoted to creating CUSTOMM sound libraries and BONUSS add-ons for the keyboards we stock — 100% FREEE to you. Of course, all that goodness is in addition to our FREE shipping, FREE 2-year warranty, FREE tech support, and more. It’s a can’t-beat combination — and it’s only at Sweetwater.

>> Free Extras! >> Bonus Instruments!

NORD WAVE YAMAHA MOTIF XS KORG M3 Awesome Bonus Instruments! Get $1,175 in FREE Extras! Massive Xpanded Bundle! Get our exclusive Bonus Instruments Collection, Our exclusive MOTIF XSpert Upgrade includes Get a FREE V 2.0 install plus a 1GB thumb drive packed with samples, keymaps, and programs. You’ll 512MB of RAM and a 1GB USB 2.0 fl ash drive, plus (stuffed with three volumes of PCM expansion) and fi nd a lush stereo string sample, a chorused electric you’ll fi ndgig abyte after gigabyte of samples, loops, a BONUS Xpanded CD-ROM full of tutorials, editors, piano, a mighty B3 with an overdriven Leslie, and and MIDI grooves! Only at Sweetwater! soundware, and more. Only at Sweetwater! much more. Only at Sweetwater!

(800) 222–4700 • www.sweetwater.com

FREE Shipping • FREE 2-year Warranty • FREE Tech Support • FREE Professional Advice

ad10_Search_All_You_Want.indd 1 11/6/09 1:10:44 PM LETTERS

top. As far as sample resources go, I con- clavichord and not the harpsichord. The cur that they could have foregone some of ability to bend a note also makes the clavi- the sounds to devote more to an additional chord a great blues and folk instrument. Rhodes patch, as well as a better Clavinet Use a pick and steel bar and it turns into an (as I mentioned in the review). Korg didn’t abstract electronic monster. Hope this is of indicate how the memory was allocated, interest to you. but as you know, there’s a judgment call to —Jim Lowe be made as far as what any manufacturer deems practical and attractive as far as Jim, this mod is surely one-of-a-kind — def- sound selection goes. initely one of the most interesting and orig- —Tom Brislin, Contributing Editor inal keyboard photos we’ve received in quite some time. I’m also enough of a WORLDWIDE geek to remember Heathkits, and coveting WOODSHEDDING stuff from their catalogs of build-it-yourself KORG SV-1 KUDOS I listen to some of the recordings of the electronic gear as a kid. Offhand, I don’t Nice job, Mr Brislin! A couple of comments: artists you write about. Many of them are recall them ever offering a clavichord kit, I would have included lack of a flat top as a amazing. They must practice for hours to get so I’m intrigued. It’s a very undersung and “con.” I’m sure the SV1 looks stunning, but their technique so refined. But how do all of misunderstood instrument, thought by I would have traded looks for the ability to the talented keyboard players in Keyboard Bach and many others to be the best key- place a second keyboard on top. Second, magazine keep their fingers in shape when board on which to perfect your touch. If am I to understand that there is only a sin- they are traveling on tour? If you fly all over you have more photos of yours, I’d like to gle set of Rhodes samples? Personally I the place, you may not be able to get to a invite you to post them on our Keyboard would have traded the synth brass or even piano to practice. Bands and artists can be Corner reader forum at keyboardmag.com. the organ sounds for multiple Rhodes sam- on tour for months at a time. I can feel my Click on the “Community” tab, then on ple sets a la the Nord Stage series: the chops slipping if I’m away from a piano for “Forum” and you’re there! Mark I, Mark II and Mark V samples all even two or three days. Bummer. —Stephen Fortner, Executive Editor sound different to me in the Nord and I —Gabriel liked having the variety. Third, I’m surprised COVER CREDIT you didn’t mention the amount of ROM in Speak of the devil — our cover artist Hiromi CORRECTION the instrument. I believe I’ve seen it listed addresses this very topic in our interview. The lovely photo of as 512MB. That’s a lot by current Flip to page 26 for her excellent advice. Tori Amos that standards. I’d love to see the breakdown —Michael Gallant, Senior Editor appeared on our by instrument family, like the piano is December ’09 cover 150MB, etc. Just the geek in me, I CLAVICHORD CRED was taken by suppose. Fourth, Korg gets big points from Miranda Penn me for not using an external AC adaptor. I Turin. left my Casio adapter at home and had a hard time matching one at a local Radio LET’S HEAR FROM YOU Shack for a gig last week. Anyway, nice Contact the editors review. Good job. [email protected] Keyboard Magazine —Jamey Was Right, from the 1111 Bayhill Dr., Suite 125 Keyboard Corner Forum San Bruno, CA 94066 Subscription questions I must say I do agree with much of what 800-289-9919 (in the U.S. only) you add here. I, too, lamented the curved Back in the ’70s, this one-of-a-kind pickup 978-667-0364 top on the SV-1 and wished it had a flat (with preamp) was invented for my clavi- [email protected] Keyboard Magazine top on which to stack another ’board. chord by Carl Countryman. The instrument Box 9158 However, I gave it a pass because, first of itself was built from a Heathkit, and Country- Lowell, MA 01853 all, I’m hard pressed to find any current man’s expertise preserves the delicate Find a back issue keyboards out there that are conducive to sound only a real clavichord produces, 800-289-9919 stacking, so I didn’t want to single out the while bringing it into the realm of amplified 978-667-0364 keyboardmag@computer SV-1 unfairly. At any rate, there probably sound. The clavichord allows the player to fulfillment.com wouldn’t be enough real estate to securely bend a note by pressing harder, and that’s Find us online or join the forums hold another keyboard, even if it had a flat why Bach tested his students’ touch on the at keyboardmag.com.

10 KEYBOARD 01.2010 All Together Now

VIENNA ENSEMBLE PRO is a mixing host that will bring all the elements of your studio together in a way no other software can.

• Use it on one or more computers as an AU/VST/RTAS plug-in or stand-alone. • Create a powerful zero latency network of Macs and PCs using a simple Gigabit Ethernet connection. • Supports 3rd party plug-ins and effects—both 64-bit and 32-bit! • Access ALL of your RAM in 64-bit mode. • Switch projects without losing or reloading your setup. Includes • Use your favorite AU plug-ins in Pro Tools. EPIC ORCHESTRAVienna Instruments 9 GB free Use VIENNA ENSEMBLE PRO along with VIENNA SUITE to bonus library unleash all the processing power of your existing computer setup. Watch the online videos and download the demo now!

www.vsl.co.at www.ilio.com KEYSPACE ARTISTS, ADVICE, COMMUNITY

ALEX BROWN Rising Star of Latin Jazz

Few aspiring jazz artists finish college with a top tier gig waiting for them in the wings. But that’s just what happened to the prodigious 22-year-old pianist Alex Brown, who gradu- ated Boston’s New England Conservatory to occupy the piano chair in legendary saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera’s band. “I met Paquito’s bassist Oscar Stagnaro in Boston,” Brown tells me from his home in New York City. “He was actually directing the Latin Jazz Ensemble at New England Conservatory. Oscar introduced me to Mark Walker, Paquito’s drummer, and I started playing with the two of them. About two weeks later they asked me if I could do a trio gig with them in Washington, DC, as part of the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival. I’m from Maryland, and I was going to be down there anyway, but honestly, I probably would have driven down there even if I wasn’t, just to play with those guys. They ended up inviting Paquito to the show, and that’s where I met him. There were a few gigs that his last pianist couldn’t make, so I subbed for him a couple of times. And I guess Paquito was happy enough with my playing to offer me the gig.” Brown started playing classical piano at age six, but wouldn’t develop a penchant for jazz until years later. “In mid- dle school, I joined the jazz band,” Brown continues. “I ended up having to do an improvised solo, and I didn’t really know what to do at all. I had no idea what was happening, but I really wanted to learn how to do it. So I decided to start tak- ing lessons on my own, outside of school. Then in high school, I started studying with the pianist Stanley Cowell. I was really fortunate to hook up with him. He’s incredible.” Brown would also develop an interest in Latin jazz, fortu- itously fueled by admiration for his current employer. “I was always interested in it,” Brown continues. “In fact, I was always a huge Paquito fan. But I started realizing that I needed to check out the people who came before the people I was lis- tening to. I needed to go back to the roots.” At NEC, Brown would study with the acclaimed pianist and educator Danilo Perez. “Danilo’s incredible,” Brown says. “He is one of my favorites — maybe even my favorite pianist of all time.” Brown will have a full schedule throughout 2010, tour- ing with Paquito across the U.S. and the world. When asked for advice to the next generation of aspiring jazzers, Brown waxes practical: “There are so many great players, but a lot of people don’t know how to promote themselves,” he says. “I have friends who never played any gigs during the four years they were in Boston. That’s supposed to be the whole point of school, to get you to the point where you are out playing.” Jon Regen

For more, visit alexbrownmusic.com. MIA WINSTON

12 KEYBOARD 01.2010 MORE ON KEYBOARDMAG.COM KEYSPACE JAMES TALK Acid House and ’90s Rave Favorite songs: This have a little understanding about keys and week? Souls Of Mis- scale. Sometimes I think that’s better — you chief, “Infinity.” Jay Z, perhaps try notes together that shouldn’t “Off That (Ft. Drake).” work, but do. Enigma, “Gravity Of Newest project: I’ve been working on a Love.” Massive Attack, lot of music on my own as well as a remix “Teardrop” — I’ve been of Booka Shade’s “Mandarine Girl.” I have watching House all also done two new tracks with Ridney. week; it’s the title Favorite artist we’ve probably never song! heard of: Reset Robot. He’s a production Influences: Having genius and can create amazing grooves in grown up in the the studio. He also engineers for half of the ’90s, my sound is South Coast DJs including Tom Budden influenced by early and Alan Fitzpatrick. ’90s piano and acid Practice Regimen: I sit and play on my Sound: My sound is a mixture of deep, house, and rave like the Prodigy. Also, lis- keyboard almost every night — not acid, and tech house. tening to DJs like Pete Tong, Josh Wink, religiously, just for fun! Webpage: jamestalk.co.uk and Terry Francis on the Essential Mix. Words of wisdom: Eat within 30 minutes Favorite gear: I write all my music in Logic Play by ear or play as written: I play by of waking up in the morning to kick-start Studio, and use Mackie HR624 monitors. ear, I don’t have any musical training, but I your brain and your metabolism. Francis Preve

QUICK TIPS BILL BERNSTEIN RACHAEL SAGE Recording artist and Founder of MPress Records Finding your unique songwriting radio folks, and booking agents is no dif- voice: Write in a journal, religiously. No ferent from cultivating your creative audi- one else has the same experiences or reac- ence. You want to be charismatic, tions that you do. Even if you never directly memorable but professional, and try to write a song from the observations you always consider the other person’s point make in a notebook, you’re still developing of view when presenting your work. I find your “voice.” I have hundreds of notebooks that it requires so many of the same per- full of rambly prose and poems from the sonality “muscles” to stay sharp as a last 20 years, and while I’d never show any- label owner as it does when pursuing one most of it, it’s all part of a process that music: physical discipline, emotional and has helped me get my ideas out of my spiritual dedication, and a genuine head and onto the page. respect for the individuals with whom Running your own label: Approach the you’re communicating. Beyond that, business side as creatively and reverently remember that there’s always someone as you would your musical endeavors, excited to work at a label for college because in my experience, that’s the only credit — so harness those interns! way to keep from “burning out.” Dealing For more: Visit keyboardmag.com. with distributors, publicists, retailers, Michael Gallant

01.2010 KEYBOARD 13 KEYSPACE ARTISTS, ADVICE, COMMUNITY

BROOKE WAGGONER Chamber Pop Piano The music: It’s fairly piano driven with heavy orchestral elements — a mix of cham- ber pop and cinema. Website: brookewaggoner.com Latest album: Go Easy Little Doves. Sounds like: Someone once told me that if Elton John and Tinkerbell had a love child . . . well, maybe that’s stretching it a bit. Influences: Debussy is a huge influence as well as film scores from Masterpiece Theater productions, old Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel, the poetry of Pablo Neruda, and novels by Larry McMurtry. Studio keyboards for GELD: I used two different Yamaha grand pianos, a baby and a full grand. I also experimented a bit with the actual piano strings — strumming, using the damper pedal while plucking the high treble piano strings, etc. Songwriting process: It’s usually just random moments of me tinkering on the piano. If I find something I like, I record it in my phone, or on my little handheld recorder, or jot down the melody in my tiny staff paper Moleskine notebook. Lyrics usu- ally come from scraps of lines I’ve collected over the years, usually from times of bore- dom when I’m jotting little ideas down on random materials. Cool string arrangements on GELD: manuscripts and discovering combos of ings. You can play something right a million They came from old scores I had written in instruments that I thought sounded so times, but it’s usually just one special take college and wanted to revamp. From piano pleasing together. that harnesses the emotion behind it. melodies I loved and decided to orches- Biggest challenge in the studio: Learn- For the rest of this interview: Visit trate. From afternoons of sitting with old ing how to capture “moments” on record- keyboardmag.com. Michael Gallant UNSIGNED ARTIST OF THE MONTH Dave Keyes On “Blues Bearing Down,” the opening track of Dave Keyes’ punchy Roots in the Blues, the artist proves himself a down-home quadruple threat — between verses sung in a husky, charismatic baritone, Dave fills out the original tune with a rollicking piano solo, which then morphs into an even-more-rollicking B-3 solo. Wow. “Black and Blue” is another standout, showcasing strong horn arrangements over another soul-rocking B-3 solo; “Down To The Bones,” by contrast, delves into tasty, piano-driven funk territory and features one of the hottest breakdowns we’ve heard all year. Dave is a class act, and it’s an honor to name him Keyboard’s Unsigned Artist for January. Michael Gallant davekeyes.com

14 KEYBOARD 01.2010 exclusive distributors 800.747.4546 NAMM | Booth 6720 KEYSPACE ARTISTS, ADVICE, COMMUNITY

Session Sensei WOODSHED RESOLUTIONS by Scott Healy, keyboardist for The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien If I were to make just one New Year’s disposal; you may have to make do with a the song. These elements are universal and resolution, it would be to practice more. It semi-weighted keyboard and a set of head- independent of the style of the music. always feels great to spend a few hours in phones. Just make sure that whatever Anything more? Be critical of your play- the shed, whether I’m working on technique, your situation, you have a good vibe and a ing, but not obsessive. If you do something time, tunes, styles, or just noodling around, clear head. that you like, do it again. If you hear some- and no amount of playing with other people What? There’s nothing wrong with practic- thing you don’t like, work it until it improves. can replace it. It’s all too easy to skip, ing scales and arpeggios. Hanon’s great I’ve always noticed about a six month lag in though, and so I offer these tips as encour- too, but realize it’s only in the key of C, and musical improvement — it seems to take a agement to join me in my commitment to most of the rest of the world is not. I have while before things really sink in and practice more in 2010. really mixed feelings about metronomes — become part of your automatic musical skill but more on that next month. set. Don’t be disappointed if things don’t When? I’m not the kind of guy who insists What else? Practice that tune you stum- stick for a while, as you might find improve- on a rigid practice routine. In fact I feel that bled through last night on the gig. Work on ment when you least expect it. trying to stick to a regular schedule of any- a style you’re not comfortable with. Prac- thing can set you up for a major guilt trip at tice your favorite ten tunes in different keys. The best part of practicing is that there’s best, and the feeling of failure at worst. Just Hack through some Bach, or rekindle a no downside. It’s just about impossible to get to it when you can, but make an effort sonata. Then grab your iPod and play along get worse, although the more critical you to plan each day so you can find the time. with some great record. Listen to where get of your own sound, the worse you may Where? You may not always have a tuned the drummer’s putting the beat, and what sound to yourself! Just be cool, and think Steinway B in a soundproofed room at your the keyboard player is doing in relation to about the long haul.

Career Counselor GOING HOME AGAIN by Jon Regen, recording artist of critically acclaimed album, Let It Go Last month, I was invited down to the Being back at UM after so many years in yourself, and staying open and positive to Frost School of Music at the University of the “real world” made me realize what a what life hands you, can carry you a long, Miami to give a master class and concert to utopian atmosphere music school really is. long way. My career is proof positive of that the school’s jazz piano majors. Truth be Seeing younger versions of myself practic- very idea. told, I had studied jazz piano at UM for a ing, performing, and viscerally moved by After finishing my lecture, I performed a year back in 1988, before leaving to just talking about music made me realize few of my own songs with a rhythm section apprentice with Kenny Baron, the pianist how lucky I was to have had the chance to from the school’s concert jazz band. Hear- that would become my mentor at Rutgers study in such a nurturing atmosphere as ing kids nearly half my age play my music University. So returning to UM two that one. with fire and ferocity reaffirmed my faith decades later as a guest artist and clinician Presenting to the students was a rare that the music of tomorrow is in good would prove to be an honor, as well as a chance to give back. I told them, through hands. In the words of Reverend Al Green, chance to revisit my musical youth. anecdotes and examples from my own pro- “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright.” The world outside music schools may fessional career, that never giving up is I returned to New York with a sense of change, but the environment in which a much of the battle in mounting a music accomplishment. Two decades ago I set musician gets his or her proverbial chops career — that no matter how offbeat their out on an uncharted path towards a career together has remained virtually unaltered musical ideas may seem to others (and in music. Returning to the place where it all for generations. You listen, you learn, you even themselves at times), it’s that very began showed me, and the talented stu- practice your brains out until your hands, unique perspective that makes true innova- dents studying there, that anything is possi- ears, and mind become synchronized. tors sound the way they do. Believing in ble if you never give up.

16 KEYBOARD 01.2010 ARTSCIENCEAND

“Ivory is without a doubt the finest sampled piano that I have ever played.” —ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN

IVORY GRAND PIANOS Three glorious grands in one virtual instrument

IVORY ITALIAN GRAND A brilliant masterpiece of expression

IVORY UPRIGHT PIANOS Four authentic uprights for an alternative attitude

NAMM | Booth 6728

synthogy.com

800.747.4546 www.ilio.com Contact your favorite dealer! KEYSPACE ARTISTS, ADVICE, COMMUNITY

CD REVIEWS

GARY GO Gary Go Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Gary Go’s epony- mous debut is fine-tuned power-pop at its best. On his new album, the U.K.-born songsmith (and iPhone music app expert) fuses deft production with emotionally charged songwriting, delivering a soaring set of polished pop hits. Go shines here as both writer and performer. Supported by a band of ace session ringers, Go’s originals span the stylistic as well as emotional divide. Tracks like “Open Arms,” “So So,” and “Wonderful” (the album’s first single) brim with kinetic energy, taking their production cues from past hits by perennial favorites like U2 and Coldplay. “Life Gets In the Way” injects a vintage vibe by way of a swirling Hammond organ. And on “Brooklyn,” the introspective songsmith turns the volume down with a string-drenched piano ballad. Recommended. Jon Regen (Decca Records, whoisgarygo.com)

DAN DEAN WITH new light on a classic collaboration. well. Tastefully explosive! Michael Gallant GEORGE DUKE, Richard Leiter (InsideOut, insideout.com) LARRY GOLDINGS, (Origin Records, origin-records.com) GIL GOLDSTEIN, CHAMPIAN KENNY WERNER REDEMPTION FULTON TRIO 251 SNOWFALL ON JUDGMENT DAY SOMETIMES I’M HAPPY Seattle bassist Dan The accomplished rockers of Redemption Don’t let her age fool you Dean is no stranger to know how to deliver the sort of driving, — jazz pianist and singer Keyboard magazine: guitar- and synth-driven Champian Fulton is still in His sample libraries prog that gets fists pump- her early 20s, but she have won three Key ing and eyes lifted sings and swings with the Buy awards and he’s played with piano upward. Snowfall on authority of a seasoned pro. On her latest heroes like Dave Grusin, Bill Mays, Joey Judgment Day contains Venus release Sometimes I’m Happy, the DeFrancesco, and scores more. On 251 more than enough gritty and glittery key- Oklahoma-born, New York City-based dou- (think jazz changes) Dan invited four board tones, boiling grooves, and ble threat dishes up a tasty serving of gutsy, stellar keyboardist buddies into the stu- harmonic and rhythmic surprises to keep grooving trad jazz. From her tasty block chord dio for a fantastic romp through ten stan- things interesting — but to its great credit, solo and proud vocal prancing on the album’s dards and a George Duke original that artfully avoids going too far into wanki- opener “When Your Lover Has Gone,” to her will teach you how to play ballads, ness. “Fistful of Sand” rumbles spirited take on the venerable ballad “Darn swing, and funk with a bassist. Whether deliciously, mixing dirty keyboard and gui- That Dream,” Fulton (nimbly backed by bassist you play B-3 (like Larry Goldings on tar tonalities into an engagingly warped Neal Miner and drummer Fukushi Tainaka) “Georgia”), accordion (like Gil Goldstein metal soundscape; “Black and White finds her own way through even the most on “Lover Man”), funk piano (like George World” opens with a piano solo that fore- familiar of material. More than just another singer- Duke on “It’s On”), or straight-ahead jazz shadows the rock to come, fleshes out pianist on the retro scene, Champian Fulton is (like Kenny Werner on “Dolphin Dance”) one section of groove with unexpected lo- an artist to keep an eye and ear on. Jon Regen this uplifting album shines an exciting fi blips, and throws in lithe synth leads as (Venus Records, champian.net)

18 KEYBOARD 01.2010 MORE ON KEYBOARDMAG.COM KEYSPACE Go WEEKEND WARRIOR See Check out these DON STAMEY keyboard-heavy acts, on tour this month. Webpages: dennyrussellband.com, Cities Church in stamey.org Grass Valley. We Day job: I’m a software designer have about 2,000 based in Grass Valley, California. attendees, which is I’ve been involved professionally amazing for our small with computers since 1983. In the town. In the last few early days, I wrote software for years, I’ve also been large mainframe computers. I playing with the Lady GaGa became self-employed in 1986, Denny Russell Band, ladygaga.com and soon after, started writing soft- a country-rock outfit ware for Macintosh. In the last few that plays mostly years, I’ve transitioned to working original music. We on web-based software and cus- started out in late tom programming for websites. 2005, helping a How I got started: I had wanted friend record his songs, and by color, even before I understood to play since about age six, proba- 2006 we had become a band. them, and the piano was the best bly after hearing the piano in We’ve performed at casinos, way for me to create those sounds. church. My family wasn’t musical at county fairs, sports bars, parties, I love the ability to play what I feel Marcia Ball all, so it wasn’t until I was nine that wedding receptions, retreats, and are the best chord voicings possi- marciaball.com we got a piano and started taking fundraisers. I’m also trying to start ble on any single instrument. I tried lessons. By age 15, I was playing a Carpenters tribute band. to learn guitar when I was 16, and regularly in church, and was in the Why I play: Music caught my got very frustrated because I high-school jazz band. attention at an early age. I really couldn’t voice chords the way I Band: I currently play at Twin liked hearing chords with a lot of could on the keys. Ed Coury

“In the Denny Russell Band,” says Don, “I Squirrel Nut mostly need piano, so the Roland RD-500 is Zippers the main keyboard in front of me. A few years snzippers.com ago I bought a portable Yamaha PSR-282, because I wanted something small and bat- tery powered. There are several good sounds in that keyboard, including some organs, so I use it in the band. Both keyboards are plugged in to my Roland KC-100 amp, which I use as a submixer and monitor. When play- ing at church, I like the same basic setup, except I have a Yamaha C7 grand in front of Tegan and Sara me, and a Roland XP-80 to my left.” teganandsara.com

Carpenters, 40/40 (A&M)

Richard Carpenter, of the iconic pop group the Carpenters, is one of Don Stamey’s favorite players. “When the Carpenters became popular in the early ’70s, I was in my early teens,” says Don. “Karen’s voice really caught my attention. As I listened, I noticed all the great things Richard had done, especially his arranging and orchestration. I’m sure Richard’s style has shaped the way I play. When I wrote a song for my wedding, many people said it sounded like a Car- Bill Charlap penters song. I didn’t intend that, but I guess that’s what happens.” A solid collection of the Carpenters’ managramusic.com/ best work can be found in the 2009 greatest hits compilation 40/40. artists/billcharlap

01.2010 KEYBOARD 19 NEW GEAR by Stephen Fortner

KURZWEIL PC3K BACK TO THE FUTURE THE PITCH The PC3 gets a load of most-requested upgrades. WHAT UPGRADES? Full backward compatibility with K series sounds and setups. Has 128MB of non-volatile sample memory, so there’s no reload wait after turning it off and on. Loads WAV files. Takes USB thumb drives. Still does everything the original PC3 does: VA oscillators, KB-3 mode, VAST, all that. WHY NOW? Andrew Lloyd Weber’s people asked Kurzweil for a modern K-compatible synth that could load user samples. Thus began the PC3K project. $TBA, kurzweilmusicsystems.com

STEINBERG THE GRAND 3 PREMUIM VIRTUAL PIANO BLUE YETI THE PITCH Yamaha C7 THIS IS A USB MIC? grand and CP-80 electric THE PITCH The world’s first grand, Steinway D, Bösendor- THX-certified USB mic. fer Imperial, and Nordiska THE BIG DEAL Has three upright pianos. capsules, two of them in an X-Y THE BIG DEAL All-new orientation. Patterns include car- samplng sessions compared dioid, omni, figure-eight, and a to The Grand 2. Two mic positions at up to 20 velocity layers. stereo mode we think is doing Onboard reverb, EQ, plus a full tuning editor. Uses VST3 mid-side miking. Headphone out spec for best results but supports VST2, AU, even ReWire. effectively makes it an audio interface. WE THINK You should watch Keyboard for a full WE THINK This has gotta be the coolest USB review soon! mic we’ve ever seen. $449.99 list/approx. $350 street, steinberg.net $149.95 list, bluemic.com

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS PIANOS AKOUSTIK A LA CARTE THE PITCH Pick and choose updated versions of the four pianos formerly available only in the $229 Akoustik Piano software. THE PIANOS Berlin (shown), a Steinway D; New York, a Bechstein D-280; Vienna, a Bösendorfer Imperial; Upright, a Steingraeber 130. All four work with the free Kontakt Player or your full Kontakt soft sampler. $79 each or $189 for all four, native-instruments.com

Want to check out the same press releases that we see about new gear, as soon as we receive them? Go to keyboardmag.com/news

20 KEYBOARD 01.2010 NEW GEAR

NOVATION NOCTURN KEYBOARD ONE GOOD NOCTURN DESERVES ANOTHER THE PITCH The control surface features of the sells-like-hotcakes Nocturn knob box, now with keys. THE BIG DEAL High-quality Fatar synth action. Automap for controlling plug- ins. Transport and mixer control of every major DAW. LED-ringed endless knobs. Bigger drum pads than Novation’s otherwise high-end SL Mk. II. WE THINK It’s a bitchin’ controller, giving you all the essentials — keys, pads, knobs, and software integration — for a remarkable price. 25 keys: $329.95 list/approx. $300 street; 49 keys: $379.95 list/approx. $250 street, novationmusic.com

BITNOTIC OCTAVIAN 1.1 THEORY IN PRACTICE THE PITCH The popular iPhone key- board calculator now lets you hear the scales, ROLAND SP-404SX chords, and modes instead of just seeing them. GROOVE SAMPLER RELOADED THE BIG DEAL Shows you chords and THE PITCH Roland’s most popular portable sampler gets scales with any root, any mode, and any inversion. even more powerful. Just about any chord extension or alteration you can THE KEY SPECS Battery power and built-in mic for sam- think of is accounted for. High-quality piano sam- pling anywhere. Records in 16-bit uncompressed WAV format. ples do the playback. Glitch-free switching between 29 built-in effects, which include a WE THINK It’s a cheat sheet no keyboardist voice changer and a looper. Takes SDHC cards up to 32GB for should leave home without. tons of sampling time. $2.99 at iTunes App Store, bitnotic.com $465 list/approx. $400 street, rolandus.com

DAVE SMITH POLY EVOLVER POT EDITION GET YOUR TWEAK ON THE PITCH Putting pots (old-school knobs) on the Prophet ’08 instead of endless encoders was so cheered that Dave did the same to the Poly Evolver Keyboard. THE BIG DEAL Prophet-5 style knobs give great tactile and visual feedback when, say, you’re sweeping a filter in live performance. THE GOOD DEAL A kit with the circuit board and knobs to convert your old PEK is $399 and easy to DIY. It’s $449 factory-installed. WE WONDER Is the Mono Evolver Keyboard up next for this makeover? $2,899 list/approx. $2,600 street, davesmithinstruments.com

01.2010 KEYBOARD 21

@SQ]`R;OYS`

EVS\YSgP]O`RWabO\R[caWQRW`SQb]`>OcZ;W`Y]dWQVQV]aSO`WUT]`><9¸a `SQ]`RP`SOYW\UW\bS`\ObW]\OZ4c\V]caSB]c`VS\SSRSRO[OhW\Ua]c\R_cOZWbg eWbVc\TOWZW\U`SZWOPWZWbgT]`SdS`g^S`T]`[O\QS6Waa]ZcbW]\-;caS@SaSO`QV¸a @313>B=@ 6O`ReO`S>ZcUW\>ZOgS` @313>B=@ VO`ReO`S^ZcUW\^ZOgS`7\TOQb>OcZ¸ab]c`W\UO\RabcRW]`WUWa ab]QYSReWbVbe]@313>B=@ a`c\\W\UB=@ O\RbVSRWdS`aWbgO\R O[OhW\UdO`WSbg]Ta]c\Ra aVSS`\c[PS`]Ta]c\RaWaO[OhW\U/RRbVSOPWZWbgb]ZOgS`a]c\RaT`][ RWTTS`S\bZWP`O`WSaO\RbVS`SacZbWac\ZW[WbSRdO`WSbg`WUVbOb[gTW\US`bW^a¶ ’ 6WUVZg]^bW[WhSRRSRWQObSR^`]QSaaW\U ^]eS`ORRa^S`T]`[O\QS[caQZSb]g]c`2/E >OcZY\]eabVOb@313>B=@ WaO\cZb`O`Sa^]\aWdSO\Rac^S`^]eS`TcZ ’ Ac^S`Z]eZObS\Qg[OYSag]c`dW`bcOZ a]ZcbW]\T]`P`W\UW\UOVcUSZWP`O`g]TdW`bcOZW\ab`c[S\baO\RSTTSQba]\bVS `]OR6S¸aW\U]]RQ][^O\g5]b]eee[caS`SaSO`QVQ][O`bWaba^V^b]aSS W\ab`c[S\baTSSZ@3/: bVS`]abS`]TQVO`bb]^^W\Ub]c`W\UO`bWabaeV]^cbbVSW`b`cabW\@313>B=@  ’ @cUUSRe]`ZRb]c`^`]dS\Q]\ab`cQbW]\ \WUVbOTbS`\WUVbb]c`OTbS`b]c`

G]c¸dSaSS\>OcZ]\b]c`eWbV1VS`8O\Sb8OQYa]\O\R]bVS`aG]c¸dSOZa]aSS\ VW[]\BDaV]eaZWYS@]QYabO`(7B=@ [OYW\UO\RP`SOYW\U`SQ]`Ra

Photo by William Hames

–;caS@SaSO`QVO\R2SdSZ]^[S\bB`ORS[O`YaO`SbVS^`]^S`bg]TbVSW` `Sa^SQbWdS]e\S`a;S\bW]\]TQ][^O\g\O[Sa]bVS`bVO\;caS@SaSO`QVR]Sa \]bW[^ZgRW`SQbW\d]ZdS[S\bW\O\gOa^SQb]T;caS@SaSO`QV museresearch.com In 2008, Novation’s Nocturn redefined plug-in control. Touch sensitive controls and one-click assignment made Nocturn an instant hit with music makers. We’ve added a velocity-sensitive, real Fatar keyboard with aftertouch, 8 ‘soft-touch’ drum pads and transport control, turning Nocturn into a full keyboard-DAW controller. Nocturn Keyboard’s award-winning ‘Automap’ software graphically displays the entire control surface, showing all the information where you really need it - on your computer monitor. Can you imagine the possibilities when you can simply click on a parameter, touch the controller and see it all laid out for you on screen? Its time to play.

CLICK ANY PLUG-IN CONTROL

TOUCH AN ENCODER TO WHO WANTS A SMALL LCD SCREEN? ASSIGN THE CONTROL Automap’s heads-up GUI mirrors Nocturn Keyboard’s control surface, allowing you to see which controls your soft synths and effects PLAY AND CONTROL are assigned to easily. Change its opacity, size THE PLUG-IN WITH EASE and whether its even visable, now you can’t do that with an LCD screen!

www.novationmusic.com [email protected] MUGA MUYAHARA 26 EBAD01.2010 KEYBOARD Hiromi The Solo Piano Sorcery of Place To Be by Michael Gallant

From its very first moments — a concerts in her native Japan, to discuss the When I was small, I had some chances to machine-gun volley of perfectly-timed roots and realization of Place To Be. play the harpsichord. I was fascinated and I notes, frenetically joyous and angular — you was looking for that same kind of sound — can tell that Hiromi’s Place To Be is any- Why did you decide to record a solo and I just found it with the ruler. I thought, thing but another sleepy, contemplative album? “Yeah, this is kind of similar.” Pachelbel’s solo piano album. In fact, filling the space It’s something that I wanted to try for many Canon is such an old song. I wanted to do left by her excellent regular bandmates, the years. I recorded the album just before I something that went from the past to now. I young jazz fusion keyboardists’ musical became 30. When I was considering mak- wanted to make that transition from original energy manifests even more vibrantly, ing this solo album, I started to think about to current, and that’s why I started it kind of resulting in one of the most explosively cre- how my life has been these past ten years. oldie style. [Laughs.] ative solo piano albums Keyboard Central I realized I was touring and traveling to so What was the compositional process has ever heard. many places, and I just wanted to make an like for this album? If you know Hiromi’s synth-y trio with album with the gratitude I felt for my audi- I wanted to choose songs that came from bassist Tony Grey and drummer Martin ences. I wanted to thank the people who physical places. Sometimes when I see a Valihora, her stellar collaborations with gave me the places to be. landscape, a melody lands in my head — Chick Corea, or her über-funky work with Your version of Pachelbel’s Canon is that’s how I start writing. It’s just like how guitarist Dave Fiuczynski in the quartet striking. How did you get such an some people paint — but I write music. I Hiromi’s Sonicbloom, you’re aware that interesting sound out of the piano? compose bit by bit, trying to construct the she’s a free spirit of outstanding technique I just put a metallic ruler in the piano and I song, have it make sense, and have it be and fierce compositional prowess. Place took it off with my right hand while I was close to the image that I saw. To Be showcases her talents on both playing with my left hand during the song. It Of course, I write things that I can’t fronts, leading the listener through a glitzy was pretty hard. I had to practice so I didn’t really play. I do that so often. I just hear it, Las Vegas-themed suite, as well as a truly make noise when I took it off — and I had to write it, and then realize that I need three original, time-travel reinvention of Pachel- make sure I didn’t go out of time with my hands to play what I’ve composed. When I bel’s Canon — all while continuing to pay left hand when I was doing something else record songs, I have to practice so that I tribute to jazz piano greats like Oscar with my right hand. can play complex things with one hand. So Peterson throughout. Coming from the Do you play inside the piano often? that’s hard stuff. [Laughs.] same mind that created the unforgettable I’ve been doing it since I was very small. So you really push your comfort zone synth-fusion epic “Kung Fu World Cham- Just through curiosity I started playing with when it comes to technique. pion,” such eclecticism, skill, and fun is strings and putting stuff inside the piano. I write things that I’m not used to playing. I entirely to be expected. How did you come across the idea of don’t like to go with the habits that my We caught up with Hiromi at her home using a metal ruler as opposed to bub- hands have, so I try to sing a melody, so in Brooklyn, shortly after her return from ble gum, marbles, or anything else? that my fingers don’t lead the way, so that

01.2010 KEYBOARD 27 Hiromi the melody really has to lead itself. The melody that is ringing in my brain, in my Hiromi On the Road heart, has to lead the song. Piano preferences: Most of the time I try to bring the Yamaha CF-IIIS. I grew up Having small hands made me have to with a Yamaha, so the action and the pedal — everything feels like home. My body’s work hard to play piano — and I still have to just accustomed to playing Yamaha. work hard. My goal as a pianist is to make Of course, I’ve met many beautiful pianos from other companies. I love their the instrument sound full. Whenever I listen sounds, but I just don’t feel home when I play them. Every piano maker makes a to amazing pianists, they make the instru- different instrument. So even though I love the sound, I just don’t feel I belong to ment sound like an orchestra. I can hear the instrument. how much potential that instrument carries, I use the piano as a melodic instrument and a percussion instrument as well. It’s so I really want to capture that as a pianist. very hard to find a very warm piano that also has a very clear attack. To make it happen with small hands is not Synth rig: I’m playing a Nord Electro 73, a Nord Lead 2, and a Korg MicroKorg, that easy, so I have to practice hard. which I used on the two albums before this solo album. How wide do your hands stretch? Can Why the MicroKorg? It’s a very simple keyboard and I just needed some extra you hit tenths? sounds. I was looking for a keyboard that fit on top of the piano, and with the Nord No, no way! Octaves — and if I stretch Lead [there already], I only had a very small physical space available. harder, I can play more, from C to D, but that’s the maximum. Octaves are very MAKOTO HI hard already. ROSE Given how strong your technique is and how quickly you can move, you’d never guess. [Laughs.] That’s good news. What advice could you offer to piano players who want to make the piano sound as big as you do? When you play, you have to hear the orchestration in the piano. Try thinking like you’re playing bass with the pinky and the ring finger on the left hand, and then maybe guitar with the other three fingers in the left hand. Maybe three fingers in the right hand Music doesn’t come from music — music comes from experiences. can be trombone, saxophone, and trumpet. The top two — the ring finger and the pinky It’s just like any orchestral piece. Everyone how I think when I make music for the band on the right hand — can be flute and oboe. doesn’t always have to play. Sometimes it’s as well — I want to be aware of the exis- That’s what I see when I play. Even though flutes only. Sometimes it’s strings only. tence of 88 keys and make them happy. I’m the piano is only one instrument, it can be For me, it’s so important to honor all 88 the player, but at the same time, I’m like a so many pieces of an orchestra. keys — not necessarily to play all of them, conductor in charge of 88 players. It sounds like you’ve really spent a but to be aware of them. The piano is like a I don’t always play every key in one lot of time with orchestral and big living animal. I feel that each key has a soul show — that could be too busy. The impor- band music. and every key is trying to get my attention tant thing is if I’m conscious of each one. Yes, and I’ve written for orchestras and big to be played. A lot of pianists, when they Awareness is always the key. bands. [Having had that experience] defi- play with a bass player and drummer, tend When you write music, do you write it nitely helps in my solo piano playing. to use the upper side of the piano because by hand, use notation software, or If you’re trying to make the piano a bass player covers the lower range. But I neither? sound like an orchestra, how do you think that if I did that, the left half of the I write by hand. It can be chords, notes, and avoid playing too much? piano would miss out, and be sad. That’s words. Sometimes I just write words that

28 KEYBOARD 01.2010

Hiromi MAKOTO HI can make me connect to the landscape. What sorts of words? ROSE I’m walking down the street and then sud- denly I think, “Why am I standing here?” And I look at the sky and it’s blue. Or something like that. So that I can recon- nect to that image and feeling, it’s nice to put [reference words in the musical score] as I write. When I play music, I want people to see a landscape. Music and visual images are very strongly connected, and music makes people dream. I’m like a soundtrack creator and listeners can be the film direc- tor. I’m always curious if the images I see and the images the audience sees are the same or not. Maybe it’s completely differ- ent. Either way, I want to stimulate that How do you keep your fingers in shape okay, let’s try this route. It’s a completely part of the brain that makes you see the when you’re flying all over the world? new journey that I’ve never taken before. landscape in the music. You can do so much practicing just from a And it’s very risky as well, because [this What advice could you offer to musi- table. I always try to move my fingers some- time] there’s nobody else on the stage cians or composers who want to do how, so that my muscle memory doesn’t go apart from me, so I have to be responsible that as well? away. When I can be in a club for a couple for every single decision that I make. No Experience more things in life, because days, of course, I go in earlier than the per- one will save me if I’m about to jump out. I music doesn’t come from music — music formance time so I can feel the piano. love that edgy feeling. comes from experiences and what you see, Do people ever look at you funny on Do you ever get nervous? what you feel. You cannot think about notes airplanes when you just move your No. It’s just far too much fun. when you compose. You have to think fingers around a lot? On “BQE” in particular, which parts about something else — to translate what Yes, they do. [Laughs.] Sometimes, I don’t were written out beforehand? you feel into notes. realize that I’m moving the fingers and mak- The melody and the interlude are pretty So if you spend all of your time in a ing these huge noises on the armrest. Then much it, I think. The BQE [Brooklyn- practice room, you’re not going to the person who’s sitting next to me will ask, Queens Expressway in New York City] is have much to say. “What are you doing?” And I’m like, “Huh?” chaotic and hectic. Then when you are very Definitely not. But practicing is an impor- I’ve been doing it for too many years. I tired of the drive, you suddenly see the tant thing. I am a practicer — I love it so don’t even realize it sometimes. beautiful skyline of Manhattan, which much, so I do sometimes lock myself in makes everybody dream, and there is a the house and practice hard. But it’s You cannot think crazy contrast between reality and fantasy. important to feel the weather changes. It’s The interlude actually stands for the skyline important to feel the seasons. It’s impor- about notes when that suddenly brings you back to the rea- tant to talk to people, and learn, and just son why you came to New York in the first experience life. It’s very important you compose. place. The BQE is kind of the road that you because there are so many things that you have to take to get to the dream. can learn outside of the practice room, How much of the music on Place To Every day has different places and and then bring back to your music. Be is written note-for-note, and how directions that you have to take — of course Can you talk a little bit about how you much is improvised? in the expressway — but in life, too. So practice? It depends. The “Viva! Vegas” songs are when I’m playing in a performance, I always When I’m with the piano, I do exercises. I more written, but others are less so. can create new drama in the song. I always do play a little classical music, not only for Songs like “Somewhere” are very open. have to come back to the interlude. the technique, but more for the composi- It’s more like a standard where I only have How similar are your overall perform- tional aspects because classical a lead sheet. ances show to show? composers really know how to make the I have a lot of freedom, especially I want to be a storyteller when I play music, piano sound full. They have a deep under- because I’m playing solo. In a live perform- and I have so many stories to tell. Some standing of the instrument. I also just love ance situation, as long as I’m responsible parts are set, but then I also have these playing standards. And when I’m not with a for what’s coming next, then I can go any- improvised parts, and improvised stories piano, I listen to great musical giants. That’s where and make new stories. Sometimes that I can only tell on that very day I play the most amazing practicing source, I think. some idea hits my brain when I’m playing — them. It’s so much fun.

30 KEYBOARD 01.2010 It’s your world. Sample it. Grab it. Gate it. Loop it. Play it. Own it. With Korg’s go anywhere, battery-powered microSAMPLER, it’s never been easier. Five sure-fire sample modes plus four sample rates deliver outstanding results, from studio sizzle to lo-fi grunge. Sample, slice, edit, and map, all in one single operation. Our KAOSS-derived effects—21 in all—add excitement, while Pattern Sequencing stacks your signature sound into grooves and songs. And microSAMPLER does it all, on the fly, in realtime for an expressive performance no other instrument can provide.

IN STORES NOVEMBER 1ST www.korg.com/microsampler In the world of nu-skool breaks, Adam est artist album, Cope™. With guest appear- it’s just that I’m more known as a DJ. In my Freeland is something of a legend. From ances that run the gamut from Gerry Casale head, I’m just an artist who also DJs. I’m his 1996 mix CD Coastal Breaks to his of Devo to the needs-no-introduction Tommy really into heavy droney ‘om’-like sounds, initial productions with Kevin Beber as Lee, Cope™ is a star-studded affair that blurs desert rock, and shoegazey guitar tones, Tsunami One, Freeland quickly established the line between tough-as-nails breaks and so I wrote a record on that tip, then real- himself as a force to be reckoned with in brooding, thoughtful atmospherics. ized it was way beyond my audience and the breakbeat world. We caught up with Adam and got him too self-indulgent. So I wrote a dancefloor The year 1998 saw the launch of his to reveal some of the secrets behind his electronic album and decided that was just über-influential imprint, Marine Parade, latest electronica tour de force. Here’s too “now” with not enough longevity. which showcased white-hot releases from what he had to say. Shortly thereafter, I had this epiphany Bassbin Twins and Evil Nine. Since then, moment and realized I could do both. his collaborations with BT (“Hip-Hop More and more, DJs are blending the That’s how Cope™ came about. Phenomenon”) and groundbreaking intricacies of dance music with their Gerry Casale of Devo even makes an remixes for Nirvana and White Stripes more private musical tastes. What was appearance. How did that come about have earned him his place in the pantheon the overall inspiration for Cope™? and what were his contributions? of world-class DJs. It’s my second “artist” album, and I think We met through a mutual friend, Matt This summer, Adam took a few steps in a my eighth album release. I don’t really see Diehl — who’s writing the Devo screenplay different direction with the release of his lat- myself as a “DJ writing an artist album” — — and really hit it off. I played him some

32 KEYBOARD 01.2010 tracks and he freaked out, so we started you choose that give it the more live feel or The compression and tightness of the working on stuff together. We wrote about electronic feel. For ideas, I’d write general whole album is especially evident in three songs together, but not all were right vibes and play them to Tommy. He’d jam tracks like “Under Control.” What’s the for the album. On the record, he performs on them. Then I’d mix and edit his drum secret to nailing those punchy mixes? the lead vocal on “Only a Fool” and back- takes and beef up the sounds with more Universal Audio UAD plug-ins were really ing vocals on “Under Control.” electronic drums to give it real oomph. key to the sound of the record. A lot of The entire approach to drums blurs the There are a lot of different flavors of stuff was slammed through the UAD line between live and sequenced. distortion and overdrive throughout gate/compressor then sidechained to the You’ve got Tommy Lee at one end of the record. Hardware? Software? kick using the Logic compressor. But as the spectrum and tightly quantized Both. I have some really nice outboard far as really nailing down that sweet final grooves at the other. Tell us about the guitar pedals that I use a lot. We’re also mix on “Under Control,” it’s down to Q drum production. running synths really hot through the [from Überzone]. He’s been a mentor to Well, I start all of my beats in the computer. Roland Space Echo set with no delay or me in how to get things sounding they way We wrote most of the album in Apple reverb on, just overdriving it to hell, to get they do. The key to what I do is knowing Logic. That is, Alex Metric wrote most of it that really nice warm distortion. [Camel my limitations and delegating to someone with me and I also wrote some with Audio] CamelPhat and D16 Devastor who’s really the don of their field, such as Damian Taylor. In fact, it’s all pretty tightly plug-ins also played a big role in what Q and the South Rakkas crew — who did quantized! To me, it’s really just the sounds you’re talking about. the final mixes on the album.

01.2010 KEYBOARD 33 Adam Freeland

The call-and-response arrangement of “Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada” is quite Song-by-Song Sound Secrets intricate. What’s doing what and how The huge synth pattern that runs through “Do You!”: That’s the [Arturia] Moog was it arranged? programmed in Logic and used in arpeggio mode with a tickle of CamelPhat distor- It’s really a play between Arturia’s Moog tion, a load of compression, and a hint of reverb. soft synths, and some live guitars which The stabs in “Do You!”: That’s a random sample, edited and distorted. are going through a lot of reverb. All of it The granular effects in “Bring It”: Minimoog Voyager hardware synth, through was processed and then edited heavily in tube warming and distortion pedals. Then we ran it into the computer and edited sections. The breakdown really lets it step and chopped it to hell. After that, we distorted it more with CamelPhat in sections into droney shoegaze territory with layers and jammed through the UAD Dreamverb. There’s also me whispering through a of feedback, which can be hard to get mic, compressed and chopped up. All our edits are manual — we’ve never used right in such an electronic track, but I think glitch-type plug-ins. it works. The ethereal vocal treatments in “Wish I Was Here”: The key ingredient there What about touring to support is a great vocalist: Kurt Baumann! That’s many layers of his vocals through the UAD Cope™? Will you be doing any live LA-2A and then UAD Dreamverb. P.A. gigs? The beautiful, layered, evolving pads in “Mancry”: Surprisingly, not so many We rehearsed for a month solid in Los layers on this one. That main riff is a toy Casio synth that cost two pounds in a jum- Angeles and did our debut shows this year ble [garage] sale playing chords and jammed through Alex Metric’s broken Roland at South by Southwest in Austin. We Space Echo, which added the beautiful harmonic distortion. We were trying to do played to a way bigger and more receptive something heavy for this Marilyn Manson remix we were working on but it came out crowd than anticipated, which was great. too beautiful, so we used it for the album. The other layers that come in later in the We’ve also done a couple of short U.K. track are pads, plus Tony Bevilaqua playing guitars through lots of UAD Dreamverb. tours and are now gearing up for a big European festival summer. After that we’re The live setup includes Kurt Bauman on bad-ass drummer, and people have been planning to do more comprehensive U.K. lead vocals and guitars and Hayden comparing him to John Bonham. I’ll be on and U.S. tours with Spinerette this fall. Scott on drums and backing vocals. He’s a computers, effects, and synths.

Keyboards, Synths & Pianos are all we sell, and we do it best: • Advice from the Pros • Video demonstrations • The lowest prices

• Part of America’s largest keyboard and piano retailer • No boring static pics and stats, you’ll find a real keyboard experience with demos from the Pros. • Customers are raving about their experience with Kittsdirect.com • Keyboards We’ve chosen only the best products from the best names • Synths • Workstations YAMAHA • ROLAND • KORG & more • Digital Pianos • Used Pianos Over A Quarter Million Sold Since 1912 Year end clearance .com on all demo direct models under ‘Pricebreaker Expert advice on the best Specials’ keyboard values, direct to you!

34 KEYBOARD 01.2010 © 2010 B & H Foto & Electronics Corp. & Electronics Corp. © 2010 B & H Foto JN670 COMPUTERS

INTERFACES

SOFTWARE

MICROPHONES

When it comes to the B&H sales staff , knowledge and experience are a given. We off er unparalleled expertise and solutions for the Pro Audio professional.

Visit our SuperStore in the heart of NYC, give us a call, or browse our newly expanded Web site featuring live assistance, and experience for yourself the most knowledgeable and helpful sales staff anywhere.

420 Ninth Ave, NYC 800-932-4999 bhphotovideo.com Visit Our SuperStore Speak to a Sales Associate Shop conveniently online Adam Freeland Will you also include DJ gigs in your option, as touring the way we do is Gear to Cope™ With touring plans? expensive, so the DJing kind of bankrolls Yes, I DJ a lot still. I’m lucky to have this the live shows. Hardware Mac running Logic and Ableton Live Event ASP8 and Yamaha NS-10 studio monitors TLA Audio M3 Tubetracker Lynx Aurora 8 sound card Korg MS-20 analog synth Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor pedal VHT Valvulator pedal Electro-Harmonix Memory Man and Germanium pedals Oohlala Truly Beautiful Disaster pedal Roland RE501 Space Echo

As this issue went to press, Adam Freeland has found himself at the center of a Software sampling brouhaha. Not that Freeland sampled anything without clearance for Apple Logic Pro Cope™. Quite the opposite. It seems that will.i.am has gotten his hand caught in the Ableton Live cookie jar by sampling huge chunks of Freeland’s “Mancry” for a new Black Eyed Arturia Moog Modular V2 Peas track, “Party All the Time.” Camel Audio CamelPhat In mid-July, Freeland tweeted, “OK. Check this. Listen to our song ‘Mancry.’ Now Universal Audio Powered Plug-ins: listen to Black Eyed Peas ‘Party All the Time.’ WTF!” Astute fans may recall that back Dreamverb, Neve88RS, LA-2A, and in 2007, Will used a big ol’ chunk of Daft Punk’s “Around the World,” for his single “I Gate Compressor Got it From My Momma.” Live’s Resonator effect is also used a Let’s just hope that by the time you read this, everything will have been sorted lot for rich harmonic drones out amicably, as we’re big fans of both artists!

36 KEYBOARD 01.2010 Can a music program create professional, real-sounding arrangements and solos for your songs from only a chord progression?

2010 for Windows® & Macintosh® with RealTracks Type in the chords to any song using standard chord symbols like C, Fm7 or Gm7b5/Db; choose a style and Band-in-a-Box does the rest… Generating a professional sounding arrangement of bass, drums, piano, guitar, strings and more. NOW using RealTracks—actual recordings of professional studio musicians!

Download Now from $129 USD

PG Music Inc. • www.pgmusic.com • 1-888-PG-MUSIC

Our Customers Think So. Jack’s Mannequin Andrew McMahon’s Piano Pop Phenomenon by Robbie Gennet

What do you think of Jack’s Mannequin? Post your thoughts on our forums at keyboardmag.com.

For those in the know, Andrew dent step-up, a catchy and listenable jour- player, and I started playing by ear. After a McMahon has been an underground sen- ney through McMahon’s stories of love, life, year of that, I began writing songs, and sation, a wunderkind who spent his forma- and loss that moves from full-on, upbeat found outlets to perform them at school tive years fronting the piano-punk pop of rock (“Spinning”) to melancholy introspec- assemblies. Eventually, I got lessons.” Something Corporate, only to shift gears tion (“Annie Get your Telescope”) and all Lessons or not, McMahon had some- a few years back into his newest project, that lies between. Now that Jack’s thing he needed to express and the piano Jack’s Mannequin. His latest record with Mannequin has established itself, it’s deliv- provided a great outlet. “It was more per- the group, an elegantly upbeat offering ered a sophomore effort more than worthy sonal experience that drove me to sit down entitled The Glass Passenger, has found of both old fans and new. “Glass Passenger at the piano,” he says. “I had always been a wide audience and a cherry opening slot was so involved and intense,” says McMahon. infatuated with it in some sense. I had for the Fray all summer long. Keyboard “It took the better part of a year, and a por- always written words. What drove me to met up with McMahon at his house in Los tion of a second year. But I’m always writing the piano was having something to put my Angeles to get the scoop on the new songs. It usually takes a few months to poems to.” One piano man in particular record and what it’s like being a piano digest what’s happening in my life.” stood out as an influence. “Early on, I was a rocker in the 21st century. Billy Joel freak,” McMahon says. “I would GROWING UP AT THE PIANO listen to him all day long, every record. I THE MUSIC “I discovered piano when I’d just turned was obsessed with it. My favorite was If their debut album Everything in Transit nine,” says Andrew. “I played eight to ten Songs in the Attic, which had the really was the opening salvo of a newbie band, hours a day, usually until my parents told early stuff like ‘Summer Highland Falls.’ I 2009’s The Glass Passenger is a transcen- me to shut up. My mother was a good was so young when River of Dreams and

38 KEYBOARD 01.2010

Jack’s Mannequin

Stormfront came out, and I loved those. rate days and I would say the core of the Webpage: jacksmannequin.com Then I learned in retrospect that those Jack’s base is original Something Cor- Early influences: As soon as I got into weren’t considered his best records. But I porate fans. But at the same time, there the piano, my parents went out and got still have a place in my heart for all of it.” are a lot of Jack’s fans who aren’t aware Elton John’s Greatest Hits. My older of Something Corporate. I think we’ve siblings turned me on to Jimi Hendrix, CORPORATE LIFE done a good job of trying to keep Jack’s Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, the Grateful McMahon’s first band, Something Corpo- Mannequin it’s own thing. Bring over the Dead, and Phish, especially early rate, formed during his sophomore year of albums like Junta. high school, and began playing — and Most of the people I “If U C Jordan,” Something Corpo- winning — the requisite Battles of the Bands rate’s first single: No question, it here and there. The only problem was that know who got force-fed seems juvenile in retrospect. I was 17 there weren’t many gigs for underage groups when I wrote that song. I was a senior in besides parties and said Battles of the Bands. classical music don’t high school and there was a dude “Eventually before my senior year, two of the named Jordan who was going to hunt guys had to leave for college, so we did a play anymore. me down and kick my ass. It’s funny; we goodbye show for them,” McMahon says. met down the line. He and I both inci- “Since nobody would give us a gig, we agreed people who want to come but don’t jam it dentally did work for the same charity. I to paint a playhouse if they let us use it for one down anybody’s throat.” made clear in a lot of interviews that I night. We had 300 to 400 people show up! never expected that song to hit. We put After that, we were flying guys back to do gigs.” INFLUENCING MANNEQUIN it on an EP because we thought it would Something Corporate went strong for a As a touring and recording musician, just come out and go away. And then few years until, like many bands, they needed McMahon draws his inspiration from a wide KROQ played it. It was an accident. a break. “We were all burnt out but we still variety of artists, though mostly from the old toured,” says McMahon. “Not having an school. “I love the new Kings of Leon record, point in a lot of popular music. But like any- album to support took the pressure off and I but I’ve gone back to Wilco, tons of Tom thing, it’s another tool to communicate art. really had a bang-up time the year that I was Petty, the Beach Boys, and now the Beatles, Serving the song is the big thing.” working on the Jack’s record.” And as it hap- especially Revolver,” he says. “As to newer pens, what started out as a side project bands, I like Blonde Redhead and Autolux.” ROOTSOFWRITING turned into a full-time gig around 2005. “We did a Something Corporate show Even though he knows he has a larger audi- “Jack’s Mannequin didn’t start as a band,” in 2000 with Ben Folds and I loved him,” ence listening to his music, McMahon still says McMahon. “It was a moniker to apply to he continues. “Being a kid who grew up feels he can connect with the more solitary the stuff that I was doing on the side. At that playing piano, to finally have a dude rock it reasons he began writing in the first place. point, I felt a need to split off and get out of and be so good [was amazing]. I always “If I didn’t, I don’t think that I’d do it,” he says. the communal thought process of making say I play piano out of necessity, because I “You know that eventually something that songs. I wanted to see what happened when need to write. But Ben Folds has that gift. you like is going to end up being heard, and I thought of a song in my head and just tried There seems to be a lot more piano in rock sometimes you’ll overthink it. I find more to drive it as hard as I could in that direction. these days, which I think is great. If you often than not, as soon as I start thinking That’s how it began, as a studio project.” think about the foundation of rock ’n’ roll, about that, that’s what tanks a piece of Jack’s Mannequin emerged as the vehi- there was always a piano or B-3 player in music. Truthfully, I try to disassociate as cle for a maturing songwriter and lyricist to the mix.” So does fronting a band on piano much as possible. I tend to find that it’s the further hone his craft. “It was a super- mean you have to out-shred everyone on moments that I break out and think some- intense and fun process that started as a the scene? Not necessarily, but it doesn’t thing isn’t going to work, but I’m going to very impassioned project,” says McMahon. mean you can coast. “I try to be as much follow it for my own purposes — those are “Myself and my producer Jim Wirt were of a player as I possibly can and I try and the pieces that work.” really in a zone together when we did push myself on every record.” McMahon has a deep connection to his [2005’s Everything in Transit]. Originally I We turned our discussion to music edu- fan base, a loyal bunch that sings along to didn’t intend to put it out. It could have cation, and the impact on budding musi- every song and revels in McMahon’s exu- been Something Corporate demos at first. cians. “I think training is super important,” berant stage performance. When inspired, But then it took on this life of its own. he says. “I studied for a good handful of McMahon sometimes jumps on top of the “Frankly, we were blown away that it years but when you’re young, I don’t think grand piano, singing his heart out for the did as well as it did. It’s approaching your appreciation for classical is what it is crowd which returns the love with voices 300,000 copies, which is what the Some- later in life. Most of the people I know who raised and arms outstretched — in case he thing Corporate records did. I didn’t got force-fed classical music don’t play decides to stage dive and let them carry expect it to be as smooth of a transition anymore. It’s about finding your art form,” him away. It is at moments like these when as it was. It’s funny — the shows are as full he continues. “I love to play piano, and one feels that this Glass Passenger may as they were from the Something Corpo- you’re seeing piano reemerge as a focal very well be shatterproof.

40 KEYBOARD 01.2010 Studio Solutions for creative musicians everywhere

With their expert knowledge, product selection and passion for music, Apple Pro Audio Resellers are the perfect destination to build your dream studio.

To locate an Apple Pro Audio Reseller near you, please go to: musicplayer.com/appleaudioresellers

Michael Duff is a singer/songwriter/producer living in Los Angeles and is the former lead singer/songwriter of Chalk FarM Apple – Logic Studio, Mac Pro & MacBook Pro Euphonix – MC Mix controller Apogee – Duet audio interface Avalon – VT-737SP processor M-Audio – Axiom 61 USB keyboard Zoom – H2 recorder Digidesign – 002 Rack with Pro Tools LE Line 6 – Pod & Bass Pod Pro Marshall Electronics – MXL V77 tube mic Fender & Taylor – guitars Tannoy – speakers

©2009 EUPHONIX INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. MC MIX IS A TRADEMARK OF EUPHONIX INC. APPLE, LOGIC STUDIO, MAC PRO AND MACBOOK PRO ARE TRADEMARKS OF APPLE INC. ALL OTHER TRADEMARKS ARE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. PLAY IT! POP

What’s your favorite Muse synth moment? Share on our forum at keyboardmag.com. You might just end up featured in print or online!

MUSE’S The Resistance “UPRISING” (Warner Brothers) by Michael Gallant

In Muse’s throbbing, grungy keyboard simple but effective synth riff built around D walk you through a simplified version of that anthem “Uprising,” defiance never sounded minor and A major triads. Listen to the track memorable introductory motif. Power on your so good. The band ushers in their rally with a and check out the examples below, which synth, warm up your fingers, and rise up!

Ex. 1. Here’s how you hold your hand for the first seven notes of the sig- Ex. 2. For the next three notes in the phrase, hold your hand as shown nature intro synth line. Just start on the high A, play the notes in order here and play the notes in this order: D, Bb, A. Pay attention to how the from high to low, then come back up, ending on the same A you started hand position and fingering are slightly different from those in Example 1. on. All the notes here are part of the D minor triad.

= Middle C

1 2 3 5 1 4 5 A D F A D A Bb

Ex. 3. For the next eight notes, here’s where your hand should sit on the keys. Ex. 4. Wrap the phrase up with the final two notes, shown here: Play the G first, Start high and go down and up, just like in Example 1, but drop down to the before resolving down to the F. Again, note the slightly different fingering and lower A at the very end. All of the notes here are part of the A major triad. hand position from Example 3.

1 2 3 5 4 5 A C# E A F G

Ex. 5. Here’s the simplified phrase, written in traditional notation. The timing is easy for this one — just count along as indicated.

5 5 5 4 5 5 3 1 2 3 1 3 1 1 5 4 4 2 2 2 3 4

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

“Uprising,” Words and Music by Matthew Bellamy. © 2009 Loosechord Limited (PRS). All Rights Administered by WB Music Corp. Used by Permission of Alfred Music Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.

42 KEYBOARD 01.2010 BUY THE SOFTWARE YOU USE

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Respect yourself, your craft and the work of others. The software community made it possible to record an album on your laptop. If you want to make sure there is a future version of the software you are using, buy the software you use. It’s the smart thing to do. www.imsta.org

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SOFTWARE TRADE ASSOCIATION The International Music Software Trade Association is a non-profit organization that represents New York • Toronto • Berlin • Tokyo the interests of music software and soundware publishers. One of our most important functions is to advocate for the legal use of software in the music production and creation landscape. We Tel: 416 789-6849 • Fax: 416 789-1667 do this primarily through public education campaigns. We are supported by our members who Email: [email protected] are software and soundware developers, distributors, retailers and publications. We are fighting BUY THE SOFTWARE YOU USE piracy on moral grounds appealing to the good in all of us. We are trying to change behavior. PLAY IT! AMERICANA

Share your own country and Americana playing COUNTRY on our forums at keyboardmag.com. SLIP NOTES by Scott Healy Pianist Floyd Cramer’s “slip note” up to a chord tone. As part of a two- or harmony it implies, is a huge part of the technique is one of the most identifiable three-part right-hand chord, the “slipped” Americana style of roots music that has types of riff in country piano playing. note itself provides a melodic embellish- evolved over the past few decades, influenc- Cramer developed this in the ’50s and ment, usually an added second (or ninth) ing a wide rage of players such as Chuck made it his trademark sound: a relaxed, or major sixth. Leavell, Bruce Hornsby, Benmont Tench, on-the-beat grace note that usually leads This style, and the type of major chord Matt Rollings, and Donald Fagen.

Ex 1. It looks like a grace note on paper, but play the slip-note on the beat, maybe with a bit of an accent, as in 1a. How fast you play it depends on the tempo and feel of the tune. It’s probably going to sound closest to a 32nd-note going into a dotted sixteenth. Put a note on top, as in 1b, and you get a double stop with a slip note that sounds a lot like a pedal steel guitar lick. Make sure to play the grace note on the beat and with the top note.

a) b) 5 =o r =o2 3 r

Ex 2. Take the simple scale in 2a and add a few embellishing notes. The best place to put them is leading up to the third, fifth, and sixth. Experiment with the way the notes ring; it should sound even and clear, and always relaxed. Now add a top note with the fifth finger in 2b. The open intervals ring out nicely and the slip notes imply harmony and embellishment without getting too fancy. Try the same thing with triads in 2c, moving up and down with gospel-tinged voicings.

5 5 5 5 3 4 5 a) b) 5 4 c) 2 3 5 3 4 2 3 2 3 5 5 5 1 5 1 2 2 3 2 3 1 2 2 3 2 1 2 5 1 1 1 2 3 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 4 4 4 4 4 4

Ex 3. The true Floyd Cramer style is sparse and restrained. In his famous piano intro for Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” he uses half-step “blue” notes, and he plays it softly in the high register, similar to the example in 3a. Adding the upper note changes the sound a bit, as in 3b, and makes it even more bluesy. Try the same lick with a whole step instead of the blue note, as in 3c — it changes the whole vibe.

B E a) b) c) 12 12 12 8 8 8

Ex 4. Start in 4a with a melody and chords, listening for harmonic movement and direction. Add some slip notes in 4b, on the beat, and a few embellishing notes after the beat. Make it all swing a little, but stay relaxed. Add a top note in 4c, then a bass line in the left hand. If you’re doing it right you can bring out the melody under the top note, connect the chords without too much pedal, and stay relaxed but moving, all while implying the maj(add 2) harmony and a rootsy feel. True Americana.

a) ADAEb) AD AE 3 3 4 4 A(2) A/C D(2) A/C Bm7 A/C Bm A(2) E(2) F m7 E/G

c) 5 5 5 5 4 5 2 3 2 2 3 5 5 5 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 4 3 4

44 KEYBOARD 01.2010 New Versions

To re-imagine something, the first step is to latest updates bring new OS support, more keep all that is great about the original - features – and the best part – it’s all free to preserve its essence while forging into new registered users. Check out the latest updates territory. At Arturia, we continue to advance online at www.arturia.com or see your local TAE® technology that’s at the heart of our retailer, and start re-imagining your music today. classic analog synthesizer anthology. The www.arturia.com PLAY IT! JAZZ

What are your favorite recorded moments that involve upper structure triads? Share TRIAD TEXTURES on our forums at keyboardmag.com. by Andy LaVerne Want to add some bite and spice to with a different root. Some of the hippest over major and minor chords as well. Although your voicings? Look to upper structure triads sounding voicings have USTs at their core. the ear can extract the triad from the underly- for the uplifting effects you desire. As the These triads are usually major or minor, and ing chord, the UST blends into the harmony name implies, an upper structure triad (UST) are normally used over dominant seventh seamlessly, and creates colors and tensions is simply a triad placed over another chord chords. This is not exclusive, as USTs can go which add depth to the voicing or line.

MAJOR TRIADS OVER DOMINANT SEVENTH CHORDS a) Dmaj triad over C7 creates C7#11, a dominant seventh alteration that doesn’t necessarily resolve to a tonic. b) Ebmaj triad over C7 creates a C7#9, a dominant sev- enth alteration that often resolves to a tonic minor. c) Gb major triad over C7 creates C7b9#11. d) Abmaj triad over C7 creates a C7#9b13 (C7alt), a dominant seventh alteration that often resolves to a tonic minor. e) Amaj triad over C7 creates C7b9, a dominant seventh alteration that often resolves to a tonic minor. f) Fmaj triad over C7 creates C7sus4; notice the sus4 in the left hand as well. g) Bbmaj triad over C7 creates C7sus4, too. h) Dbmaj triad over C7 creates C7sus4b9. a) C7 11b) C7 9 c) C7 9 11d) C7alt e) C7 9 f) C7sus4g) C7sus4h) C7sus4 9 4 4 4 4

MINOR TRIADS OVER DOMINANT SEVENTH CHORDS a) C#m triad over C7 creates C7b9#5. b) Ebm triad over C7 creates C7#9#11, a dominant seventh alteration that often resolves to a tonic minor. c) F#m triad over C7 creates C7b9#11, a dominant seventh alteration that often resolves to a tonic minor; it has a slightly richer sound than the F#maj triad, due to the natural 13. d) Am triad over C7 creates C13. e) Gm triad over C7 creates C7sus4. f) Dm triad over C7 creates C7sus4. g) Bbm triad over C7 creates C7sus4b9. a) C7 9 5 b) C7 9 11 c) C7 9 11d) C13 e) C7sus4 f) C7sus4 g) C7sus4 9 4

4 4

MAJOR AND MINOR TRIADS OVER MAJOR SEVENTH CHORDS a) Dmaj triad over Cmaj7 creates Cmaj7#4, which can substitute for a major seventh chord. b) Emaj triad over Cmaj7 creates Cmaj7#5, which can serve the same pur- pose. c) Gmaj triad over Cmaj7 creates Cmaj9. d) Fmaj triad over Cmaj7 creates Cmaj7sus4. This dissonant sound, which contains the “avoid” note of the fourth is not usually found in standard tunes; John Coltrane used this to good effect to create tension. e) Bmaj triad over Cmaj7 creates Cdim(maj7). This diminished chord can be used to delay resolution to a major tonic. f) Em triad over Cmaj7 keeps the chord Cmaj7. g) Am triad over Cmaj7 creates Cmaj7 (with a 6th). a) Cmaj7 4b) Cmaj7 5c) Cmaj9 d) Cmaj7sus4e) Cdim(maj7) f) Cmaj7 g) Cmaj7 4 4 4 4

MAJOR TRIADS OVER MINOR SEVENTH CHORDS a) Ebmaj triad over Cm7 keeps the chord Cm7. b) Fmaj triad over Cm7 creates Cm11, one of the prettiest chord qualities in jazz. c) Abmaj triad over Cm7 creates Cmb6; the b6 replaces the third and seventh in the left-hand voicing. d) Bbmaj triad over Cm7 also creates Cm11. e) Gbmaj triad over Cm7 creates Cm7b5b9. This is an easy way to create the half diminished sound.

a) Cm7 b) Cm11 c) Cm 6 d) Cm11 e) Cm7 5 9 4 Visit Andy LaVerne online 4 4 at andylaverne.com.

46 KEYBOARD 01.2010

DO IT! DANCE

What was your most radical use of pitch- RE-PITCH THE shifting? Let us know at keyboardmag.com. VOCAL, KEEP THE FEEL by Francis Preve Remixing can be much more Call’s voice has a lush quality that most the vocal to go up one more half-step (see complicated than creating an original producers would die for. Figure 2). That locked it with my key track, as counter-intuitive as that seems. The track has a dark, foreboding char- changes during the crucial choruses. There With a remix, you have to stay true to the acter that didn’t quickly lend itself to a were also a couple of tiny changes in the song while leaving your thumbprint. You bouncy house treatment. I called the label, verses, but none as significant as this. have to please the label, the artist, the then the band, asking if I could change I submitted the draft and waited for dance floor, and if all goes well, yourself. three notes in the vocal performance, and everyone to weigh in. The verdict? Run with With an instrumental track, there’s lati- promising to keep the track’s soul intact. it! One listener didn’t even notice the note tude when it comes to key: You can slice, They said yes, provided they could hear it that was changed. Melodyne is a magical dice, and slap-chop the stems within an and say yea or nay ahead of time. app that lets me massage a performance inch of their collective life. As long as the First, I created the chord progression, with almost complete transparency, but it’s sound and vibe of the original is in there which sounds like parallel fourths, but is not the only tool I could have used. somewhere, it’s all good. actually microtonally perfect fourths created If you’re on a budget, try the pitch cor- Vocals present a much greater chal- in Ableton’s FM soft synth Operator, using rection tools that come with your DAW, pay- lenge. You have to preserve the original per- unusual ratios and transpositions to keep ing careful attention to the sensitivity and formance, which means changing the vocal the carriers musically aligned. From there, I intensity parameters (unless you’re T-Pain, pitches is out of the question. Or is it? layered the original vocal (see Figure 1) but I digress). Another nifty trick is to use Last fall, I got a shot at remixing Winter after feeding it into Melodyne. “rubber-band” automation to transpose right Kills, a new artist generating a massive In the audio examples at keyboard inside your arrangement. I did this in Ableton buzz in the trance and progressive commu- mag.com/gear, listen closely to the words Live, and Figure 3 shows the exact spot. nities. The label, Different Pieces, wanted “on my own.” In the original, Meredith’s Before you do any of this on your next me to infuse it with my funky tech-house vocal slides up during bar 79 when she remix, make sure it’s cool with the label. If sound. I loved the original track — Meredith sings “own.” For my version, I only needed you do it right, they just might say yes.

Fig. 1. Meredith Call’s vocal from Winter Kills’ “Deep Down” before Fig. 3. The same goal achieved via automating editing in Celemony Ableton Live’s onboard pitch warping. Melodyne.

Fig. 2. Squint at the second half of bar 79, and you’ll see the small but very effective re- pitching up a half-step.

48 KEYBOARD 01.2010 MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ACCOMPLISHED!

HANDMADE IN SWEDEN BY DEVOTED MUSICLOVERS AT CLAVIA DMI AB

Mission: To make a new Electro better than anything we’ve ever made before. Including all great Stage piano sounds... the Wave sample function with the classic Mellotron library... the C1 organ with an even better rotary speaker simulation... 8 times memory upgrade + MP3/CD input to play along with your favorite music... easy to use software to handle all the sampled waveforms… and a slimmer and lighter body! Your inspiration, Our mission!

www.nordkeyboards.com

For more information: [email protected] DO IT! NOTATION

Any special Notion tricks up your sleeve? Share on our forums at keyboardmag.com.

REWIRE HOSTING IN NOTION 3 by Lubo Astinov

One exciting new feature in Notion 3 is scratch, and write a new piece. In audio from the Notion 3 mixer, assign support for both ReWire host and slave either case, you need to have some effects to it, route it to a bus, pan it — in functionality. Originally designed to let score opened in Notion 3 to use the other words, you can manipulate the you stream the audio output of Propeller- slave application. audio just as if it was coming from a head Reason into the DAW of your 4. Go to the Mixer and find the ReWire Notion 3 instrument. You are now ready choice (as Reason doesn’t record audio), group. It looks like this: to launch the slave application. In this ReWire now lets you transmit audio and You’ll notice the plus sign right after example, I’m launching Ableton Live. sync between any two supported applica- ReWire. Clicking on it will reveal a From this point on, I can use both tions that reside on the same machine. pop-up menu of all available ReWire applications in the regular workflow that Thus, you can sync a sequencer and applications that can serve as a slave to they offer, and I’ll get all audio into Notion 3 together on a single DAW in Notion 3. Notion 3. your studio and use the power of both applications for your project. Using Notion 3 as a ReWire host has many This quick lesson will help you get benefits. For example, if I start Performance acquainted with setting up Notion 3 as a mode in Notion 3 and begin performing ReWire host for your sequencer. the score with its live performance features, then the slave sequencer will fol- 1. Launch Notion 3. As with any other 5. Each entry will also have a fly-out menu low my tempo and my performance. Any ReWire application, you need to launch with different numbers of channels. project that I have in the sequencer, the host application before you launch Choose which ReWire output pair you regardless of whether it’s audio or MIDI, the application it will control. would like to create an aux channel for; will follow my performance in real time. 2. Make sure ReWire support is enabled just select the first one if you’re unsure. This is especially useful in film scoring ses- in Notion 3. This is found in Preferences 6. You have now created the necessary sions or a live performance setting. I can under Audio, where the “Enable aux track that will receive audio from the also use any sound or technique that the ReWire” box needs to be checked. slave application and route it into sequencer can offer in real time, together 3. Create a new score, or start from Notion 3. You’ll be able to control this with the Notion 3 score.

50 KEYBOARD 01.2010

DO IT! SAMPLE LIBRARY

Read about one guy’s real-life sampling adventure and hear the SO YOU WANT TO Harpordian at keyboardmag.com. MAKE A SAMPLE LIBRARY. . . . by Richard Leiter

Just a few audio tracks from Jimmy Hammer’s Harpordian sampling sessions. Each note required three files (left, right, and center channels). Notice the tiny Hohner Marine Band harmonica next to the bigger ones — and the many pages of notes underneath.

Sample libraries. We all rely on them instruments. You may need a ribbon for from your computer. And your children. for sweeping strings, funky basses, and some sounds, a large diaphragm condenser And the world. punchy drums. And every week, someone for others, even a good dynamic mic for that somewhere thinks, “My [insert unique or vintage bass amp. 4. Research copy protection. Dan’s vintage instrument here] is so unique and stuff is popular in India and China, but musical, I bet that 1,000 people will each 2. Get the best musicians available to he’s never actually sold a disc in either pay $100 for a library of it. How hard play the sampling sessions. Mediocre country. You don’t want to invest time and could it be?” performance equals mediocre sample. Dan money so some kid can buy your library In a nutshell, incredibly freaking hard — routinely books players who command at for ten euros. Jimmy Hammer paid $15 but not impossible. We’ve asked sample least $100 an hour. Jimmy did a great job per disc to bundle Harpordian with Native library guru Dan Dean (dandeanpro.com) playing all 1,000 bass harmonica samples Instruments Kontakt Player — which pro- and L.A. composer Jimmy Hammer, who for Harpordian — while engineering! — but vided a turnkey solution, as all NI instru- recently created his first library this brings us to . . . ments handle authorization via the NI (harpordian.com), to share their wisdom, Service Center app. then distilled it into a top ten — make that 3. Record somewhere soundproofed, top 11 — list, to help save your time, your or soundproof where you record. 5. Become obsessive-compulsive. In money, and your marriage. Sounds you never hear in the course of advance, create a consistent file naming sys- everyday events (Did you know there tem to handle your thousands of samples. 1. Buy, rent, beg, borrow, or steal the was a fan in your Tivo box?) are even Names should capture all the important attrib- best mics and preamps you can. Look more ruinous to sampling than to record- utes to ease OS-level searching for samples, for mics with a low noise floor, and keep in ing bands. If you’re not working in a but err on the side of simplicity: A name like mind that different mics work best on different commercial studio, separate yourself “Zfff41lp119d67Y” is useless when you’re

52 KEYBOARD 01.2010 exhausted and overwhelmed. Better some- thing like “Loud.C2.Take3.May12.” Write down everything.

6. Make sure your computer can han- dle enormous files. Your library will be many times larger than any song you’ve ever recorded. You don’t want to spend ten min- utes opening your session and 30 seconds every time you save, so make sure you have the horsepower to handle giant projects: a separate audio drive from a reliable maker such as Glyph, for starters. Also, break the project down into manageable sections.

7. Defeat ear fatigue. Otherwise, it will defeat you. Whether recording or editing, when everything begins to sound the same, knock off for a while. Shake out your wrists a lot, too, because repetitive motion injuries are real.

8. Vividly imagine your final product. How will you handle articulations: Key switches? Mod wheel? Velocity? Study existing sample libraries so you can record yours in a way that’ll make it easy to learn and play. ® 9. Don’t “fix it in the mix.” If you know “BBE is the a performance is a little long or short or pitchy and you want to handle it later most hearable with editing and EQ — don’t. Hit Record advance in audio and get it right. technology since 10. Back up like crazy. Jimmy saved to high fi delity itself!” external and internal hard drives every day. Towards completion of the project, he made DVDs every week. Dan used an Exabyte 8mm tape drive and multiple hard drives in a WeibeTech enclosure. With today’s exacting requirements for accuracy, 11. Do market research before you detail, texture, and record one note. People buy the fantasy most important, voice of the library, so make sure your project is desirable. Mock up a cover, an ad, and a intelligibility, BBE is an press release. Then, read them, have oth- essential element in ers read them, and solicit brutal honesty state-of-the-art systems. about whether the concept is compelling. Visit your authorized Perhaps that last tip should have been BBE dealer today first, but I didn’t want to rain on your for a demo! parade. Besides, someday I might be call- Huntington Beach, California ing you for tech support. 714-897-6766 · www.bbesound.com

01.2010 KEYBOARD 53 DO IT! STEAL THIS SOUND

Listen to audio samples at keyboardmag.com, and down- load an Apple Logic file set up with the “Electric Avenue” delay effect at celebutantemusic.com/keybmag.

WHAT DELAY TO USE? I used an Electro-Harmonix Stereo Poly Chorus; their Memory Man models sound great too. Other cool stomps include the Roland RE-20 Space Echo, Moogerfooger Analog Delay, and MXR Carbon Copy. In the computer world, try Tape Delay in Apple Logic or Filter Delay in Ableton Live. If you have a Universal Audio UAD card, the Roland Space Echo plug-in is killer.

EDDY GRANT’S “ELECTRIC AVENUE” by Mitchell Sigman

“Electric Avenue” was one of the brigade” delay. For this example, I used wanted to record many passes of biggest MTV hits of the ’80s, and still gets my Electro-Harmonix Stereo Poly revving sounds without playing a note crowds bumping on the dance floor. Chorus re-issue. Though it’s called a and starting over every time, I left the Recently I had to recreate its synth parts chorus, under the hood it’s a short delay in infinite feedback and for a cover band’s backing track. Listen- analog delay, and makes great roaring improvised a gate so I could turn the ing, I realized the trademark “engine-rev” sounds — and lots of other watery sound on and off by playing keys on my sound wasn’t a synth, but actually delay weirdness! You can use newer digital modular synth. I fed the pedal output to effect feedback. delays, but old-school analog and tape the synth’s VCA and controlled it with a Delays “store” incoming sounds and delays typically have the tastiest feedback. simple on/off envelope triggered by the replay them at a settable later time. To get keyboard. Now I could play the repeats, some of the delayed signal is fed 2. Here’s the weird part. It doesn’t matter keyboard with my left hand and twist the back into the input. If the feedback is high too much what your initial input sound delay time knob with my right. enough, the delay will self-oscillate, like how is, because the delay’s own feedback a mic feeds back when pointed at a speaker. tonality is so dominant. Try a quick, 5. You can do the same in a DAW by This can turn into something that sounds bright synth bass; anything brief with a setting up a simple synth with a delay nothing like the original input. By adjusting wide range of harmonics should be fine. insert effect, followed by a noise gate the delay time, you can “play” the pitch of with a sidechain input. The main channel this monster noise. This is what’s behind the 3. Set the delay time close to maximum would use a synth with a brief tone for “Electric Avenue” motorcycle rev. and the repeats about halfway up. Play the delay input. On a second track, Be careful when cranking up feedback a note. Now try cranking the feedback insert a synth with any simple on/off with hardware or software delays! Volume almost all the way (again, watch the sound (such as an organ) and select its can get out of control and blow speakers, volume). Once it’s feeding back without output as the input for the noise gate’s amps, and ears, so turn the master volume you holding a note, play with the delay sidechain. Play a note on the first synth down for safety. time knob. This should get you into and crank the feedback. At first, bypass “engine revving” territory. the gate so you can hear the delay feed 1. Any delay will work, but different types back. Now, un-bypass the gate, switch have different tones. “Electric Avenue” 4. It takes a little time for the feedback to the second synth, and use it to “play” sounds like an ’80s analog “bucket- loop to bloom harmonically. Because I the effected sound.

54 KEYBOARD 01.2010

GEAR YAMAHA S70XS

Is 76 weighted keys the magic size for gigging? Leave a comment on this review, or join the Keyboard Corner forum, at keyboardmag.com.

YAMAHA S70XS New Standard in Performance Keyboards by Eric Lawson PROS HANDS-ON Great sounds including stellar new S6 1 Performance Creator lets you roll your own splits, piano. Super-easy to create splits and layers, and drum performance setups with mini- layers on the fly. Expanded control sur- mum button pushing. face functionality for DAWs. 2 CONS Dedicated octave-shift and transpose buttons are 1 Nearly as wide as some 88-note key- placed so you could hit them with a free finger of boards. Small display. Deep sound a hand that’s playing a chord. editing requires computer software. 3 These backlit buttons select parts of splits and INFO layers, and turn them on or off. S70XS (76 keys): $3,699 list/approx. 4 Just below, these buttons activate and latch the $2,300 street; S90XS (88 keys): arpeggiator for each of the four independent $3,799 list/approx. $2,400 street, yamahasynth.com parts. 5 These toggle buttons select which four parame- 51.9" I’ve had an S90 “classic” in my gig ters the knobs control (filter/envelope, EQ, etc.), rig since 2003, so I’m very familiar with so you’re never more than one click away from the interface, sounds, and features of this the function you want. original S90 (reviewed Jan. ’03), which 6 Faders have four pages of functions: volume and was based on the original Motif but panning for parts, and sends for the master cho- focused on live use. Then, the S90ES rus and reverb. 2 came on the heels of the Motif ES — both 7 There’s enough real estate here to park a small had double the polyphony and greatly laptop or a tabletop synth module. improved sounds. Now, the XS genera- 8 DAW Remote button turns the S70XS into a con- 5 8 tion of the S series offers not just the full trol surface for DP, Logic, or Sonar — or the

3 Motif XS sound set, but a gorgeous main included Cubase AI software, for which the inte- piano sound you won’t find in the Motif gration goes especially deep. 4 6 XS. Also, Yamaha is consciously addressing a couple of trends gleaned four new knobs augment the four faders from user buzz: First, a perception that of the S-class ancestors. The knobs open the S was just “a Motif without a up more possibilities for realtime control, sequencer.” In response, Yamaha with virtually all the preset sounds revamped the user interface with a focus thoughtfully programmed to use these on the most common gig tasks, espe- knobs in musical ways. The two toggle 7 cially setting up splits and layers quickly. buttons that select knob functions were a Second, musicians have wanted the piece of cake at gigs, and the knobs action, sounds, and performance control quickly became an extension of my brain. of the S series in a 76-key size for years The only drawback is that the knobs are — with fully weighted keys, not the mounted close to the back edge of the springier semi-weighted sort usually panel, making them harder to access if a found on 76ers. second keyboard is stacked above. 15.25" At first glance, the LCD seems tiny USER INTERFACE compared to the large color screen on Even at first glance, you notice a lot of the Motif XS. However, once I got into new things. Lots of backlit buttons and the greater number of controls and more

56 KEYBOARD 01.2010 intuitive menu structure (compared to the NEED TO KNOW S90 classic and ES), I didn’t feel at all What are the best sounds in the inhibited. There’s even a hidden feature S70XS? The new S6 piano and the that super-sizes the fonts, which is most entire Motif XS ROM, particularly key- welcome at gigs. Like the knobs, the dis- board sounds like EPs, Clavs, and play could be mounted a little closer to analog synths. the keys to make it more visible in multi- What does it have that previous S- keyboard rigs. series synths didn’t? That S6 piano, New backlit red buttons turn individual much easier creation of splits and lay- Voices (Yamaha’s term for single sound ers, better realtime arpeggiator con- programs, not to be confused with voices trol, and more control surface ability. of polyphony) in a Performance (a multi- Why would I get this instead of a • The sounds of the Motif ES timbral split or layer) on or off. You get workstation or other ROMpler? • Both a song and a loop-based pattern separate buttons for engaging the arpeg- Because it’s focused on features that sequencer for everything from making giator, and for keeping it playing when really make live gigging easier — and beats to complete arrangements you release the keys, for each Perfor- that piano sound we keep mentioning • All the hook-ups to use the MO with mance part. I saw this kind of attention just kills. your computer including built-in stereo digital out, complete remote control of to hardware control throughout the What’s the big deal with 76 keys? your computer software and even instrument, and it inspired me to a new Don’t other keyboards come in that Studio Connections compatibility so level of performance. size? Yes, but the S70XS is the only you can treat the MO just like a VSTi deeply editable, do-it-all synth (as software instrument FORM FACTOR opposed to a vintage-keys clone, • A great price! Yamaha opted to put the pitch and mod stage piano, or MIDI controller) we wheels to the left of the keys. This adds know that has 76 fully-weighted keys. That’s all there is to say. All there is to do about five inches of width as compared How many effects can it do at now is––make MO’ music. with putting them on the top panel, which is once? Eight inserts, send-based where they were on the S80 and S90 clas- reverb and chorus, last-in-the-chain sic. Many users might prefer the latter posi- master effect and EQ, plus EQ per multi- tion and a smaller size — being able to buy a timbral part. In other words, you won’t smaller case, especially if you drive some- run out, even with complex setups. ©2009 Yamaha Corporation of America thing smaller than a minivan or SUV, is one www.yamaha.com of the main value propositions of a 76-key through a mix while remaining realistic keyboard. Yamaha says they made a con- and warm. Among the presets, you get www.motifator.com scious decision based on playability. That’s many variations of classical, jazz, and pop true — most players are trained to reach pianos. My favorite for live rock use is here, and there’s no problem accessing the “Piano Rock S6,” which has lots of wheels if another full-length keyboard is expressive ability, but also enough bright- above the S70XS on a stand. But this does ness to drive it through the mix. On all the make the S70XS only two inches narrower new S6-based Voices, you can really hear than my 88-key S90 classic. Nonetheless, that realism and attention to detail has it’s a managable 44.2 pounds, well- been kicked up quite a few notches from balanced to carry, and surprisingly easy to the Motif. Keyboard’s Stephen Fortner hoist onto a keyboard stand. chimed in, “I loved the main piano sound in the CP-300, which was several cuts SOUNDS above the Motif XS main piano. But this The S70XS has the complete factory new S6 sample is a whole other level still.” ROM (and synth engine and effects) of The rest of the sonic landscape covers the Motif XS (reviewed July ’07), and this a broad base: meaty, funky electric pianos is one deep sound set. Just about any- and Clavs, B-3 organs that sound darned thing you could possibly need is on hand. good for sampled sounds, dozens of ana- What you won’t find in any Motif, though, log leads and lush pads, gorgeous are certain new grand piano Voices in the orchestral strings, breathtakingly realistic S70XS and S90XS. They’re based on the woodwinds, edgy modern synth tones, prestigious Yamaha S6 concert grand, and still the most realistic acoustic guitars and have a nice brightness that cuts you’ll find in any hardware synth. Using

01.2010 KEYBOARD 57 YAMAHA S70XS

COMPUTER CONNECTION [Keyboard Corner forum regular and S70XS/Cubase power user Dan Stecko (“DanS” on the forum) provided insights on the S70XS’ software editing and DAW capabilities. –Ed.] With Steinberg Cubase booted up and the S70XS connected to a Mac or PC via USB, pressing the DAW Remote button turns the arpeggio select/effect toggle buttons into transport controls. The S70XS’ scroll wheel scrubs through tracks, the arrow buttons change tracks, and of course, the faders do track volume. Via Mackie Control Universal protocol, you get similar functionality in Digital Performer, Logic, and Sonar. In Cubase, if I selected a soft synth’s track, the synth’s name appeared in Music lives the XS’ display, and some of its settings became editable with the knobs and and your hearing survives! faders. If your soft synth has a “MIDI learn” function, you can make these con- trols edit whatever you want. In the editor software, you can create up to 50 Protect control assignment templates for your soft synths. Very cool. the hearing you have now, Exclusive to Cubase, the editor software also lets you automate the S70XS and for years to come. as though it were a VSTi. Select “External S70XS VST” in a Device slot, click “Auto Sync” once the editor opens to get Cubase and the S70XS talking, and you’re in business. Once you create a setup you like, you can send it back to H.E.A.R.® today, the XS as a Multi, or store it with your Cubase song for recall. Of course, the hear tomorrow.™ editor also works in standalone mode. Dan Stecko

® We can help. H.E.A.R. is the Favorites feature, I could simply tag digging into acoustic and electric pianos a non-profit organization Voices I liked (signified by a heart icon in as well as ripping synth and organ leads. co-founded by the display) for quick call-up later. This I played the S70XS for several gigs musicians and hearing professionals that also works with Performances. and rehearsals with my soul/dance band is dedicated to SoulerCoaster, as well as ’80s cover the prevention of AT THE GIGS band Flat Elvis. Having used the S90 hearing loss in The S70XS action is balanced, meaning classic for years was a great primer, but musicians. the keys are the same weight across the the sound quality and realtime control of whole range. I could tell very little differ- the S70XS were breaths of fresh air. I Support ence between it and my careworn S90 was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Classic, aside from the older keyboard S70XS and S90XS load files from the being broken in. This action is a joy to Motif XS. Since I’d previously owned a Purchase your play, and given that it has aftertouch, Motif XS7, I had a USB drive with all my hearing protection about the best combination I’ve played for gig sounds, which loaded right into the at www.hearnet.com ®

58 KEYBOARD 01.2010 S70XS with nary a complaint, aside from cut off by the patch change. I’d like to see a few differences in the Voice pointers. this work in plain old single-patch mode In previous S-series keyboards, creat- as well (as it has on Kurzweil synths since ing new splits and layers was time-con- K2000 days) but it’s good that Yamaha suming, because for each one, you had gives you a way to hold a chord and to edit together a Performance preset sound-hunt at the gig. You can also exe- containing the sounds and key ranges. cute a “Job > Copy” command that The MM Series synthesizers combine sounds The S70XS has a one-touch approach: imports a full Performance into your Multi, from the Motif, street smart grooves from Simply press the Split or Layer button, including four-part arpeggios — very cool! around the world and a simple to use interface and the current sound is automatically in a portable package. Whether you’re just coupled with another, which you can set ARPEGGIATOR jamming with friends, making songs on board as the default “second sound” or quickly In the studio, I explored the S70XS’ or with the bundled Cubase software, the MM Series lets you hit the streets in style. change by scrolling through sound cate- immense selection (over 6,000) of up to gories. This act seamlessly creates a Per- four-part arpeggios, though as Motif and S The MM6 is the perfect choice for musicians formance, which you then save into an users know, “arpeggios” is an understate- on the go, while the Graded Hammer action on initialized memory spot. Having blank ment. Though there are classic up/down the 88-key MM8 delivers natural touch and memory to store edited Voices and Per- synth patterns aplenty, most of the content expressive control over the complete piano formances felt a lot more logical than is musical phrases of the sort you’d expect range. overwriting duplicates of factory sounds from better loopware libraries. It runs the in the User bank, which is what you did gamut from country to heavy metal to • Key sounds from the Motif line on Motifs and previous S synths. smooth jazz to urban to Latin to film score — including piano, guitars, drums & more The front panel and menus can edit almost any style you can imagine. Need to • Real Time Knobs for controlling filte and EG common settings such as key range, filter sound like Herbie Hancock during the cutoff, resonance, and effects, but Headhunters era? There’s an arp for that. • Built-in grooves with drums, drums and bass or complete backing tracks deeper edits at the Element level require “Rosanna”-era Toto? There’s an arp for • Performance Mode let’s you play layers connection to a computer. (An Element is that. Caliente piano montuno? There’s an or split sounds along with grooves like an “oscillator” in a patch, but it’s arp for that. I could write an entire review • Cubase AI 48 track audio/ MIDI DAW really an entire synth chain with wave- on this hypnotic capability that, with software included form, filter, modulation, etc.) While the some preparation, can turn you into a included software editor is pretty slick one-musician band. (see facing page), some players will miss being able to dive into every parameter CONCLUSIONS from the keyboard itself. The S70XS is a true performer’s instru- ©2009 Yamaha Corporation of America www.yamaha.com ment with killer sounds sourced from the PERFORMANCES Motif XS, along with a new acoustic www.motifator.com VS. MULTIS piano that, frankly, rocks harder than any- Worth noting on the S70XS is the thing else I’ve played in a digital stage “Multi/Seq Play” mode, selectable by a piano anywhere near this price. Only, the button under the Voice, Performance, and S70XS isn’t just a stage piano — it’s a Master buttons. Not to be confused with full-on synth that does every sound well Yamaha’s usual Performance mode, which and many sounds exceptionally well. splits and layers up to four Voices, Multi None of the competition combines these mode allows access to 16 Voices via capabilities with fully-weighted keys. The MIDI. Helpful Multi templates contain Kurzweil PC3 [reviewed Dec. ’08] is the popular combinations of drums, bass, most similar, but with a semi-weighted piano, strings, and so on. You can address action — fully-weighted keys are on the these from your DAW or sequencer — or 88-note PC3X only. The Nord Stage EX use Multis as speedy-access sound has 76 weighted keys, but because it’s banks at gigs. It’s similar to the Motif’s primarily a vintage clone, it lacks the huge Pattern or Song mode in how it lines up variety of sounds and deep synthesizer Voices side by side, and what’s especially engine of the Yamaha. I would have made cool is that you can switch sounds while the unit a bit smaller, but this is hardly a holding keys or a sustain pedal, and the dealbreaker. The S70XS is an outstand- S70XS will actually do “patch remain” — ing and game-changing entry in the “go- sustained notes on the old Voice won’t be to gig keyboard” field.

01.2010 KEYBOARD 59 GEAR DAVE SMITH INSTRUMENTS TETRA

5 5 6 Use a Tetra or Mopho? Cooked up some killer sounds? Share ’em on the forums at keyboardmag.com!

3

5" 2

1 Rear View 4

7.9" DAVE SMITH INSTRUMENTS TETRA Poly Analog Madness for the Masses by Francis Preve

PROS There’s also a nicely-amped headphone those metallic squawks the Cars made Big, fat, juicy analog sound. Direct USB jack and the wonderful Poly Chain connec- famous. Naturally, each oscillator includes control from computer yields very tight tor for adding more Tetras (or Prophet coarse and fine tuning, but with an extra timing. Multitimbral mode means the Tetra is four Mophos in one box. Two- ’08s) to increase polyphony. Tetra is also twist: oscillator “slop.” Turn this up, and the part splits/layers are savable per patch. the first real analog polysynth to include tuning drifts in real time for a more vintage CONS MIDI-over-USB, and the timing is slammin’ — analog sound. For more extreme pitch Four-part multitimbral mode is a global the improvement over using a regular MIDI experiments, there are individual glide toggle, not per patch. Designing your cable and interface was especially notice- amounts for each oscillator as well. To own sounds from the front panel is a able when lining up Tetra sequences with ratchet up the heat even more, a feedback tad fiddly. No power switch. parts recorded on soft synths in my com- input in the oscillator section routes the INFO $879 list/approx. $800 street, puter. The USB port doesn’t stream audio, audio from the left channel of each voice davesmithinstruments.com so you’ll need an interface to record Tetra back into the filter section, and between audio into your computer. the feedback gain and feedback volume Since releasing the Prophet ’08 settings, you can dial in everything from a (reviewed Nov. ’07), Dave Smith has been SOUND ENGINE touch of grit to a wall of filth. on the roll of a lifetime. His follow-up, the As with the Prophet ’08 and Mopho, voices Filter. This really defines the modern Mopho (reviewed Jan. ’09), brought mas- consist of two oscillators, a fully resonant Prophet sound. Tetra’s filter is lowpass sive analog sound to earth at a price lowpass filter, four LFOs, three envelopes, only, but it has two- and four-pole modes. almost anyone could afford, and still sells four step sequencers, and an arpeggiator. In four-pole mode, it’s thick, warm, and like hotcakes. Now, Dave has taken the Oscillators. Each oscillator includes saw- creamy. In two-pole mode, it’s a bit buzzier, monophonic Mopho, expanded it to four- tooth, triangle, and variable-width pulse with more subtle resonance. There’s also voice polyphony, kept the book-like size, waveforms, along with a triangle-saw an audio mod parameter that delivers FM and made the thing multitimbral. hybrid that sounds like a muted saw with a based on the output of oscillator 1. This is tad more beef. Like the Mopho (and unlike great for everything from grit to squelchy HARDWARE the Prophet ’08), each oscillator sports its ring-mod type effects. The Tetra is just a hair bigger than the own sub-oscillator, which gives it way more Modulation. Three envelopes, four LFOs, Mopho, and side-vented for cooling. On bass than the Prophet. There’s also a noise four step sequencers, and a truckload of the back are four discrete outputs for each generator for whipping up whooshes and destinations make the Tetra extremely well of the voices. Outputs 1 and 2 are a stereo drum sounds. suited for creating complex sounds with mix when nothing’s plugged into 3 and 4. You can hard-sync the oscillators for abundant rhythmic and tonal changes.

60 KEYBOARD 01.2010 GEAR

HANDS-ON Tetra Editor 1 Four dedicated knobs control cutoff, resonance, Tetra’s editor (Mac or PC) makes design- attack, and decay/release — usually the four most- ing your own sounds (or sequences) much tweaked settings in any patch. easier than flipping through parameters on 2 These four knobs are freely assignable, and the the hardware’s LCD. The LE version is factory patches do a great job of exploiting them. included; a Pro version adds librarian 3 What was a program/global switch on the features and other amenities for $39.99. Mopho now includes a third mode for the At press time, both were standalone apps Tetra’s combo presets. only, but Dave Smith is working on a 4 The “Push It!” button triggers sounds or plug-in version that’ll let you automate the sequences, and is flanked by a semi-circle of Tetra from within your DAW. LEDs that indicate which voices are in use. NEED TO KNOW 5 Tetra’s back panel ditches the Mopho’s audio few presets. As mentioned before, the input in favor of separate outs per voice, a Poly sound is identical to the Mopho, and when Is it fully analog? Tetra’s audio sig- Chain connector for turning multiple units into feedback or sub-oscillators aren’t involved, nal path — the DCOs, filter, and amp — one big polyphonic synth, and USB for connec- it’s the same as the Prophet. is fully analog. The LFOs, sequencers, tion to your PC or Mac. Speaking of presets, the Tetra is packed and envelopes are digital, which 6 An included universal AC adapter comes with with sounds ranging from legendary vin- allows for MIDI tempo sync. plugs for every country — nice. Like the Mopho, tage patches like the ELP “Lucky Man” Are DCOs really analog? Absolutely. there’s no power switch, so you unplug it to turn square wave glide and Van Halen “I’ll Wait” Both VCOs (voltage controlled oscil- it off. brass to modern, club-oriented sounds. lators), and DCOs (digitally These are equally satisfying, with stylistic controlled oscillators) have analog Unlike some other analog synths, both vin- emphasis on progressive, tech, and a smat- guts, but voltage control is a tad less tage and new, the envelopes have a lovely tering of electro-friendly patches. consistent than digital, so the latter snap to the decay segments, thanks to Unlike the Prophet and Mopho, the provides better tuning stability. Dave’s care in designing their curves. Tetra also includes a bank of 128 combo What does the Prophet ’08 have The four LFOs include triangle, positive patches, many of which are layered multi- that the Tetra doesn’t? Four more or negative sawtooth, square, and random timbral sequences. Hit a key or the “Push voices, lots more knobs, and (except options, as expected. They can sync to It!” button and stand back — this is where for the rack version), a keyboard. tempo for rhythmic effects, which sound the Tetra is in a league of its own. A sizable What does the Tetra have that the especially tight via USB. When the LFOs chunk of these multis are one-finger Prophet doesn’t? Sub-oscillators and aren’t synced, their rates cover an demonstrations of the versatility of this a feedback loop back into the filter, so extremely wide range, extending well into beastie, whereas others are massive unison its sound has a bit more meat on its the audio realm, which delivers even more leads. We’ve posted an MP3 of some of bones. Also, the Prophet is only two- FM and ring-mod nastiness. the highlights in the online version of this part multitimbral; the Tetra is four-part. Step sequencers. These are a total review at keyboardmag.com. How does it compare to the knockout. Sure, they can embed TB-303- Each of the four voices can be its own Mopho? Since the Tetra is basically style note riffs in your patches, but that’s independent synth, responding to its own four Mophos in a box, the sound is barely scratching the surface. Each of the MIDI channel, but only if the global multi- identical but the flexibility is vastly four sequencers can drive almost any Tetra mode parameter is set to on. While we’d increased. On the downside, the Tetra parameter. All the usual pitch, cutoff, vol- rather see this handled as part of each omits the Mopho’s external input, so ume, and pan options are present, but combo preset, that you get multitimbral you can’t process external audio things get really interesting when you mode at all in an analog synth at this price through it. sequence changes to, say, pulse width, is tremendous. Plus, the limitation only filter FM amount, LFO rate, or envelope applies to four-part mode; two-part splitting might have bought it instead of the segments. As if that weren’t enough, each or layering (just like on the Prophet ’08) is Prophet. That’s not a knock against my sequence can have a different number of available per patch. baby, it’s just a testament to the Tetra’s steps, so polyrhythmic madness awaits unprecedented value. Any two-oscillator, more adventurous players. Unreal. CONCLUSIONS polyphonic, true analog synth for around It’s no secret that I love my Prophet ’08 $800 would be a game-changer. One this IN USE and Mopho. Their sound has been a key good means that if you’ve been on the With my Prophet ’08 and Mopho at the component in almost every recent track I’ve fence about buying an analog synth, there ready, I took the Tetra out for a spin to see done. The Tetra’s sound is every bit as has never been a better time to jump. Dave how it handled. Comparing sound quality deep, rich, and fat as the others. In fact, Smith has hit another one out of the park — was easy, as all three units share quite a had the Tetra been available in 2007, I an obvious Key Buy winner.

01.2010 KEYBOARD 61 GEAR MODARTT PIANOTEQ PRO

Modeling or sampling? Sound off on our forums MODARTT at keyboardmag.com. PIANOTEQ PRO Piano Supermodel by Jim Aikin 1 HANDS-ON 1 You get a handy MIDI file player/recorder in the standalone version. 2 2 Select presets from this menu. 3 For a honky-tonk effect, crank up the unison width. 4 Want a 30-foot grand? Increase the string length. 5 This button opens the mic placement window. 6 Four pedals — damper, sostenuto, una corda, and 4 3 7 no-damper staccato. 7 These sliders control the loudness of each of the first eight harmonics. In Pro’s Note Edit window, you can control many more harmonics.

5

6

PROS (reviewed June ’07) aimed to change all note, but even Standard has extensive No sample loops. No unwanted tonal that, using the magic of physical modeling options for placing virtual mics around the differences between key ranges and and additive synthesis to give musicians a virtual piano (see Figure 1 on page 63). velocities. Highly programmable. Note- software piano so adjustable as to be a A pinpoint EQ gives you more control by-note editing. Adjustable mic place- ment. Historical tunings. Can produce sort of piano physics construction kit. Now, still. The velocity curve can be both realistic and exotic tones. the Pro version goes a giant step further: programmed, of course. Various historical CONS You can control the 22 voicing parameters tuning temperaments are tucked away in a Release velocity sensing could be separately for each key on the keyboard. menu. What’s more, this piano has four improved. The only other virtual piano that gives you pedals, including one that permits staccato INFO this level of control is Roland’s $6,000 V- playing but with the lingering harp reso- Standard: $349 list/approx. $300 Piano (reviewed Sept. ’09). Does all this nance you’d get with the sustain pedal street; Pro: $559 list/approx. $480 street; Standard to Pro upgrade: $225, tweakability translate into a realistic sound down. The standalone version sports a pianoteq.com and playing experience? Let’s find out. MIDI file recorder/player, and audio record- ing, which are very handy. Pianists are obsessive about tone, and PROGRAMMABILITY with good reason: We can do so little to Almost every aspect of the tone is under MAIN SOUNDS control it! Other than bringing in a different your control: string length, hammer hard- Pianoteq comes with two modeled grand piano (if you’re playing a concert) or having ness, unison detuning, the amount of time it pianos, C3 and M3. I happen to own a your technician do some regulation and takes the dampers to fall back onto the Yamaha C3 grand, and though they sound voicing (if it’s your piano), you’re pretty strings, and much more. In Pianoteq Pro, similar, Modartt tells us their “C3” sound is much stuck with whatever piece of furniture you can do it per key. In Standard, only vol- in fact modeled on a Steinway. I’m not sure happens to be available. Pianoteq ume and detuning are programmable per what the M3 is based on, but it has a

62 KEYBOARD 01.2010 deeper, richer tone. Optional add-ons NEED TO KNOW include “Rhody” (tine) and “Wurly” (reed) What is it? A software piano that cre- electric pianos, and vibraphone. The ates sound exclusively by modeling — basic Pianoteq install includes demos so no samples! you can check these out. Also on offer is Runs on: Mac/Windows/Linux; AU, an attempt to model a Yamaha CP-80 RTAS, VST, standalone. electric grand. Unlike the others, this one What’s the difference between didn’t sound as realistic to my ears, Pro and Standard? Standard lets though we do know Modartt worked with you tweak 22 separate tone and Xpanded Articulation sounds inspire your an actual CP-80. behavior settings. Pro lets you tweak creativity. Performance Recording with 4 each one of those per key. intelligent arpeggiators instantly capture your TUNING Built-in effects: Room/hall reverb, ideas. An Integrated Sampling Sequencer with The Tuning panel has sliders for unison chorus, and limiter. studio style mixing and VCM effects let you width, octave stretching, and direct sound Weirdest parameter: You can adjust create complete MIDI/audio productions. duration. If you know how pianos are the speed of sound. Really. Computer connectivity and Cubase AI software tuned, the first two will make sense: Is there a downloadable demo? expand your possibilities. With the NEW direct Some tuners deliberately set the unisons Yes. to USB stereo recording feature making great so that a given note’s multiple strings beat sounding music has never been easier. slowly against one another for a richer pedal has can all be adjusted here. sound, and a slight amount of octave Seven sliders in the Design panel • New UI with large color LCD and stretching can compensate for inharmonic control soundboard impedance (how fast 8 knobs and sliders overtones, making the outer octaves the soundboard absorbs string • Xpanded Articulation Synth engine with 355 MB of wave ROM sound more in tune. Direct sound duration vibrations), cutoff and Q factor (which is not something you can adjust on a real work vaguely like a lowpass synth filter), • Studio style mixing environment with Virtual Circuitry Modeling effects piano: It’s the amount of time the modeled string length (shorter bass strings pro- • 4 intelligent Arpeggiators with instant strings take to transition from the full-bod- duce more inharmonicity in the Performance Recording ied tone at the beginning of the string’s overtones), the loudness of the sympa- • Integrated Sampling Sequencer with thetic resonance and duplex scale, and vibration to the somewhat thinner tone 1 GB of optional memory that sustains afterward. something called the quadratic effect, • Total Computer Integration and which causes louder hammer strokes to Cubase AI software included VOICING produce slightly different overtones. I This is where it gets really deep. In the found that boosting both string length Voicing panel, you can adjust hammer and low EQ gave me more of the rich hardness separately for piano, mezzo, and tone of a nine-foot grand. forte keystrokes. Even in Pianoteq Stan- ©2009 Yamaha Corporation of America dard, sliders for the first eight overtones let ACTION SETTINGS www.yamaha.com you, say, boost the fundamental for more The Action panel, hidden in the Effects www.motifator.com body, or boost the 5th harmonic to add section, has sliders for damper position, clang. Hammer noise, hammer strike point, damping duration, the key number of the and the amount of effect the una corda last damper (above which the strings will

Fig. 1. Both Pianoteq Stan- dard and Pro let you move virtual mics around the piano, adjust the lid, or choose a binaural (human head) listening configura- tion. Got surround? You can send the five different mics to different output channels.

01.2010 KEYBOARD 63 GEAR MODARTT PIANOTEQ PRO

OnO ttheh flfloor, theth ddesktopkt or iin a rack,k Moogerfooger effects processors are the secret weapons of top musicians and producers worldwide.

MF-101M LowpassL FFilter

Fig. 2. Pianoteq Pro lets you adjust each parameter, key by key, in the detachable Note Edit window. be undamped — another thing you can’t just the first eight as in Standard. If you change on a real piano), key release only edit one key, your change will apply noise, and sustain pedal noise. across the keyboard, but when you edit Key release noise is one of the few two or more keys, Pianoteq interpolates MF-102M areas where I feel Pianoteq could be what the overtones in between should RingR improved. This noise doesn’t have the be, so you get smooth transitions mechanical complexity of the key release across the keyboard. ModulatorM on a real piano — it just kind of thumps. This noise responds to MIDI release IN USE velocity, and with an editable release- I had no trouble installing and running velocity map. However, this map also Pianoteq Pro on my Windows XP controls the damper duration. When the machine. Automation of parameters in release noise is responding realistically to Steinberg Cubase 4.5 worked as release velocity by getting louder and expected, and the CPU hit of all the real- softer, the dampers will fall back onto the time number-crunching involved in physi- MF-103 strings much too slowly at all but the cal modeling wasn’t too bad on the 12-Stage highest release velocities. For more musi- 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor. I was Phaser cal results, automate these two parame- so inspired by Pianoteq’s tone that I ters separately in your sequencer. couldn’t resist laying down the beginning Like Pianoteq’s other parameters, key of the piano part of a Brahms cello release noise can be MIDI-controlled or sonata, after which I overdubbed the automated in your host. In order to pro- cello. Check out the audio example at duce a glitch-free sound, half a second or keyboardmag.com. more may pass before you hear a param- eter change reflected in new notes. CONCLUSIONS MF-104ZM Does it really sound like a piano? Yes, AnalogA NOTE EDIT absolutely. Things like the envelope Pianoteq Pro’s interface for editing spe- decay and the delicate interplay of over- DDelay cific keys is simple and elegant (see Fig- tones in the bass strings are extremely ure 2 above). Note Edit windows are realistic. Could a conservatory-trained detachable, so you can have several pianist tell the difference between Pian- open at once. You can edit one note at a oteq and a Steinway in a double-blind time, or grab a handle to adjust a whole listening test? Yes — but in any kind of range at once. Randomization and ensemble recording, be it a jazz group, a smoothing tools are included. pop ballad, or even classical chamber MF-107M The spectrum (overtone) editing of music, Pianoteq will fool most listeners individual keys is a bit different: The most of the time. I’m still not 100% con- FFreqBox vertical bars in the display correspond vinced that you could get away with not to the keys but to the overtone recording a close-miked Chopin Ballade series, and you click on any key to with it, but I’m about 95% convinced. It’s adjust its overtones. This means that in just stupidly good. Key Buy? You’d better Pro, you can adjust all overtones, not believe it.

64 KEYBOARD 01.2010 groove locked

Eight Analog Filters MIDI Clock Sync & Tap Tempo NEW! MIDI CC Control - Pattern Editor MF-105MMF-105 MIDI MuRF ® Mid & Bass Filter Bands Multiple Resonance Filter Array

Can’t decide between bet een the MuRF M RF and Bass MuRF? M RF? Get both in one o package!

The evolution of the MuRF continues with the MF-105M MIDI MuRF. The MF-105M combines Bob Moog’s classic MuRF and Bass MuRF to make one powerful Moogerfooger. Its warm, resonant, 100% analog Mid and Bass filter bands bring you everything from shimmering timbral morphing and rhythmic stuttering to deep bass grooves, and like all Moogerfoogers, it’s built like a tank to stand up to the toughest touring and studio use.

We didn’t stop there. In addition to the full range of Control Voltage inputs, it also sports an extensive MIDI implementation. Create tempo-synced filter sequences with MIDI Clock Sync. Change patterns with MIDI Program Change messages. Control front panel knob settings with MIDI CC messages and play the filters in real-time with MIDI Note On commands.

It’s equally at home on the floor, table-top or rack mount, and with all this sound and control in one package, the MF-105M MIDI MuRF connects you to a world of sonic expression, with tight integration into today’s performance, production, DJ and remix environments. www.moogmusic.com/moogerfooger (800) 948-1990

GEAR M-AUDIO AXIOM PRO

Does your keyboard double as your DAW controller? Tell us about your setup on the forums at keyboardmag.com!

1 4 5 6 8

7 3

2

M-AUDIO AXIOM PRO Keys, Meet Control Surface by Stephen Fortner

PROS expect from a full-featured MIDI controller: With practice, I could change values by HyperControl works very well with sup- four key zones, deep editing of each con- one increment per metronome beat! The ported software. Keyboard strikes good trol’s behavior, and 50 memory slots to original Axiom’s sliders are much looser. A balance between piano chunkiness and synth speed. Deeply programmable. Can store setups, for starters. The big deal, slider has to hit the current value of what- send QWERTY shortcuts. though, is HyperControl. The idea is that it ever it’s controlling before changing it, CONS just works — for mixing, transport, and plug- which avoids unwanted parameter jumps. HyperControl mapping can be inconsis- ins — with no programming required. Does You create splits and layers by striking tent in third-party plug-ins. AC adaptor it deliver? low and high keys for each zone, and the for use without USB power not included. four graphical keyboards on the LCD make INFO HARDWARE HIGHLIGHTS this as intuitive as anything I’ve tried. 25 keys: $499.95 list/$400 street; 49 keys: $599.95 list/$500 street; This is one solid slab. To test the rigidity, I The keyboard itself retains the old 61 keys: $699.95 list/$600 street, grabbed my 61-key review unit at either Axiom’s piano-shaped keys, but aftertouch m-audio.com end and twisted my hands in opposite is more predictable, and keyscanning (the [Street prices are approximate.] directions. It didn’t flex a bit. Rubbery end electronics looking at the keyboard to see if blocks reduce the guilt of setting your key- you do something) is faster. You can really You’re a keyboardist, so it’s a keyboard board end-up on the pavement while clos- hear the playability benefit with any instru- that sits between your speakers, not a mix- ing the car trunk. ment that uses a lot of velocity layers — say, ing control surface. As much as mixing and At first, I thought the 40mm sliders felt Synthogy Ivory. The drum pads are larger tweaking plug-ins with a mouse sucks, you jerky. “No way can you write smooth and feel better than those on both the keep doing it, because programming automation with these,” I worried. Once I Novation SL Mk. II and Akai MPK series. your keyboard’s MIDI controls to work had them controlling stuff, my opinion reliably with your DAW and plug-ins sucks changed. They’re speed-sensitive, and CONTROL more. Yeah . . . me too. have a molasses-like resistance that can Though 20 of the 50 memory slots have Enter the Axiom Pro. It has all you’d actually make your moves more precise. presets for major DAWs and soft synths,

68 KEYBOARD 01.2010 GEAR

HANDS-ON 1 Included presets let these buttons (or the drum pads) send QWERTY shortcuts — switch arrange and mixer views, save, undo, etc. 2 Faster keyscanning makes for smoother velocity response, especially with sounds like piano and EP. 3 When HyperControl is active, this button switches the knobs between controlling stuff in the DAW mixer (like pans) and stuff in your plug-ins. 4 LCD continuously updates to show the status of the last control you touched. 5 Sliders have more resistance than the old Axiom, and a cool hydraulic feeling when you move them. Fig. 1. With the Axiom Pro hooked up via 6 Eight knobs are endless, and unlike the original USB, something like “HyperControl In” and Axiom, are smooth, not clicky. “HyperControl Out” should show up in your 7 Dedicated transport controls include a loop mode DAW’s appropriate preferences dialogue. button. Here are correct settings for Pro Tools (top) 8 Velocity-sensitive drum pads feel great, and are and Logic (bottom). bigger than anything we’ve seen on a keyboard. these are “regular” MIDI templates for stop HC from working, so check first! a plug had tons of parameters, I sometimes when you’re not using HyperControl (HC HyperControl takes over the sliders, had to step through pages of settings to from here on). HC doesn’t make you load the buttons just below them, the knobs, find ones I wanted. presets; it’s simply active if your DAW is and the transport, letting the numeric key- Such plug-ins are better served by pro- set to use it (see below). pad and drum pads send whatever MIDI gramming a quick template using good You may have heard that the Axiom messages are determined by the current old “click this, wiggle that” MIDI learn, Pro can send QWERTY shortcuts from “regular” preset. Sliders do track volume, which is where HyperControl’s Transport the numeric buttons or drum pads (find a and knobs default to track pan. In my tests Only mode comes in. Engage it, and HC tutorial on this in the April ’09 issue and at (every supported DAW on Mac and PC), releases control of everything but the keyboardmag.com). That ability lives in track select, banking, record-arm, solo, and NEED TO KNOW these presets, not in HC, though it works mute worked instantly and consistently. at the same time as HC. Maybe it’s no surprise that everything was What does the Pro have that the A cool thing is that when you load a peachy in Pro Tools, but I was surprised base Axiom doesn’t? HyperControl, preset, you can toggle which control group that performance in Logic, Cubase, Rea- a weightier keyboard, a much more it loads settings for: keypad, sliders-plus- son, and Live was almost as gratifying. informative graphic LCD, and speed- buttons, knobs, and/or drum pads. This lets F1 (Mode) is the magic button that sensitive sliders. you mix and match existing presets, which makes the knobs control the virtual instru- What is HyperControl? M-Audio’s could be useful if you’ve spent time creat- ment on the currently-selected track, with way of turning the Axiom Pro into a ing templates for your favorite plugs, and abbreviated names for the first eight param- control surface for DAWs and plug-ins, want to grab crucial control areas for sev- eters showing up on the Axiom Pro’s LCD. without you having to program stuff. eral in the heat of a project. Of course, the A soft button steps through further pages of Does the keyboard feel better? point of HyperControl is that you shouldn’t that plug-in’s settings, updating the knobs Side by side with an original Axiom, need to invest that time. as you go. You might see less than eight if, you can definitely tell a difference. say, a soft synth’s oscillator has seven con- What software does HyperControl HYPERCONTROL trols and it makes more sense to begin the work with right now? Live, Logic, M-Audio’s website has great PDFs that filter stuff on the next page. Reason, Cubase, and all flavors of show how to set your DAW preferences to The Axiom Pro was best at this sort of Pro Tools. use HyperControl (see Figure 1 above). For “group management” with the supported Does it run on USB power? Yes, some hosts (e.g., Reason and Pro Tools DAWs’ included plug-ins, almost always and was very stable in our tests. 7.4), you’ll need to download a “HyperCon- mapping things in such a logical way that Most surprising feature: HyperCon- trol personality” (insert joke about boss or there’d have been no gain in programming trol lets you tweak plug-ins whose win- in-law here). Installing one in a host that it myself. Third-party plugs were hit-or-miss. dows are closed! doesn’t need it (e.g., Pro Tools 8) can Every plug-in I tried got fully mapped, but if

01.2010 KEYBOARD 69 GEAR M-AUDIO AXIOM PRO

transport buttons to whatever “regular” CONCLUSIONS designed to work across most of Nova- MIDI preset is loaded. I do wish there were The Axiom Pro manages to stuff most of a tion’s hardware, it feels more like an extra a “Sliders and Transport Only” mode, as good DAW control surface into a keyboard, layer of software. HC just feels like what sometimes I wanted to retain HyperControl making surprisingly few compromises the Axiom Pro does. Where Automap has of my mix while letting the knobs do what along the way. If you have a supported a cool onscreen window to show control I’d programmed. DAW and can spend a little time weaning mappings, HC doesn’t need one. Automap HyperControl uses the knobs for every- yourself off mouse and QWERTY, you’ll does let you make custom assignments thing plug-in related, even when the thingy positively fly in a couple of weeks. This is without popping back to regular MIDI onscreen is a toggle or button. You can the smartest MIDI controller M-Audio has mode like on the Axiom Pro. But HC’s swap the knobs’ and faders’ roles, but to ever made, and one of the two smartest out “plumbing” is simpler — it doesn’t create control an onscreen button with a physical there, period. wrapped duplicates of your plug-ins, one, you’ll need to program a numeric key- The other is the Novation SL Mk. II which I think is a good thing. Where pad button or drum pad manually. Unless (reviewed July ’09), and street prices of the Automap (the Pro version in particular) is you settle for Transport Only mode, the two lines are close. Hardware differences are more powerful for creating monster multi- buttons under the sliders aren’t an option, a Mercedes-BMW comparison: Both have controller setups, HyperControl will likely as they’re busy with track select and other great actions with aftertouch; M-Audio’s keys get your hands off your mouse and onto HC tasks. are piano-shaped and Novation’s are synth- your music faster. HC also controls effect plug-ins. Get- shaped. The SL has touch-sensitive controls; Whichever vibe is more you, there’s no ting to them varies slightly from host to the Axiom Pro’s LCD updates to reflect the question that the Axiom Pro’s features and host. In Logic, for example, you get sepa- slightest nudge, and its Peek function lets performance make it a world-leading MIDI rate LCD soft buttons for editing inserts, you see what controls do without nudging them. keyboard, and that the price makes it a sends, and each track’s Channel EQ. You HyperControl delivers similar results to Key Buy. Now if M-Audio really wants to can even instantiate plug-ins right from the Novation Automap, so a lot of the differ- devour some market share, they’ll do an Axiom Pro, though this is one of the rare ence here comes down to “vibe.” HC’s Axiom Pro 88 with a great weighted tasks where I still reach for the mouse. vibe is more direct. Because Automap is action. Just sayin’. . . .

70 KEYBOARD 01.2010 Special Advertising Section PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Amp Modeler Pro Studio Devil Now Available Studio Devil AMP combines breakthrough AT4047MP Multi-pattern Condenser tube amp realism, cabinet impulse Microphone modeling, tone-shaping EQ, and studio Audio-Technica effects into one, straight ahead amp Now Available modeling plug-in. Dial in the professional Audio-Technicaís new AT4047MP delivers vintage guitar tone you expect into your next sound in a multi-pattern design featuring recording project without the fuss. Demo selectable omnidirectional, cardioid, and figure-of- versions available online for guitar and bass. eight polar patterns. The innovative microphone SRP: $149 provides sonic characteristics reminiscent of early www.studiodevil.com F.E.T. studio microphone designs. [email protected] SRP: $1,055.00 www.audio-technica.com 330-686-2600

ASC Quick Sound Field Acoustic Sciences Corp Action Drums: Cinematic Edition Now Available Nine Volt Audio QSF takes the room out of the mic Now Available and puts the talent in the mix. It's a Recorded in a concert hall, Action Drums: free standing live room, where you'll Cinematic Edition brings epic percussion love the mics you used to hate. to the REX, Stylus RMX, ACID Wav and Apple Loop formats. SRP: $3,245 for set of 8 traps. www.asc-studio- SRP: $99.99 acoustics.com/qsf.htm www.NineVoltAudio.com 1-800-ASC-TUBE (272-8823)

To advertise in this section contact: Will Sheng at 650-238-0325 or [email protected]

01.2010 KEYBOARD 71 GEAR SOUNDS SAMPLE LOGIC MORPHESTRA Scoring From a Synthetic Pit by Jason Scott Alexander

NEED TO KNOW Who’s this for? Any film, TV, or video game composer looking for modern, edgy, relevant sounds. Creators of electronic and experimental music will find a lot to love here, too. How was it created? Samples were recorded in studios, concert halls, warehouses, machine shops, and natural habitats all over the world. Can the included hard drive keep up with high track counts? Absolutely. Under the hood is 7,200rpm SATA-II drive with 8MB cache, bus power, and FW800 and USB2 connections. What about street cred? Multis were PROS crown jewel, containing around 230 pre- programmed by Mark Isham, Rupert Diverse, powerful, evocative material. sets grouped in subcategories such as Gregson-Williams, David Lawrence, Capable of huge textures right out of Dark ’n’ Scary, Disturbed, Euphoric, Mys- and Bill Brown, so if the street is in the box. Simple interface with easy tery/Suspense, and so on. What sets these Hollywood, you’re set. controls for morphing. Mood-based pre- set organization is intuitive. Included programs apart from the rest is their deep hard drive means near-zero install time internal movement and complex, evolving interface, Kontakt’s advanced scripting is and no impact on storage space. nature, ideal for initially building the mood leveraged to create exciting morphed material CONS of a piece. In “Days of Old,” for instance, that you can further sculpt. Likewise, a built-in Not as many electro beats as in previ- random phrases of mournful sax are seam- arpeggiator/gater is the secret weapon ous Sample Logic libraries. Some lessly, almost incidentally, woven between behind tempo-synced layers that give redundancy in Instrumentals bank. movement to many of the melodic instru- INFO droning organ and reversed string loops, $699 list, samplelogic.com conveying a sense of blurred emotion. ments, in a stepping Wavestation-esque U.S. dist. by M.V. Pro Audio, The Instrumentals are less complex but sort of way. mvproaudio.com just as animated. You get imaginatively In the Percussives category are hun- tweaked renditions of solo and ensemble dreds of dynamic impact sequences, world Morphestra puts a fresh spin on how strings, metal and bamboo flutes, classical and symphonic drum loops, bowed and we view and approach orchestral film scor- guitar, banjo, sitar, harp, vibe, chimes, struck orchestral percussion, scraped and ing. Developed in association with Kirk music box, Clavinet, harpsichord, and more. reversed transitions, altered and prepared Hunter Studios, it serves up an epic collec- Morphestra isn’t about usual suspects instruments, and more. tion that’s anything but traditional. My copy such as orchestral brass, woodwinds, or Finally, over 130 jaw-dropping multis came pre-installed on a Glyph 80GB legato strings — all you get here is a trio of amount to ready-made soundtracks in con- PortaGig hard drive, but Morphestra will Kirk Hunter bonus programs. While the struction kit form. You can literally hit any ship on a 160GB drive by the time you 225 main Instrumental patches loosely run combination of keys in nearly any order and read this. Since it takes up just over 27GB, the gamut of what you’d expect, there does generate minutes of mind-blowing aural you’re getting a lot of bonus space for seem to be a lot of repurposing from the scenery. Morphestra truly impresses, offer- other libraries. Morphestra itself is powered same few dozen multisample sets, which ing some of the most inspiring and relevant by Native Instruments Kontakt Player 3 results in some timbral redundancy. modern cinematic material I’ve heard in any (standalone, RTAS, AU, VST, DXi). Sounds Still, all the patches are individually com- synth or sample library. If you can’t whip up come in three top-level categories: Atmos- pelling. With five tabs of more than 40 a killer score to any edgy film, TV drama, or pheres, Instrumentals, and Percussives. onscreen performance and effects parame- video game with this bad boy on hand, The Atmospheres bin is arguably the ters to pick from on the clean and simple maybe gear isn’t the problem.

72 KEYBOARD 01.2010 CLASSIFIEDS

Categories Education & Tutorial Mixing and Mastering

Pianos & Organs Learn Piano Tuning, Repairing, And Regulating, taught by Craftsman technicians. Complete Accessories correspondence course includes written and video Education & Tutorial tape training material, Apprentice Training Talent and Employement Manual, much more. Licensed by Departmentof Education. www.pianotuning.com. Mixing and Mastering Randy Potter School of Piano Technology, Acoustic Products & Services 61592 Orion Dr., Bend, OR 97702. (541) 382-5411. Sounds, Sequences, & Software Studio Furnishings Finger Fitness Exercises improve Buying or selling instruments through our Classified Ads offers you convenience, a big marketplace, and a wide range of instruments and prices. However, buying mail-order does have HAND strength, coordination and speed. its drawbacks, too. Keyboard Magazine suggests the following guidelines to help the buyer and Exercise anytime anyplace. New DVD the seller in these transactions: 1) Get a written description of the instrument, which should include the serial number. 2) Get front and back photos of the instrument. 3) Get a written purchase combo now shipping! agreement, with a 24-hour approval clause allowing the buyer to return the instrument for a www.HandHealth.com full refund if it does not meet his/her reasonable expectations. P.O. Box 13359 Hamilton OH. 888-868-HAND (4263) Pianos & Organs

Learn jazz piano on the internet at www.B3GUYS.com www.JazzPianoOnline.com HAMMOND Organs & LESLIE Speakers Sales - Service - Parts - Rental 615-438-8997 Renowned jazz pianist/educator Dave Frank offering live skype lessons worldwide. First free!! www.b3hammond.com. Buy/Sell MINT www.davefrankjazz.com Hammonds, Leslies. Wordwide sales. (701) 400-2933, [email protected] CHARLIE BANACOS JAZZ IMPROV * Lessons by Mail Department. MP, Sounds, Sequences & Software P.O 272, Manchester, MA, 01944 USA or visit www.Charliebanacos.com [email protected] Studio Furniture www.VintageKeyboardSounds.com Authentic MELLOTRON, B3, and COMBO ORGAN SAMPLES. All Formats Supported. 562-856-9333 Talent & Employment

www.MusiciansContact.com. BAND-IN-A-BOX IMPROVEMENT PRODUCTS Paying jobs online. * Put A Better Band In Your Box * Norton Music Thousands of satisfied members since 1969. (since 1990) * www.nortonmusic.com (818) 888-7879

www.SoundsForSamplers.com Dopest Hiphop/R&b sound kits & Turorial Dvds 4 All Akai Mpc ,& Asr10/x Wav & most all software/hardware formats. 760-246-9492

Acoustic Products & Services

For more informationcheck out our website at www.keyboardmag.com

01.2010 KEYBOARD 73 GEEK OUT SUPER STUDIOS SYNTH HEAVEN IN THE 805 Warfus “Moon” Powell plays keyboards in San Luis Obispo-based Urban 805, one of the most enduring smooth jazz combos on Califor- nia’s central coast. He’s also built live speaker cabinets for Rick Wakeman of Yes. Warfus sent us a brief MySpace message that read, “I see you have a section where people show off their rigs. I’m 52 and own 75 synths, and would love to get in your mag before I’m 53 — or own 76.” Since we can’t fit all 75 on this page, we put the full list and more photos at keyboardmag.com. Visit Warfus at myspace.com/synthheaven, and his band at urban805.com. Stephen Fortner

Keyboards, clockwise from rear: Roland Fantom above Yamaha Motif 8, Yamaha S80 above Kurzweil K250, Ensoniq MR-61 above Fender Chroma Polaris. Atop left rack: Yamaha AW2816 hard disk recorder. Right rack includes (top to bottom): Akai S2000 sampler, Roland D-550 and JV-1080, Kurzweil 1000SX string expander, and Korg O1R/W.

Fisher SC-300 boom box with built-in SCK-30 “Stereo Music Composer” keyboard. “A sequencer with an eight-pattern memory stores just over 500 notes,” says Warfus.

Roland Super JX in grand piano shell, with PC and Yamaha NS-10M speakers on top. The small line mixer atop the Just one of Warfus’ many stacks of synths, top JX’s panel is for the Yamaha TG-33 and to bottom: Roland E-5, Yamaha CS1X and DX7, E-mu Proteus 2000 modules hiding in and Korg Wavestation. the shell.

74 KEYBOARD 01.2010 Visit Ableton at NAMM: Hall A, Booth 6314 MAKE MUSIC

Ableton Suite 8 and Ableton Live 8

For movies, more info and a free 14-day license, visit: www.ableton.com